After doing some research on HD-DVD players a couple of months ago, I decided to go with Toshiba’s HD-A1. It’s a first generation player with capability of transmitting lossless sound through HDMI or analog. I chose the player for the latter. It’s important to me because my three year old Onkyo receiver does not have HDMI but does have analog. Second and third generation players in the $200-$400 does not have analog output.
I bought a used one on eBay and the movie 300 for a total of $127(including shipping). Once I got it and set everything up, the player froze on the “Welcome” screen. After doing some research, I found out that this problem is common when a firmware is upgraded. Only way it can be fixed is through Toshiba.
Contacted the seller(let’s call him Mike) and he apologized for the issue. Mike said he did not have any problems with it. I could tell he wasn’t lying because the way he worded his auction “If you’re not satisfied with the player, I’ll give full refund including shipping, no questions asked” He asked me if I wanted a full refund. I told him I would. Even though I got a full refund, I was still a bit sad because I wanted to watch movies in HD, specifically 300 and Transformers. He gave me a full refund and told me to just TRASH the player and to keep the movie, 300. He said it wasn’t worth his time having it returned and maybe I should contact Toshiba about warranty. Mike said if Toshiba would fix it, then I’d get a free player, his word not his.
Called Toshiba up and told them about the problem, they said without warranty it’ll cost around $160. But with the warranty, which required the receipt, I’d just pay for one way shipping. I contacted Mike and after several emails, he came through with the receipt! Mike went out of his way to find the receipts and scan them for me. As soon as I got the receipt, I shipped it to Toshiba for about $40. It took about a week for Toshiba to fix it. Pretty fast if you ask me, especially compared to my favorite company’s turnaround with the 360, MS.
Last night I set up the player. It’s definitely slower(probably takes a minute to boot up and another minute to read the disc) than DVD players but the video and audio quality is awesome. Tested out 300 first and I could tell the difference right away. Video is much more smoother and looks more like film. Audio was freaking nuts. When the Persian messenger entered Sparta, the beat sounded like drums. Bass was deeeeeeeeeep!
After that I tried Transformers. Video was way better than the DVD version, I was underwhelmed by it. With the HD version, I could see the little details: The robots’ parts twisting and turning. Also the robots looked better in general, just like the way I saw it at the theatres. In the DVD, they looked somewhat cartoony, I would assume because of 480p instead of 1080i. Sound was better with HD but it seemed like there was more bass for the DVD. I can hear the minute details: sands flying everywhere, chorus from the score, people yelling all over the place. Craziest part had to be when Ironhide jumped over that screaming girl towards the end. Bass went pretty deep and stayed for a couple of seconds. Oh my!
So after doing some research and buying an HD-DVD player on the bay, dealing with a great seller and sending it for repair to Toshiba, I now have an HD player that I spent $40 on.
To show my gratitude to Mike, I sent him a copy of Transformers on HD and told him to let me know whenever he’s out in my area and the drinks are all on me.
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