High def wars and the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player?

Question

I have been following the HD war on the side lines not wanting to get burned. But I really need a new DVD player for my 42 inch HDTV.(mine is about 7 years old) So I start checking out upscaling DVD players. Then I just found out about the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player. But I don't want to lose. So here is my question.

This HD DVD player is under 3 bills. Sound and vision magazine said that all the players they 've tested shows that HD DVD looks better than blue ray.(the 1080p on blueray will not benefit me) It upconverts regular dvds really well. And since it is 2nd gen it has fixed many of the flaws of the the 1st sets. they say these 2nd gen HD DVD players are the closest to being worth the money. So even if blue ray wins out you will still have a good upconvert dvd player. How can one lose picking up this player for 300 smackers?

Answer 1

Sounds like a reasonable plan. The HD-A2 is supposed to be a great upconverting player and if you compare to the Oppo 981 (one of the best "standard" upconverting players) at $229 it is a great deal, particulalry if you consider the 5 free HD DVDs available with the $299 HD-A2. There are cheaper upscaling players, but they don't all do a good job. In fact my brother bought a Sony and it died in a few months.

I'm in much the same boat as you. I'd really like to get the HD-X2 because of the superior scaler but it is nowhere near as good a deal. The HD-A2 is the only blue laser player (HD DVD or Blu-Ray) I consider to be a viable option at this point, and if you need a new DVD player it is almost a no-brainer. Even if Blu-Ray "win" the format war you still have a good upscaling player and the means to play the cheap HD DVDs that will be sold off.

Some comments on other responses. The HD-A2 will give 1080i output over either component or HDMI, so an HDMI connection on your TV is not essential (should you not have one) BUT to get upconversion of standard DVDs (to 480p, 720p or 1080i) you need HDMI. Output is 1080i max on the HD-A2 (you need to buy the HD-A20 for 1080p output), but on most HDTVs 1080p would not give a noticable better picture. Neither Blu-Ray nor HD DVD may ever be the eventual winner (could be download or holographic disks, who knows), and may never catch on given their questionable appeal to the average consumer, but you can benefit now for relatively little money. I have adopted SACD and DVD-A for music and don't regret it even if most consumers have ignored it ... you have to do what works for you.

If you do go ahead and buy, consider Amazon.com's deal --- if you buy both the HD-A2 ($299) and the Matrix trilogy ($63) you get the mail in 5 free HD DVDs offered by Toshiba, plus 2 free HD DVDs from Amazon (total of 7 HD DVDs, up to a $200 value).

Answer 2

I think it's a great deal and what sparked me to upgrade. I'm in the same boat as you. Bought and HDTV in 2001, had a pretty good player from 2002 (The Panasonic RP-91), but decided to upgrade to HD-DVD. Amazon has a nice price on it for Memorial Day.

The Good: At worst a good DVD player, plus you can start buying/renting HD-DVDs. Pretty cheap price, plus you get the 5 free movies from Toshiba.

The Bad: The format war will prevent some titles from being on HD-DVD, at least for now (i.e. Sony/Columbia titles are one studio exclusive to HD-DVD). I don't see an end coming to that war anytime soon. Total sales remain small, and although Blue Ray has been winning the recent sales, HD-DVD should make a huge dent with the Toshiba promotion.

The Bad2: I'm not 100% on this, but I'm asking a similar question on yahoo answers. I'm guess your old TV does not have HDMI or even DVI. Without an HDMI hook-up, I'm not sure how much benefit you get from upconversion. Although if you upgrade your TV, you're ready to go for the future.

I made the plunge, so I personally think it's a worthwhile investment. I like movies, I'd love to have HD-DVD capabilities, and the price was reasonably low. So I did it. And even if HD-DVD loses, I'll still have a player to play any discs I own.

Answer 3

I think people misunderstand the positive effects of a format war. The is GOOD for a consumer. The only new format which came out in the last 25 years without a competition was CD, introduced in 1982, Sony CDP-101. Does anyone remember how much did first CD player cost? ~ $2,000 in 1982 money! LINN Sondek 12 TTable was less than that. BMW 318i was about $14k. House in Brooklyn was $25k.
And the quality of CD still sucks. And it took YEARS for it to reach mass market and sale any meaningful numbers of software.

If there would be no competition, the new DVD format would probably come out with players costing upward of $3,000, and movies at about $50-$60. The tecnology would take forever to correct any flows - no competition, so why should one bother.
Because we have a competition, less than 1 year after the introduction of the new format(s) we can buy TWO players - one from each camp - for under $1,000 for BOTH. And get 5 movies free. And the movies cost about $25 and going down.
If there would be no competition, we would have another CD disaster on our hands.

I have an older HD-XA2 - and it works great on HD and regular DVDs. BTW, you can get 5 free HD DVDs when you buy Toshiba. Check out

http://www.buy.com/prod/toshiba-hd-a2-high-definition-dvd-player/q/loc/111/203105377.html

Answer 4

HD DVD isn't just about upconverting, it's about HD movies. You can't get movies in high def on regular DVD, and if your dropping money on a HDTV, you may as well take advantage and get the best picture possible from your movies with a HD DVD player. If you have even a moderately decent TV, you will definitely notice the difference in quality between SD DVDs and HD DVDs, and as far as upconverting goes, HD DVD does a very nice job of that as well. I have the HD-XA2, and it upconverts SD DVDs very nicely, better than my old DVD player did, in my opinion. I'd go for it, $200 is nothing in the long run, and you'll forget all about it once you start getting into watching movies in HD.

Answer 5

HD-DVD is also up to 1080p, so that won't benefit you either.

BR is outselling HD software wise 2-1 (I can source that if you ask) Who cares how cheap the hardware is if no one is buying the software for it?

How can you lose? Think about it. You can wait til the format war shakes out to a CLEAR winner since Hi-Def won't benefit you anyway right now.

And you can buy a 1080p upconvert DVD player for only $100. Seems like a pretty big incentive to me.

As for adult? The largest producer (Vivid) supports both formats and NO ONE is in a rush there to embrace HD. Downloaded sales are up, DVD sales are down and as far as HD itself goes, your average porn starlet has no interest whatsoever in having her crows feet displayed at 1080p.

Answer 6

You really can't lose.

The last time I checked, VHS was still outselling HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc combined. HD and BD also swap sales leads from month to month. They're almost identical in terms of capability for the average consumer.

BD has the advantage of the PS3 with Sony forcing people to buy a BD player at the same time they buy a gaming machine.

HD has the advantage of the discs being cheaper to produce, the players are cheaper, they're on the 2nd generation of players, and lastly, the adult industry is leaning toward HD which could possibly be a deciding factor.

Answer 7

Hi. Terry.Sounds like a good option. As you say what is the point in waiting for a decision it could be ages before we know .Both sides are not going to give in easily and we may even end up with 2 formats .For the money you are getting a nice machine and not spending a fortune. Later on if you decide to buy a machine by the winner of the formats (if there is one)after the price has dropped you can buy one and you would have not spend a fortune buying both of them.Does that sound feasible?

Answer 8

Blu-ray's brief history is mirroring DVD ten years ago...And HD-DVD is mimicking the DIVX craze that halted the progress of the DVD...No one remembers that DVD didn't really take off (gaining studio support) until the DIVX died...Fox and Disney absolutely REFUSED to support DVD and went DIVX instead.

Right before DIVX "hung it up", they offered insanely low priced players and scads of FREE movies in a last ditch effort to gain a foot hold in the market...The only difference between then and now, is that the Blu-ray/HD-DVD war is unfolding MUCH faster than the DVD/DIVX played out.