Customer Reviews
great price for a good player 
2008-07-30
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. :)
Refurb, but in great condition 
2008-07-06
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.
Seem to be unopened box 2008-07-04
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?
Toshiba HD-A30 
2008-06-16
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.
Only paid $99 at Amazon Marketplace 2008-06-14
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.
Great 2008-06-10
For the highest level of picture quality with today's best performing high definition TVs, the HD-A30 adds 1080p output. That is twice the resolution of a 720p signal. The HD-A30 is equipped With CE-Link HDMI -CEC connectivity. This convenient feature offers the capability to communicate with and control another HDMI-CEC compatible device in a completely new way. 1080p/24 frames per second (24p) support offers a smoother, more film-like, viewing experience. Traditionally, movie films are captured at 24 Frames per second. The HD-A30 HD DVD player maintains this frame rate, allowing consumers to enjoy movies in their native frame rate.
Not Bad For The Money 
2008-06-05
I purchased the unit as a demo from Best Buy on May 11th. I immediately upgraded to firmware 2.0. Big mistake. Thankfully I found the link to hacked firmware 1.3 that let's you downgrade to firmware 1.3. On 2.0 I had problems in the HD version of Matrix Reloaded when the car chase started. Downgrading fixed the problem. There is still a little glitch in Transformers during the house scene just before Sector 7 shows up. Not a big deal really but just an observation. It upscales nicely. For $125 including tax it's not too bad of a purchase.
Rode Hard And Put Away Wet 2008-05-18
== The debacle ==
Like all of you, I got hosed too by Toshiba's inability (or refusal?) to match Sony's $40,000,000 bribe; and, most of all, TimeWarner's cynical disregard for its customers by announcing its decision two weeks AFTER Xmas. Had it been made public BEFORE Xmas, I'd almost certainly have a BR stand-alone or PS3.
One consolation: Amazon.com gave me a $50 credit in recompense for getting hosed. Whatever part Toshiba played in this gesture (my gut feeling is nothing), I certainly felt warmer & fuzzier toward Amazon after the whole debacle.
For those who seem to feel that Toshiba "owes" them something, I have to say I disagree. If things had gone the other way, WE would be crowing at the stupidity of those who laid down their dollars for PS3s and stand-alones. And they'd be complaining that Sony "owed" them.
== The Player ==
The picture quality is out-standing. Even though I have the last High-Definition tube set made (at least by Panasonic), the picture quality is nearly as good as a Blu-Ray/LCD combination.
The sound quality is outstanding. Despite the fact that the A30, processes the new audio codecs (TrueHD or DD+) instead of passing them straight thru. This is not much of an issue for me. My Yamaha receiver does not have its own processing capability for the new codecs, so it's that much of a problem for me. I can see, however, those with high end receivers would want the A35.
One chief benefit of this whole mess (especially since, as is usually the case, HD-DVD was the superior format) is the outstanding up-rezzing capability of this player. I long doubted whether up-rezzing was just a scam; at least with this player, it most definitely is not.
It should also be mentioned that, the A30 is an excellent CDDA (Redbook/"audio" CDs) player.
While I still feel rode hard and put away wet, at least they had the class to put the saddle on first.
For reasons that make no sense to me, the player does not read CD-Text! With the embedded computer and RAM, you'd think the simple addition of reading CD-Text would have been a no-brainer. (Of course, if brains had been involved, Toshiba would have out-bribed Sony and it would be Blu-Ray owners, instead of ourselves, feeling the fool.
It makes my SD-DVDs look fantastic. So much so, that my previous work-horse, a Sony 5-disc DVD/CD/SACD player is now primarily used for playing SACDs and MP3 discs. (One of the drawbacks of the A30, et al, is the fact that they cannot play MP3s or even WMA files--obviously an inferior codec, but better than nothing.)
I still have a sour taste in my mouth from the experience (ironically, I'm typing this review on a Toshiba laptop); I now know exactly how Betamax buyers felt when Sony killed it way back in the day.
Sadly, even tho' this time Sony "won" the format "war", it seems to be repeating the mistakes which cost it the Beta/VHS struggle nigh thirty years ago:
1.) Refusal to lower prices of its own players
2.) Refusal to license the technology to other, er, players in the market in order to cement their hold on the market (despite being almost totally ignored by Western media, the Chinese have developed their own high def format).
The logical move would be to push for mass-market saturation by putting sub-$200 players, in large numbers, on the market. Instead, they've raised the prices!
Oddly enough, while on the subject of pricing, this A30 which is $354, I paid only $278 for before Xmas.
And the "top o' the line" A35 has more than doubled! It's unfortunate that this burst of popularity--also shown by the lack of a "fire sale" of HD-DVD discs--didn't occur sooner. If it had, then maybe BR owners would be the ones feeling scammed. (To be clear, I blame this on TW and not on Toshiba.)
I'm keeping my eyes on HD-DVD disc pricing, hoping to catch the sale at the moment before everyone else does so I can grab as many titles as I can whilst they're still new.
Since my wife is still in "I-Told-You-So" mode, it's going to be at least Xmas before I'll be buying a BR player. So I look for every deal I can on discs.
== The Score ==
I'm giving three stars because of Toshiba's blundering loss to Sony in this format war.
The player also lacks some features which I would have thought been no-brainers (inability to play MP3 files, lack of "disc memory", i.e. my Sony SD-DVD player remembers the position of up to 40 discs; the A30 can only remember the current SD-DVD and cannot remember the position of any HD-DVD once STOP is pressed). Needless to say, this is an irritant factor, requiring one to keep an eye on the Chapter # in case one must stop watching.
The unit's fan is quite noisy. At first, I thought this was a peculiarity of my own unit--and not a major one since the unit's never hot to the touch.
But talking to a friend (in Canada) I've discovered that this seems to be a general problem with the unit.
After those deductions, it's still an excellent player. And while I obviously can't recommend buying it NEW, if you've already go it, I'd keep it. If someone offers to sell you one of these units at a good price, I'd snap it up--if only for the up-rezzing capability.
Bit the dust after 5 months 
2008-05-16
This player was problematic almost from the get-go, I only paid $130 for it last November, turns out it wasn't worth even that low price. The first issue? I would have to close the disc tray 4 or 5 times before it would stay closed. Then, after about 5 months it would no longer read discs. Very poor quality on this machine, plus HD-DVD lost the war. I dusted off my 7 year old JVC player, plugged it in, and it is in every way the Toshiba's equal plus it actually works perfectly after all these years.
Warehouse Deals by Amazon 2008-05-13
I'm sure this could've been a great player as to all the reviews had mentioned. Unfortunately the Warehouse Deals store send me a DOA unit, after stamping it as refurbished. It was heavily dented and loose parts moving/rattling around inside, turned on once and froze since. I don't think they even did fixed the unit to begin with, just shipped in it's defective state, so buyers beware of all refurbished items form this Warehouse store. Shame on Amazon!
