Being the first to market in the High Definition DVD Player area, with Blu-ray right on its tail, id have to say its one amazing box. I started with last samurai regular dvd popped it in and wow was a standard DVD simply AMAZING, the upconvert in this box is the best ive seen. I then followed up by putting in the HDDVD version of Last Samurai and I was definately more pleased, stuff that was blotchy and pixelated no longer is so, most notable when standing or sitting close to an LCD TV the quality is noticably better. The price is a bit steep, but then again the first DVD Players were quite pricey as well. The prices for the HDDVDs are nice compared to costs for other new media standards such as the UMD Disc in fact about the same price as UMD Disc. The only cons I would have about this player is it takes REALLY LONG startup once turned on and HDDVD can take some time to get going and the thing is HUGE! It wont fit in most setups!

AND.........i'M GLAD i DID! There has been a lot of reviews out there and all the negatives and positives hold true, BUT most of the reviews, now that I experienced the HD A1, were more like nitpicking. Here's my take:

Bulkiness: yeah this thing is bulky when compared to today's 30-100 dollar cheapo dvd players...but when compared to the more expensive upconverters this thing is not big at all (just look at the denons, pioneers, and other high brand models that can put out the performance that the toshiba does when upconverting) Anyone who is looking to spend this type of money on a this dvd player or any other dvd player in its price bracket will probably deal with this issue.

Remote: yeah its bad....hard to see what button does what and has a bad, uncomfortable feel to it. My harmony 880 had no problem assuming control of the toshiba. Just buy a universal remote. Look into logitech's harmony line, no biggie!

Slow: This is where I scratch my... Read more

I bought this player about a week ago. The picture on standard DVD's is great. The picture on HD-DVD's is awesome! I bought 5 HD movies when I purchased this player. "Perfect Storm","Training Day","Apollo 13","Million Dollar Baby" and "Cinderella Man". The picture on all of these movies is incredible! The sound is also great. My player is hooked up to a 42 inch Panasonic plasma via an HDMI cable. My receiver is a Harman Kardon 240. If you hook up the sound using a fiber optic cable the sound is down converted to DTS. If you use the analog connections the sound comes across in Dolby Digital Plus. I'm using both connections. The sound of the DTS is louder because it's a digital signal, but the Dolby Digital Plus is clearer. It's sounds more like the sounds you'll hear at a real movie theater. Sometimes I watch movies using DTS, other times I'll use the Dolby Digital Plus. Both sound great. I was going to buy a Blu-Ray player but after reading lots of reviews and doing some research, I... Read more