Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player | List Price: $199.99
Discount Price: $169.99
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Brand: Toshiba
Binding: Electronics
Release Date: 2007-10-01
Warranty: 1 year limited warranty
Features: - HD DVD Playback
- DVD/CD Playback
- Upconversion for SD
- 720p/1080i/1080p resolution
- Includes Warner Bros' 300 HD DVD and Universal's The Bourne Identity HD DVD (packaged inside)
Only paid $99 at Amazon Marketplace [Posted on 2008-06-14]
I can't compare this to other HD players because I've never owned another one. In fact, my last TV was a 10 year old 32 inch Samsung that was so fuzzy I couldn't read any text on the screen. Then I went HD crazy. I bought a 46 inch Sony HD LCD TV and a Sony upscaling DVD player. Because I bought them with my Amazon credit card, I got $100 in discount coupons. So I bought a $200 Sony 5.1 surround sound system that only cost me $100. Then, I stupidly bought the 5 disc Harry Potter set in HD DVD because I thought HD DVD was just fancy DVD. It didn't work in my Sony DVD player. The Sony website had a terse comment about how their players don't play HD DVD. Terse doesn't play with me. And I don't like proprietary formats and monopolies so I went looking for an HD DVD player. I found this one for only $99 from Amazon Marketplace. It was in an obviously opened box, but it was like new and everything was there, including the two free HD DVDs. Woohoo! Love that HD! So THERE, Sony! Luckily, I have a brother who owns a stereo and video repair shop in Rancho Cucamonga, CA so I can keep this thing running forever. He kept a Betamax player going for decades...speaking of Sony proprietary formats... And the Warner Brothers website is still making and selling HD DVDs so I'll be able to avoid having a social life for years.
So even though this review has nothing to say about the relative merits of this particular HD DVD player, I just wanted to tell the world that it's safe to buy cheap ones from Amazon Marketplace. It worked for me. Now all I have to do is convince Amazon to stop recommending Blu-Ray disks to me because I bought HD DVDs. They're not the same. I know this stuff now.
Toshiba HD-A30 [Posted on 2008-06-16]
I have been a dedicated Sony customer, purchasing Sony products for most of my AV requirements. As a rule Sony products are very good performers for the price paid.
I recently purchased the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player, along with a Toshiba HD-DVD player (HD-A30).
When the Sony works, it's night and day between Blu-Ray and watching DVD's on our old DVD player. We have a very respectable sound system which pushes the audio through the full compliment of all the Klipsch Synergy III, -3 series speakers. It would be nice if we could hear the true audio that is encoded on the Blu-Ray. Strange that Sony has the concept but makes players that don't support it.
And to make matters worse, this 4 month old player began to sporadically freeze up after watching about 1 hour of select, various movies. As of this time, I'm unaware how to unfreeze it other than to turn the player off, then back on, then find where we left off, and hope it begins to play without additional issues. That timespan is usually around 7-10 minuutes, waiting for shutdown, power up, loading the DVD and finding where we were. By then, one has almost lost interest in watching the movie altogether.
In researching the web, many have the same issue, no one has the solution other that what we are already doing.
But this problem isn't unique to just the Sony Blu-Ray. Our Toshiba HD-DVD player does the same thing, fixed by the same process.
Some DVD's play all the way through, most don't. We have returned and replaced a number of HD-DVD's only to get replacements that reproduce the same problem.
I'm almost thinking that the commercial Blu-Ray and HD DVD's are dual layer, as both units freeze (when they freeze) at about the 1 hour timeframe. It almost appears than when they try to begin reading the second layer, they lock up making that transition. When you stop, reboot and reload, you usually go past the layer shift, thus playing the second layer all the way through, along with missing segments of the movie.
I have contacted both manufacturers concerning this, neither have responded.
I never had much experience with Toshiba products, and based on the lack of their customer support (even though it's a discontinued product, it should still be supported under their warranty), it is doubtful that I will ever look to them for consideration of purchasing any of their other products. As far as Sony is concerned, I am genuinely surprised at their lack of support to a problem which is obviously becoming more and more prevalent on a product line that is becoming more and more popular.
Seem to be unopened box [Posted on 2008-07-04]
The description says refurb with possible cosmetic damage. I have purchased two of these players so far - through the warehouse: they both appear to have been unopened - and both work beautifully. Highly recommend. My only problem: what to do with those extra copies of 300 and Bourne?
Refurb, but in great condition [Posted on 2008-07-06]
I bought this to replace my Xbox HDDVD drive just in case it ever goes out. This player is great! Arrived in "like new" condition, only missing the original packaging. It upconverts dvds better than my ps3 and the sound seems louder than the ps3, but not by much. I haven't had any problems with this player. Definitely worth the 100 dollars. Only small downside is that it takes about 40 seconds to start up. I don't see this as a big flaw whatsover. Also, it comes with 2 new hd-dvds. Great buy.
great price for a good player [Posted on 2008-07-30]
this is a very good player for HD and SD DVDs... I have had problems playing SD DVDs at 1080p/24 though, which might just be because this player lacks the horse power to do the up-conversion while forcing play at 24fps... I know the hd-a35 does do this well.. but it has a better video processor.. regardless at 1080p/60 everything works great, SD DVDs look great and so do HD DVDs... I switch over to 1080p/24 for HD DVDs and they are so silky smooth.. for $99 on a refurb, I can't complain at all. :)
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