HD-XA2 or HD-A35 (1 Viewer)

[Brad Vautrinot]

I've been thinking of going neutral and buying an HD player. I see that many folks here seem to prefer the Toshiba line which prompts this query:

HD-XA2 vs. HD-A35

Price differences aside, is one a better performer than the other; any advantages/disadvantages between the two?

About ready to buy the Denon DVD-3800BDCI blu-ray player (currently using a Sony S300).

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The XA2 has the Reon chip for upconversion of SD DVD and more menu options for upconversion. It is supposedly the best upconverter out there. Both the A35 and the XA2 bitstream HD audio to a decoding receiver (XA2 requires a firmware upgrade to do it). The XA2 seems to be a little less finicky about playing scratched or dirty disks. That's about it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've owned the XA2 since last January and had very little trouble with it while others have stated that otherwise. I found the picture quality excellent and ever since the firmware update, the player allows lossless audio through the bitstream.




Crawdaddy

 

[f1nuts]

have owned the xa2 since it came out and never had any problems whatsoever with it ....upscaling of sd dvd is excellent......

 

[Brad Vautrinot]

Thank you very much for the replies - they've been a big help.

 

[Super_E]

I own the A35 and really love it. I also have the XA1 (not XA2)... The A35 is really great and at $100 less than the XA2 it is essentially the same (obviously it is missing the Reon Chipset) The chipset in it is Ancor Bay (no not the movie studio) but is really is nice!

Cheers

 

[Brad Vautrinot]

Thanks, Matthew. Please see my Christmas rant on this forum.

 

[temproh]

The HD-XA2 isn't region free, is it?

 

[Shane Martin]

For HD DVD's all, HD DVD players are region free.

For SD movies, all are region locked.

 

[Marko Berg]

Supposedly one can upgrade some HD DVD players with Australian firmware versions that will remove SD DVD region restrictions from the player. Reading various Internet forums would lead me to believe this can be applied to at least some European models as well as Australian.

Seems to me it's only a matter of time before region-free SD DVD watching will be available on most HD DVD hardware, hacked if not out-of-the-box.