Review of the Toshiba HD-XA1 HD-DVD Player

The Toshiba XA1 HD-DVD player.

Hardware Review
By John J. Puccio
FIRST ONLINE Jun 12, 2006

Tools:

"Well...I don´t see no p´ints about that frog that´s any better´n any other frog." --Mark Twain

When is an additional $300 worth a top-of-the-line piece of video equipment? That´s the question consumers will have to ask themselves if choosing between Toshiba´s $499 HD-A1 HD-DVD player and their pricier $799 HD-XA1 model.

The Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA1 players are the first in a new wave of next-generation HD DVD machines capable of reproducing high-definition signals of 1080 scan lines. That´s quite a step up from the 480 lines produced by standard-definition DVDs, and it means a whole lot more pixels reaching your screen, over six times as many overall. Which means a far better, more detailed picture, no matter what size screen you´re watching. Sure, putting more than six times the total pixels on screen makes a huge difference when using a big-screen TV, but even on my 34" Sony XBR960 high-definition widescreen television, the differences are more than eye-opening.

What the XA1 Will Do:
Like the HD-A1, the higher-priced HD-XA1 is backward compatible with existing software. It will play high-definition HD-DVDs as well as standard DVDs and CDs (HD-DVD, DVD, DVD-R/-RW/-RAM, CD, and CD-R/-RW). So again you can be sure that most of the discs you already have on your shelf should play fine. Several readers at DVDTOWN have commented at the Message Board that some of the discs they burned themselves would not play back properly, but I suspect these are isolated cases, and I had no trouble with any of the audio or video discs I tried.

To give you an idea of what the XA1 is capable of doing, besides outputting 1080x1920 lines of resolution, let me quote something from a Toshiba press release that I cited before in my review of the A1: "Today´s DVD requires users to stop movie playback to access disc menu content. With an HD-DVD with advanced content, you´ll freely navigate the menu features, without stopping the movie. Browse through the chapter guide, change setup options and select supplemental content all while the movie plays on. With HD-DVD´s disc menu capabilities, the fun can continue as you interact with disc content. HD-DVD´s ability to superimpose motion video over the main program adds new options for supplemental content and other extra features. With HD-DVD, director´s and actor´s commentary can be motion video superimposed on the movie--allowing them to literally point to the material they are discussing. Or, the feature can be used to present an actor´s biography or other supplemental informtion, all while the movie continues to play. And you´ll be able to turn these features on and off without stopping playback. Of course, the availability of these features will depend on what studios choose to include in their HD-DVD releases. While some HD-DVDs may use menus and extras that are similar to today´s DVDs, our players will support the advanced features described from day one."

Furthermore, again quoting from Toshiba´s notes on the player: "...standard-definition DVD picture resolution can be up-converted via the HDMI interface to near-HD quality, with output resolution of 720p or 1080i to match your HDTV´s performance. Because the conversion takes place in the player, the signal remains free from excessive digital-to-analog conversion artifacts." In terms of sound, the players use "four 32-bit floating-point DSPs to decode Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD (2 ch), DTS, and DTS-HD, offering improved fidelity and sonic realism to DVD soundtracks. The DSPs are world renowned for their high accuracy and are used in many high-quality audio solutions in the home theater market."

In terms of appearance, features, outputs, and such, the XA1 has a full complement of expected elements. On the front panel you´ll find a display of most pertinent items, like track times, chapter and input selections, screen resolution, and so forth buttons for play, stop, pause, skip, etc. and extension ports for USB game controllers and whatever else Toshiba can think up for them. I did miss a bit-rate counter, though I thought their higher-priced machine would have one (possibly because Toshiba´s Web site says the XA1 has one), but I couldn´t find it.

On the backside of the XA1, you´ll find outputs for just about everything: HDMI and component video outs coaxial and optical digital audio outs two-channel analogue audio outs and 5.1-channel analogue audio outs. The back of the machine also boasts a LAN port to link your machine to a broadband Internet connection for firmware upgrades and a jack for custom control devices (which the owner´s manual fails to identify).

How the XA1 Differs from the A1:
Actually, there isn´t much difference. I mentioned the extra jack on the rear of the player. The dimensions of the two machines are almost identical, not surprising given that they house essentially the same components. I measured the XA1 at 17.25" wide, 14" deep, and 4.5" high, a quarter of an inch wider and a quarter inch taller than the A1. Moreover, the XA1 at about eighteen pounds, weighs slightly more than the A1. I attribute these small variations to a heavier, more-robust, and classier-looking case and feet. The XA1 is finished mostly in a thick, solid, black material, with silver trim rather than the mostly thin silver metal of the A1. The XA1 has more useful feet, too they would seem to isolate the player better from vibration than the A1´s do. Additionally, rather than the small, plastic door on the A1, the XA1 has a full-length, mechanized door on the bottom-half front of the unit, hiding most of the player´s operational buttons. This bigger door looks better, but I´m not sure it is much of a practical improvement (unless it dampens disc noise better I couldn´t tell), and it didn´t always seem to want to shut properly. There is a button on the remote for closing it manually if you become desperate. Finally, the XA1 remote-control unit lights up more about that below.

How the XA1 Performs:
Most important, does the Toshiba HD-XA1 perform any better than its lesser-priced sibling? First, I used the owner´s manuals for the XA1 and A1 to compare specifications and found them the same. Then I started watching movies in HD, and as a result I might just as well say about the XA1´s performance what I said about the A1´s because, in fact, the picture and sound quality of the two units looked alike to me. Namely, the picture is terrific through the HMDI output. The six or eight HD-DVDs I watched on the XA1 looked as good as they had when I watched them on the A1, and the HD picture I get from both machines is slightly better focused than the high definition I get from Comcast cable. Of course, the picture from the HD players should be better than from cable. While television broadcasts have to pass through hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles of satellite and cable feeds to get to one´s house, the HD-DVD signal only has to travel from the player to the TV. Anyway, there is no reason to expect the XA1 to produce any better a picture than the A1, and both are about as good as HD can get.

Image clarity is excellent, and on bigger-screen TVs it will undoubtedly show up even better compared to standard definition. Detailing, contrast, color depth, and black levels are also superb, and at least on the WB products I watched there were no signs of added grain, pixilation, moiré effects, dropouts, or the like that you might find using an SD player. Again, though, I did notice a difference in increased color saturation between the XA1 playing through the HDMI connection and my Sony 7700 playing through component-video connections but the few minor adjustments of the television´s color, picture, and sharpness that I had already made with the A1 on the HDMI input kept things to my liking.

As I said before, the Toshiba played everything I threw at it, from HD-DVDs to standard DVDs to CDs. The up-conversion worked well, too, especially in 1080 resolution, making most standard-definition discs look and sound better than ever however, I saw no immediate improvement upscaling to 720. HD disc-menu options may differ from studio to studio, but the WB discs I tried, with their pop-up menus during the play of a movie, were quite convenient, as was the zoom-and-pan feature.

The Toshiba XA1's audio output likewise appears to be the same as the A1's, meaning it is available DTS encoded through the player's digital coaxial or optical outs or through the player's 5.1 analogue outs (or HDMI out). As before, I found DD+ and Dolby TrueHD played through the XA1's 5.1 analogue outputs sounded great, providing clean, clear sound, focused sound, more vivid and alive than the sound of regular DD 5.1 from my standard-definition player. I strongly advise using the 5.1 analogue outs, whether you own the XA1 or the A1

I should also mention a couple of the same carps about the XA1 that I had about the A1, since the two players are practically the same. The XA1 still takes a while longer to load a disc than a regular SD player does. Upon initially turning it on, the XA1 has to transfer some data and check some things and make its handshake with the HDMI connection. Page six of the Toshiba HD-XA1 owner´s manual informs us that "the HD-DVD player operates more like a computer and differently than a standard DVD player. In addition to containing a microprocessor, it contains an operating system, random access memory (RAM), and an HD DVD drive. The operating system includes software that is transferred to the RAM when the machine is turned on and at other times during operation. This transfer can take time. Therefore, when you turn the HD DVD player on, it may take a little while before it is ready to use. Likewise, other functions may not be performed as quickly as they would on other AV equipment. Please take these factors into consideration as you use the HD DVD player." In other words, expect it to be slower than you´re used to in a typical SD player. I counted about the same about of time, some thirty seconds or more for the player to boot up, and yet other wait for the player to load a disc, just as I did for the A1. And there is also some lag time on clicking on certain menu items.

Next, while you´re waiting for the player to load up, you can also listen to its noise although to be fair, the XA1 seemed slightly quieter to me than the A1, perhaps because I placed it farther from the back wall than the A1. Because the player works like a computer, it has a built-in ventilation fan. The fan makes a small degree of noise. Live with it, and keep it well away from any reflecting surfaces that might augment the level of its sound.

As with the A1, the XA1´s remote-control unit remains the player´s biggest weakness. It looks identical to the A1 remote except that it has several additional function buttons, and it is backlighted. It is very slim, very streamlined, very efficient, and seems like it was designed in 1972, all straight lines and shiny chrome and aluminum. Let me mention a few of the things I dislike about it: (1) It is relatively heavy and awkward to use. Its size is cumbersome. (2) You sometimes have to click three or four times on a menu item to get it to work, even if you are pointing it directly at the player from a few feet away. However, in fairness, I am told that a firmware upgrade improves this situation. (3) Some of the important controls, like the time and chapter search buttons and the setup button, are located beneath a sliding drawer at the bottom of the remote. This strikes me as inconvenient at best. (4) Whereas the A1 remote is almost impossible to read--the lettering being so small and most of the buttons looking alike--the XA1 is a little easier to use with its backlighting. The light is motion sensitive, too, meaning the unit lights up when you move it, but hold it still for a moment while you try to find a button you want and the lights turn off. You can light it up again either by moving it or by clicking on the "Backlight" button, if you can find it. (5) I could still not get the "timing/chapter search" or "stop/resume" functions to work with any of WB´s HD-DVDs, although they work fine with standard-def DVDs. It is my understanding that Warner Bros.´ HD-DVDs (and Universal´s) simply do not support these particular functions. So, what to do? If the remote doesn´t suit you, you can do what I did: Buy a universal remote (I got a $25 Sony RM-VL600) and program it not only for Toshiba´s remote control but for all the rest of your system equipment´s remotes as well. Then, while the universal couldn´t speed up boot times, everything else I clicked on worked like a dream.

In the hours I spent viewing various HD-DVDs, the XA1 played flawlessly. This is not to say, however, that everyone will experience the same results. Again, readers at the Message Board have commented that with both the XA1 and A1 they have encountered discs that stopped playing in mid movie. The only such incident I encountered was a minor flicker using the A1, not the XA1, when a piece of dust momentarily paused play but the machine quickly corrected itself and moved on. The same kind of thing has happened over the years as I was using standard-definition players, too, so it is something we all learn to live with. Keep your discs clean.

Parting Thoughts:
I know what you are going to want me to tell you. It´s the question we started with: Is the XA1 worth the extra $300 over the A1? Frankly, I´ve never considered it my job to tell readers what they should watch or not watch, nor what they should buy or not buy. That is a decision up to you. From what I could see, the XA1 plays HD-DVDs as well as anyone could expect. The machine is built like a tank, weighs a ton, and takes up more space than a typical SD player. But I could say exactly the same things about the lower-priced A1. If it´s simply picture and sound quality you care about and not a heavier case, fancy feet, and a lighted remote, the A1 clearly represents the better value. If you feel you have to go the extra mile and you´re not afraid to pay for it, the XA1 is currently the best (and best looking) HD-DVD machine you can buy. But it may not be all that much better´n any other frog.

Addendum: DVDTOWN´s Editor-in-Chief , Henning Molbaek, Reports on Toshiba´s Latest Firmware Upgrade:
Toshiba recently sent out a firmware upgrade for its A1 and XA1 HD-DVD players, available via Internet or disc. I decided to upgrade my A1 over the Internet. Although I have had no problems with my player and with the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" in mind, I felt it was my duty to do it so I could report my experience. I went into the player´s Setup menu and set my player to auto detect my Internet connection, and then I chose Upgrade. It takes quite a while to get the update downloaded, so be patient. However, it installed without a problem.

With the new firmware installed, I was excited to see if anything had changed. I had hoped for a faster boot of the player, but it seemed the same to me. What they had fixed was the "HDMI ERROR" that occurs when you turn off your TV or projector. It now stops the playback. But resuming playback at the same spot is not possible because Warner Bros. and Universal do not include this function on their first HD-DVD discs, a decision I really don't understand. However, I had no problem changing to another input source and then back to HDMI. It just continued playing fine.

The player also felt quicker and more responsive when changing chapters, etc. While I´ve heard that it also eliminates the problem people have had with discs locking up the player, I have never had that issue, so I can't verify it.

It looks like the Toshiba engineers have removed most of the problems that were present with their first line of HD-DVD players. My only gripe now is the boot time, but I guess I can learn to live with it. The upgrade made me appreciate the Internet connection that is on these players. It is good to know that your player is upgradeable and that you can do it from your home without having to send your player in for servicing. If you have no Internet connection, Toshiba will upon request send the upgrade to you on a DVD.

And, if you haven't upgraded the Toshiba to 2.0 via firmware, you haven't listented to Dolby TrueHD in 5.1 channels. It, too, is great.

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