Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player - outstanding 1st generation HD DVD player

Introduction
A few months ago I purchased a Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player to replace my previous standard DVD player. The reasoning behind my purchase of a new HD DVD player was to enjoy the new video and audio improvements offered by HD DVDs, and also to enjoy the upconversion of standard DVDs that the HD-XA1 offers. My current library of movies is entirely on DVDs and I wanted to be able to still enjoy watching them even after upgrading, and so an upconverting HD DVD player was a logical choice. The price difference between HD DVD players and Blu-Ray players made my selection of HD DVD an easy choice.

Look and Feel
The single-disc HD-XA1 HD DVD player is the top-of-the-line model from Toshiba’s first generation of HD DVD players. It is a very solidly built machine that features "double chassis construction" and weighs in at nearly 20 lbs. I was very surprised at the heft of the machine when I first picked it up. The unit is somewhat plain looking from the front. It is black and silver colored with a LED display in the middle of the face and a door hinge on the bottom half of the face. In addition to the LED display, The two buttons on the face of the unit are the Power button and the “Door” button. One nifty feature is the mechanized opening and closing of the door by pressing the “Door” button. Pressing the “Door” button opens the lower half of the player to reveal the disc tray and the basic Open/Close Tray, Play, Pause, Stop, etc. buttons.

Once the unit is plugged in, a red backlight is lit behind the “Power” button to highlight it. Once the unit is turned on, the backlight color changes to blue and becomes a bit brighter.

The back of the unit features a wide array of audio and video connection options. For video, it includes output options for regular RCA (yellow), S-video, component and HDMI (the HDMI connection also carries the audio signal). For audio, it includes 1 TOSLINK optical, 1 coaxial optical and 5.1 analog outputs.

What’s in the Box
- HD DVD Player
- Remote control with batteries
- Power cord
- RCA A/V cable (red, white and yellow)
- HDMI cable
- User manual

Playback Features
The main feature of this unit is obviously the ability to play HD DVDs, but it also has the capability to play a number of other media formats: standard DVDs, CD, DVD-R/RW, DVD R/RW, CD-R/RW, MP3 and WMA. Note that this player does not support video coded in the DivX format. It also has the capability to upconvert regular DVDs into 720p/1080i resolution.

Additionally, for upgrading the firmware of the player through a connection to a PC or laptop with Internet access, the HD-XA1 has a RS-232 serial port and a Ethernet 10/100 LAN connection. For connection to USB devices and to a PC, the HD-XA1 also has a set of USB ports on the front.

The OSD (on-screen display) allows you to select a number of different playback settings for audio and video, as well as to set up the parental lock control settings. The options allow you to adjust a large number of video playback settings (16:9, 4:3 aspect ratio, Enhanced Black Levels, etc) as well as audio playback settings (Digital audio output, 5.1 analog, Dynamic Range Control, etc.).

Finally, a large selling point of the HD-XA1 is the built in decoding of Dolby Digital, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, and DTS HD (core only) sound formats. While I won’t go into the details of each format in this review, suffice it to say that the HD-XA1 covers all of the new surround sound formats that go along with HD DVD playback.

Out of the Box Setup
Out of the box setup of the HD-XA1 was relatively simple and only took a few minutes to get it up and running. With the included HDMI cable, connecting the video portion to my TV was completed with only one cable connection. For the audio connection, I chose to the 5.1 analog outputs to connect the player to my A/V receiver. The reason for choosing the 5.1 analog outputs was due to the fact that my A/V receiver does not have the capability to decide the new surround sound formats, and to take advantage of all new formats it was necessary to use the 5.1 connections.

After getting the cables connected, I powered on the unit and waited for the introductory screen to be displayed. This was the first experience I had with the slow boot-up time of the player. I would estimate that it took 30 seconds for the unit to power on and be ready to accept commands from the remote control. The first issue I ran into was that the unit did not recognize the HDMI video connection, and so nothing was displayed on the screen. I turned the power off, and then back on again, and after waiting another 30 seconds the introductory screen came up.

Once the unit was ready to accept commands from the remote control, I went into the on-screen display menu and navigated to the appropriate screen resolution and audio output options to make my selections. The on-screen display is relatively straight forward, with each set of options logically categorized into Audio and Video categories. It took a few minutes of browsing and trial-and-error to find the correct options, and then I was ready to view my first movie.

After popping in my first movie, I then experienced the slow load time of the player. I would estimate that it took 20 seconds for the player to recognize the DVD and to start playing it. It takes even longer for the player to recognize and start playing HD DVDs – about 25 seconds from the time you close the disc tray. This is much longer than a standard DVD player and it takes some getting used to if you are accustomed to 5-6 second load times.

Fortunately, the noise emitted from the HD-XA1 player as it boots up and reads the discs is very quiet. The noise is barely above the level of a whisper, and I can not hear it when seated in my normal viewing spot about 9 ft. from the player.

Performance – Video and Audio
Throughout the last few months I have had the opportunity to watch at least a dozen movies, both HD DVD and standard DVD formats, using the HD-XA1. The titles ranged from comedies – Along Came Polly, Blade of Glory to action movies – The Matrix Revolutions, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Transformers and We Were Soldiers. All of my movie watching has been on my Panasonic 61" rear projection LCD TV.

Starting off with my experience watching HD DVD movies, the results have been spectacular. Watching movies in native 1080i resolution has shown that the HD-XA1 is capable of producing extremely impressive audio and video quality. The level of detail, color reproduction and depth of the images is as good as watching HD content through cable or satellite TV providers. The surround sound effects, especially in action movies like Transformers, are more clear and more dynamic than any other HD content I have heard. Examples of the improvement of HD DVDs are clear in every movie that I have watched. Even in comedy movies where you wouldn’t normally be expected to notice audio and video quality improvements, the difference between watching an HD DVD on the HD-XA1 and a standard DVD on a standard DVD player is as clear as night and day.

My favorite HD DVD thus far has been Transformers and the special effects it offers. Each bullet fired, each engine roar and each thunderous explosion was absolutely crystal clear throughout the playback of the movie. All of the surround sound effects completely envelop you as you watch the scene unfold, and it makes it very easy to become immersed in the movie.

Another key reason I purchased this HD DVD player was the upconverting feature. This allows regular DVDs to be “upscaled” to a higher resolution during playback, which theoretically improves the pictures quality. This is particularly important if you are watching a DVD on a big-screen TV. With a large sized TV, the upconversion will allow you to fill up a much larger percentage of the display area of the TV without seeing the graininess that you would see when viewing a “zoom view” of 480p resolution.

One of the most impressive scenes while watching an upconverted DVD was in the massive scale battle scene in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The level of detail was not up to par with true HD DVD content, but the result was a very noticeable improvement over the regular DVD 480p resolution. There were a few frames in the fight sequence where an image contained a jagged edge or a slight graininess, and in those cases the difference between true 720p/1080i HD content and the upconverted DVD content was readily visible. My experience has been that I rarely notice these types of details while watching standard DVDs, but when I do see them they are slightly annoying. Overall, the upconverted DVD picture quality of the HD-XA1 player has been outstanding and it has made it fun to re-watch some of my old favorite DVDs from my movie collection.

Performance – Remote Control
The biggest disappointment with the HD-XA1 has been the remote control. The first drawback is that the backlighting of the buttons on the remote control is very sporadic – according to the user manual, it is supposed to activate the backlight when it “senses a certain amount of vibration” or “when a button is pressed”. In real world performance, the remote control sometimes lights up when you press a button, and sometimes does not. It sometimes lights up when you pick up the remote, and sometimes does not. The most annoying aspect of this backlight function is that the remote will occasionally turn the backlight on during the movie – without anyone touching it and without anyone coming near it! From what I can tell, it sometimes turns itself on due to vibrations caused by the speakers. Regardless of why it happens, this feature is absolutely useless. Fortunately, I have been able to deactivate the function.

Additionally, the buttons on the remote are not very well spaced apart and are very small sized. The “Play” button is overly large sized, which is nice, but the “Stop” and “Pause” buttons, two of the most commonly used buttons, are as small as every other button on the remote. There is only a tiny bump in between each button, and so in the dark it is very difficult to feel which button you are pressing as you try to decipher the small labels above each button. Overall, I think the remote control is one of the worst I have every used for an audio / video device.

Conclusion
Overall, I am extremely happy with the Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player. It has been the foundation for my movie watching in my home theater and has provided trouble-free operation since the day I started using it. It provides exceptionally high quality playback of HD DVD movies, and the upconversion of standard DVDs is a huge plus as well. The audio connection options give me the flexibility to enjoy all of the new surround sound formats, as well as any new formats that are added through firmware updates in the future. Paired with a HDTV and a good set of surround sound equipment, the HD-XA1 provides a huge step up into a world of high-definition movie experience.