In case you hadn’t heard, the HD format war is over. The Blu-ray camp struck a huge win just before CES when Warner Brothers announced they would be moving exclusively to Blu-ray by mid year, tipping the scales majorly in Blu-ray’s favor. Then, in February 2008, Toshiba announced it would discontinue the development, manufacturing and marketing of HD DVD, officially ending the format war. They did, however, confirm that they would honor the warranty of all HD DVD players.

The Toshiba HD DVD players featured in this review were the latest (and as it turns out, last) generation to be released. While it may seem an empty effort to review them now since HD DVD has removed itself from the race, these third generation players from Toshiba have a performance response at crazy low prices to be reckoned with and deserve the full story.

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Only the HD-A35 received HQV Benchmark testing but as noted in the review all 3rd generation models should have a similar response.

HQV Benchmark HD DVD
The Toshiba does not force or automatically select an output scan/frame rate based on the native source material. Testing was performed at 720p, 1080p60 and 1080p24.

HD Noise Test A & B – NA
A noise reduction feature does not exist. 1080p24 did increase the level of noise.

Video Resolution Loss – FAIL
The vertical 1080 box strobed appearing gray. 1080p24 caused the two vertical 1080 boxes in the top corners and in the middle to be all white while the bottom vertical 1080 boxes were all black.

Jaggies A - FAIL

Jaggies B - FAIL

Film Resolution Loss A Vertical - FAIL
Film Resolution Loss A Horizontal – PASS 1080p/1080p24, FAIL 720p
Beyond the failures described for the prior resolution test the addition of motion caused the 1080 vertical box to vibrate back and forth by about two pixels at 1080p60 and all boxes did the same at 720p. 720p caused the horizontal 960 box to flicker/vibrate.

Film Resolution Loss B - FAIL

Perspective
The Toshiba applies vertical filtering failing the video and film resolution loss tests. Oddly enough with normal image content from the disc the image appeared fine in 1080p60 or 720p regardless of failing most of the tests. Not noted for 1080p24 is that with any content from the disc the Toshiba had great difficulty locking onto the cadence creating a constant strobing effect with any motion. Although there were times were it could get a lock it was always short lived. An interesting benefit of this failure is that you will know right away or within a minute, if it happens to get a momentary lock, that the disc has not been mastered properly or that it is not native 1080p24 in which case select 1080p60 or 720p. If your display happens to do a good job of 1080i deinterlacing select 1080i for the Toshiba. None of these failures ever showed up with Hollywood HD DVD content and the 1080p24 setting.


HQV Benchmark DVD
While the Toshiba will allow you to select 1080p24 with DVD it does not work right as noted in the review. Testing was performed at 1080p60. The Toshiba does not allow manual 4:3/16:9 formatting and this disc is not flagged so all testing was forced into 4:3 mode.

Color Bars (4:3) PASS
Color Bars (16:9) NA
Excellent response for luminance and chroma

Jaggie 1 (16:9) FAIL

Jaggie 2 (16:9) FAIL

Flag (4:3) FAIL

Detail (16:9) PASS

Noise (4:3) NA
A noise reduction feature does not exist

Motion Adaptive Noise (16:9) NA
Motion Adaptive Noise (4:3) NA
A noise reduction feature does not exist

Film Detail (4:3) PASS

Assorted Cadences (16:9)
2-2 30fps film - FAIL
2-2-2-4 DVCAM - FAIL
2-3-3-2 DVCAM - FAIL
3-2-3-2-2 VARI SPEED Broadcast - FAIL
5-5 Anime - PASS
6-4 Anime - FAIL
8-7 Anime - FAIL
3-2 24fps film - PASS

Mixed 3:2 with titles (4:3) FAIL – marginal
With the horizontal scroll 45 degree lines in the text flickered appearing to have holes or jaggies. With the vertical scroll there was subtle flickering and text sharpness would pop in and out.

Digital Video Essentials
Full testing is in the review, passing with accolades.

Perspective
While failing most of the tests the Toshiba nonetheless performed quite well with image content on the disc. The Toshiba really puts these tests into question.

Final Conclusion
The response here is a bit more in depth because the 3rd generation players have received some poor ratings in the press which I find puzzling. Could selection of the 1080p24 setting been at fault? How could it fail the jaggies and flag test for DVD yet not show the same obvious errors with actual video content on the same disc? I had the same experience with the HD DVD version. The Toshiba really puts these tests into question for being capable of presenting a final conclusion based on test results only. It was a stellar performer with the Digital Video Essentials tests and video content along with Hollywood titles in either format. In this case the Benchmark material tells us far more about special circumstances you may run into related to odd cadences.

With HQV Benchmark testing performed I stand by my conclusion and typical disclaimer:

SD DVD scaling was exemplary and amongst the finest with good material. While it may not be the best with all content on DVD for the most part the main feature, the movie, is covered. If you want the best scaling for all content then an external scaler with an SDI equipped DVD player remains your only choice although an expensive one.