- awesome standard dvd video image after burn in - amazing for a 100 dollar player (if you factor in the free dvds Toshiba offers, right).
- very strong with two channel sound tracks.
- my wife loves the picture image. She's quite the videophile and was pro-denon for a month. Once the AD-H2 burnt in, she was pleased. She'd never seen the Sting, and we got it on HD, and she was blown away. Great sound and picture!

Sure, I wish we had the analogue outs for surround sound on the back. And I'm just not going to get messed up in the receiver HDMI war/mess. But, wow, get a dvi-hdmi cable on accessories4less.com for like twenty bucks, buy a monster convertor for 25, and you'll have world class picture quality and a cable that cost 250 brand new for 45 bucks.
CD play isn't too hot, but it doesn't give me headaches. Have a dedicated CD player.

First reviewer breaks down the price factor very well. In the end, you're paying less than a hundred bucks for the player if you manage your rebates well. And that's where I want to comment here: How is this thing as a standar DVD player? I have a 40" Samsung LCD, and so with low rez dvds the artifacts are easy to recognize. I had a sweet Denon player - their midline universal, sells for 800 - and my wife loved it. Great picture, great image quality during action scenes. During pastoral moments landscape looked rich and beautiful. But through the AD-H2, there were some artifacts. Some flesh tones that seemed too white and too yellow. There's that scene in Pride and Prejudice when Mr. Clemons is walking up to the party at night, and there's a lot of candle and firelight, and the artifacts were many with the Ad-H2.

But that was only for about a month. We started playing the same movies that gave us trouble - Rocky 1, Pride and Prejudice, Master and Commander - and noticed that the blacks had settled down, flesh tones looked good. I hooked up the Denon now and then to play sacds and would test/compare it. We weren't dreaming.

The AD-H2 is a very, very, very solid standard DVD player. I love Hd on it. But unless you're going to drop 800+ bucks on a standard dvd player, you're not going to find a dvd player with much better picture. And I'm on a forty-inch LCD.

One last thing: two channel dvd soundtracks are good, better, I thought, than my Denon's two channel with DVD. Excellent bass, actually, and mids are great. I have wonderful ampage, too, but the player does it's job well. And even though you only get "core" of the hi-def tracks, maybe I'm crazy but core sounds dang good. Better than standard dd or dts.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 2910
Phillips dv 963sa

video up-conversion
stripped down model foe those of us w/o 1080P (why pay for what you don't have)
Price price price

Slow boot (still faster than my h/k DVD)
May be obsolete in a couple of years
Blockbuster does not carry HD-DVD

Just got the unit unpacked and pluged in. Initial take on the unit is positive. I do not have a 1080P tv, and thus was not looking for a full 1080P player. I also do not have Dolby DigitalHD, so once again, did not need the best audio section. I bought the unit as a replacement for a SD DVD player. So far, it has surpassed all expectations.

I have played HD-DVDs and SD DVDs and can definitely say that there is a great improvement over my other players (H/K, JVC, LG, and Samsung). I have it connected to a 50" Sony Grand Wega in 1080i mode using a HDMI to DVI-D cable. Audio is via TOSLINK to an H/K 525.

Up conversion is a great improvement over my older players. Component v. DVI-D may be part of it, but also the scaler may be a part of it too. HD-DVDs look fantastic, much better than my COX HD service.

For what I paid, it is one of the best purchases I have made in a while. The unit listed for $299, but price matched Best Buy Sale price of $249. This week's promotion incuded a $100 gift card, making the unit $149. Toshiba threw in 5 free movies (5 @ $25 = $125) also. Net price is $25. United gave me 2000 frequent flyer miles for joining Netflix (they are the only on-line renter of HD-DVD). Got another 5 free movies from Toshiba with the purchase of my new laptop (5 @ $25 = $125). True price, they paided me $100 to buy it.

Run, don't walk. This is a great deal.

Similar Products Used:

h/K dvd 50
JVC
JG
Samsung
Philips
Sony

nice playback and upscaling of movies

lengthy power-on time
problems dropping audio streams

This was my first HD DVD player. I purchased it along with a 32" Samsung LCD tv. It performed nicely in playing movies - regular dvd's looked fantastic and HD (of course) even moreso. I wound up returning it, however, because of small quibbles I don't think a $400 dvd player should have. First of all, it takes at least 15-20 sec to power on. During this time you can't open the dvd tray or do anything else with it. Also, I might have gotten a lemon, but at least one time per movie the player would drop the audio when it switched chapters. I would have to rewind to the start of the chapter for the player to pick up the audio again. With the pace at which HD players are coming down in price, I will wait and purchase a newer model.

Video Playback - the best I have ever seen
Price - Under 350 for HD movies.
Looks - some reviewers complained - I really like it.

Not a fault of the deck - but will HD-DVD be obsolete at some point? I find this hard to believe with such incredable performance - but only time will tell.

No analog out - This would be nice in order to take advantage of DD+ and DD-HD.

This is a great product. I purchased a Pioneer Pro 1140 and needed an upconverting DVD player. The salesman at Tweeter recommended the HD-A2 and I decided to take a risk. Once it was all setup, I put in the HD-DVD version of the Corpse Bride -- My Goodnes. The advertisements are real. The picture quality of HD-DVD is perfection. I was absolutly blown away by the quality. I will be purchasing many more HD-DVDs as soon as I can. The difference is incredable. Owners of high definition televisions owe it to themselves to check out this technology.

The up conversion was very good as well. I have no real basis of comparison with other machines, but an upconverted DVD looked at least as good as a standard DVD played on my old WEGA. Pretty sharp with great color presentation. One thing of note on upconversion. The Pioneer has a resolution of 768 or so scan lines. When I first upconverted, I had the A2 set to its max resolution of 1080i. This was a big mistake and the picture was horrible. The manual notes to set the output resolution to match your TV. When I set it up properly, it looked very good.

Similar Products Used:

Sony standard DVD into Sony WEGA TV

Great sound quality
Great picture quality
Firmware upgradeable over the Internet
Fantastic ability to upconvert SD DVD
Built like a tank
Much sexier in a rack than the 1st gen HD DVD players and Sony's BDP-S1

Maximum output is 1080i
Slower load times than normal DVD players (but faster than most Blu-Ray players)

Let me start by saying I've had experience with the HD-A1, HD-XA2 and Sony's BDP-S1. The HD-A2 is of course the "value" player in HD DVD's arsenal, but it's performance would make you think otherwise. The upconverting ability of this player is second only to the XA2 in the sub-$1000 range.

This unit has been completely problem free for me, not even freezing up on any movie to date. The DD TrueHD tracks are also something to behold if you have an HDMI capable receiver. Overall, this is a very solid unit for its purchase price even if it were only an upconvert player.

My only complaint about this player is the lack of 1080p output, however that is included with the slightly more costly players. In truth however, I really don't see it as a major problem as generally speaking 1080i flips to 1080p rather nicely.

Customer Service

Never had to call Toshiba so I honestly couldn't say.

Similar Products Used:

Sony BDP-S1
Toshiba HD-A1
Toshiba HD-XA2