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Reviews from Amazon
Superb -  - Just got my refurbised XA2, which I plan to use for watching mostly SD DVD's. I don't want to buy duplicates of HD DVD's or Blu Rays ( I have Sony BDP SE1) of DVD's that I own. I popped in my Crimson Tide DVD (which I bought 10 years ago). All I can say is WOW! I compared the PQ to my old DVD player and the XA2 just blows it away. More detail, richer colors and more contrast. Also the sound is unbelievable. More bass and the surround effect is amazing. As for HD DVD's this is the best player out there, hands down. I have an XBOX 360 with add on drive but the XA2 smokes the XBOX in both the PQ and sound areas. It's a shame that Toshiba lost the format war, because this is much better HD player than my Sony BDP SE1. Long live HD DVD!!!
PS. The Onkyo HD 305 is a rebadged version of the XA2, and you can find it for around the same price as XA2. But don't buy a refurbed one. My one just died. See my review of the 305
Random Power-Off, Eventual Failure of Audio -  - I bought one of these expensive units, in part for its great Reon processors, which do a wonderful job of upsampling regular DVDs.
But my unit stopped being able to play HD DVD's soon after I got it. It just turns itself off randomly after 5 to 30 minutes. It still played regular DVDs, but then a few weeks later, the audio failed. It just blasts noise and is completely useless now.
STILL a great player. You won't be disappointed. - - I'm not going to go too much into the end of HD DVD and the format war. I'm just glad that Toshiba was able to get such a great product out. The REON chip can allow you to customize your settings to make all of your existing DVD collection look great. It's built like a tank and is just an all around attractive player. Do yourself a favor - if you can get one at a reasonable price, go ahead and grab one and scoop up some fire-sale HD DVDs in the process. @~10-15 bucks each, they are cheaper than DVDs and the same quality as Blu. However, no Blu (standalone) player even comes close to matching this player. It supports all of the Hi-def audio codecs as well. What's not to love?
Toshiba xa2 - - This is truly the best dvd player out there. I also have a Sony Blue Ray dvd player, but it lacks the sound and punch of the XA2, especially for upconverting standard dvds. the Silicon Optix Reon is just a super high end scaler. Please update firmware to 2.7, or 2.8 if you have a tv that is hdmi 1.3 that supports deep color 1080p/24. This player will not be outdated for many years to come. It is a jewel, and the price now is a steal.
The "BOMB" - - I purchased this after HD DVD died, brand new (in Australia) with 11 HD DVD movies for $300.
I purchased this unit, the XE1 it's called here, primarily as an upscaling DVD player and I am astounded how good this is playing DVD's.
Having said that, because HD DVD movies are now so cheap, I have recently purchased many HD DVD movies and now have a small library, they are cheaper in Australia now than on Amazon!
The plan was to buy this machine and wait until blu ray makes a good quality spec 2 player cheap enough, but that might be a long wait, the current blu ray players are a joke compared to this machine!
Also, I have now realised that some DVD movies video and audio qualities are so good, especially recent and new ones, that the need for HD movies is all most redundant.
It all depends on the original transfer, some HD movies are brilliant, some are rubbish, it is the same with DVD.
I watched 'Apocolypto' on DVD today on this machine, and it was staggering! It looked as good as most HD movies it was brilliant, it all most looked 3D in parts, it was spectacular!
In summary, the XA2 is such a terrific quality player of DVDs and HD DVDs, that I will stick with DVD and not bother with the overpriced niche format that is blu ray.
The quality of recent DVDs is so good, that I don't see the need to down spec my player and outlay a bundle of cash in the process and the blu ray movies are so expensive also.
Do yourself a favor, buy one of these at the right price and give blu ray the bird, you will be glad you did.
Also, I love the back lit remote, the icing on a brilliant cake!
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