Budget 1080p HD-DVD comparison: Toshiba HD-A20 vs. Xbox 360 Add-on

For over a year, the the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on has offered the least expensive way for Xbox 360 owners to view HD-DVD content. Prior to the Elite Xbox 360, VGA and component were the two connection options. Now the Elite and newer Premium/Pro systems support HDMI for an improved comparison to standalone HDMI HD-DVD players. Consumers like me are especially price sensitive regarding HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, because neither format has become the standard (the “winner” of the “format war”) of high-definition content. Industry pundits agree that the format war will continue for at least the next several years, as evidenced by this lengthy Gizmodo post on The State of HD-DVD.

This comparison is targeted at consumers that want 1080p HD-DVD for the lowest cost. This article does not include the price of the Xbox 360 for purposes of comparing the drives only. My goal was to determine whether the Xbox 360 add-on produced reasonably similar results viewing HD-DVD content when compared to the standalone HD-A20. I couldn’t find this kind of comparison elsewhere, especially not with newer HDMI-equipped Xbox 360s. The Xbox I’m using is a newer Premium/Pro system with HDMI and the Microsoft HDMI cable.

The Toshiba HD-A20 is a second generation HD-DVD player. Recently it is the lowest priced HD-DVD standalone player that offers 1080p output. Via a recent firmware update, the player will output 1080p/24Hz for televisions that support this. I fed audio into my 5.1 Yamaha receiver, however it does not support HDMI (much less HDMI 1.3), so this review will focus on video quality only.

Pricing

I was able to pick up both players with sale prices at the time of this writing:

• Toshiba HD-A20: $250
• Xbox 360 add-on: $130

Both players ship with remotes, but neither player ships with any “useful” cables (Toshiba includes useless RCA cables). The Xbox 360 add-on includes King Kong HD-DVD, and both include the 5 free movies by mail (from a set of 15) promotion that runs through early 2008. There are holiday promotions for Toshiba players to include more free media, so look for that if that interests you. My interest is taking advantage of HD-DVD content from Netflix.

Television and source media

The television used in this comparison is a 37″ Westinghouse LVM-37W3. The HD-DVDs used are Transformers and King Kong, while the standard definition DVDs used are “The Rock.” I also watched a couple rentals and Shrek 3 on DVD to see how animated content looked. I changed no television settings between taking pictures. Both sources were output over HDMI. I enabled Enhanced Black support on the Toshiba player, though results seem marginal if any.

Toshiba HD-A20 extra details

• Toshiba firmware is out of date on arrival. The HD-A20 has an Ethernet interface, but I was unable to get it to connect to the server hosting the updated firmware. I was able to download the latest firmware ISO, burn it, and install it. Installation took a bewildering 30 minutes, but fortunately many sources online alerted me to this lengthy wait. Once updated, I switched output to 1080p/24Hz and everything looked great. However, accessing the online content than many HD-DVDs offer would not be as reliable as the more “internet savvy” Xbox 360.
• Upconversion of regular DVDs is very impressive. The colors and details are noticeable improved.
• Unit runs quietly, even during quiet scenes with no dialogue.
• 20 seconds or so once disc is inserted before it starts playing. At least 10 seconds from power on before disc drive ejects. Navigation like chapter skipping or jumping to the root menu are quick, though in general the standalone player is more sluggish than the (triple-CPU) Xbox 360.

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on extra details

• Drive itself is not noisy, but the combination of Xbox 360 plus HD-DVD drive is a louder combination than a standalone player. Fan noise from the Xbox 360 is at least half during movie watching, compared with gaming however, so it generally does not interrupt the viewing experience.
• Add-on has “Letterbox” and “Stretch” image adjustments through the player, especially useful for filling available screen space with 4×3 DVDs.

Remote differences

The Toshiba remote is awkward, as buttons don’t seem to have been laid out with the user in mind. The Toshiba remote does not light-up, while the Xbox remote is more ergonomic, more intuitive, controls the Xbox 360 user interface, and lights-up.

Size

Xbox 360 add-on is less than half of the width of the standalone, though about the same height. It adds a 2-port USB hub to the 360. The drive can be stacked vertically as well. The standalone drive width may be an issue for some home theater racks, though obviously it looks more like a traditional home theater component.

Regular DVD upconversion results

On upconverting regular DVDs, I’d give the slight nod to the standalone Toshiba HD-A20, where I felt like it processed jagged edges (slightly) better. Note that the “jagged edges comparison” is slightly skewed in favor of the Toshiba because I scaled the image up on the 360 player to fill the available space. I’d rather watch the movie filling the screen space and deal with the (slightly) more jagged edges.

From my research, it looks like any upconversion is done in software on the Xbox 360, thus results should be similar between the built-in drive and the HD-DVD add-on. I wasn’t able to test this for this review. I wasn’t particularly interested in upconversion results. For those that are, I recommend taking a look at reviews for products from Oppo.

The Rock DVD was one of the early moves produced on a DVD (instead of VHS) making it look even worse when compared to HD. Neither player did a great job upconverting this movie since it was produced in such a low resolution to begin with. Shrek 3 on DVD by comparison looked pretty similar in both players, though I didn’t have pictures to post from that movie.

I wasn’t able to fill my television screen space with the Toshiba player as it didn’t offer the same “Letterbox” or “Stretch” image adjustments the 360 add-on did. In practice, a smaller picture would probably be more disappointing than differences in video quality. I was also able to adjust the image on my television as well, trying to increase the size from the Toshiba player, but it still didn’t fill the screen space.

Toshiba HD-A20 The Rock DVD Scene 1

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on Scene 1

Toshiba HD-A20 The Rock DVD Scene 2

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on Scene 2

HD-DVD results

In comparing display quality of HD-DVD, I’d call the results equal, if not slightly better color from the 360 add-on. I noticed more blue from the Toshiba player in both movies (more noticeable in the desert scene in Transformers below). I’m sure settings could be tweaked to resolve most color issues. If anything, I was pleased to see that for both of these movies, the players performed equally well, while the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on was priced $120 less, and allows me to consolidate two different components into one set of inputs for my home theater.

Transformers HD-DVD

Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD Transformers Scene 1

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on Transformers Scene 1

Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD Transformers Scene 2

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on Transformers Scene 2

King Kong HD-DVD

Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD King Kong Scene 1

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on King Kong Scene 1

Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD King Kong Scene 2

Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on King Kong Scene 2

For closer inspection of the full resolution photos in this article, check my Flickr gallery.