Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player by Toshiba
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Our Price: $499.99 Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player
Digital camera Review: HD-A30 already becoming rare
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the HD-A30 after Toshiba had announced discontinuing support of the HD-DVD format. I have it hooked up via HDMI cable (you only get 1080i through component) to a Panasonic PT-AE1000E 1080P/24 projector on a 88" diagonal screen. I've had it for 3 weeks and have watched 4 HD-DVD movies, 4 standard DVDs and half of the HD-DVD Planet Earth series. The HD-DVD material has worked flawlessly, and with standard DVD I've encountered an issue where the menu navigation doesn't always work properly, but I haven't done the firmware upgrade yet which should fix this issue. The HD-DVD material is amazing, the upconverting of standard DVDs is exceptional and the HD-DVD functionality is a significant advance from standard DVD. I compared the Bourne Identity, last chapter where the camera pans over the blue ocean and what looks like an old white church with a red rook, in standard DVD (Yamaha DVDC750, progressive scan 5 disc DVD player), upconverted standard DVD (Toshiba HD-A30) and HD-DVD (Toshiba HD-A30). The standard DVD showed considerable jaggies on the angled edge of the red roof and general picture softness. The upconverted standard DVD had a remarkably sharper picture, and near elimination of the jaggies. The HD-DVD was a notch up from the upconverted DVD, although not nearly the difference from the standard DVD to the upconverted DVD, with deeper accurate colors and indiscernable jaggies.
Why buy into a discontinued format? I bought the HD-A30 for $125, added a 30ft HDMI cable, 7 HD-DVD movies (2 came free with the HD-A30), and the HD-DVD Planet Earth series for a total investment to date of $255. I've started building a library of HD-DVD material and am enjoying the format and upconversion for less that what you can buy just a Blue Ray player for. Yes, eventually HD-DVD material will dry up, but there are hundreds of titles already out on HD-DVD with new releases still scheduled through at least May, 2008. Also the upconversion on the HD-A30 is outstanding, so the HD-A30 has great value as just an upconverting DVD player.
The bad news is that the HD-A30 is already becoming scarce. Prices are going up now instead of down, with new units hard to find for under $150. Still not a bad value but decreasing every day.
Digital camera Review: Pretty good player
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a pretty decent player. I can't really compare it against other HD or Blu-ray players since I haven't owned any though. The playback of HD-DVDs and newer DVDs is absolutely beautiful. However, when I try to play some of my slightly older DVDs on it, the sound gets out of sync with the video. This doesn't happen on my standard DVD player, so I am pretty sure it is this player's fault, or at least this player doesn't do as much to ensure things are in sync as my old player did.Digital camera Review: Where are the free Movies
Summary: 5 Stars
this is just what my husband wanted for Christmas and he is very happy with it. BUT WHERE OH WHERE ARE THE OTHER FREE MOVIES that we orderd from the promotionDigital camera Review: Toshiba HD-DVD A30
Summary: 4 Stars
This dvd player works well upconverting standard dvds. Response time for the remote is a little slow, but the overall quality is very good for this machine. Plus the price I paid($112) was excellent.Digital camera Review: it's actually free if you think about it
Summary: 5 Stars
I know there won't be anymore future releases of movies in this format but for the price, this can't be beat. They still have 500 existing titles to choose from anyway. If you have a 1080p hdtv and still waiting for the blu-ray prices to come back to earth, I suggest you spend a little for this player and start enjoying what your HDTV is really capable of. All people who say upconverting dvd players outputs the same picture as this player are either lying or haven't really seen a true 1080p output. If you spent the extra money on a 1080p instead of let's say 720p HDTV, you should spend a little more to ACTUALLY enjoy it. What I'm saying is, it's either you buy one of these, or buy one of the more expensive blu-ray players if you can afford it. But don't go buying one of those upconverting dvd players thinking it's going to be the same because it won't be. I paid $140.00 for one of these and with 7 free movies (average price of $20), it's like I got it for free. What's not to like???