Worth Twice The Price

I purchased this player way back in June so I have had some time to get aquainted.

Overall the player is built very well, very solid. The XA1 is the upgrade to the A1. While the electroniucs of both players are identical you basically pay an extra $300 for a very well built machine, re-inforced case, shock dampers, motorized front door and a motion sensing light up remote.

Upon unpacking the player I noticed that it included a HDMI cable which could have cost $75 (nice touch). Also noticed how heavy this thing is.

There have been other reviews stating that this unit does not support HDMI to DVI. Well one of the best features of this machine is that it supports upgrades via ethernet cable. So if you have digital cable or DSL all you have to do is plug this unit into the modem and your machine will upgrade automatically via internet. If you do not have access you can call Toshiba and they will send you software upgrade discs as they are released. When I initially set the player up I experienced the DVI to HDMI handshake issue. I had to use the component cables which still provided for a wonderful picture. There is one problem though, this unit is one of the best upconverting players ever made (rivaling players in the $3k to $4k range). The problem is that due to the studios encoding DVD's can not be up converted on ANY player using component. You must use HDMI.

After updating my software about a week after purchasing the player I was all ready to go. Handshake issue was addressed as well as load time and freezing issues. Player now operates flawlessly.

So here's the review:

PICTURE QUALITY:

HD Picture quality is just downright amazing. I am using a 65" Sony CRT RPTV displaying 1080i. This is the best source of HD material I've used with my system. Better than Cable and OTA and forget Directv. Colors are vibrant, no compression artifacts or black mosiacs. Picture is beautifuly crytal clear. The unit outputs 1080i only. Future units will display 1080p. Toshiba claims that they can up the XA1 to 1080p through software upgrade. It is debatable whether 1080p even makes a difference. 1080p is the buzzword that Sony is using to sell more tv's. First off most existing sets are 1080i. Second Sony's so called 1080p players are actually using the identical video processing chip but scalling 1080i to 1080p.

SD Picture quality may be more amazing than HD. Not saying its a better picture just mean that it was a surprise to see how SD material can look when using the right equipment. There are very expensive DVD players out there that use extensive processing to create great pictures from standard DVD's. Not the $250 Sony's and Samsung's but Dennon and Marantz. This player (as verified by many forums Highdefforums, AVS etc...) does as good of a job upconverting as these much higher priced players. Just do search on the highdefforums to see what I am talking about. Many Reviews about this buject. BUT PLEASE NOTE AS WITH ANY UPCONVERTER ONLY HDMI WILL WORK ON SD DVD's.

SOUND

Unlike Blu Ray players this unit does all the soundprocessing internally. This means that as long as your receiver has 5.1 analog or HDMI 1.3 it will be able to handle all of the sound formats used. These formats include the new Dolby TrueHD loseless audio format. I am using the 5.1 analog outs and the sound is unlike anything I have heard before. You really notice the sound detail, sound is a real as I think it could get.

One of the other great features of this player is the CD upconverting. You will notice the difference when using your old CD's. And unlike Blu Ray this unit plays your old CD's. Check AVS forums for the actual specs on sound processing.

USE

This player does take a long time to load up. Even with the software patch it still takes about 40 seconds to load a HD DVD, slightly less for SD DVD's. I personally like the retro remote. It feels solid and is easy to use with its backlit display. The smallest touch will illuminate the remote. When viewing HD DVD's you can access the DVD menue while still watching your movie. You can choose things like director commentary with out stopping the movie or going back to a menue.

While this unit is totally flexiable in configuration it comes out of the box ready to display HD with very little adjustment necessary. I have heard that those with 720p displays should use the display's processing to down convert rather than using the DVD player.

OVERALL

For $799 retail (I received 10% discount for floor model)this is probably one of the best all time electronic bargains. A little research on the AVS and Highdefforums should shed a little light on why this is such an amazing player. It is rumored that Toshiba looses money on each player sold.

I should also mention that I did a bit of research on the difference between Blu Ray and HD DVD. I have always been a blind Sony backer but I became a bit disapointed with them because of Blu Ray. First off they ruched the format to market. All blu ray Discs at this point are single layered because they have not perfected the manufacturing technology required to make double layered discs. This means that they have half the space to work with on each disc. Early reviews have been pretty bad for the intial blu ray offerings with some stating that SD DVD's looked better. This is also due to the poorly made Samsung player.

Another thing that SOny did with their blu ray specs is they do not require sound processing to be done within the player. This is obviously a way for Sony to sell more receivers that will decode all of the new audio formats. So if your have a receiver now and wish to utilize Dolby True HD you will have to scrap your receiver for a new one. Toshiba decided to let the players do the processing avoiding this.

The most important factor is price. Everything Blu Ray is more expensive. The Intial Blu Ray players are going for $1000 while HD DVD are going for $500 (A1 and RCA). The discs cost more as well going for an average of $36.99. I just bought Batman Returns yesterday at Target for $19.99. And again the reviews say the HD DVD version looks better than Blu Ray. This is because Sony chose to use MPEG-2 while the HD DVD uses the much more efficient VC-1 encoding.