Review: Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player
The self-proclaimed HDTV expert, Peter Putman, took a look at Toshiba’s second-gen HD DVD player. First off, the player is a lot slimmer than it predecessors. That’s a good thing! The remote has been revamped, with lots of small buttons and no more backlighting. That’s a bad thing.
But what about picture quality and loading times? The latter is much better, but still slow in the big scheme of things - turning on took 30 seconds and getting a movie playing took 11.
As to picture quality, that should be fine as long as you set the output to 1080i. The 720p and 480p setting degraded the quality considerably. Not so good. But at 1080i, this $500 player works quite well. So if you don’t mind using the 1080i output, this is one of the cheapest ways to get into HD discs right now. (The other being the 20GB PS3, if you can find it.)
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June 8th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Toshiba can’t help me. I have tried two HD-A2 units, both give me the same problem. I lose the video after exactly 2-minutes thru the HDMI output, I do not have a problem thru the component-video outputs. I am using HDMI to DVI cable from the HD-A2 to my RCA Scenium TV. If I do a reset I can play the entire DVD with no problems, but if I stop it and play it again later I lose the video after exactly 2-minutes. Also, if I hit the skip button on my remote the picture comes back but goes off again after 2-minutes. I tried updating the firmware on one of the units, it made no difference. Toshiba said they will report it to Engineering, may have a firmware fix in the future.
I am considering trading for a Sony blu-ray or the LG multi-player. Any comments?
June 8th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Sorry I don’t know anything about Toshiba’s HD DVD players beyond what I’ve read on the web. LG’s multi-player is not fully HD DVD compliant, so I wouldn’t get that one. You might want to try Samsung’s multiplayer if you want a multi machine. If you’re looking to hop over to BD, then Sony’s coming out with a $500 BD player. My PS3 works great as a BD player, but I don’t like how loud it is. Supposedly it’s a lot quieter than Xbox 360’s are (according to my 360-owning friends), but I still find it too loud. But I am using my PS3’s HDMI out with a HDMI/DVI cable to my DVI/HDCP CRT television.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
So does this Toshiba HD-A2 definitely support 1080i output via the component cables?
July 21st, 2007 at 7:33 am
Yes, it does.
November 8th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Has anyone found a fix for the Toshiba HD A-2 problem with RCA Scenium? I just purchased the DVD player for $99 at a special Walmart sale and I have the exact 2 minute signal loss problem. I upgraded also to no avail. E-mail me and let me know…
thanks
Gary
December 12th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I had the same problem as Gary, but since I upgraded to the 2.7 firmware, all I get is a white fuzz, then 1 second of the picture, then black, then white fuzz again. this cycle continues infinitely as far as I can tell.