I am going to buy a back up HD DVD player just in case my other two go out down the road. Is that A20 or the A30 better?

There both very similar. They both play 1080p/24 and have the same upscaler. One difference is if you use the optical cable for the audio. The A20 will output the audio at a higher 1.5mbps DTS while the A30 will do 640K Dolby Digital. Also, supposedly the A20 is better at handling scratched dsics.

I'm thinking the same thing TheKobra is thinking. I don't plan on rebuing my 30+ HD DVDs on BD anytime soon so I need another player in case something should happen to my A2.

Does the same rule of thumb apply regarding the XA2 vs. the A35, Obi-Jon Kenobi?

Also keep in mind there's a longstanding known issue with the A20/A30/A35 regarding 1080p60 output. It may or may not affect your picture quality, but it is there, and apparently it can't be fixed, as the A20 has been out for nearly a year. The A30 and A35 inherited the problem.

1080p24 seems to be fine, and of course you can always use 1080i, but for someone like me who bought the A20 specifically because it was 1080p60, it's a little annoying that Toshiba has never addressed the issue.

What's this issue with 1080p60 output? I had heard of A/V sync issues when doing 1080p24 but hadn't heard of any issues with 1080p60. My set is not 1080p24 capable so I need 1080p60. Is the XA2 also affected by an issue regarding its 1080p60 output?

This is the main thread about it at AVS:

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

The XA2 is not affected due to having a different deinterlacer than the other three use.

Again, you may or may not see the difference, but there is an uncorrected issue there, and most people on AVS seem to agree running these players in 1080i is best for 1080p 60Hz displays.

Thanks, bunkaroo. I'm looking to not just get a backup but also an upgrade and it'd be silly for me to get a 1080p capable player and use it at 1080i (even though my set does an exceptional job at deinterlacing 1080i to 1080p, imo) so I'm gonna have to hunt for a good bargain on an XA2.