Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player

Comment: I received a fully functioning HDDVD W/O the remote. Allen didn't like the criticism, yet quickly remedied the error.

Comment: The HD A-30 is a good HD player, although the format did not survive the competition with Blu-Ray. It is a better upsampler of most Blu-Ray players, although you really need to use it with a 1080 P TV. The sound is good, although it only delievers the new HD audio formats in multi-channel PCM, which was a bit disappointing. It sill does Dolby Digital and DTS normally though. It is also a faster loader than other HD players.

Comment: I bought an HD-A30 nearly a year ago from Amazon's Warehouse Deals for as a refurb. The unit arrived fast and was in new condition with everything in the box including two sealed movies. Some refurbs come in generic boxes but this came in the original box then double boxed for protection. The player was easy to set up and has worked perfectly all this time. It is a beautiful component that looks great next to other home theater gear.

I have since bought over 100 HD DVD discs at excellent prices. Most were from Amazon Marketplace and only a few have given problems. Most of those were used and show some surface scratches or abrasions. When you consider that you're getting HD quality for prices as low or lower than standard DVD it's hard to quit buying this "dead" format!

The fly in the ointment of course is that no new titles are released on HD DVD so you'll have to be content with what was released by the spring of 2008. There were about 600 titles released and quite a few still are available from Amazon or elsewhere for as low as $2 and rarely much over $10 (compare that with Blu-ray titles).

Since Toshiba is not making HD players anymore I bought a second A30 on eBay. It was from an outlet store and was just a bare player with not even the power cord or remote control. There were no other bidders so the auction remained low and I got the player for $37 including shipping. Though this player showed obvious signs of use it works fine and I've put back the unit I got from Amazon as a spare (which makes sense since I have a large library of discs).

It's important to point out that the HD-A30 is an excellent upconverting DVD player. DVDs look great on my 56" 1080p TV, not quite HD but close enough to satisfy most folks. HD DVD may be the dead format but it's 100% compatible with DVD so you can play over 100,000 titles in addition to the 600 HD titles!

I have to tip my hat to Toshiba, it would have been easy to ignore customers who bought HD DVD but they have kept releasing new firmware for all their HD DVD players, even back to the first generation. A few months back version 4.0 was released that seems to have solved issues with earlier firmware. The upgrade process takes about 15 minutes but otherwise is easy to do if you take the time to read the precautions.

Of course my experience doesn't predict what the next person will get delivered. If you buy a Blu-ray player and it's defective you can return or exchange it. If you get a bad HD DVD player or yours goes bad later, then you'll have to scramble to find another.

Overall, this is the bottom feeder's way to view quality HD media on an HDTV and it's allowing me to put off BD until prices come down and better players are released. Later Blu-ray will compete but for now you can get a HD player and discs for about 1/5 the cost! And upconversion to boot, a no-brainer for many on a budget.

Comment: Item delievered as advertised. Works perfectly. Would recommend this
seller to any person using Ebay as a source of good buys, good prices and
low shipping costs. This buyer is extremely satisfied. Thanks.

Comment: I purchased this unit prior to HD market dissolving; have gotten new firmware from Toshiba; but problems still persist. Movies freeze up both HD and regular DVD. Some regular DVDs do not play at all. I would not recommend this product unless you do not mind the freeze ups.