Price drop on the X-A2 (1 Viewer)

[Thomas W]

I just received the XA-2 model today. The price at Amazon dropped to $599.99 on Monday. That made the decision to buy or not buy much easier for me and I bought one. Even if I only get a couple years out of it watching HD-DVD and enjoying upconverted SD DVD, it seems like a worthwhile purchase.

 

[Paul_Dunlop]

Enjoy - that is an excellent price

I used that same justification to get the HDA2 - am very happy with it

 

[Mark Booth]

I've been sitting on the fence for a year. And, quite frankly, I thought I'd be sitting on the fence even longer. But the multiple reviews that have overwhelmingly rated the Toshiba HD-XA2 as just about the finest up-converting SD-DVD player on the market have had me leaning over the center of the fence since January. And Amazon's sub-$600 price point caused me to fall off of the fence on Tuesday. My XA2 will be delivered today. (Unfortunately, I won't be hooking it up right away because I'm waiting for my Pioneer VSX-72TXV A/V Receiver to return from having the firmware upgraded. Hopefully, I'll have it back tomorrow.)

I don't know which format (or both formats) will survive in the long run. But if the reports on XA2's SD upconverting are true, my current DVD collection will be very happy! If I never buy a HD-DVD title, I'll easily get $600 worth of enjoyment out of the XA2.

Mark

 

[Tim Glover]

Bout to pull that plug too Thomas. FANTASTIC price

 

[donmon]

Great choice!! I have had mine for a couple months now and I love it. I just upgraded the firmware yesterday and it looks fantastic. I watched TROY. What an amazing HD experience. Have fun!!!!!!

 

[SpenceJT]

The HD DVD camp has fired a major shot in the format war. Expect BluRay to follow suit over the coming weeks.

I'm hoping that by the time I make my purchase in July, the X-A2 will be at or around $500, leaving some room for the purchase of a BluRay at a later date.

Here is a recent "Breaking News" from TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics);
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s Official: Toshiba Cuts HD DVD Pricing

By Greg Tarr and Alan Wolf
New York – Toshiba made official its long-rumored HD DVD player price cuts, dropping the expected retail price by $100 each for the entry HD-A2 (to $399) and the step up HD-A20 (to $499), and by $200 on the top-of-the-line HD-XA2 (to $799).

The price moves, which go into effect April 1, were published in a flyer and a catalog distributed to attendees at a store celebration event for local retailer Datavision March 15.

Jodi Sally, Toshiba A/V products marketing VP, confirmed the prices to TWICE this morning.

Datavision is adding to the new prices a $50 instant rebate. In addition, purchasers of any of the players qualify for five free HD DVD titles offered through a separate Toshiba promotion.

Sally denied speculation that Toshiba had made the price step because Sony had recently announced plans to sell a $599 Blu-ray Disc player later this year, and Samsung’s Blu-ray model has been aggressively price promoted on the Internet.

“Price moves like this are planned pretty far in advance,” she said. “It has always been our strategy to really plan strategic pricing and promotions long-term with this category.”

The instant rebates advertised by Datavision are offered by the retailer and not backed by Toshiba, she said.

Sales of HD DVD players have been doing well this year, Sally said.

“As of last week, Amazon.com was showing the HD-A2 and the HD-XA2 players in the No. 5 and No. 6 spots of all HD DVD players,” she said.

As for the future incentives, Sally hinted that some major HD DVD title releases will be coming soon, but declined to elaborate until the studios make official announcements.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Jason Seaver]

Uh... behind what? I presume that for this to be good news for Toshiba, numbers one through four have to be upconverting DVD players or the XBox 360 add-on.

 

[Thomas W]

So far, so good. I got my new X-A2 up and running without too many hassles. I watched Babel in HD and it looked great even though this movie is probably not the best source for testing HD.

However, I also watched my SD DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean and I was really blown away! I don't even have an HDMI connection to my RPTV, just component (so no upconversion), but the pictures quality seemed better than my old DVD player (A Toshiba progressive scan model from about six years ago, model "SD something"). Very 3-D film-like experience. Maybe it's just a new owners delusion, but it sure seemed to be much better.

What's clearly not delusional is the improvement in sound quality. I was using a digital coaxial output from my old player to my receiver. I decided to use a 5.1 analog connection with my new X-A2 to be able to get Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus. The sound improvement was miraculous! I'm not sure if the improvement is due to the quality of the DACs in the X-A2 or the change to a 5.1 analog connection. Either way, the sound was exquisite. My receiver is a 6 year old Marantz SR-18, which was one of the better mid-range priced amps when it was made.

I also like the fact that I can tweak the speaker and video settings through the HD-DVD player. I made slight adjustments to contrast and brightness to improve the PQ without having to tweak the basic settings on the RPTV. The X-A2 has 3 picture settings that you can program so you can switch back and forth between them depending on the source material. For example, I can use one picture setting when I watch a HD-DVD at 1080i, and another setting when watching a SD DVD at 480p.

So far I'm very happy with my decision to purchase the X-A2 at what I consider a reasonable price for the technology.

Forgot to mention that my set is a 6 year old 57" Toshiba widescreen RPTV CRT that displays up to 1080i.

 

[Sami Kallio]

They seem to be #3 & #4 on all of the DVD players: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers...pf_rd_i=172514

 

[tknapp]

I have a dolby pro logic receiver that decodes the signal over a pair of rca inputs. How would i hook the x-a2 up to it if it has the channels already separated? I need the signal sent over a single rca pair to the receiver and then the receiver decodes. Will my receiver not work?

Tim

 

[Sami Kallio]

I don't know about the XA2 but my A1 and XA1 have 5.1 analog outputs and 2ch analog outputs. I would assume the XA2 is the same, like every other player with surrounds outputs I have seen.

 

[tknapp]

Well, my old toshiba sd-1600 player just out-puts dolby digital over a rca pair ( left and right) and then relies on my dolby receiver to decode it. Where as I think the xa2 has a (front rca pair), a surround rca pair, a center and subwoofer. That would definitely be different. Unless dolby is being encoded on the xa2's 2 channel analog outputs and i can decode it off of that with my receiver. Otherwise how or why would I go from all those 5.1 analog outputs on the xa2 to the two rca analog inputs of my reviver? It seem like the xa2 has already decoded it since it's all separated on the back panel. How then is this going to work with my receiver which wants to decode a coded signal on it's two rca analog inputs? Can someone clear this up for me.

 

[Sami Kallio]

You are not going to get Dolby Digital from 2 channel outputs, you are only getting 2 channels. Your receiver will then decode it to Dolby ProLogic. If it was me, I would just settle for 2 channel and not do any surround at all if I wasn't getting at least DD.

Now, all DVD players that put out external decoded DD/DTS/etc have both 5.1 output and 2 channel output. If you connect the front channels from 5.1 outputs you aren't getting all of the soundtrack and will most likely not hear much of dialog on the movies. If you use the L/R you will get the same as you are getting now.

The specs on XA2 confirm this:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Toshiba_HD_X...9.html?tag=sub

# Input/Output connections
# 1 x 5.1 channel audio line-out, 1 x Audio line-out (RCA phono x 2)

Tim, quite honestly, you would be better off getting a receiver that can decode DD/DTS or at least take in 5.1 analog outputs. Real surround is much better than ProLogic decoding.

 

[tknapp]

Bummer. So it will be a double wammy cost for me then. I was waiting for the price drop of the x-a2 because I thought it would work with my anolog reciever. Looks like it will not. Regarding 5.1 anyway. So, any recommendations on a 5.1 or even 7.1 surround amp/reciever that will put a min 100w to all speakers? Thanks for the help Sami.

 

[Sami Kallio]

Tim, it will work with your existing receiver just like your current DVD player works with it. Neither provides you DD/DTS through so a new receiver is recommended.

I would recommend Harman Kardon, plenty to choose from all price ranges (link below). Or if you don't mind waiting for little longer, wait for something with HDMI 1.3 to get HD soundtrack. You can get the HD now if you have analog inputs for all channels but in the future you will get them straight from HDMI.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...&fsop=1&fsoo=1

 

[Steve Schaffer]

As the happy owner of a Harmon Kardon AVR-635 it pains me to say this but the new line of HK receivers with HDMI switching are badly flawed in that they won't pass 1080p and do not properly handle incoming multichannel pcm via HDMI. Decoding of the new Tru-HD soundtracks is done by the players and passed via analog outs or by HDMI as multichannel PCM, and many BD discs have multichannel PCM soundtracks encoded on the discs. The HK receivers can't properly handle these via HDMI, so you have to use the analog inputs. The latter is not a problem if the player has analog outs like the HDAX2, but it is if you have an HDA2 which lacks analog outs.

On the BD side, the best player out there--the PS3--does not have analog outs. The currently available standalones which do have analog outs will not be able to process DTSHD soundtracks (already seen on most Fox BD discs).

HK receivers have phenomenal sound and great amp sections but the current models are crippled for HDMI use.

I recently purchased a Pioneer VSX-82TSX, which needed a firmware update due to a glitch in handling LFE via HDMI, and it's working flawlessly with a PS3 and HDA2. Another popular choice for HDMI receivers with full functionality is the Denon 2807.

 

[tknapp]

Thank guys for the input. This will help me make a decision. I appreciate it very much.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Amazon shows the HD-XA2 at $561.88 plus $25 shipping now.

Chris

 

[Paul Arnette]

I believe that is Electronics Expo, not Amazon directly offering that price, as shipping on an item such as this is typical free at Amazon. While it is true that the price is lower overall, if you do some digging into Electronics Expo's ratings, you might find the extra $13.11 worth the peace of mind. Additionally, Amazon will price-protect for 30 days.

 

[tknapp]

I've read that Toshiba is slashing prices again effective april 1st. Are these prices reflecting that already?

Tim