Is the Toshiba HD-A20 the best HD DVD Player yet?

[Robinson_A]

The HD-A20 will not play SACD's btw. It will play most everything else though. As of now I am not aware of any HD player that will do SACD, including Sony's own players. Strange.

[kennyt]

I'm an idiot, I even read your review Andrew and didn't realize the A20 did DVD-Audio as well! A nice perk and a step towards a true all format universal player.

Maybe if such a device comes out I can sell off some of my sources....

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by Robinson_A

The HD-A20 will not play SACD's btw. It will play most everything else though. As of now I am not aware of any HD player that will do SACD, including Sony's own players. Strange.

Alright Andrew and kennyt, that is still getting me closer to what I would be looking for. Though any source would be good right now. But getting HD, 1.3, DVD - A, would be excellent all in ONE player. And its less than the XA2.

Then there is the 5 free hd disc offer. Its looking mighty sweet this Toshiba!!

[tigeraudio2007]

Sorry but the HD-A20 does not have HDMI 1.3a. You have to get the HD-XA2 for that. You may want to hold off if you can because come October the 3rd generation of HD DVD players will be coming from Toshiba. The HD-A3, HD-A30, and HD-A35. The A35 will be the top of the line and will only be $499. While official specs haven't been released, it is possible that the middle player, the A30, will sport HDMI 1.3a. At the very least releasing the third generaiton players should drop the price of the current generation players.

If only HD DVD had some awesome titles coming out. Blu-ray has Spider-man 3 and Pirates 3 coming out in October. It's too bad that their players are at best $499. HD DVD has the better player and prices but not so good software titles. Guess we can't have our cake and eat it too.

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by tigeraudio2007

Sorry but the HD-A20 does not have HDMI 1.3a. You have to get the HD-XA2 for that. You may want to hold off if you can because come October the 3rd generation of HD DVD players will be coming from Toshiba. The HD-A3, HD-A30, and HD-A35. The A35 will be the top of the line and will only be $499. While official specs haven't been released, it is possible that the middle player, the A30, will sport HDMI 1.3a. At the very least releasing the third generaiton players should drop the price of the current generation players.

If only HD DVD had some awesome titles coming out. Blu-ray has Spider-man 3 and Pirates 3 coming out in October. It's too bad that their players are at best $499. HD DVD has the better player and prices but not so good software titles. Guess we can't have our cake and eat it too.

Hmmmm, sounds interesting. And I have noticed that Blu - Ray seems always to have the hotter new release titles. HD DVD has Kong, but what really else. I guess I still have some thinking to do. October is just a few months away.

[tigeraudio2007]

The release is going up today, but Toshiba PR agency has officially announced the release of the 3rd generation players. Looks like the A3 ($299) and the A35 ($499) will be released in October and the A30 ($399) will be released in September.

HD DVD doesn't have much in the way of titles mainly because only Universal is putting titles out exclusively on the HD DVD format. The other studio producing the HD DVD format titles is Warner Bros. However, about a month or so after they began to release HD DVD titles in 2006, they began releasing their titles in both formats.

Blu-ray on the other hand has Sony and Disney/Buena Vista releasing solely in Blu-ray and the here and there titles from Paramount. That's in addition to the Warner Bros titles. Thus, the healthy volume of titles.

Anyway, none of this means that there is a large supply of worthwhile titles on the market, only that Blu-ray has the leg up on Blockbuster movies being released in their format.