Toshiba HD-XA1 Review

We take a look at the firsy HD DVD player on the market, the Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player priced at $799. Should you spend your money? Read on!

Summary

Ten years after the first DVD player wowed us, the next generation of DVD is hitting stores. This time there’s a choice: HD DVD, supported by Toshiba, Microsoft and Thomson; and Blu-ray Disc, backed by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp and Philips. LG, for one, has said it might support both.

With single-disc DVD players ringing up at Target for $39 a pop, it’s no wonder the industry is pushing the next big thing in video. But for many consumers who are content with their existing libraries of video discs, DVD fills their need. These are likely the same people who are satisfied with their analog or EDTVs and haven’t caught on to the wonders of HDTV.

But I am ready for next-gen DVD. I’ve had my HDTV for 4 years, and standard-def DVD is no longer good enough. If I’ve been enjoying Rudy Maxa’s high-def travels on PBS HD, and then I switch to a DVD, I’m underwhelmed by the down-res viewing experience to 480p resolution. I want everything in high-def–720p, 1080i or 1080p.

Enter Toshiba’s new HD DVD players, the first high-def DVD players to hit the market in late spring. For this review, we selected the higher end $799 HD-XA1 HD DVD player. The entry-level HD-A1 retails for $499.

Design and Features

The HD-XA1 is an attractive add to the equipment stack. Solidly built, the player’s elegant two-toned front-panel design features a glossy black upper panel and solid brushed aluminum lower panel. The power button changes from red to lime green when switching between standby and on modes. The other two front-panel buttons include Door, which motors down the front panel cover, and Open/Close, which powers the disc drawer. Behind the lower panel are five small round buttons for the basics: track advance and reverse, pause, stop and play. Two USB jacks reside behind the front panel for game players or memory sticks.

Like all HD DVD players, the HD-XA1 is compatible with the full gamut of DVD and CD formats: HD DVD/HD DVD-R, DVD/DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and CD/CD-R/CD-RW. Output connectors include HDMI 1.1, component video, S-Video and composite on the video side and 5.1-channel analog, coaxial digital and optical digital on the audio side. The jack pack is completed by two USB ports, RS-232 for control systems and an Ethernet RJ45 jack, which allows for feature upgrades and player interactivity.

The HD-XA1 has on-board audio encoders for Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS and DTS-HD. Audio encoders include multi-channel 24-bit/192 kHz digital audio converters. The player is also compatible with two-channel Dolby True HD.

On the video side, the player upconverts standard DVDs to 720p or 1080i, depending on your display. The HD-XA1 does not support 1080p output, although future generations almost certainly will. At issue, according to Toshiba HD DVD advisor Mark Knox, is that not all 1080p TVs currently available can accept 1080p at all possible frame rates. Movies use a 24-progressive frame rate, but according to Knox, “some of new TVs out now that say they have 1080p won’t take 24 frames progressive because it’s related to the scan rate of display itself.” Frame rate support is one of the issues still being ironed out in the standardization process for HDMI 1.3, which should be ratified by the end of the year.

Image Courtesy of Toshiba

Setup and Use

Setup can take various routes depending on your input array. I connected the component video outputs from the HD-XA1 to the matching inputs on my 1080i TV, which is not equipped with HDMI. Toshiba, to its credit, stuffed an HDMI cable in the accessories bag (along with a composite video and RCA analog audio cables) for people who have HDMI-equipped TVs.

For audio, I connected my own Toslink cable (none in the box) from the DVD player to my receiver, choosing the simple single cable route over sending six analog runs to my receiver.

A 5.1-channel analog connection would have netted me Dolby Digital Plus (when the HDMI 1.3 standard is complete, you’ll be able to get not only Dolby Digital Plus, but DVD-Audio along with hi-res video through the single cable). An HDMI connection would have passed through Dolby Digital Plus as well, but my receiver only has optical and coaxial audio inputs, which can’t send through the Dolby Digital Plus signals.

For my situation, Toshiba’s solution was to take the 5.1 channels of PCM audio from the Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack, re-encode them into DTS inside the player and then shoot the audio out over the optical digital audio output to my receiver. Knox says Toshiba chose this route in the first-generation players because “DTS at a higher bit rate is at least equal to the quality you would have had from the Dolby Digital Plus that’s typical on an HD DVD release.”

I didn’t feel cheated. Horses pounding across the battlefield in The Last Samurai with arrows zipping by were convincing enough to me, and I think my neighbors would agree. I also got up to shut the windows during a storm scene only to realize that the only storm was on screen, not outside my house.

On the video setup side, you have to tell the player the type of connection you’re using along with the native resolution of the display. Toshiba placed V. Output and Resolution buttons on the remote control to facilitate that task rather than sending you into menus.

Since my early adopted CRT is a 1080i model with component video connections, I was relieved to find that none of the HD DVD titles so far have incorporated the dreaded Image Constraint Token option which Hollywood forced into the HD DVD spec. ICT is a copy-protection feature that, if implemented, would downconvert video signals sent over component video outputs to 480p resolution–no better than standard DVD–to prevent copying. HDMI, by contrast, has built-in copy protection features so ICT isn’t necessary. ICT encoding would be a stinging slap to early adopters like me who bought into HDTV prior to the availability of HDMI.

The Toshiba HD-XA1

Performance

I had heard the complaints about slow startup time for HD DVD players when I began my review. Already, updated players have shaved about half the startup time from a snail-slow 2 minutes to just under one. That’s still a while to wait for a picture to come on screen, but once you know that’s the deal, you can adjust in the same way you get coffee in the morning while waiting for the PC to boot up. To me, that’s not a deal breaker. To a family with impatient two-year-olds, it might be.

In fact, the PC boot analogy is apt because these first-generation players are more like computers than DVD players, says Toshiba’s Knox. The player has to boot up and run through disc authentication before the movie starts. Knox says that speed will get better as time goes on through software and firmware updates. And next-gen players will assign to dedicated ICs functions being handled in software today. Still, Knox says, an HD DVD player will never be as fast as a standard DVD player because its architecture is PC-like in nature. “It loads an operating system and then the OS loads the pieces of the puzzle,” he says.

I auditioned Phantom of the Opera first on the HD-XA1. The movie (along with others I reviewed) started with a short tutorial about the HD DVD format complete with movie clips. I was immediately transfixed by the picture which appeared cleaner and crisper than standard DVD with less video noise, more detail, deeper and more nuanced colors and a more three-dimensional appearance. I was fascinated by the detail in the costumes in Phantom and The Last Samurai. The resolution differences between DVD and HD DVD aren’t as apparent as between VHS and DVD, but HD DVD is much more like the HDTV experience I’ve become accustomed to.

For sound, I used a 5.1-channel speaker setup. Although the HD DVD format supports 7.1 channels, I can’t imagine ever being able to devote that kind of speaker real estate unless I win the lottery and build a dedicated theater (I’m working on it). But even at 5.1 channels, the dynamic full-range sound was impressive.

One of the best features about HD DVD is that you can access special features and menu functions without leaving the movie. That’s great if you want to tap into director commentary, read background info or change subtitle info.

I enjoyed fiddling with the extra features, until I got caught in a twilightzone-like experience in Phantom’s sing-a-long bonus. Confusing navigation on the disc kept me in an interminable loop with the annoying off-key singing of the Phantom cast and crew. It wasn’t the best use of the extra disc capacity to say the least. Another quirk: In the audio section under Settings, the term Button Audio on the Phantom disc threw me for a loop. Turns out it refers to sound effects for the on-screen buttons and you choose whether you want to hear bleep sounds when you click.

Conclusion

Technology enthusiasts always face the dilemma of when to buy. How long do you wait for features and price to meet the perfect buy point? It’s rarely in the first generation.

The HD-XA1 is compatible with existing DVDs and CDs so early adopters won’t become obsolete any time soon. The player delivers a stunning image and dynamic, enveloping sound. I got used to watching high-res movies in the minute it took the player to boot up, and that’s the way I want to watch all movies in the future.

If you’re the on the front lines of the early adopter crowd, you won’t be disappointed in the audio and video performance of the HD-XA1. You may want to save $300 and get the starter model if you can live without backlit remote, stabilizing feet, a motorized door and an RS-232 port.

Most people, however, will prefer the safety of a wait-and-see approach. It’s not likely that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray will succeed. Blu-ray appears to have more studio support for movie titles, but Blu-ray players thus far are much more expensive. In either case, buyers would be smart to wait until the HDMI 1.3 standard is set in stone and the 1080p landscape is clearer before committing to either next-gen DVD format. A year from now consumers will have more, and more affordable, options.

For those who want to remain on the 480 fence–and who believe standard DVD is good enough to carry us forward in the HDTV era–that’s not an option. A good look at the HD-XA1 proves that high-def is the future of the DVD.

Pros:

• Excellent picture quality
• Exceptional sound
• Comes with an HDMI cable

Cons:

• Very slow start up
• Does not support 1080p
• Expensive
• Not a lot of HD DVD movies to choose from