Toshiba A3 or A30
 

With the price drops, Im gonna grab a HD DVD player until I upgrade to Blu Ray. Also waiting till the make a player as good as the PS3 that isnt the PS3.

Should I get the A3 or A30? Is there much of a difference?

<s>PS3 is the best Blu ray player. Why wait? Plus you get a good deal on it too, and does 100's of other functions beside playing video games.</s>

mod note: please do not threadcrap. -namja

As far as I know the only difference between the A3 and the A30 is the difference between 1080i and 1080p. So if you want 1080p, and think it's worth the extra money (lately, it's been about $50 or so), then get the A30. If your TV doesn't do 1080p, then the extra money may not be worth it (unless you plan on buying a new TV in the next couple of years). If there are any other differences, though, I'm sure someone will post them.

And I'm with you on waiting for a non PS3 Blu-Ray player. They should make a good stand-alone BR player that's affordable, then maybe I will consider buying one (if I could come up with the money, that is). The only reason I would even want a PS3 (for anything other than BR) is to check out the Lost video game (which may not even be worth the $60 for the game itself, but I do want to see it).

I thought the A3 did 1080p,I thought the only diffrence between the two where audio inputs/codecs

No, the A3 does not do 1080p. Of course, that brings it back to whether it really matters anyway if you have a 1080p display. But the A3 is the successor to the A2, neither of which does 1080p.

I have the A3 and it is a 1080i player. Not a bad one at that - BUT THE LOAD TIME .....AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! :brickwl2:

I'm okay....really. Great upconvertor to boot.

Yup.

OP: A quick google hunt to see if your display properly deinterlaces 1080i to 1080p would help you decide if you need 1080p. If it does it properly, 1080i is just as good.

I asked myself the other day the same question. Since Toshiba is not making them, and for my own 'future proof' sake, I'm thinking about buying a 1080p machine for later, when I get a 1080p TV. I currently own the A2 and have a 1080i TV. The picture quality is perfect, IMO. Not sure if it can get any better.

Wishful thinking, I'm hoping Costco will sell the A30, but I highly doubt it. I did see the D3 there for $80 bucks with 2 Bourne movies included. Tempted, but stopped short because of the 1080i support the system offers.

Amazon currently has the A30 for $129.99 shipped. I picked one up yesterday so I could take advantage of the 5 free by rebate which ends on 2-28. I figure the price will drop and maybe I'll be able to get a price adjustment within 30 days.

Does the A30 suffer from the same horrible load times of the A3 (I have an A3). How about the A35?

I had the same nagging feeling about 1080i vs. 1080p, and since I had shelled out the cash for a Pioneer 60" 1080p plasma, it seemed a small price to pay to get a true 1080p player, even though by most accounts, my Pioneer would deinterlace perfectly and I'd be just fine with 1080i.

But anyway, I caved when Overstock had their refurbed HD-XA2s for under $250. It was too hard to pass up a great player like that, and I feel good about having the capability in the player to output 1080p/60hz, and 1080p/24hz.

Doesn't the A35 do 1080P/60hz and 1080P/24hz also? Just doesn't have the Reon chip the XA2 has?

Please be aware that some reviews, such as the one at CNET say that the A30 does not handle 1080p output well. Whether this has been corrected by a firmware update, I've not heard. If 1080p is the reason for purchasing an A30 over another model, you might want to check further.

Anyway, as suggested by others, if one's 1080p display converts 1080i inputs well — as most should, given that it is the broadcast standard — the issue is moot.

It has not been corrected. The A30 and A35 have the same 1080p60 issues as the A20 does (which I own).

Here's the pertinent thread from AVS:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=918262

Thankfully I've found the Samsung 6188 does a great job at deinterlacing 1080i. I originally bought the A20 because it did 1080p. Now that I have to run it in 1080i, the only real benefit of having it is it has better load times than my A1.

Out of all the Tosh HD-DVD players, which has the fastest load time?