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

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by 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.

Okay. But I`m sure you know that availability and content is king. And every time I look up, like it all not, Blu-Ray has got another new hot title coming out. But, if there is one movie HD DVD does have that could push me, that is Batman Begins. I saw that in IMAX and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would like to see that in HD DVD.

[tigeraudio2007]

Like I said, Blu-ray has the edge on releasing titles. But can you honestly tell me, looking a list of all the Blu-ray movies released, that there are even a handful of titles that would make you want to buy a player this instant?

I think Spider-man 3 is going to look awesome on Blu-ray. And I would love to get it. However, is it worth buying the player for just this one title? Not in the least. If people get this excited about 1 solitary movie title that means the majority of the released titles must be pretty bad.

To sum up, in order for mass consumers to go for one format or the other this needs to happen: a healthy, steady volume of good titles at an average price of $14.99 AND a drop in the price of the players to $199 or less.

The industry needs to remember that average joe schmo is perfectly content with DVDs. What is the incentive to move from DVD to Blu-ray or HD DVD? Obviously not the price of the software or hardware. Nor is it going to be ease of connectivity because we all know that doesn't happen. And don't tell me that it is the outstanding video/audio quality because average joe over there doesn't even have a 1080p HDTV.

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by tigeraudio2007

Like I said, Blu-ray has the edge on releasing titles. But can you honestly tell me, looking a list of all the Blu-ray movies released, that there are even a handful of titles that would make you want to buy a player this instant?

I think Spider-man 3 is going to look awesome on Blu-ray. And I would love to get it. However, is it worth buying the player for just this one title? Not in the least. If people get this excited about 1 solitary movie title that means the majority of the released titles must be pretty bad.

To sum up, in order for mass consumers to go for one format or the other this needs to happen: a healthy, steady volume of good titles at an average price of $14.99 AND a drop in the price of the players to $199 or less.

The industry needs to remember that average joe schmo is perfectly content with DVDs. What is the incentive to move from DVD to Blu-ray or HD DVD? Obviously not the price of the software or hardware. Nor is it going to be ease of connectivity because we all know that doesn't happen. And don't tell me that it is the outstanding video/audio quality because average joe over there doesn't even have a 1080p HDTV.

Oh, I definitely agree. I had said this in this forum before, that the mainstream consumer, wants to go home, push the power button, push play, and enjoy his home theater with his family with minimal involvement.
And, this is a shame because with HD, Blu - Ray, HDMI, this is where I strongly believe the high end industry could take advantage of our greater knowledge, expertise, and love of the music to bring these consumers in.

But, like you said, we keep messing it up. Another format war, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, HDCP handshake issues, its just absolutely crazy. I just do not understand why the companies don`t get it. And then they wonder why things are the way they are. I hate to say it, but all these high rez formats in video and audio are going to stay with the small group of us who have a greater passion than the rest.

We need a miracle for something to change

[Bobpaule]

The XA2 will soon have the 24p firmware update making it the very best player out there.

If you want the best it is the player to get, especially for a squeezer like me, i have been with the HD-A1 from the start just cuz my wife loves how it upscales the DVDs she still gets from the public library.

[tigeraudio2007]

Will this firmware update include the support for bitstream output of TrueHD and DTS Master HD? I doubt it. Then it's not the best player out there in those regards. Need the A35 for that. The A35 also has a DVDO Anchor Bay VRS video chip/processor versus the Silicon Optix in the XA2. Not exactly sure which is better, but there are a lot of great things said about Anchor Bay.

[Robinson_A]

I'm currently reviewing the A35 and can say that it is quite impressive, however, the HD A20 holds its own in a lot of respects. While neither is as good looking as the XA1 I find the HD A20 to be the better looking of the two, but feature wise the A35 does have a slight edge. Does the A35's performance warrant the higher price tag? We'll see. Review coming soon...