Toshiba HD-E 1

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Excellent
Range of Features	Above Average
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Amazing picture .  Interactive features are very innovative .
Disadvantages:	A little slow to load up .  The player is also quite large .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I received my HD DVD player one week ago.
For this reason you may want to check out the durability of the item from other sources but so far so good for me. It appears to be very well made and so I would guess that it is going to last.

First things first - the set up. I was expecting this to be a bit more complicated than setting up a DVD player because of the range of different settings.
It was actually a very easy process. The HDMI cable is a huge improvement over SCART cables (which I have never been fond of) and plugs in similar to how a USB cable plugs in. Apart from that plugged the power cable in and that was all the connecting I had to do.
The setup process took around 60 seconds and the player did it all for me. I have been warned not to set it to '720' resolution as it gives a substandard image, so I just left it on '1080'.

Next I turned on the player. It is a bit slow at loading up but this is not much of an issue - it's just not instant like we are used to with good standard DVD players, taking nearly 30 seconds for a HD DVD to load up.

That's pretty much were my complaints end - once the disc did load up I was instantly impressed with the quality of the picture on the screen.

I probably should mention that the initial DVD that I have been watching is the Smallville Season 5 set (one of the first TV shows to go to HD DVD) I mention this because the best player in the world can not get a good picture out of a poor disc.

I have not seen a picture that is this sharp before. I have also yet to see any 'digital junk' on the screen. This improvement in picture quality is surely the main selling point of HD DVD, in addition to this there is also the more interactive extras included on the discs and internet connectivity which updates the player's software and also will be used in the future to expand a DVD's content after purchase.

The interactive extra on the Smallville set is very impressive and shows off the hardware. I was expecting a tacky 2nd video stream in the corner of the screen when I heard about these extras, it is actually a lot better than this and looks like the videos were put together in post production, rather than done by the machine on the spot.

The menus are different from DVD menus as well. The feature plays when you put the disc in and the menus pop up on the screen when you press the button. The advantage here is that you don't have to leave the movie while you change the settings or browse the extras. Personally I think I prefer the usual menu screens and I hope they make a return, but it is good that they are trying new things.

Overall I am extremely happy with this DVD player. It delivers flawless picture quality and packs in some great features. It does all this at a reasonable price too. The player is a little more expensive than a SKY HD box but much cheaper than a Blu-Ray player. Out of those 3 options I think this represents extremely good value for money and should be in any home that has a HDTV,