Well, I lucked out....Fed Ex brought me a XA2 yesterday by mistake so I went ahead and signed for it. Woohoo!

jk

hahahahah

dick.

If its error correction is any improvement over the A1's glitchy playback, I'll be very happy for that alone.

Hooray for honesty!

My wife just called to report that our very nice neighbor, who was expecting a small package from Fed Ex but got a large one instead, was kind enough to not steal it. They dropped it off a few minutes ago.

The A2's error correction is stellar.

Awesome...A similar thing happened to me last year, a neighbor from down the street got my new cordless phone I ordered, but he brought it over to me. The box even showed what it was. Maybe he didnt like it.

Josh if you have a moment while you play with this new player...I haven't read if it will output 480i via HDMI...could you let me know the answer?

Thanks very much
Ron

I would have to say that the XA2 would be a waste of money if you only planned on outputting 480i. You aren't getting any use out of the SO chip. I'd go with the A2 (if it does output 480i over component).

What are you using for external scaling that you think would be better than the SO?

I haven't hooked it up yet, but according to the manual it doesn't seem so. However, considering that the XA2 is using a Silicon Optix deinterlacer, 480p quality is going to be just about as good as it gets.

The manual also has a disturbing note. It says that the player supports simultaneous output over both HDMI and component (a big improvement over the A1), but if a disc were to be encoded with an ICT flag and you have both outputs connected, both will be crippled to 480p. In that scenario, you'd have to disconnect the component.

This is a very nice read on the XA2. I think I might have to save up and get this unit. It appears to be the best of the best. And it doesn't sound like another HD DVD player is going to match it any time soon.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=782887

I have a VP50, but having read the reviews at AVS and there comparison to another scaler...I'd have to say I don't need the 480i output. I had also been auditioning a Digital Flea primarily for SD dvd playback. With the new noise reduction features etc, my money would be better spent with the AX2. I have one on order from Robert at VE as of this weekend.

First disc I tested in the XA2 was my glitchy copy of The Matador, which the HD-A1 takes 3 minutes to load and always freezes at the same point on the disc. The XA2 loaded it in a flash and breezed through the problematic scene. Success!

Watching a couple of other discs, I've noticed that the XA2's playback is a little jittery, however. It's as if the decoder is dropping a frame here and there. The problem is usually reproducable by replaying the scene. Two places where this stands out:

- Chapter 2 of Mission Impossible 3, as Michelle Monaghan opens the refrigerator.
- The beginning of Serenity, as the camera pans up to reveal River hiding on the ceiling.

More testing to come.

Josh,

Be sure to post this on AVS so they can rip it apart

LOL!
No kidding.

My XA2 is officially a bust. The judder problem won't go away and is just unbearable. The clearest example is on World Trade Center at 3min. 48sec. Both DVDs and HD DVDs are unwatchable because of it.

The audio is also nowhere near being in sync with the picture using any connection.

I've contacted VE about returning the player. I really wanted this to work out.

Wow. Do you think it's a problem with the machine itself? or the model?

I hope to know soon. A friend in the area also bought an XA2. I've asked him to look for this artifact. He's already confirmed the audio sync problem.

Yikes.

Thanks for taking the bullet. I hope my A1 holds out for a while.

Can someone tell me if the A2 has coaxial audio out?

My receiver has one optical and one coax input, and I've set up the optical input for my cable box and use the coax for my dvd player. I'd rather not have to purchase another receiver as well for HDMI audio.

Thanks!

The specs listed at onecall.com don't mention it-just optical.

Here's a link to Toshiba's product page which has a PDF of the tech specs.

http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvd/product.asp?model=hd-a2

It does not have coax. You can get a coax to optical converter from monoprice. Also, are you sure that your cable box does not have coax? My Comcast box does.

Comcast here too... Above the SPDIF/optical it has an input labelled just SPDIF. Looks like it must be coax... so i should be set if I just swap that. Thanks everyone, that's a relief.

I've been all over the toshiba site and others and could find info on this. The PDF mentioned above by bunkaroo DOES have optical listed. So I guess I only looked at all the specs on the site, not in the actual pdf.

I couldn't even find a photo of the back panel to look at the inputs, but that was a couple weeks ago when I was looking so maybe there are some out now. In any case, I'm taken care of. Thanks again.

Well, Ive had my A2 for a couple weeks now. Ive watched numerous standard DVDs and hd-dvds.

I see a BIG difference between what my A1 could read and what the A2 can read. With the A1, alot of my dvd-rs would take a couple tries to load. The A2 loads them first time. Also, the ones that wouldnt load at all, will load on the A2. So, im very happy with the discs that it can read.

Ive had no lockups (knock on wood) so far. The only issue that I have is...

When I initially power on the A2 and its booting up, my Onkyo receiver doesnt recognize it. When the disc loads, only standard DVDs will make the Onkyo recognize it and it plays. If its an hd-dvd, the receiver doesnt recognize it and I have to power on/off the receiver or switch inputs and switch back.

Hopefully they will release a firmware update to fix this, but its not a show stopper. I think I might can even do a macro on my remote to work around it.

OK that Onkyo receiver is being re-thought.

I wouldn't. I think it's a function of the long startup time of the A2. I would venture to guess that if you let the A2 get fully loaded before turning on the Onkyo, you wouldn't have any issues.