Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player reviewed

It hasn't been on store shelves very long, but the folks at Home Theater Blog have put the few weeks since the HD-A2's launch to good use, taking the time to put the new entry-level HD DVD player on the block through its paces for a complete review. After going through the usual round of tests, they came out squarely in favor of the player, finding that it delivered the performance to match its new good looks, in particular showing a marked improved in load times over earlier players. Those not ready to ditch their massive DVD collections will also be pleased to hear that the HD-A2 will make 'em look about as good as they can, with up-scaling on par with the Toshiba's earlier HD-XA1 player. Of course, if you want to go 1080p this ain't the player for you (don't worry, Toshiba's still got a fix for ya), but if you're sticking with your 480p, 720p, or 1080i set for a while yet, it looks like the HD-A2 will deliver the goods without putting too much of a hurt on your bank account.

[Brian @ Jan 15th 2007 7:47PM]

Engadget: 1080p will NEVER be relevant for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, because movies are shot if 24p. Abbout the only time it would ever make any difference is when content content for TV that was originally shot in 1080p, starts to make it onto store shelves. Read: at least 5 years...

1080 WRT these players is just a marketing gimmick.

[Jackson @ Jan 15th 2007 8:01PM]

Brian: you're dead wrong. I don't know what "movies are shot if 24p" means, but it seems that you are asserting that everything is shot a resolution lower than 1080P. Movies are shot to be shown on a gigantic screen in a resolution much higher than 1080i.

www.flashyshades.com

[Burgoo @ Jan 15th 2007 8:18PM]

All players I can think of output 1080P at 30 fps, likewise all players output 1080i at 60 fps. Thus a TV cable of supporting 1080P will simply combine the 1080i 60 hz signal into a 30 hz 1080p signal and no data will be lost.

[mike @ Jan 15th 2007 8:17PM]

He must be refering to the fact that film is shot in 24 fps. This has nothing to do with 1080p however because film needs to be converted anyway to watch on dvd, hd-dvd, blu-ray, whatever.

1080P vs I certainly will make the difference if the hd-dvd movie your watching supports 1080p. Dont get angry cause you spent so much $ on an A2 yourself when the A20 is mere months away, almost the same price and has 1080P

[James @ Jan 15th 2007 8:40PM]

yes, 1080p for HD DVD is meaningless, and no, not for the above reasons.

the fact is, if your player outputs 1080i and your TV is 1080p, your TV will simply de-interlace the data, making it AS GOOD AS native 1080p. the deinterlacers in today's TVs are as good as most source's ones.

god I hate Blu Ray's blind supporters. show me 1, I mean 1, movie on Blu Ray that looks better than HD DVD ona reference TV and I'd give you a million dollars. Cause it doesnt exist, that's why.

[Peter @ Jan 15th 2007 8:34PM]

24p is 1080p. Which means no de-interlacing step if you deliver 1080p. De-interlacing is the thing that gets most screwed up by scaling chipsets.

[yawn @ Jan 15th 2007 10:39PM]

1080p = 1080 vertical lines of full frame video
1080i = 540 vertical lines of each frame interlaced together (2 fields)
24fps = speed at which majority of motion pictures are shot. Film is an analog medium and can pretty much be transferred to whatever resolution you want digitally (anyone ever enlarge a 35mm photo before????)

so... the same image at 1080p will always be better than 1080i as you get then entire frame of film as it was intended... not two fields interlaced together using some software/hardware decoders to interlace. Think of it as looking out your window with the blinds drawn up (1080p) and looking out your window with the blinds down but open (1080i).

and as for Blu-ray vs HD-DVD, I tend to see a lot more hardcore HD-DVD people bashing Blu-ray than the other way around. why are you all so angry?

...I think I'll wait this war out.

[Jimmy @ Jan 15th 2007 11:07PM]

I really hate to get involved in these 1080i/p and hd-dvd/blu-ray arguments but please consider this. (yes I know some of this is way too simple but follow along anyway)

1. The majority of movies until recently were recorded on film. If I am not mistaken even most new movies are still recorded on film. This film is shot at 24 frames per second. If you take a film and copy each frame to a digital image then you basically have a movie in digital 24P format. You only need a way to play the frames back to back in the correct speed and a way to synch the audio. This is where your codecs come into play.

2. Very, very, very few televisions will accept a 24P signal so all of these players must output something that the televisions will accept. This is why you see these players listing so many output formats from 480i up to 1080p.

3. Good film stock has a very high resolution equivalence. I have read that some film is equivalent to 20,000 DPI. So as long as the film is in good condition there is no reason that even old film cannot be converted to 1920x1080 (1080P resolution) and look great. Here is where the true quality of the final product, either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, will be determined. Some film is very grainy, some film is very dirty, and some film is deteriorated. On top of this, the process/hardware used to convert film to digital will have an affect on the digital quality. This process is identical for both formats.

4. The movies are stored on the disc in 1080P format. If your player is not putting out 1080P then it is running software to down convert the signal that is being output. If your television will only accept and display 1080i signals then this is wonderful because you are getting the best possible image. If however, your television accpets and displays 1080p then this is not wonderful because the image is being scaled/converted twice. It is being down-converted by the player and then up-converted by your television. Even the best converters will introduce some artifacts so you are not getting as good of an image. Simple honest fact. This is true for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Recap:
Film will convert to a beautiful high resolution digital image.
The quality of that image depends on the film quality and transfer quality.
Both disc formats use the same codecs and same transfer methods.
Converting from progessive to interlaced to progressive will introduce artifacts.

So which format should you choose? I don't care. At this point there is only one major technical difference between the two formats: disc size. Production discs for HD-DVD are 30GB while production discs for Blu-Ray are 50GB. Yes, in labs there are different sizes but in the real world these are the biggest sizes shipping.

Will this extra capacity be worth anything? I do not know for certain. I suggest that in a couple of years when all disc extras come in HD instead of SD then the extra capacity will prevent the need to ship multiple discs.

[Mark Gillespie @ Jan 16th 2007 3:22AM]

Anyone know if this player supports the new 51GB tripple layer disks that are coming out? All previous HD-DVD players won't support them, wondering if this one does..

[Scott @ Jan 25th 2007 7:56AM]

Folks, facts are facts and specs are specs. The major concern now confronting Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD is the little known issue that the porn industry just thrust itself behind HD-DVD. As you may or may not know, that single industry sets the standard for format. Their sales numbers far out-weigh any from mainstream film or music. It is what it is...

[Zip @ Jan 30th 2007 11:15AM]

Ahhh...
The whole 24/30 frames per second thing is actually very simple and has almost nothing to do with the 1080i/p debate. What they do to convert movies to video is add an extra frame. (30fps / 6 = 5 24fps / 6 = 4) Every 4 frames, the frame is repeated. If you have an old VHS tape, watch it frame by frame, you will notice that every 5th frame matches the 4th exactly. You don't usually see this on DVDs since it seems someone was smart enough to NOT records this extra frame, and the machine repeats it. This essentially means that you can fit a movie that is 20% longer on a DVD than a TV show (at the same bitrate and all that.)

Sadly my TV only does 1080i, but so far I have no content for it. I am contemplating a HD-DVD player or a Blue Ray. Basically, the first one to $400 wins.