 |
| Date Reviewed: 12/28/2007 |
- jimendy
- Member Since:
Dec 2007
View Member's:
Reviews
|
Strengths: Excellent performance (audio and Video) Cost
Weaknesses: Remote is small and hard to read with buttons to close together.
Summary: This player is very simple and quick to set up and play.Unless you are a video/audiophile you will not find any fault with this unit. These players are computer based which is why there is a start up time as with your computer. I found the audio/video to be as advertised.Excellent. This player has the new 1.3 version HDMI also. It will be several more years before the format issue (HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray)is settled so format was not a concern with this purchase where as cost was. 1.1 compliance has never been an issue with HD as it has been with Blu-Ray. Highly recommend this player as an upgrade or even as an entry level to Hi-Def players
 100% of People (4/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 01/22/2008 |
|
Strengths: Super picture, great sound from 5.1 Analog outputs, good value at newer low price
Weaknesses: Boot time slow,(go make some popcorn, or make a beer run:)) cheesy non-backlit remote, no resume feature with hd dvds.
Summary: I had an A3 that was a Christmas gift - saw the prices fall on the A35 and upgraded. Connected via HDMI to a Mits 1080p 65 inch DLP. Been listening to the audio using the 5.1 Analog outputs to a Panasonic SA-HE200 receiver - my sub is getting a real workout, and, I'm getting full bandwidth audio reproduction from the player when engaging Dolby True HD. (Don't forget to balance your speakers for the best results in 5.1 multichannel- there is a setting in the A35 menu screen for that adjustment)
The connection via an optical cable sounds crisper, but analog audio has more depth, and a more natural sound when switching between Dolby Digital Surround, and TrueHD. This replaced a 5 year old Panasonic dvd-s55 that had analog outputs.
The A35 had the most current firmware, so I was up and running in less than ten minutes. Will probably pick up a blu-ray player when the prices are more reasonable - there is content only available on BD that I would like to see sometime. If Toshiba would produce a dual format player, I'd buy it.
Some minor quirks:
1080P/24hz setting makes standard def dvd a little herky-jerky - leave it on "up to 1080P" if you watch more SD dvd material.
HD DVD does not remember where you left off if you exit the movie and come back to it again - you have to create a bookmark. A tedious, time consuming process.
I suspect that HD DVD will be around for a while. I'd probably buy one anyway, even if I had no interest in high def movies. It's an excellent upconverting player - makes my standard def dvds look almost HD.
Next purchase will more than likely be a new av receiver with hdmi connections and support for next gen audio formats, like the Onkyo 605 or 705. The 705 still has a phono input - I still have a turntable.....
100% of People (2/2) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 02/21/2008 |
|
Strengths: Does everything it's supposed to do, and does it well.
Weaknesses: none so far.
Summary: Yes, I write this 2 days after the official death of HD DVD. Even if I might be slightly bummed about that, it can't be considered a weakness of the player. This is an incredible player. I'm sure the prices will plummet now... I'm almost sorry that I didn't wait a bit longer to buy one, I'd still buy one even now. Unless I'm mistaken, you can still get the 5 free HD DVDs by mail with the rebate through the end of February. This is an excellent upconverting player, and the library of already available HD DVDs is extensive. I'll always be able to find them used online, so what is there to be concerned about? I'll give in one day and buy a PS3, maybe... Then I'll have the best of both formats.
I gave $238 with free shipping, which was better than the lowest price on Pricegrabber at the time. Prices have dropped since then, of course. The merchant that I bought it from is one of the largest online sites, but they must not pay a commission when someone links to them through Pricegrabber, because they never show up in the search results. I love Pricegrabber, but it would be nice if they'd provide the actual best price every time, even if that meant they wouldn't get their cut part of the time.
As for one complaint from some reviewers, my player already had the latest firmware when I got it, so I haven't had to upgrade it in any way. I haven't noticed any glitches during playback at all. I couldn't be more pleased with my purchase!
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 12/04/2007 |
|
 HD-DVD getting closer... Strengths: Standard Dvd upconversion,
Good looks,
Digital streaming,
HDMI 1.3 support,
Web Enabled,
ABT video chip
Weaknesses: Slow to turn on,
Slow to read discs,
Needs firmware update,
No Zoom modes,
HD-DVD possibly obsolete someday,
Does not play Mp3/Wma audio files,
Expensive
Summary: HD-DVD technology still has a way to go...
This 3rd generation player is improved with great standard dvd upconversion (over HDMI) and bitstream support to allow TrueHD (and other HD audio) to be decoded by your HDMI receiver.
But some downsides remain. It is slow and needs latest firmware to operate properly (v1.3 at time of this writing). You can connect the player to the Internet and download the update or burn a CD (from ISO file) and update with that.
After that movies play nice and smooth, still a couple quirks and the player is horrendously slow to startup and to read a disc.
Who knows who will win the HD disc format. Right now Blue-ray outsells HD-Dvd 2 to 1, but things could change. BD has its own challenges.
Try the Galapagos HD-DVD to really demonstrate the full 1080p glory of this player.
63% of People (5/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 01/24/2008 |
|
Strengths: Good picture and sound
Weaknesses: Long load / start up time, firmware needs to be upgraded
Summary: 2008-01-24 03:14:54 Sounds and looks good for what it is, however alot of this has to do with which way you decide to hook it into your system, especially if you are running surround sound on an older reciever without HDMI inputs. Firmware needed to be upgraded, this was kind of a pain at first, but in the long run it will prove to be a benefit. Extremely slow loading and playing DVD's. Non HD DVD's look good. This is my first HD DVD player so I really have nothing to compare it to. It is comparable to Blu ray on PS3 wired into the same Sony 60" XBR through a Denon AVR-4802.
50% of People (1/2) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 01/01/2008 |
|
Strengths: fantastic picture
fantastic sound
small
looks good
Weaknesses: not good with error recovery
Summary: This replaced my hd-a20. Seems a bit faster to respond (still no speed demon starting up). Picture and sound are incomparable. Only down side is that I had an hd-dvd that played fine on my hd-a20 but wouldn't play on the a35 until I cleaned it. This seems in line with what other are reporting on avsforum. I hope it can get fixed in firmware!
50% of People (1/2) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/05/2008 |
|
Strengths: price, internal decoding included
Weaknesses: boot up time (somewhat long) vs. SD DVD players
Summary: So far I’ve watched/listened to the Bourne Trilogy, Blade Runner and a few comedies. All look and sound great (especially BR) in this player. It also does a very good job in upconverting standard DVDs (LOTR extended trilogy) to 1080p, not quite HD quality, but very good. I have the audio connected via optical to my Rotel pre/pro (no HDMI) and HDMI to my Panny 50PE700 plasma. I’ll need to upgrade my pre/pro to take advantage of the onboard decoding. My only complaint about this player is the time it takes to boot up/read the disk (1-2 minutes).
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 05/29/2008 |
|
Strengths: Nice set of features, one of the final generation of HD-DVD players
Weaknesses: Sometimes picky about old DVD-R discs, main format (HD-DVD) no longer in development
Summary: I have had no major trouble with this player, aside from having difficulty playing a few old DVD-R discs. Start-up time is a little slow, I guess it's to be expected with a newer "technology" player. HD-DVDs look stunning, and this player supports 1080p as well as some of the latest audio technologies. The player does a nice job of up-converting the old/standard definition DVDs as well. You can update firmware easily if you need to, but I'm not sure if Toshiba will release more updates since the format has ended. If you can find this for a low price, it's worth getting. But most prices now are inflated due to low availability.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 05/23/2008 |
|
Strengths: This is a very nice HD DVD player that will play 1080P and at the same time could decode the latest audio signals such as True HD and and DTS HD.
Weaknesses: It is a step down from the Toshiba XA2 since this unit used a different chip to decode the video signal. HD DVD is dead after Toshiba pulled out of the market.
Summary: I love this HD DVD player and this is my 3rd one although I also have a Panasonic blu ray player. This player could really show the wonders of HD movies and also the latest in audio technology.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 03/30/2008 |
|
Strengths: HD DVD and DVD play back
Weaknesses: loading speed
Summary: 2008-04-01 21:45:32 I got this unit at a serious discount due to Toshiba's decision to cancel HD dvd support, but the quality of the players performance screams value for regular dvd play back. This unit is toshiba's reference standard for hd dvd play back offering the best video and sound comparable to the best of blue-ray movies. Offering hdmi 1.3a output of 1080p at 24 fps and digital master quality audio decoding and upconversion of standard dvds to 1080p. This the best value for dvd upconversion available with access to over 500 hd dvd movies currently offered at significant discount.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
|
Report this as 
