Digital Trends

Toshiba HD-XA1 July 9th, 2006 | by Rebecca Day

Performance

I had heard the complaints about slow startup time for HD DVD players when I began my review. Already, updated players have shaved about half the startup time from a snail-slow 2 minutes to just under one. That's still a while to wait for a picture to come on screen, but once you know that's the deal, you can adjust in the same way you get coffee in the morning while waiting for the PC to boot up. To me, that's not a deal breaker. To a family with impatient two-year-olds, it might be.

In fact, the PC boot analogy is apt because these first-generation players are more like computers than DVD players, says Toshiba's Knox. The player has to boot up and run through disc authentication before the movie starts. Knox says that speed will get better as time goes on through software and firmware updates. And next-gen players will assign to dedicated ICs functions being handled in software today. Still, Knox says, an HD DVD player will never be as fast as a standard DVD player because its architecture is PC-like in nature. “It loads an operating system and then the OS loads the pieces of the puzzle,” he says.

I auditioned Phantom of the Opera first on the HD-XA1. The movie (along with others I reviewed) started with a short tutorial about the HD DVD format complete with movie clips. I was immediately transfixed by the picture which appeared cleaner and crisper than standard DVD with less video noise, more detail, deeper and more nuanced colors and a more three-dimensional appearance. I was fascinated by the detail in the costumes in Phantom and The Last Samurai. The resolution differences between DVD and HD DVD aren't as apparent as between VHS and DVD, but HD DVD is much more like the HDTV experience I've become accustomed to.

For sound, I used a 5.1-channel speaker setup. Although the HD DVD format supports 7.1 channels, I can't imagine ever being able to devote that kind of speaker real estate unless I win the lottery and build a dedicated theater (I'm working on it). But even at 5.1 channels, the dynamic full-range sound was impressive.

One of the best features about HD DVD is that you can access special features and menu functions without leaving the movie. That's great if you want to tap into director commentary, read background info or change subtitle info.

I enjoyed fiddling with the extra features, until I got caught in a twilightzone-like experience in Phantom's sing-a-long bonus. Confusing navigation on the disc kept me in an interminable loop with the annoying off-key singing of the Phantom cast and crew. It wasn't the best use of the extra disc capacity to say the least. Another quirk: In the audio section under Settings, the term Button Audio on the Phantom disc threw me for a loop. Turns out it refers to sound effects for the on-screen buttons and you choose whether you want to hear bleep sounds when you click.