Toshiba HD-A3, HD-A30, HD-A35 HD DVD and SD DVD players
The Blu-ray camp struck a vast gain just before CES when Warner Brothers announced they would be moving exclusively to Blu-ray by mid year, tipping the scales majorly in Blu-ray's favor. Then, in Feb 2008, Toshiba announced it would discontinue the development, manufacturing and marketing of HD DVD, officially ending the format war. They did, however, confirm that they would confidence the warranty of all HD DVD players.
While it may seem an empty effort to conversation them pdq since HD DVD has removed itself from the race, these third generation players from Toshiba own a performance response at crazy low prices to be reckoned with and deserve the unabridged story.
For the movie buff that wants it all, HD DVD is still necessary on account of it could be some time before the movies that were released exclusively in that format are released again on Blu-ray. And for some titles, it may not be worth the aim re-releasing them on Blu-ray, leaving the HD DVD proceeds as the one shot HD narration available.
Looking at these players you would be insolvable pressed to see any characteristic from the front or back. The HD-A3 was purchased by a friend and tested at his house. The HD-A30 was purchased through a Best Buy outlet and then exchanged at a later date for the HD-A35 because, to the surprise of Best Buy staff and yours truly, sole that representation supports native bit stream for HD audio codecs. Those were tested here at the lab.
In the end, I was unable to find any performance digression between these players when comparing allied capabilities. Indeed, the one discongruity appears to be the feature set. HD-A35 Adds Digital audio HDMI 1.3 bit stream output supporting all HD audio codecs Missing features you might have expected, all models There is no multi-channel analog output for any model, by oneself stereo. You can use the SD optical digital audio output however all HD audio codecs will be down converted to that standard.
I actually wondered if the product was a repack nevertheless looking at the factory seal and other things it didn't appear to be. The HD-A35 seemed packed better than the HD-A30, making me doubt approximately it being a repack. Those concerned about rack space and the larger private room styles of 1st reproduction product from either camp will rejoice over Toshiba's 2nd and 3rd generation players, which come in a smaller cabinet, cutting previous cabinet heighth by about half, to 2.25 inches.
For the 3rd lifetime products the drawer is all the habit to the right and everything else to the left and the same goes for the back panel of connections that are now on the right rather than the left. I did find it odd to accept the front panel reversed from most player designs where the drawer is either on the left side or middle. It was a curiosity each time I had to access the drawer! In terms of fit and stop it does not have the high bound impressionable look of the 1st interval players.
Nope, this is a humble product at a humble price. You won't feel like you are controlling your product in style. That said, it has one thing that fancy 1st genesis remote didn't: functionality and support of use. The cursor buttons grind and you can recite the labels, which trumps style any day! The remote for the HD-A35 is identical to what came with most of the 2nd generation players, being longer and skinnier and adding direct access simplistic TV controls, but overall the same fit and finish of the HD-A3 and HD-A30 remotes.
Out of Box Performance Hooking up either player to a BenQ W10000 DLP Front projector, I found it preset for 16:9 1080p. Going into the setup menu I switched the player to 1080p24 and ran the DVE HD DVD confirmation material. Looking over at the receiver it showed a PCM multi-channel input with the HD-A30 and bit stream labels with the HD-A35 after changing some audio settings in the player menu. Everything seemed to look and sound great. On to objective testing..
On the Crack Bench This will be the anterior HD disc player review where all aspects of video performance can be bench tested using the Digital Video Essentials HD DVD DVD combo test and calibration disc.
What follows is impartial testing for both SD DVD and HD DVD content via HDMI at 720p, 1080i and 1080p along with element analog video at 480p for SD DVD and component analog at 720p and 1080i for HD DVD. All video testing was performed on the HD-A30 in the lab with a follow up confirmation of the HD-A35. The HD-A3 was tested in the owner's home.
Our current SD DVD reference player and benchmark is the fully reviewed OPPO DV-981HD. The very ability to inspect and view an HDMI video source goes directly against the copyright capability of the connexion and copy protection since the means to inspect it would infer a method to steal it.
At this time the Panasonic PTAE-1000U has been kept in the stable just for this purpose using the Wave Form Monitor feature. While the Wave Form Monitor does suffer when looking at high frequency response video such as bursts, it is too the perfect tool for checking IRE levels and colour decoding.
This does come with the limitation of particular lifetime able to test YPbPr output, making me unable to verify the switching to RGB output that would be required for a DVI input. Some of the results are based on visual calibration checks as well as signal, as noted. All tests were performed using Digital Video Essentials test patterns as the source material.
Video Levels With waveform monitoring, the Toshiba players output 0IRE and 100IRE at the correct 16 235 levels via HDMI for both cd formats at all HD study rates. Via analog component, the Toshiba had a crest immaculate output about 2 IRE above 100 IRE for SD DVD at 480p as well as HD DVD at 720p and 1080i. Considering the humor of video content, this is a marginal error that testament only show up on case if perceived at all.
For a digital display this may beginning crushing of pinnacle white especially if the display was calibrated without any headroom for equitable this type of condition. For analog CRT displays this will potential be negligible. Nonetheless, it is an error. Color Decoding With waveform monitoring the Toshiba players output correct color decoding at all HD scan rates with all formats and connections.
Via HDMI or analog video, the Toshiba players had the usual amount of scaling artifacts observed for color bar patterns where two colours meet. Having artifacts in this existence of response is unfortunately common. All the Toshiba players and the OPPO DV981HD generated about the same level of error over the identical amount pixels. Horizontal Frequency Response Luminance With HD DVD via HDMI, all scan rates reproduced a flawless response, as expected.
Sign that for 720p and 1080p testing the source content used was native to that inspect scale as beefy as pixel mapped, a great feature of the DVE HD DVD disc providing a fair comparison for both HD peruse rates. SD DVD is not pixel mapped. As noted, Waveform monitoring response was disadvantageous for this test. Visually the Toshiba passed the non-stop frequency burst test at 1080p HDMI quite fine for luminance, bettering the reference OPPO.
Stirring on to the elevated closeness pattern, recall that I have yet to see any player or scaler player combo pass this pattern correctly. Toshiba was no exception. This pattern always has banding as well. The finest I can state on this is a high, medium or a low contrast response with high being the best and low being the worst.
The Toshiba provided a high contrast response bettering the OPPO. 720p HDMI was similar in response on the other hand with a bit more banding which is to be expected when having less pixels to scale with. Analog component video had a alike response at 480p. Vertical Frequency Response Luminance With HD DVD via HDMI, all scan rates reproduced a flawless response, as expected. Note that for 720p and 1080p testing the source content used was native to that scan rate as well as pixel mapped.
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