Hands-on with Toshiba's third-generation HD DVD player lineup

As you're well aware by now, Toshiba came out today and got (really) official about its third-generation HD DVD lineup, which includes the HD-A3, HD-A30 and the HD-A35. The company was most certainly pushin' HD DVD at its booth today, so it made sense that these three units were the first most people saw when entering through. Each device looked fairly similar to its siblings, but we went ahead and grabbed photos of 'em one by one just to be safe.

Hands-on with Toshiba's third-generation HD DVD player lineup

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2007 9:56PM]

So who else thinks we'll see this new A3 unit at BestBuy and/or Amazon for $199 sometime after Thanksgiving? Or maybe the phasing-out A3 for $129.99 as a "Black Friday Door Buster?"

If it happens, I'll join the HD fray because heck, it's worth that much just for the 7 free movies.

What do you think?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2007 11:23PM]

Yeah, Toshiba is really trying to single handedly get the installed base of HD-DVD players up.

I wonder if it will be enough to hold off what looks like a flood of new BD players coming from pretty much every other top tier manufacturer out there.

Will be an interesting holiday season for the HD disk format war to be sure

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 7th 2007 12:17AM]

Yes BR has a lot of players coming out, but have you noticed that they are nearly all in the $1000 range? With the exception of the NICE looking LG player, almost all the BR players are still expensive, and the cheapest BR player is still twice the cost of the cheapest HD DVD.

The top-selling HD DVD player is Toshiba's cheapest one--Price is the major factor in this format war. Also notable is that the Toshiba A2/A3 player is only 1080i...something that some people will bemoan, but the MAJORITY of HDTVs in people's homes are sub-1080p televisions. So why not go for the 1080i player that's less than $300?

I wish there would be a 1080i cheap BR player...that will make the "war" interesting.

All things being equal, i think I'd prefer BR due to higher capacity and the fact that stubborn-as-hell Sony Inc. will make sure that the formate will never go away. But in all likelihood I'll be buying an HD DVD player because it's half the price and I'll be spending all my money on my forthcoming firstborn manchild.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 7th 2007 2:12AM]

Hey, guys, what is the boot time of these things? If it's half the time of the A2, I might want to upgrade.

A list of the new 15 discs on the offer would be good too.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 7th 2007 6:47AM]

I'm wondering if anyone else is as disappointed as I am in the cosmetics of these new devices. I thought the earlier Toshiba players stood out as both functional and beautiful but these new third-gen players are starting to look pretty plain and down right ugly to me. I am all about getting the prices down so the mainstream consumer will feel that they too can upgrade to HD quality but dang... don't forget that we also buy our equipment on how it looks to us! At least give us the option of buying the sweet looking top end unit that both has more features and is a better looking machine. This is taking a step in the wrong direction IMHO guys. Call me vain but I want my friends to come over and be "Wow'ed" by my system. I can't really do that if I've got equipment that looks like I bought it down at K-Mart.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 7th 2007 5:21PM]

Am I the only one who can't see the gallery?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 7th 2007 6:08PM]

Seriously, can someone comment on 1st hand
experience of the disk load times (of A2 vs. A3)??

Also, can someone in the know comment on differences
between the A2 and the A3.

Thanks
Cameron