Toshiba HD-A2

When I bought my Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player in August, here is what I had to say...

This is my entry into the HD disc format war. I have chosen a side and I am putting my money and support behind HD DVD. No matter the outcome of the war, I now have an excellent DVD player with HD capabilities.

Previously, I had my standard DVD player hooked up to the component inputs with no upscaling. When I received this HD DVD player, I hooked it up to the HDMI input and set it to scale to 1080i on my 720p-capable Samsung 56 inch DLP (According to various forums, upscaling to 1080i via the player and downscaling to 720p via the TV provides a better quality picture than running everything at 720p).

WOW! Standard DVDs look phenomenal upscaled with this player. This player has made an upscaling believer out of me. HD DVDs look even better, if only slightly so. I was more impressed with the sound quality than the video. I am using the optical output to my Onkyo receiver.

The internet firmware update took approximately 30 minutes.

Overall, this is an incredible value and awesome upgrade to a standard DVD player. The upscaler alone makes it better than most standard DVD players (Oppo may be better) and will make you want to watch all of your standard DVDs all over again. The 5 free HD DVD offer from Toshiba makes the deal even sweeter.

So you see, even if the HD format war ends in favor of Blu-ray, I still have an excellent DVD player, which is all I really wanted in the first place.