Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player Electronics

Weight	13 lbs
Brand Name	‎Toshiba
Best Sellers Rank	#513,998 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics) #10 in HD DVD Players #569 in DVD Players & Recorders
Product Dimensions	‎16.9 x 14 x 3 inches
Item model number	‎HD-A2
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer	‎No
Color Name	‎Blue,Red
Special Features	‎Multi-Format Playback
ASIN	B000IJV4BC
Customer Reviews	3.8 out of 5 stars
Item Weight	11.02 Pounds
Brand	Toshiba
Date First Available	October 2, 2001
Media Type	CD, DVD
Special Feature	Multi-Format Playback
Resolution	1920 x 1080
Connector Type	HDMI
Connectivity Technology	HDMI
Color	Blue,Red
Controller Type	Remote Control
Audio Output Mode	Stereo

60 reviews for Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player Electronics

Rated 4 out of 5
Bruce – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Toshiba HD-A2 DVD Player
This player is an excellent buy, and the price is quite a bargain for what you get. The picture quality is excellent on my 1080i Plasma Tv (Akai) and the sound quality is equally as good. Note: It helps to have great surround speakers — like Bose or Kef — but this is not necessary.As far as features, the HD-A2 will play standard music CD’s, standard DVD’s, and of course HD DVD’s. Note: There are currently 2 standards for high-definition DVD’s — HD DVD and Blue Ray. THIS PLAYER DOES NOT PLAY BLUE RAY DVD’s!!! It plays HD DVD’s only. However, currently, studio support for HD DVD and Blue Ray is about even at the moment.Although Blue Ray once had a large edge, this is no longer the case. HD DVD is simply the much cheaper option, and if you’re waiting for players that support both standards, they are here, but they cost about $1200.00 dollars — ouch! See LG.Another nice feature is that the HD-A2 will up-convert standard DVD content so that it appears to have near high-def quality. However, this only works via the player’s HDMI interface — not via the Component interface, which is what I use, because my TV does not support HDMI. However, for me, this is no loss. My standard wide-screen DVD’s look great on my Plasma without any up-converting.Note: People think that HDMI is better than Component. It isn’t. For the most part, they are about even with the exception that HDMI support copy protection which favors the studios. Component does not support copy protection. In addition, HDMI does not support cable length in excess of 25 feet. Component cables can reach 200 feet without losing quality. In addition, professionals often prefer component for reasons that I don’t recall. However, for you and me, the only effective difference is the HDMI enables the studios to copy-protect their content. Personally, I don’t want any DVD that that supports HDMI only. The studios can have it, and no. I’m not a pirate. I buy all of my DVD’s.With that said, the HD-A2 also has a network interface that enables it to download updates from Toshiba, and before you use your HD-A2, Toshiba recommends that you perform that update. Otherwise, you will encounter problems that affect the player’s performance. Of course, you will need Internet service, and possibly a router, if you already have a computer and Internet access. If you do not have Internet access, Toshiba can send a firmware update CD to you at your request. You’ll have to see the instructions for details.The bad/caveats: When I attempted to configure my player for DHCP, it didn’t work so I tried to configure the player with static IP addresses, which worked. However, since I know what I’m doing, this was no big deal for me, but for most normal folks, having to statically assign IP addresses will be a problem. DHCP setup should just work. This is something that should be fixed.After I successfully configured my HD-A2 with a static IP address, and successfully updated the HD-A2’s firmware, I attempted to configure the player for DHCP again, but DHCP still did not work! I read on various Internet sites that some people had to connect their player directly to their cable modem in order to get DHCP to work, but that’s nonsense. Like I said, DHCP should just work. It works just fine for my son’s XBox and PS/2. However, since it didn’t work, I reconfigured my HD-A2 back to using a static IP address.In addition, although the HD-A2 plays standard music CD’s, I’ve experienced skips (moments of pause) while listening to the one CD that I tried. I admit that trying one CD is not a good sample, but I’ve played this CD on my previous player several times, and I take very good care of my CD’s, and I have never experienced any skips at all. I notified Toshiba about it, and they explained that the player’s laser is much more sensitive than a standard CD player’s laser, and thus may have more trouble when encountering imperfections in the surface of a CD. Frankly, I’m not pleased with the response, but I can live with it. I usually rip my music CD’s to my computer’s hard disk, and play them from there. I’m hoping that a firmware update will fix the problem. However, I can also play my CD’s via my computer, too, so I have alternative method.One last caveat is that the HD-A2 takes about 30 seconds to reach its ready state from the time that you press the ON button. If you turn it OFF and back ON within a short time (I haven’t measured it), it will actually reach its ready state quickly — more like a regular DVD. The reason for this long delay is that the HD A2 is more like a computer inside. It has to load its operating system and DVD software into its internal RAM. In other words, the HD-A2 has to boot. I suppose that there is a limit to how long the player can keep its OS software in its volatile memory while in stand-by mode. The good side of this is that the HD-A2 has the flexibility of a computer. Thus, Toshiba can adapt the features of the device over time, unlike a standard DVD player, whose software is fixed.Nevertheless, the HD-A2 is a good buy. The picture quality is excellent, and the sound is excellent, but you’ll have to use an optical audio cable of course. Note: Don’t waste $20 or $30 dollars on a Monster optical audio cable. I purchased optical audio cables for $1.39 a piece on Amazon. I couldn’t believe that they were that cheap! However, a fellow Amazonian posted his experience and said that they were great. Heck, for $1.39 a piece, I had to take a chances so I bought 2. I should have bought 4 to 5 at that price, because the shipping was more than the cables, but would have likely been the same as the shipping for the 2 cables that I purchased. Anyway, if your goal is to primarily play high definition DVD content, and to also be able to play your old standard DVD’s, the HD-A2 is a good buy.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
KEN TELLS ALL – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT PICTURE BUT SLOW
JUST UPDATING MY COMMENTS: Player still working fine. HD is great. Sometimes you may experience a blue line when playing a movie. Just shut DVD player off and turn it on again. It must be some electronic quirk. I have experienced this 2 times. I also noticed this problem in a Sony Blu-Ray machine in the showroom of an electronic store. That line was worse and went across the picture that was playing. I however have not experienced this again in the last week even though I have been using the HD player much more. Who knows when it comes to these quirks in electronics? I am still very satisfied with this HD player.4.5 stars in my book – Nice HD DVD player. Good sleek looks. Nice profile. Bought player from Amazon. Used free shipping. Fast delivery and well packed. For the money can’t be beat. Sony’s Blue Ray player is way too expensive and large. I really was unable to see any difference between the picture quality on the Sony player and this Toshiba HD player in the show room store. HD is great. Plays and upscales regular DVDs. The only downside noticed was the player is slow in start up time for processing initial recognition of DVD discs but this is not really a problem. Just be patient and don’t keep pushing the remote control buttons because you thought the player did not receive the signal, it did, but takes a little more time to process. I have had this player one week. I therefore cannot comment at this point in time of how long the player will continue to run properly. I have a regular Toshiba DVD player which is now over 5 years old and is still working fine. Hope this one can give me at least 3 yrs without a problem. Highly recommend this player if you want to watch HD videos.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
D. Dwyer – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great HD player (especially for the price)…
Just got mine about a week ago and have it hooked up via HDMI to a Sanyo PLV-Z5 720P projecting on a 110″ white screen in a dedicated theater room hooked up to a Marantz A/V 5.1 receiver.Picture quality is very nice, especially when playing HD DVDs – even on a 110″ screen, the picture quality looks film-like, or at least as good as the source is – Batman Begins (HD), for example, looks absolutely incredible. I imagine with a 1080P projector/TV that deinterlaces well, it’d be even more spectacular. My wife and I did discover that the upscaling of my projector is slightly nicer than the Toshiba’s (at least to our eyes) so for standard DVDs I actually output at 480i (this may draw fire from some other reviews) and let the projector do the upscaling/de-interlacing (I haven’t tried 480P yet – maybe tonight). I’m sure the Toshiba has a fine upscaler, just not as good IMHO. I don’t have an OPPO player but I’d love to hear about a comparison between the two in this regard (upscaling standard DVDs to 720P). I tried outputting at 1080i but it looked horrible – a fault of my 720P projector which cannot deinterlace a 1080i input – I’m only mentioning this to say that I can’t comment on how good it might potentially look at 1080i. My only gripe in the video regard is that this player does tend to push reds a tad (especially with component video connections) and I haven’t seen an advanced menu that allows me to adjust/correct colors, gamma, etc., with the player. This coupled with the fact that my projector also pushes reds (yes, the player pushes them a tad further, it’s not just my projector), means that I have some bright reds to deal with.Audio seems great, but I’m no audiophile. I have it hooked up to my receiver via optical and it successfully plays dolby digital, DD+, True HD, etc. (the latter format downscaled, I assume). No lip-sink issues or other problems that I can think of. I have had a few of the often-cited lip-sink issues with my XBox 360 HD player, as a side-note. I haven’t really done an apples-to-apples comparison between the 360 HD player and this but I think they’re comparable in video quality, perhaps the Toshiba has a slight edge (my 360 player is hooked up via component) but the 360 is a clunky way to play movies (IMHO) and only has analog video output options (component or VGA).Player load-time is acceptable. I don’t have the latest firmware (maybe that speeds it up a bit?) but my startup times from loading the DVD/HD-DVD to playback are ~28 seconds – a tad slower than I’d like but you only do it once per movie, so… This is one area where I think my 360 player is better/faster.The remote control is okay but no back-lighting in a dark theater room is a pain. Needless to say, I plan on switching to a back-lit universal remote. The 360 player has a backlit remote, but I hate the look of the remote.The player itself looks very sharp, has a sleek profile, is still somewhat deep (reminiscent of early DVD players), doesn’t run hot, doesn’t make noise, etc. In otherwords – great aesthetics unlike the 360 player (I shouldn’t rip the 360 player – if someone already owns a 360, like me, it’s an under $200 way to play HD content while waiting for the regular players to drop in price).I would have given this Toshiba player four stars due to the load-time, ho-hum remote, etc., but for under $400 – this represents an incredible deal, IMHO, and I can live with a cheap remote (or willing to replace it, at least) and the load-time is par for the course with early generation players so how can I really complain? My biggest concern at this point (no fault of the player, of course) seems to be the HD-DVD/Blu-ray pendulum swinging into Sony’s favor as of late, but IMHO, better to gamble with less than $400 on this player than gamble with $600-1500 on the competition if you lose, and I’m still frustrated about the fact that Blu-ray movies tend to cost more and include much less (I’ll still probably buy one if/when they come down to the ~$400 range). I wish all the studios would simply support both formats and let the consumer choose, then I’d be in HD nirvana (thank you Paramount and Warner! curse you other studios!).
89 people found this helpful
Rated 3 out of 5
Buyer beware!!! – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
BIG ISSUE WITH HD DVD SOUND!
Everybody says it is a great machine. It is a good one but not great! The quality of the picture is super; however no one has ever said anything about the issue of the sound that the manufacturer acknowledge they have with HD DVDs. When I play regular DVD I have no problem getting digital sound in 5.1 through my SONY receiver system; the up conversion is also fantastic. However when I am playing an HD DVD which is the main purpose of this machine the digital sound goes strait to the speakers of the TV, I can’t get it on my reveicer system in digital 5.1. The sound does not go there at all unless I change the sound setting on the player from bitstream to PCM, which is a lower quality delivered in stereo not in 5.1. When I called Toshiba, they said this problem will be fixed in the future version HD DVD player. I am wondering why everybody is giving five stars to this machine which is defective by design? Why no one has ever talked about this problem?10/14/2007 I wanted to be fair by updating this review. I bought an ONKYO model 605 receiver to replace my older 6yr old YAMAHA receiver, now the sound is perfect. Really, it is superb no more complaint about the sound. The only small problem is the lengh of time it takes to start the player when you turn it on.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Charles W. – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Toshiba delivers superb High Definition DVD!
Superb pictures & sound!Before buying I checked out HD DVD and Blue Ray in my local electronics retailer’s show room with movies on comparable sets. I found that both seemed to have equally stunning pictures – And of course clearly better than regular DVD on a good High Definition set. What sold me on HD DVD over Blue Ray was price. For about a thousand bucks I can buy a Blue-Ray DVD player and one or two movies or I can buy the Toshiba HD DVD player plus about 25 HD DVD movies (from Amazon). It’s a no-brainer! A player without the movie library is a waste!I received the Toshiba HDA2 player from Amazon, hooked it up to my 60 Inch HD Sony (1080p x 1920 capable) via the HDMI port and to my stereo via the optical fiber port. I set up the DVD player (That was a fairly trivial set-up; I don’t think I changed the defaults). Then I put in the HD DVD “Earth Wind & Fire and Chicago” and I was blown away by the picture and sound quality! By the way, I spent most of my professional career as a design engineer in the TV & Video display field. I didn’t see any apparent motion artifacts from the 1080i capability of the Toshiba HD DVD as displayed on my 1080p HD TV. I thought the black levels might have been slightly high (washed out) in some scenes on the video – But that appeared to be on the video itself and not due to the DVD player. Overall the picture quality was superb – Amazing details, clarity, and colors! If I had paid twice as much for the HD DVD player I’d have expected it to be “twice as good” and I just don’t think that capability is there for Blue ray or any other format.Here are some other notes related to HD in general:(1) If your set isn’t a recent generation high definition set and a sufficiently large screen size relative to your viewing distance, you probably won’t see much difference in HD verses HD DVD (or Blue-Ray).(2) To my surprise, using HDMI verses component (RGB or Y,Pr,Pb) video hook-up resulted in a noticeably better image. On the other hand, there is no reason in my professional judgment to buy a super expensive HDMI cable for cable lengths of 12 feet or less. Philips & RCA market very decent HDMI cable as well as optical audio “cables” that are much more reasonably priced and work great.(3) Not all movie scenes get improved by High Definition. In some cases High Definition makes some of the computer-added special effects look “artificial” or “as if made of plastic” (I first noticed this on HD from my Satellite receiver). And of course, in a sand storm on “Dune” there just isn’t any HD detail. But anything shot “live” with real actors and props looks great. (I assume this is why my favorite movies aren’t out yet on HD DVD – I’ll bet they have to re-master the effects in the “Star Wars” & “Lord of the Rings” series movies.
14 people found this helpful
Rated 1 out of 5
D. Pauley – December 20, 2023
1.0 out of 5 stars
Now that I’ve got a working machine…..
I received this yesterday and immediately put the unit in place and hooked it up, anxious to see how it performed. Unfortunately, when I turned the unit on, I only got the “Welcome” notice on the display and the machine went no farther in turning on. My TV did not recognize the HDMI connection to the unit. It also did not respond to any commands from the remote. I could not even turn it off without unplugging it. I called the support number and the guy there said that it was a known problem with this model and that if I did an upgrade of the operating system it should fix it. I was getting ready to start when he called me back and advised me that the upgrade would not fix the problem and that I would have to mail the unit back in to Toshiba’s service center to have it fixed. I am sending it off today, but if this is an example of the problems with this unit, then I’m not going to be happy with it. I will commend Toshiba’s support center, though, for calling me back and letting me know that their solution would not work. I’ll wait to see what happens with the “repaired” unit. A brand new machine should not have these problems, in my opinion.My replacement machine arrived and it works beautifully. I played the remake of King Kong on HD DVD and the images are beautiful. Sound is excellant, with many things popping up in my speakers that the regular DVD doesn’t have, or so it seemed to me. The upconversion of regular DVD’s is really, really good. Happy Feet looks as stunning as it did in the theater. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a great example of how well it does with standard DVD’s. The opening sequence looks really good, with Kate Capshaw’s gold and red sequined dress sparkling like mad, probably even more than it did when I first saw the film in the theaters when it opened years ago. All in all, the only thing this player lacks is the analog 7.1 inputs and the coax input of the more expensive player in Toshiba’s line up. Get it, since it’s so cheap now and let your senses roar along with it.
10 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
M. Edgar – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just spectacular.
Many reviews on this wonderful DVD player already, so let me just bullet a few points I feel worthy.1. Ease of installation. HDMI cable (not supplied) and the digital audio (not included) I had the audio and bought the HDMI for this player. The installation took about 10 minutes from start to set up to playing dvds. Awesome. On HDMI.. don’t waste money (unless you are money bags) on expensive cables. A nice 20 dollar HDMI cable will do fine. Digital is Digital. Only the quality of the connector is in question and if you get a reliable cable, no need for the big money scams.2. Upgrades. Easily done by lan connection or by ordering the disk from Toshiba for free. Nice.3. Startup time is about 30 seconds. It has to load up the operating system. After that, it’s just the same as any other DVD player. Don’t let the nay sayers bug you on this topic. The start up time is just when you first turn it on. Not for each DVD insertion.4. The upscaling on this is very good. I have a Sony Grand Wega and the normal DVDs now look better to my experienced eye than they did previously on my very nice Sony DVD player.5. HD-DVD. Get the BBS HD version of the BBS series Planet Earth. Let this be your first HD you watch and let your mind be washed over in beauty. On movies.. I would research before you buy. From what I have seen.. I have a big DVD collection (over 1000) and I double dipped to get a couple HD versions right away. (meaning HD copies of dvds I already had) and there was not much if any difference. What I have found is that the greedy companies are just porting/copying movies from regular dvd over to the HD format. Like any other scanning.. it just depends on how it was done. HD doesn’t mean it’s really going to be better. Check out DVD reviews first before spending the extra money. I actually have one HD dvd that doesn’t look as good as the regular DVD version. I was pretty stunned at having payed 25 bucks for the HD version and if I remember correctly.. 9 bucks for the DVD version. Oh well.6. Overall impression of the Toshiba player is awesome for me. It’s sleek looking in my rack and very easy to intall and to use.
275 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
DigitalEagle – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Product
I did a lot of research before buying this product. I just purchased a Panasonic 58″ Plasma with native 720P resolution. The TV has the capability of receiving 1080P signals but down converts them to 1080i. IF you really want full 1080P you will pay a premium for your TV. (At least in the LCD, Plasma arena) I doubt most people would be able to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p anyway. The content is the same, only the way it is painted on your screen is different. I really can’t find any fault with this product. I downloaded the 2.1 firmware release to a CD and it updated without a hitch. A lot of people complain about the 20-30 second startup time, but you have to understand that this is built on a PC platform with the linux operating system loaded in it. This thing has a lot of processing power and it needs to boot just like your pc. I purchased a couple of HD DVD’s and was very impressed with the detail and color. I was also very impressed with the it’s ability to up-convert my standard DVD’s to 1080i. In fact, I would have probably purchased it just for that feature alone. Having the ability to watch true HD DVD’s is a real bonus for the reasonable price. I was also very impressed with its audio capabilities. If you use the optical cable to your receiver it will down convert to a DTS signal. Make sure you have a receiver that handles DTS or you will only get 2 channel sound. It was still very impressive even when down converting to DTS. I wish it had analog outputs, but heh, what do you expect for $250 bucks? I could have purchased their flaship product for an extra $400 but decided against it. I figured I could always purchase a new reciever that handles HDMI later. I like the fact that Toshiba gives you three different options with their models.I think Toshiba did an excellent job with this player. It looks great, it works great, and delivers what it advertises. For the small amount of change it cost me, I’m really not very worried about my investment. If Blue Ray should win in the future, I’ll simply purchase a Blue Ray player when the price comes down and the product matures. For now, I’m going to enjoy the new HD DVD’s coming out and my existing DVD collection.In fact, I’m betting a lot of people are going to make this same decision, which, may in the end, promote HD DVD as the winner. The winner of format wars is never about having the best technology, but is the format that the most people buy. Remember VHS vs. Betamax?
13 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Nick Alimonos – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent choice; don’t let the BD propaganda fool you
It is truly discouraging to see that the HD/BD format war is being fought on these message boards. The BD fan base is spreading a lot of ugly rumors about the inevitable failure of HD and the superiority of BD; but the truth of the matter is that these guys are terrified that their BD collection may become obsolete.I purchased this player back when it was $250 and coult not be happier. It is an excellent DVD player, upconverts my old movies to near HD quality, and the HD movies are superior in many ways to BD.First of all, I compared both HD and BD movies before buying and to my eyes, at least, HD looked better. Secondly, HD seems to have a better choice of exclusive titles at the moment: Transformers, Matrix, Batman Begins, etc. Thirdly, a lot of companies are becoming discouraged with BD due to continued manufacturing and technical problems. The reason that Batman Begin and Matrix did not come out on BD is due to the lack of interactive material such as picture-in-picture documentaries, which can only be found on HD. In addition to that, the HD player’s internet connection capabilities allow it to download exclusive content and material updates. Even 300 had to be scaled down with fewer features on BD than HD. To make matters worse, BD players are selling very poorly compared to HD players, and here is why I think BD is a sinking ship.A Warner Bros. executive made the suggestion that they might no longer support two formats. But I think this means they will join Paramount and Dreamworks in jumping ship to go with HD. Warner Bros. must be tired of the increased expense of producing BD discs and the lack of interactivity. They also want HD to take off the way DVD did, but the only way to do that is to offer HD quality at an affordable price. Most consumers don’t want to pay $500 for a DVD player. It will be a long time before BD can achieve the under $200 mark, and only a matter of time before HD players overtake the number of PS3 in homes, and let’s face reality, the ONLY reason anyone even buys BD is due to the PS3. If Microsoft had the good sense to package their 360 with an HD player Sony would be dead in the water. The way I see it, the only real desperate company is Sony. They have lost billions on the PS3 (it’s selling dead last, lower even than their own PS2) and the only way they can recoup any money is by winning this format war, which history has proven they will not. Time and time again Sony loses these wars over price, and it looks like history is repeating itself again. It’s only a matter of time.
8 people found this helpful
Rated 1 out of 5
R. Milin – December 20, 2023
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do not buy this player — HDMI may not work!
The HDMI connector on this player does not work for (Toshiba told me) most HDMI connections. Toshiba knows about this issue. A firmware update CD that is supposed to fix the issue — but who can say — is in preparation and will take a minimum of two weeks to arrive as of today. If you call to request the update you will be told you have to call again to request it. The only alternative is to connect the player via ethernet to a high speed internet connection AND monitor simultaneously and spend half an hour hoping to upgrade the player successfully. This is an outrage. Amazon should not be selling this player, and you should not buy it. Amazon’s description of the player is inaccurate because it emphasizes the player’s HDMI connector, which will not work for what may be most users. Also, this issue may affect other Toshiba HD DVD players as well. Their web site discusses the firmware upgrade, though not the true magnitude of the HDMI problem. Here is an update based on later info: I updated the firmware by using a 50′ ethernet cable, but it didn’t resolve the incompatibility between the HD A2 and my Pioneer HDMI receiver. Toshiba told me they can’tfix this issue. Three other HDMI components work with the receiver just fine, but the HD A2 doesn’t. Toshiba told me that I have to run the video through HDMI to my Sony SXRD TV’s second HDMI input, and use an optical cable to the receiver to hear multichannel sound. The optical cable cost $50, and is not supplied with the the HD A2. Also, I can no longer run all of my video signals through my receiver to a single TV input. So, in sum, Toshiba promises an HDMI component, but it has not delivered one, unless you are lucky enough to have a configuration that is compatible. And there are no guarantees.
12 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
P. Oh – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great way to get into High Definition
I’ve been watching HD thru cable for 3 years but had to ‘suffer’ with just standard definition DVD’s. With the Toshiba HD-A2 or any of the Toshiba HD-DVD players finally you can get to watch HD movies without breaking the bank. In fact after some research and viewing both formats at a local store the quality of HD-DVD is better than what is available from the ‘other’ format and the players are much, much more affordable. Less than half the price for better picture quality and sound is something I don’t have a problem with! So far the player has been flawless and since i still have mostly standard definition DVD’s i’ve been watching them, but have been surprised at how good they looked since the player upscales them to a high definition like picture. Of course they don’t look as good as real HD-DVD’s, but i do have to do a double take sometime just to make sure that I’m watching a SD DVD. Overall this is a great product and an unbelievable bargain if you have a high def capable TV.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
E. OMalley – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player
I have had this HD-DVD player for a few weeks now and absolutely love it. It upconverts my other DVD’s to near HD-quality and the HD-DVD’s I have used in it are wonderful! Viewed “Poseiden” for the first time in HD and was blown away by the incredible detail in the capsizing of the ship (little pieces of debris and bodies drifting down through the water under the ship) that I had never noticed before.I had been planning to wait until the HD DVD war was over to purchase the winner, but with the price for this unit under $300 (and with 5 HD-DVD’s included) it was just too tempting to resist. With some great HD-DVD’s on the way this year (ex: the Matrix collection) and companies making dual players that will play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I think this war will be going a little longer, but either way I have a great little player that works beautifully with my entire DVD collection and HD TV.
12 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Michael D. Dean – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent picture
I have had no problems with the player at all. The picture is beautiful and the sound is awesome. The upconverting is almost as good as the hd discs. I hope the format can hang in there. I do not plan on buying a blu-ray because they are too pricey, and they can become out of date with no way to update. The upconverting of this player is excellent and I see no reason to pay $400.00 and yes maybe less for an out of date blu-ray player. Sony said you have to keep buying their players to keep up with the lastest version. I think downloading hd movies will be the next thing anyway. Hd movies on disc may be like the 8 track in a short time. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the subject and I think it just may go that way. I have talked to several people and they agree that blu-ray players are just too expensive.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
M. Taylor – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
No issues with this DVD player
The DVD player was delivered very quickly. It was easy to install (HDMI to TV and optical audio to receiver) and configure. I was watching a DVD soon afterwards, even without a firmware update. I have only played a couple of HD-DVDs but they were completely awesome to see. I hear all the bickering about HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray and 1080p vs 1080i. Enough with the analysis paralysis. Stop whining and start watching!!! It’s quite amazing to watch HD programming whether from DVD or broadcast. I’m glad to have purchased this 1080i player. I have a new Panasonic 58″ 1080p (700U) plasma TV and I’m very satisfied with the way HD-DVD and SD-DVDs look on this combo.Some day I will consider a 1080p DVD player, *IF* I can see a difference, and *IF* it plays multiple formats and *IF* the prices come down.One thing missing from this player is the ability to play MP3 CDs. Hopefully this will come with a future firmware update.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
D. Sahoo – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive video and audio
I was impressed by the video quality when using HD-DVDs and SD-DVDs. Loading time of the DVDs was a little slower than a normal DVD player but it wasn’t too bad. I used HDMI cable for the video and optical cable for audio. The audio quality was also impressive. I could hear the sound of the bug-container dropping on the asphalt road when Trinity throws it out of the car after taking it out of Neo’s stomach in the Matrix.The price of the system was also affordable.My only regret was that the system could not play CDRs, CD-RWs with mp3.
One person found this helpful
Rated 2 out of 5
Incitatus – December 20, 2023
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very, very disappointing.
Most of the issues have been covered here, in short, this player is not ready for prime time. The issues that I have experienced include:- Very long boot and power down times.- Impenetrable rigmarole to connect to the Internet (I ended up downloading the firmware update on my PC and burning a disk).- Random lockups that require removing the power cord.- Display of regular DVDs in an odd letterbox mode. Hard to describe, imagine a letterbox image that does not fill the screen either top to bottom or side to side at the same time. Does not happen for all DVDs. Toshiba Customer Service never responded to my questions.- Most annoying is the lack of “memory” if you remove a disk without finishing it (or turning the machine off). What happens is that rather than starting where you left off, you have to chapter search. Really a pain.It really would be worth your while to wait until this machine leaves beta test.
Rated 5 out of 5
Kibo – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
HD-A2 Great Value, High Quality!
The cheapest HD-DVD player there is, but it delivers high quality! My TV maxes out at 720p so this is the perfect player to enjoy HD-DVDs. As others have said, loading the disc and getting it started up is a little slow (although I have already updated the firmware). And for some reason, when I go to maintenance update, it now freezes too, but it’s okay for now. Since it has upconvert capability, I’m not so worried about Bluray exclusives at all. Definitely a must-buy for High Definition enthusiasts!I just tried the upconvert for DVD. The picture quality is amazing! A whole lot better than my previous upconvert.The analogy I see is:$500 PS3 = Very high graphic quality gaming experience + bonus of Blurayvs.$250 HD-A2 = Extremely high quality upconvert DVD player + bonus of HD DVDLooking at it that way, $250 is really a steal for high definition enjoyment.
4 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Khan – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where do I go to get the 5 free HD DVD’s?
I seem to be having the same issue one other person had on here. When I put in an older DVD (older meaning NOT HD ) it does not fully show the movie from side to side. I have a Samsung HL-T5687S 1080P TV and it leaves about 9″ of black on either side and about a foot on the top and bottom. I made sure the DVD I am watching (Armageddon)is Wide Screen, I double checked to make sure both the TV and the A2 were in 1080i, I am using an HDMI cable and yet the only way I can get the move to take up the screen from left to right is if I put it, the TV, in wide mode but then the picture looks like crap. I have downloaded the new 2.2 firmware update and installed it.The player when playing an HD DVD uses the whole screen left to right and looks incredible.Any info on this would be great.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
W. Wulff – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glad I Checked Here Before I Bought This
I have a Mitsubishi WS5511 55″ projection TV with Onkyo Receiver and NHT Speakers. The TV has Digital Input via COMPONENT only with 1080i max. I just recently had Verizon Fios TV installed and it is SO MUCH BETTER THAN CABLE it made my DVDs look pitiful to watch. So, I went here and read through all the players and comments and selected this one. THANK YOU ALL FOR NAILING IT RIGHT ON THE HEAD!! This unit is EXCELLENT!! The HD DVDs I have played on it look and sound AMAZING! PS: At CES Warner announced a new disc called Total HD which will carry HD DVD on one side and Blu Ray on the other. They are planning to open share the technology which could put an end to the HD DVD / Blu Ray battle. This could be great for everyone!
12 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Dr. M. Ghotbi – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great, low-cost HD-DVD player
This item has been replaced by the HD-A3, but has nearly identical specs.Pros: Cheap, great image quality, ethernet connection for downloading firmware upgrades and for online content, HDMI output, upscales your old dvd’s.Cons: Not 1080p (1080i), slow to boot up.Got this and the Samsung 1400 Blu-Ray player for around $525 combined. A great way to be format-neutral for high definition dvds. My friend got the 1080p version (for $300 more), and I can’t tell the difference, although he swears he can. Looks great on my Pioneer plasma, especially with “Planet Earth”.
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
T. Leonard – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect HD-DVD Player for Home Theater
I have been using my Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player for several weeks now, playing both a few HD-DVDs, as well as a host of non-HD DVDs and am EXTREMELY pleased in every way. The HD-DVD movies are, of course, great looking..very rich colors and “real looking” sharpness, as you would expect. My pleasant surprise is how very well the up-conversion of non-HD disks to 1080i looks. My previous LG DVD player did a fine job of up-conversion…that is until I saw what this Toshiba player does. Honestly, with many of the movies of the past few years it is almost hard to tell them from the HD-DVD movies I recently purchased!! So I consider this purchase, at the new, lower pricing, as a real smart buy and a bargain!I have read many questions/complaints about the bootup speed and support for DTX, etc. My experience, running my HD-DVD player (via HDMI cable) through my Pioneer Elite receiver is that if a movie is recorded with DTS I am able to playback with DTS…same is true for Dobly Digital encoded movies. The sound is extremely clear and accurate, but suspect the key to enjoying the full capability of this HD-DVD player is having a system that can take advantage of the HDMI interface. As for the bootup time…geesh…maybe 30 seconds, but after that switching between DVDs is the normal speed. Take a deep breath…relax…all is fine….Bottom-line…how can you pass up a $250 HD-DVD player of this quality? The current cost is only slightly higher than most of the current crop of up-converting DVD players, and with the current “5 Free DVDs Offer” from Toshiba…the “cost” of the player drops to just over $100!! This is a truly outstanding HD-DVD and any other DVD type player and I can highly recommend it! My “theater” consists of Samsung 50″ DLP HDTV (1080i), Pioneer Elite receiver, MagnaPan surround speaker (7.1), and a Martin Logan “Dynamo” subwoofer.
9 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
A Thoughtful Consumer – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Amazes Me!
By the time you’re looking at my review I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that the HD-2A is an amazing product for the money. While there is really nothing I can add to it’s description, I’m inspired to add my 2 cents worth to the roar of the crowd…..If you are non-HD at this time, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about, after all regular TV and DVD looks pretty good right now. So why get involved with all the expense and uncertainity? Well, if you wear glasses-take them off-that’s what regular TV/DVD looks like-really. Put your glasses back on-that is HD,I don’t exaggerate. Once you’ve seen it you can’t go back, it’s that good. But Wow! the expense & the Blue Ray-HD DVD war, it all costs so much and you may invest in a losing technology. But thanks to Toshiba and Netflix you can now economically enjoy this wonderful technology. The HD-2A is a great unit and affordably priced. Even sweeter, if you are a Netflix member, HD movies are no extra charge! And they have hundreds of HD-DVD movies and documentaries. Even sweeter, right now (May-June 2007) Toshiba is knocking off $100 on this unit as well as several other HD-DVD players and they will give you 5 HD-DVD movies for free (check it out on their website). The HD-2A even has DVD enhancement circuitry to make your regular DVDs and DVD-RWs a bit sharper(it works). So there you are, enjoy the new technology for $300 and an hdmi cable.A couple years down the road, if things don’t pan out, you’re not deeply invested. OR if HD-DVD does win out, you are right where you want to be. I Love It!
15 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Omni Presence – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Pleased
Using Pioneer plasma PDP-5080HD (50″ 720p) the picture quality is luscious. The richly defined colors and crisp resolution, and fluid image dynamics are just very good and nice to look at. I prefer it to watching Blu-Rays from my PS3 (which blew my mind at first, but on which I sometimes notice color banding).DVD upscaling is very good. Better than my OPPO 91HD. Better than Marantz DV9600.Upgraded firmaware right away. 30-second boot-up is a bit annoying but whatever. It’s just that the fan on this player is loud. So it’s not like you want to leave it on all the time. So, sigh, you lose 30 seconds when you turn on the player in the evening before you watch a movie.Also, the controls are not as snappy and fluid as I’d like, slightly laggy sometimes, but usable. Feels like young technology. But it works.HD-DVD really is a major step up from DVD! Netflix offers both new formats. Get over it. This is a great looking player for a great price.BTW I like that this player samples DVD’s to fit the whole screen of my Plasma, so goodbye letterbox.(TV set to FULL mode)
Rated 5 out of 5
Gkcmilner – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Happy. Great DVD player.
First the set-up: This plugs into a H/K AVR745 via HDMI. From the receiver the signal goes into a Panasonic PT-AX100 projector via HDMI. This is used in a dedicated home theater room. I am using logic 7 on the AVR with Faroudja bypassed. When I played my first DVD I had no voice unless I set the DVD player to 2 channel audio. I was beginning to get worried. After doing some research I found an update for my AVR. After installing it everything was good. This DVD player is replacing an H/K DVD47. When I put my first HD DVD in (Planet Earth) the picture quality improvement was amazing, and the sound was impressive. But I was having some glitches. Nothing different than what has already been mentioned. So I downloaded and installed an update for the DVD player (easy) and everything started to sort itself out. What has impressed me most so far is how well it upconverts. I now have a Sony PS3 in the same room which has just as good picture quality and sound when playing a blu-ray disc, but when playing a standard DVD I always use the Toshiba because it’s just better. I have also been pleased that Toshiba sends each new update on CD free of charge. Now the downsides. It is slow to power-on. But after that it’s just as fast as any other DVD player. The remote is very nice, but I can’t figure out how to do a frame by frame advance or reverse. This feature work great on the PS3. That’s about it. Unlike the new HD-A3 this unit looks and feels very solid and well built. The HD-A3 also comes with the cheaper remote and fewer connection options. I guess that’s why the HD-A3 is cheaper (newer model doesn’t always mean better I guess). If you are looking for a 720p/1080i HD DVD player I highly recommend this Toshiba HD-A2.
7 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
JAFO – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Great Player
I bought this unit for my Samsung 23″ HDTV in my bedroom since I did not have a DVD player in that room; my bedroom TV only has 720p capability so the A2 is more than adequate for the job. I bought an A20 a month ago for my living room flat panel 1080p TV and I was impressed by its performance. First thing out of the box I did the firmware upgrade, which had only taken 10 minutes on this unit – surprisingly very quick! And I verified it had indeed completed the upgrade in that timeframe. I initially hooked up this unit to my large HDTV in my living room side by side with A20. I had taken a few HD DVDs and a few standard DVDs and did a one-to-one comparison on sound and video. The A2 had remarkable performance like my A20. And I found this unit at a tad over $200 shopping around on the internet; heck, it was less than what I paid for my 30G iPOD. I could hear Bob Barker saying: “Yes! The price is right!” A great bang for your buck if you are looking for a DVD player to do a great job on up-converting standard DVDs and, of course, playing HD DVDs. I know a lot of people comment on how slow the unit loads, but I don’t think it is all that long; both my laptop and desktop computers take much longer than this. The A2 and A20 take about 40 to 45 seconds to do the initial bootup and then another 20 seconds once you load a DVD and Viola! You now have a great picture with great sound to watch.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Dsinned – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
FREE HD-DVDs for limited time only
The best thing so far about buying this Toshiba HD-DVD Player, other than the obvious, are the “limited time” offers to get *F*R*E*E* HD-DVDs to go with it. There is at least one well known nationwide retailer currently giving away ANY two HD-DVDs upon purchase of this product, plus there is a manufacturer (Toshiba) offer to get free any 3 selected HD-DVDs till the end of February.At least 3 or more HD-DVD movies, all FREE, at an average retail cost of $25 each, is truly a great incentive for purchasing a new $500 (list) HD-DVD player.The only (minor) criticism I have of this product regards the rather pedestrian remote control (“universal” type, but contrary to what has been advertised, it does NOT glow in the dark) and the absence of any component video or HDMI cables, either of which is necessary in order to play movies in Hi-Definition on a HDTV display. Toshiba probably leaves out these higher quality cable(s) due to their added expense.Instead, a standard A/V cable consisting of RCA phono jacks is provided to hook up to any old (or new) display device. I can’t image anyone buying a new Hi-Definition (or up converting) DVD player without intending to use with at least a component video equipped high resolution display of 720p or better. Most new HDTV display and monitors nowadays come with a HDMI interface, which is necessary in order for this DVD player to really shine both in video and audio quality.
8 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Theo – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
HD at it’s Best!
STD DVD playback on the A2 is Excellent, better than any of the regular 1080i upconverting players on the market that I’ve used! But, the Full Video 1080i HD DVD’s are in another league by itself!!! I’m feeding HDMI output directly to a 1080p 67″ Samsung DLP, and the overall picture is simply…STUNNING! The A2 has Superb resolution of details in All areas (highlights, shadows, contrast) with an extremely wide dynamic range between blacks and whites! The visual reproduction of colors is immersing and captivating, filled with brilliant sharpness and presence!! The HD DVD format Really shows off the PQ of my DLP, which is now a step up in “WOW” factor over the best that HD Satelite broadcast has to offer (currently have DTV with mpeg-4 which has wonderful HD programming) ! Equally impressive is the Audio performance of the 5.1 optical feed to my HT receiver system. The sound projects great theatrical detail and spacial clues, with extreme dynamics, tight, well defined deep bass and silky smooth highs. Dialoge clarity is superb and the overall sound effect is the kind that takes your breath away! Between the excellent video and audio presentation of the Toshiba A2, I really experience “As if you were there” 3D effects in every HDSD DVD, and so does anyone else that has seen, and heard my HT setup!! The A2’s Solid construction and Sleek looks match it’s overall esquisite performance, truly a Great Value in the HD market!! I Am Impressed Toshiba, Awesome Product…Thanks!!!
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Bob C. – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lives up to its promise, can’t beat the price.
Now if you don’t have a 1080p TV set you really should not even be reading this. I see to many reviews from people that don’t and can’t understand why the quality is not up to specs.This is a solid player. Fantastic picture and sound, and after all that is what you are looking for.There is a great deal of talk about HD-DVD vs BluRay, but the way I see it if I can get the same quality for less than $400 I just can’t see spending the $800 – $1,000 for a BluRay player.This player only outputs in 1080i, but quite frankly it is difficult to distinguish the difference between 1080i and 1080p. Don’t get me wrong, once the price of the HD-XA2 comes down I will consider the upgrade, but with the format wars still going strong I would rather spend my money on this format and be wrong then spend the $1000 on BluRay and be wrong.Plus I am not looking to see how many pieces of equipment I can have in my entertainment center and this player will still play my CD’s, which I have used my DVD player to do for many years. The BluRay will not play CDs.I really don’t think you can go wrong with this player. And when I bought mine the price was $368. Can’t beat that since even upconverting players were close to that price. And speaking of upconverting, my old DVD’s have never looked so good.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Jonathan – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Next Gen Player!
The Toshiba HD-A2 player is an amazing player at an exceptional value. If you’re looking to leap into the next generation of home videos, HD DVD is the ultimate choice. All HD DVD players offer a built-in ethernet port, which connect to your internet connection. What does it mean? Well for starters instant firmware updates, keep your player updated at the push of a button. It also means dynamic content, you can create clips and share them with friends and family or an entire community, download new content extras for example on Shrek the Third HD DVD (Due 11/13) you will be able to download a fun trivia track and an interactive coloring game. Other HD DVD titles like the brilliant Harry Potter HD DVD will feature some exciting content like Live Screenings online and more. HD DVD is also exclusively capable of live in-movie experiences like Picture-in-Picture video commentary; imagine watching 300 or Harry Potter and also seeing the cast or directors discussing and explaining the film, but it’s not just audio, it’s video while you’re watching the movie. It’s an amazing experience, very engaging and 100x more fun than those audio commentaries of late.HD DVD is also a fantastic upscalling DVD player, makes your regular DVDS look the best they absolutely can. HD DVD is the clear choice, a wonderful and affordable value, exceptional quality and engaging movie experiences. Go with HD DVD, you won’t regret it!
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Jerry Palmerino – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent HD DVD Player
This is my entry into the HD disc format war. I have chosen a side and I am putting my money and support behind HD DVD. No matter the outcome of the war, I now have an excellent DVD player with HD capabilities.Previously, I had my standard DVD player hooked up to the component inputs with no upscaling. When I received this HD DVD player, I hooked it up to the HDMI input and set it to scale to 1080i on my 720p-capable Samsung 56 inch DLP (According to various forums, upscaling to 1080i via the player and downscaling to 720p via the TV provides a better quality picture than running everything at 720p).WOW! Standard DVDs look phenomenal upscaled with this player. This player has made an upscaling believer out of me. HD DVDs look even better, if only slightly so. I was more impressed with the sound quality than the video. I am using the optical output to my Onkyo receiver.The internet firmware update took approximately 30 minutes.Overall, this is an incredible value and awesome upgrade to a standard DVD player. The upscaler alone makes it better than most standard DVD players (Oppo may be better) and will make you want to watch all of your standard DVDs all over again. The 5 free HD DVD offer from Toshiba makes the deal even sweeter.
6 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
SML1950 – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Needs Upgrading
I purchased this refurished to go with my new 720P projector. This was in the original box and sealed. I am assuming that it was a factory refurb as opposed to an open box.The projector was also refurbished as well and it came with DVI input instead of HDMI. The player has a regular HDMI output. There are known problems with the player outputting through DVI. Toshiba support told me to upgrade the machine to get it to work. When I upgraded it still did not work. I got back to Toshiba Support and they said I would need a disc. I found out that I just needed to upgrade a second time and it would work fine, and it does.The HD-DVD upconverts and actually makes the detail in 480P DVD’s approach the resolution of a HD-DVD. HD-DVD’s on the two machines is just awesome.
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Plasman – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some comments on this unit
A great unit for the money!I can’t display 1080P on my set so the HD-A2 lacking this output is no big deal, but I think I would pay more for the X2 if I had 1080P.Use the free shipping. I ordered the unit on a Thursday afternoon using the free shipping option. It shipped the next Monday, and UPS delivered it the next day.If you plan to use the unit via HDMI (and you should if you can)and don’t have a cable be aware that a cable is not included with HD-A2. No big deal but something else to buy.I am using the HD-A2 via HDMI with a HDMI switching receiver (JVC RXD702B) with no problems.Does a nice job of up-converting standard DVDs.I hope those 5 free HD-DVDs arrive someday!
9 people found this helpful
Rated 1 out of 5
R. Ford – December 20, 2023
1.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing picture quality, but troublesome – now not repairable
When everything works, this machine makes a gorgeous image on my Sony crt hdtv. It is slower to start and load than a standard dvd player. Updating the operating system is very inconvenient and time-consuming. The 5 ‘free’ hd-dvd movies in the special offer took over 3 months to arrive and they didn’t send all the movies I ordered, but made a substitute without explanation. Rented hd-dvd’s are frequently flawed and won’t play – the hd-dvd’s seem to be more fragile than standard dvd’s. Standard dvd’s look very much better played on the Toshiba than they look when played on the same hdtv using a standard dvd player. After a few years, the blue laser stopped working altogether, so none of my HD-DVD movies will play. The player continues to play standard dvd movies and they still look better than they did when played on a standard dvd player, but now there is no way to repair this device.
One person found this helpful
Rated 1 out of 5
Sams son – December 20, 2023
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very little difference
After having purchased this particular brand of HD player, I only had a few days to watch it before it refused to operate any more. However, after watching a few HD movies, I cannot see what all the fuss is about. There is a little difference in the vividness of colors, but other than that, there is so little difference between an HD DVD and a regular DVD, it just doesn’t seem that it’s worth the price to change over. One thing that is extremely aggravating about this HD player is the time it takes to operate. Every action on the player seems to react in slow motion. Maybe it is just a fault in this particular player, but waiting 2 minutes for the disc door to open is just a bit much. This is only my second purchase of a Toshiba product, but as of this writing, it is probably going to be the last.
4 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Kindle Customer – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Impressive
I’ve had this HD DVD player for just about a week now and I’m very impressed with it. HD DVDs look absolutely fantastic. But, as so many have commented, it does a great job with standard dvds. We put one copy of “The Lord of the Rings” in our standard dvd player (through component cables) and another in the Toshiba (through HDMI) and kept switching back and forth between the two. On my 58″ 720p Panasonic Plasma, the difference was easily discernable. Trees in the background of the first scene of the movie (the scene in the Shire from “Fellowship” where Gandolf drives up while Frodo is lounging under a tree) were noticably fuzzier, less well defined in the standard dvd player.All in all – very satisfied.
11 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Five 28 – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
For such little money, how can you go wrong?
I bought this Toshiba for close to $375 and at the time, Toshiba had a five free HD-DVD movie offer, so it is like paying less than $300. I also bought it knowing that I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the Dolby Tru HD audio until I upgrade my receiver to a model with HDMI inputs. I am currently using the optical output and it sounds great, but I haven’t heard what I’m missing yet. I’m also using the component outputs connected to a Panasonic AE500 hi-def 720p front projector and the image is very good. The projector has a DVI-D input, but I’ve read that there is an issue with HDMI to DVI conversion so I’m sticking with component until I get the HDMI receiver. All in all, this is a very good value and it puts out an amazing image.
4 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Jacob – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW! now that is an awesome player!
you know how everyone tells you how good a thing is.. but you are like unsure about it.. but then when you see it yourself.. you relizes that the person is right..if you own an oppo or HD add on.. you are in for a treat.. this player blows both of them away.the picture is so much better. I watched some movies that I had seen many times and I noticed so much new stuff on it. when I thought I had seen it all with the oppo or HD add on for the 360.highly recommend this player to anyone.even if you are not interested in HD, it will still make your standard dvds look even better.Jacob
12 people found this helpful
Rated 1 out of 5
Plaker – December 20, 2023
1.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely Poor DVD Player
We purchased a Toshiba HD TV and this HD DVD player in 2007. It was the single worst choice on my part. Considering other reviews and the compatibility factor, this should have been a slam dunk. Let me tell you – first it takes FOREVER to turn it on and be able to insert a DVD – then the sound starting going silent when I would forward too much at one time. Then, no sound. The disc had to be restarted to get the sound back! The other major issue is the remote. Who actually tested this thing out? The remote control is sleek and BLACK. So, if you’re thinking of being able to pause, fast fwd or find “menu”. you either memorize where these buttons are – or turn the lights up considerably in order to read them! This is the first time I’ve experienced such a piece in a Toshiba product. I always read Amazon’s product reviews before purchasing – Please don’t waste your time and money on this one.
Rated 3 out of 5
sdk1122 – December 20, 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars
I expected better
This player has a lot of options; it can connect directly to the internet via ethernet. Unfortunately, it takes about a full minute (or longer) for the HDVD to turn on and open. You have to download the updates via ethernet or onto a DVD, or else you’ll have problems (mine was with the sound.) I’ve had my player for about 2 weeks and it already needs an update. If you don’t have internet access or a DVD burner, you can call support and have them mail the updates.
Rated 4 out of 5
Cholly – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Player, but weak HDMI output
Except for a minor problem, I’d rate the HD-A2 a 5. When I bought this player, I’d intended to feed the HDMI output to my Sony HD TV by way of an HDMI switch box along with my HD TiVo. Unfortunately, I’d lose sound and picture after a few minutes. There was no problem when connecting the player directly to the HDMI input on the TV. Toshiba has acknowledged that there is a problem with HDMI output, and has issued several firmware updates to address it.
8 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Robert L. Towers – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than I expected.
This machine was a revelation, being the low-end of the second generation of HDDVD players. The quality was superb right out of the box; easy to set up and play.I would suggest, in addition to having a High-Definition television, that you have a good,stong AV receiver, so that the great sound can be properly amplified (while I do not have a new receiver built for these players, my older machine-an Onkyo-played back in DTS.It is difficult to describe the quality of the picture-it must be seen;suffice to say, there is more contrast and it is far richer than a regular DVD, although this machine upscales those discs and they look better than ever. I tried three discs: BATMAN BEGINS, MISSION IMPOSSIBLEIII, and best of all,PLANET EARTH.The latter was a revelation in every way, with an almost third dimensional look. To say it is satisfactory, is , indeed an understatement.I wish there were no contest between DVDHD and BLUERAY because both will be hurt by this, and it limits the software we are able to receive. I have seen BLUERAY and while the picture is close to comparable, I must give the edge to HDDVD. The latter is also less expensive..although the discs for both are out of sight, and I will be force to build my collection for the new player, more slowly, depending upon huge discounts from local stores and Amazon.The first DVD player I had was from Toshiba; and again, they have not let me down.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
The Great Gazoo – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worked great for 8 days
Bought this unit here at Amazon and even though I’m a Prime customer, it still took a full week to receive the unit. The receiver is a breeze to hook up with an HMDI cable. Picked a few HD DVDs and was totally blown away at the clarity and features HD DVDs offer. The bad news is that after a week the unit wouldn’t read HD DVDs anymore. Non HD DVDs were no problem. Toshiba’s customer support was responsive but unable to help. They just sent me a return authorization for the unit. Wished they would have sent an exchange unit too. Now I have to rebox the unit and sent FedEx to them. I don’t know if this is a common problem. We’ll see how this goes… Miss the unit already!UPDATE: Received the unit back withing 10 days with an update disk and it continues to works perfectly. Too bad the HD DVD format has gone belly up as I preferred it over Blu-Ray
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
E. Bennett – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Picture!!
I was going to get the Oppo upconverting DVD player, since I have a large collection of standard DVDs and wanted to wait out the High Def DVD war, but for only $150 more than the Oppo and five free HD-DVDs to boot, I figured I would go for the HD-A2: I have not been dissappointed. I was leary about how good the upconverting quality would be, but no more. I am really impressed! My Superbit copy of The Fifth Element looked amazing (as did The Incredibles and the Lord of the Rings). I left my old Sony DVD player hooked up at the same time and watched the same movie via standard and then on the HD-A2. I did not think the same movie could look so much better simply by upconverting. The sharpness and color detail looked much better. This player will give new life to my standard DVDs.Powering on the unit and loading a DVD is a little slow, but not to the point that it is an issue. I am hooking this up via HDMI to a Mitsubishi LT-37132 (37″ 1080p LCD TV). No complaints at all. In fact, the price dropped another $55 right after I bought it and Amazon refunded the $55 so the player was less than $100 more than the Oppo. After I get my five free HD-DVDs it will certainly be a better deal.
4 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Amazon Customer – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great HD up-conversion!
Neither HD-DVD nor Blu-ray are very good. I’ve only seen one movie in HD-DVD that was worth the money (the remastered Forbidden Planet). The main reason I bought the HD-A2 was because it was a relatively cheap way of upgrading my standard DVD collection. I had a Sony DVD player with HD up-conversion, but it was new technology when I bought it. This HD-A2 upgrades my standard DVDs to easily 720p HD if not 1080i! The picture is better and the sound is better too. My only complaint is that the HD-A2 player will not remember the position of a standard DVD movie when I stop it and shut it off. If you want to upgrade your existing standard DVDs, this is the player to get. If you want High Definition DVDs, you would be better off waiting until both HD-DVD and Blu-ray fail, and another format replaces it!
3 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
A. Lauf – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic picture quality, amazing sound, slightly slow
With its ethernet interface for quick firmware updates and custom internet-based content for discs supporting this feature, the HD-A2 is a fantastic low-cost high-definition DVD player. You will note that HD-DVD color reproduction is smoother, and has less compression artifacts than Bluray. While it only displays in 1080i, this is the ideal player for those having HD sets or projectors that do not support 1080p. The only drawback to this player is that it is slightly slow on startup, especially if your equipment runs on Component cable, which causes the player to attempt and fail the DVI handshake, delaying startup. Playback is not the snappiest, but is faster than any Bluray player I’ve seen, and is quite acceptable, within the expected standards of a normal DVD player. The color and sound you will get out of this unit is nothing short of spectacular.
5 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Wayne Morse – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Toshiba HD-A2 2nd Generation HD-DVD Player
I have found this player to perform very very well. Although a little slow to boot up it works very well with up-converting existing DVDs and playing HD-DVDs with crystal clarity. The remote control is full featured and easy to use. The built-in ethernet connection for online upgrades is nice but a bit risky should the unit loose power during the update process. I have found that it plays all different types of DVDs both commercial and DVD-R’s where my Blu-Ray player will not play some. Overall I am very happy with this unit and would recommend it for anyone that wants to get into HD-DVDs. This unit only outputs up to 1080i but frankly I am very satisfied with 1080i resolution. I give it a big thumbs-up!
6 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
M. Goobers – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Execellent Movie Viewing Experience
I always thought that the difference beween HD-DVD and normal DVD would be minimal on my 60 inch HDTV. WRONG. Not only are the HD-DVD’s fantastic, the HD-A2 upconverts my normal DVDs into looking pretty spiffy as well. That’s one reason I went with HD-DVD and not Blu-ray, so I could use my older DVDs. The unit will connect to the Internet with an ethernet connection, and the set up on that can be tricky, which is why this is a 4 and not 5 star review, but I’d give it 4.5 stars if I could. I can’t wait for more and more movies to come out on HD-DVD, and I hope they win the silly war so my only-in-Blu-ray favorites will be out in HD-DVD.
2 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Remy the Knife – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
BEST PICTURE EVER!!!!
All I can say is, holy cow! I purchased this after reading some of the pitfalls and problems of the Sony developed Blu-Ray technology. This player can be summed up in a word, “WOW”. Now I’ve seen HD images on HD-TV’s and broadcasts, and while they looked really sharp I didn’t jump on the HD train. When Amazon dropped the price to less than $240 I toyed with the idea of upgrading to high def. I finally bought it and was fully ready to send it back if it didn’t live up to my expectations. When I connected it to my Infocus DLP projector and saw the opening sequence of 300 in all it’s high-def glory, I audibly said “I guess I’m keeping it”. I never realized how sharp the picture could be and for that matter how muted regular DVD’s are compared to this. Granted this unit does take about 30 seconds to a minute to “boot” but I can’t really say a bad thing about it! I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a hi-def image with out the large price tag of Blu-Ray or some of the higher end HD-DVD players.
9 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Amazon Customer – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seems pretty darn good.
Well I just got my HD-A2 and I had it out of the box, up and running in a matter of minutes. Watching the HD DVD of King Kong is pretty awesome and I have to say the upconversion is pretty excellent on most of the SD DVDs that I tried. My assumption with upconverting is that the newer the DVD is the more noticeable the difference. My only question is whether I should have went with a 1080p model since I have a 1080p television but I am guessing the difference is probably fairly small. Besides I would rather wait to see the outcome of the “format war” before shelling out any more cash on this small hobby of mine.
One person found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Christopher W. Biron – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Item–shipped timely
Great Player. Item delivered timely. Bought this and a sony 50A2020 when I moved to my new apartment. Fantastic picture.Upconversion is good. But dont expect miracles.Both HD-DVD and Blu Ray will be around for awhile since both technolgies are very similar and neither are a great leap in advancement. I was thinking PS3, but thats alot of money for something that will only play half of my HD video collection in the future.(if you are considering a blu-ray player why not the PS3! its one of the cheapest ones.)The A2 is a good starter until both formats work out the bugs, and the duel players reign king. (Blu-ray has the studio friendly copy right protection, while HD-DVD is much cheaper to produce).I notice some bad reviews here. I think alot of people purchase this using a non-HD DVD television. Please note that alot of people that give bad reviews dont give details (like what tv they used). This player is only worth it if you have HD ready tv.
9 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
Peter Johngren – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
HD-A2 a Winner
Just got the Toshiba HD-A2 and have been familiarizing myself with its attributes which are considerable. To start with, the price was right as I purchased it from an Amazon seller for $400. The unit is very sleek, attractive, and solidly built. It performs beautifully. I have it connected by HDMI to an Optoma HD-72 DLP projector which has a 720 X 1280 display and am using the 1080i output from the HD-A2. Doing so allows the projector to use all the information in a 1080i signal to create its own 720P picture and the results are incredible. In my experience, projectors have far superior electronics for creating progressive scan images than do players, so I always feed them an interlaced signal – never a progressive scan signal.The HD-A2 is well thought out. The upscaling of ordinary DVD to 1080i is amazing. What impresses me even more than the sharpness and clarity, is the jet black blacks. The overall effect with regular DVD’s is outstanding.The sound features are also well handled. I connect to a 6.1 channel Onkyo home theater receiver via optical inputs (no HDMI on my audio receiver). What is really cool is that the HD-A2 when it encounters one of the fancy HD audio formats found on HD-DVD, presents these via the optical outputs as DTS sound – which is the best sound format my receiver can handle. The results are exceptional.The only glitch I ran into, and it wasn’t the fault of the HD-A2, was in switching from an HD-DVD to a DVD, the projector didn’t know enough to recertify the HDCP copy protection code, and the picture turned lavender. This is very simply handled by switching the projector to another input using the remote, at which point the projector realizes there is no signal there and automatically goes back to the HDMI input and in doing so recertifies with HDCP – at least that is my guess. The picture is then totally gorgeous.A terrific unit – I love it. With Xbox selling way over Sony Playstation 3 this Christmas, and with Xbox now selling an HD-DVD ad on for under […], my bet is that Sony will once again lose their self-inflicted Betamax/VHS war. HD-DVD’s can be produced to play both HD and standard def on the same disk. HD-DVD is cheaper for small studios to deal with, so independents and companies dealing in travel features should go this route – not to mention the […] industry. So get yourself this Toshiba HD-A2 and a subscription to Netflix. You will love it!!!
13 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
jamiejk – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great image quality with HD DVD but be warned with SD DVD’s and component
First off this player as every review states has exceptional HD quality. If you are concerned about the load times as I was after reading all the reviews, don’t be. It is hardly noticeable. By the time you turn it on, go get your dvd to put in, its easily ready. Not even a concern to me. There is an issue that I have found with this unit that I have not seen in a review before.If you are using component cables as I am because your HD TV doesn’t have HDMI then you should know this as I was not informed. Component cables are not digital as you know and therefor won’t allow for upconversion of SD movies for the most part (Toshiba claims titles exist but none I have tested so far work – shooter, bad boys, to name a couple). It is my understanding that this is from a macrovision flag in the DVD that causes the player to revert to a 4:3 image (which is terrible when you have a 16:9 screen) as well as remain in 480P. I have been talking to Toshiba to see whats going on and so far I have gotten no answers. The player indicates 16:9 but the image is 4:3 with nice black bars on each side of the screen. Could be a firmware error. I am still trying to figure it out. Also the movies are widescreen and I’m not an idiot either.If you have HDMI you should have no problems what so ever. I highly recommend this player with either connection because with HD dvd’s the image is a perfect 16:9 and just looks amazing. My view on this is I will be keeping my old dvd player right next to my new one until this gets figured out or as Toshiba recommended last, I buy a new HD projector as he laughed.And if you wondering about the HD DVD protection flag, apparently none of the studios are enabling the flag on HD DVD’s as to get people to upgrade. The future of that could be bad but for now component HD-DVD connections work just fine if you want to watch HD-DVD’s, just don’t throw out your old player like I had planned.One other thing, I have read that if you copy your dvd’s and play them they will upscale perfectly. I am going to try this for fun, but don’t feel like burning all my movies and wasting money doing it.
8 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Bob – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent HD Picture, not so good for audio CD’s
I had no issues using this with HDMI connected either directly to a Vizio plasma set, or running HDMI through a Denon AV receiver. The receiver correctly recognizes the various possible surround modes on discs I’ve tried so far, and no other connection than the single HDMI cable is required. Picture quality is as good as all the reviews say with HD DVD discs, an amazing performance at Amazon’s price for this unit.Two things that may be of interest. My Vizio is a 720p plasma native resolution set. Setting the HD-A2 to output it’s own maximum resolution of 1080i and thus having the HDTV scale he image down to fit it’s screen gave a very good picture with 1080 discs. Setting the HD-A2 to down-sample to a max of 720p itself resulted in a picture that looked slightly sharper when everything was still, but with very noticeable “jaggies” when anything moved or panned. It has rather poor down-sampling, so you should probably configure the setup to let your HDTV do that for itself if it is a 720p Plasma set.Second, while the HD-A2 will play regular commercial audio CD’s as well as Red Book audio CD’s you burn yourself, it has two annoying quirks that make it very annoying to use for this purpose. It does not handle the 2-second pre-gap correctly, meaning it cuts off the first second or two of each song on the disc. Also, it mutes audio entirely when you fast-forward or rewind, so it is hard to find something in the middle of a track.I would recommend a second box such as the new Oppo units or Denon’s own DVD/CD/SACD players for music listening through HDMI, especially as those can also play high def. surround DVD-Audio discs and Super Audio (SACD) discs out through HDMI.
One person found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
David C. Feliciano – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally bought one
Ive been keeping an eye on the HD DVD players since they came out. Waiting for the price to go down, Hd or Blue ray, so heres my review after buying this item.The main reason I went HD over Blue ray is that for months I have been looking at the Blue ray setup at various shopping outlets and something about the way the image looked never sat right with me. Didnt matter what TV the store dislpayed it on, the screen always looked wrong not sure what it is, kind of a washed look. HD DVD doesnt have that problem to me. The colors seem tight, and compressed to where they belong. Blue ray has the most DVD’s and storage space but to me HD DVD has better pure richer image quality.Regular DVD’s always sounded great to me but now that Ive heard HD sound I can honestly say its more of an experience than listening entertainment. The Superman shuttle scene reminded me of when I went to see it at the IMAX.As far as up-conversion of my regular DVD’s, I previously owned an OPPO which up-converted very well so I dont see a difference in up-conversion.Ive been on the fence for awhile waiting for this whole vs’s thing to pan out but at this price I had to bite and Im glad I did, HD on my Sharp Aquos has changed the movie experience for me. A piece of equipment like this for under $300 is a great deal to bridge the gap from here till the debate is settled.
7 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Kindle Customer – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good so Far
Ok, I decided to take the High Def dive with this player cuz I wanted to create some HiDef DVDs and needed a way to play them. The first player I received worked on two commercial disks, then gave a no disk message each time I loaded a movie. Amazon was great in arranging for a return and sent another player out that arrived only 3 days later.I was a little nervous since I had not even gotten the chance to play with the other one. After about a month of using it here’s what I come up with:Pros:- Does a great job of upconverting- Has played every movie I have tried in it, home produced SD and HiDef, and all commercial DVDs- Easy firmware upgrade through internet connection.- Easy internal setup- Transfers both video and audio signals very well- No problems with HDMI hook up- Price- Free movies (could be a better selection)Cons:- Slow to warm up- On my self made DVDs with 30 secs loop menus, it cuts out and starts playing over at about 15 secs. The disks play fine on other DVD players- There is a pause of about 25 seconds between the first play video on the DVD and the main menu. Again these play fine on other desktop DVD players.Overall:I am happy with the Toshiba HD-A2. We have it hooked through an Onkyo receiver to a Panasonic 50″ plasma and both upconverted and HiDef DVDs look fabulous. Hope it lasts!!
3 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
rew – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW! What a Player!!!
I just received my new Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player and it is nice. The PQ(1080i),the DVD load time(5-10sec.),the sound(Dolby D,TrueHD,DTS)are all fanastic! This player is really an advanced XA1 in a sleek new body,with sudtle and major changes.I tested the upconversion first on regular dvds and there were some load problems I did’nt expect. The player refused to play any dvds!? I use as test dvds Walt Disney’s TARZAN(chpt.”son of man”) and TOY STORY 2(Buzz Lightyear intro)because I know the PQ quality and sounds by heart as reference.So, If you get this player and set it up via hdmi or component it might not load your dvds at first. It might display on your tv, “cannot play dvd,check the disc” and an error message will appear on the front A2 panel that reads as “M55G”. What was the problem? I tried every usual thing I know,such as unpluging the player,turning the tv on FIRST,then the A2. Even tried another Walt Disney(Toy 2)dvd, but nothing worked. I then switched out the hdmi cable for component ones(red,blue,green)still the error message was there. After trying all I knew, I call Toshiba for help. They walked me thru the normal trouble shooting routine, still no picture. The tech guy put me on hold while he researched the issue to find the problem. As he was doing that I desided to try other non-Disney dvds……And that did it!!…. A DIFFERENT dvd caused the player to ‘kick in’ and start playing dvds(including the Disney ones). What happen? I don’t know and don’t care. But it is fine now. The upconversion of standard dvds and the HD DVD picture is something to behold! This is a definite improvement over the A1 and XA1, even with it’s firmware update.One feature I like about the A2(and there are many)is the button label ‘display’ on the remote. When you press it, it will show everything about the HD DVD that is playing, including the video compression used. It will say,” MPEG4AVC,VC-1 or MPEG2 “.Very cool!As I wrote before,I have BOTH HD formats and they’re both (Samsung BD-P1000-firmware/XA1-firmware,A2) AWESOME in the picture they display. And my XA2 is coming also! I hope this format war never end, for as long as this “war” lasts, I am in HD paradise!!!WOW! What a Player!!!
10 people found this helpful
Rated 5 out of 5
WC – December 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars
great picture !!!! who cares about the format war!!!!
i recently purchase this item thru amazon for a total of $166.00 after Hd-dvd promotion and a a company gift certificated ,,, that is a long way from the price of the cheapest Blu-ray player out there right now( around ($380 to $400) ,,, the picture from the Hd-Dvd’s is just a beautiful picture which is being sent to A SAMSUNG HL-S4666W 46″ HIGH DEFINITION REAR PROJECTION DLP TV which is only a 720p dlp. i am very satisfied with the quality of the picture also the upconversion works great making every dvd near hd quality (my disply is 1080i when playing regular dvd’s thru the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player )also the sound out of this unit is amazing when listening to a DTS encoded Dvd , sound is being process by Harman Kardon AVR 146 Home Theater Receiver WHICH I PURCHASE DIRECTLY FROM HARMON KARDOM REFURBISH THRU EBAY ( $172.50) and the sound comes out thru Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System ALSO PURCHASE FROM EBAY HARMON KARDON STORE FOR ( $188.00 )(This is a factory-remanufactured unit carrying the original factory warranty, as do all other items i purchase thru Harmon / kardon Ebay store ) THE SOUND FROM THE SPEAKER SYSTEM IS INCREDIBLE !!!! When i am viewing a Hd-Dvd i used the optical output from the HD-A2 HD DVD player and the dynamic range of the sound tracks is awesome ,,,regarless of the mention format war there are plenty of choices on Hd-dvd movies ,,i am not here to try to convence any one of what to buy if you have plenty of money and like to spend it on a player ,,then chose the one you want,,, but like wine more expensive does not always mean a better product !!!!1/17/08 if for any reason Hd-dvd was to loose the format war , i will continue to used my player as a upconversion player , this unit performs very well in that aspect , i dont think i will go Blue unless prices come to the level of the Hd-dvd player’s , i am using Netflix and i am sure Hd-dvd content will be around for a very long time ,,, even now i order movies in regular Dvd’s and upconvert them to 1080i and they look great ,,,just my point at this time ,,thanks
2 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Biker freak – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Minor problems
I purchased this to replace an “old-fashioned” DVD player that decided to stop working in the middle of a viewing (still trying to get it to power on to get the disk out! Can’t find the little paperclip hole to pop it open.). I was seriously considering the HD-DVD player add-on for my Xbox 360, but was too leery of more MS hardware in the house. I ran into a review of the Toshiba HD-A2 and did a Google search to find more. All the reviews I found gave it at least the equivalent of 4 stars. After clearing it with the financial advisor (wife), I ordered one. When I started hooking it up, I discovered a serious defect. My HDTV only had one HDMI interface and it was being used by my DirecTV HD receiver. I connected the composite cables until I could get a 2-1 HDMI splitter (more on that in another review), connected the optical connector to my sound system, patch cable to the network hub and power. That was the extent of the installation. Powered it up, set the options and plugged in Batman Returns HD-DVD. Maybe because it was connected to the Internet and downloaded the patch automatically, I haven’t experienced many of the problems that other reviewers have. It did hang once and I had to hard boot, but other than that, issue free.
One person found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Matt C – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great quality; reliability needs improvement
In the format wars Sony always seems to be on the losing side: Betamax, MiniDisc, that new PSP format…whatever it is. Blu-ray players are too expensive and the variety of movies isn’t superior to HD DVD, unless you MUST watch movies about pirates.I think this player’s price point was irresistible. What’s the point of buying an HDTV and not watching true HD content? I started with component video because my HDMI cable was on-order. The player will not upconvert past 480p using component video inputs – probably copy protection issues. That’s my first complaint but a minor one. Once I got an HDMI cable, it upconverted to 1080i. Regular DVDs look amazing.Reliability is an issue. I put in an audio CD and it displayed MSG 6 – Cannot play disc. Hmm. I tried another one and the same thing happened. After unplugging the player (letting the capacitors and volatile memory discharge) I plugged it back in and it worked fine.I then updated to firmware version 1.6 via Ethernet.After pausing an HD DVD disc for approx. 10 minutes I could not resume without cycling the power. Clearly, reliability is an issue for this player.When it works it’s really amazing. I have other minor complaints but being among the “early adopters” for a new format, I’m generally pleased with the A/V quality but reliability needs improvement.
4 people found this helpful
Rated 4 out of 5
Skimple – December 20, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely improves standard DVDs
Just purchased this as a replacement for my Denon DVM-715S. I have it hooked up to a Sharp Aquos LC-37D42U (37″ 1080i LCD) via HDMI. I have not used it to view HD-DVDs yet, but I already notice a big improvement in watching my standard def DVDs. Better clarity, color, and contrast. Make sure to download the latest firmware from Toshiba via the Ethernet connection, or request a free update DVD from Toshiba. There are some bug fixes that you will need. If you are using the Ethernet port to connect, the instructions in the manual are pretty easy to follow. Just make sure to power cycle the DVD player after you have set up the Ethernet port, otherwise, you will not connect to Toshiba’s update server.The only thing I would change about this DVD player is the boot time. When first powered on, it takes a pretty long time to boot and load a DVD (1 minute maybe). Not a big problem overall, more of an annoyance if you are used to quick loading DVD players.If you don’t have a TV over 40″ in size, you won’t notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p unless you are right on top of the TV, so this is a good choice for the “smaller” large screens. Great price too!
7 people found this helpful

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Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player Electronics

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