Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player

• HD DVD Playback
• DVD/CD Playback
• Upconversion for SD
• 720p/1080i/1080p resolution
• Includes Warner Bros' 300 HD DVD and Universal's The Bourne Identity HD DVD (packaged inside)

Amazon.com Product Description:
.caption { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text-indent: -15px; } The Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD Player stands less than two-and-a-half inches tall but packs a long list of cutting edge features. The HD-A30 sells at a very reasonable price but has top-end features such as support for 1080p/24-frame video and HDMI-CEC compatibility. The Toshiba HD-A30 stands less than two-and-a-half inches high but has support for 1080p/24-frame video. View larger. The HD-A30 upconverts standard DVDs for display on an 1080p HD screen. View larger. A Refined, Slimmer Look The HD-A30's refined design--with rounded edges, a slim chassis, and a high-gloss black face plate--looks sleek and elegant in your home theater system without taking up too much real estate. Outstanding Performance All of Toshiba's HD DVD players support the enhanced features of the HD DVD format, including picture-in-picture video, audio commentary, and Web-enabled network capabilities. With an Ethernet port, the A30 can connect to the Internet for firmware updates to keep the player up to date on new features, and to support the growing number of HD DVD titles with interactive online features and bonus content. The HD-A30 uses the latest HDMI 1.3 interface to connect to your HD television, providing large bandwidth to eliminate any data bottlenecks and to support new technologies for the utmost in viewing experience. The HD-A30 can output video at 1080p, the highest resolution available, and includes support for 24-frame video, which maintains the native 24-frames-per-second rate of films, thereby delivering an experience more similar to one in theaters. If you have a large collection of standard definition DVDs, the HD-A30 will upconvert them to near-HD quality for display on your HD television. Progressive scan output means the scan-lines of interlaced video are eliminated and the result is a clean image that has no motion distortion or artifacts. In addition to 1080p, the HD-A30 also outputs at 720p and 1080i if desired. Sparkling Surround Sound The HD-A30 supports most surround sound audio standards, with built-in decoding for Dolby TrueHD 5.1ch, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1ch, DTS 5.1, and DTS HD (core only). One-Touch Convenience You can use the CE-Link (HDMI-CEC) to connect the HD-A30 with other CEC-capable devices for unsurpassed simplicity and convenience. For example, if the HD-A35 is connected to a compatible HDTV, you can turn on both the HD DVD player and the TV and start playing a movie with a single touch of a button on the remote. The HD-A30 is backed by a limited 1-year warranty. Six times the resolution of regular DVD (up to 1080p). Upconverts standard DVDs to the output resolution. Tons of new interactive features and bonus content. What's in the Box HD-A30 HD DVD player, remote control, and power cable.

Only paid $99 at Amazon Marketplace:
I can't compare this to other HD players because I've never owned another one. In fact, my last TV was a 10 year old 32 inch Samsung that was so fuzzy I couldn't read any text on the screen. Then I went HD crazy. I bought a 46 inch Sony HD LCD TV and a Sony upscaling DVD player. Because I bought them with my Amazon credit card, I got $100 in discount coupons. So I bought a $200 Sony 5.1 surround sound system that only cost me $100. Then, I stupidly bought the 5 disc Harry Potter set in HD DVD because I thought HD DVD was just fancy DVD. It didn't work in my Sony DVD player. The Sony website had a terse comment about how their players don't play HD DVD. Terse doesn't play with me. And I don't like proprietary formats and monopolies so I went looking for an HD DVD player. I found this one for only $99 from Amazon Marketplace. It was in an obviously opened box, but it was like new and everything was there, including the two free HD DVDs. Woohoo! Love that HD! So THERE, Sony! Luckily, I have a brother who owns a stereo and video repair shop in Rancho Cucamonga, CA so I can keep this thing running forever. He kept a Betamax player going for decades...speaking of Sony proprietary formats... And the Warner Brothers website is still making and selling HD DVDs so I'll be able to avoid having a social life for years. So even though this review has nothing to say about the relative merits of this particular HD DVD player, I just wanted to tell the world that it's safe to buy cheap ones from Amazon Marketplace. It worked for me. Now all I have to do is convince Amazon to stop recommending Blu-Ray disks to me because I bought HD DVDs. They're not the same. I know this stuff now.

Seem to be unopened box:
The description says refurb with possible cosmetic damage. I have purchased two of these players so far - through the warehouse: they both appear to have been unopened - and both work beautifully. Highly recommend. My only problem: what to do with those extra copies of 300 and Bourne?

Refurb, but in great condition:
I bought this to replace my Xbox HDDVD drive just in case it ever goes out. This player is great! Arrived in "like new" condition, only missing the original packaging. It upconverts dvds better than my ps3 and the sound seems louder than the ps3, but not by much. I haven't had any problems with this player. Definitely worth the 100 dollars. Only small downside is that it takes about 40 seconds to start up. I don't see this as a big flaw whatsover. Also, it comes with 2 new hd-dvds. Great buy.

great price for a good player:
this is a very good player for HD and SD DVDs... I have had problems playing SD DVDs at 1080p/24 though, which might just be because this player lacks the horse power to do the up-conversion while forcing play at 24fps... I know the hd-a35 does do this well.. but it has a better video processor.. regardless at 1080p/60 everything works great, SD DVDs look great and so do HD DVDs... I switch over to 1080p/24 for HD DVDs and they are so silky smooth.. for $99 on a refurb, I can't complain at all. :)

Toshiba HD-A30:
I have been a dedicated Sony customer, purchasing Sony products for most of my AV requirements. As a rule Sony products are very good performers for the price paid. I recently purchased the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player, along with a Toshiba HD-DVD player (HD-A30). When the Sony works, it's night and day between Blu-Ray and watching DVD's on our old DVD player. We have a very respectable sound system which pushes the audio through the full compliment of all the Klipsch Synergy III, -3 series speakers. It would be nice if we could hear the true audio that is encoded on the Blu-Ray. Strange that Sony has the concept but makes players that don't support it. And to make matters worse, this 4 month old player began to sporadically freeze up after watching about 1 hour of select, various movies. As of this time, I'm unaware how to unfreeze it other than to turn the player off, then back on, then find where we left off, and hope it begins to play without additional issues. That timespan is usually around 7-10 minuutes, waiting for shutdown, power up, loading the DVD and finding where we were. By then, one has almost lost interest in watching the movie altogether. In researching the web, many have the same issue, no one has the solution other that what we are already doing. But this problem isn't unique to just the Sony Blu-Ray. Our Toshiba HD-DVD player does the same thing, fixed by the same process. Some DVD's play all the way through, most don't. We have returned and replaced a number of HD-DVD's only to get replacements that reproduce the same problem. I'm almost thinking that the commercial Blu-Ray and HD DVD's are dual layer, as both units freeze (when they freeze) at about the 1 hour timeframe. It almost appears than when they try to begin reading the second layer, they lock up making that transition. When you stop, reboot and reload, you usually go past the layer shift, thus playing the second layer all the way through, along with missing segments of the movie. I have contacted both manufacturers concerning this, neither have responded. I never had much experience with Toshiba products, and based on the lack of their customer support (even though it's a discontinued product, it should still be supported under their warranty), it is doubtful that I will ever look to them for consideration of purchasing any of their other products. As far as Sony is concerned, I am genuinely surprised at their lack of support to a problem which is obviously becoming more and more prevalent on a product line that is becoming more and more popular.