Toshiba HD-DVD Review
A review of the latest High Definition DVD players and what to look out for

By: Bruce Bahlmann - Contributing Author (your feedback is important to us!)

Created: November 3, 2006

In a recent wander through an art opening, I noticed that every single video art display used a Toshiba HD-A1 high definition DVD player - I counted an astounding 25 HD-DVD players in the show. As I'd not yet owned a player, I was curious to purchase one so I set out to research players with the objective to secure a high definition DVD player for my entertainment center. This article is about my experience in.

I currently own a 50 inch plasma display so I was looking for something to compliment that unit. Since only a small handful of plasma displays currently handle 1080p (a the time of this writing only the Pioneer PRO-FHD1 offers the full 1920x1080 in a plasma monitor), that feature was less an objective. However for those of you owning a top of the line LCD or plasma display that supports the full 1080p resolution of 1920x1080 as well as inputs that will handle 1080p feeds you might have slightly different purchase objectives. Since my display only goes up to 1280x768 or 720p it seemed a waste to purchase a higher resolution DVD player than my display could support.

After reading several articles and web blogs about the differences between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and various players for each I came to the following conclusions (at least at the time I made a purchase):

• Blu-Ray, while seemingly the better technology (sounds familiar Sony BetaMax versus VHS), has been slow to materialize (very few products in stores and the word on the street is that movie picture quality is somewhat of a work in progress - due to some studios not getting the format completely right). Players for Blu-Ray are also twice as expensive as HD-DVD players.
• HD-DVD on the other hand seems to be out in force with players from different vendors to choose from. In Fact, some vendors like Toshiba have already come out with second generation players.
• Content wise, the two formats are comparable (at least currently) as far as my video provider (Netflix) is concerned. Netflix offers a pretty sizable collection of both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (around 100 titles) and has an ingenious way of allowing its subscribers to rent them. Essentially, all you do is go to your account, select which HD player type you have (HD-DVD or Blu-Ray) and then if you prefer this over regular DVD titles (da!), and then continue to select movies as normal. If the title comes in a HD format you selected, Netflix sends the HD version rather than the regular DVD. When titles are in your queue you can also manually change which type of DVD you receive on an individual basis. So, if your default is to always ship HD-DVD for example, you can change that on any title in your queue if you prefer the non-HD version for some reason. It is a well thought out interface that blows away any HD selection available at your local video store! You can also browse titles available in either format which also works very well.

Based on this information which I have to admit was overly subjective, I bit the bullet and dived in anyway purchasing a Toshiba HD-AX1. Its a sleek looking player that is the physical size of a high end audio receiver. I chose the player as it is the big brother of the players I'd see in the art opening and based on the same internal workings as the HD-A1 player. This player has been used as the reference standard for HD-DVD players when testing high resolution displays for their accuracy in picture quality, color accuracy, and performance. For the rest of this story of an HD-DVD purchase (click [2] below).

Article Continues... [1] - [2] - [3]

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