Toshiba's HD-XA1 brings the stunning picture and sound quality of high-definition HD DVD discs to your home theater. It's also a superb "upconverting" DVD player, and plays your music CDs, too.

For home theater fans, the first truly groundbreaking products of 2006 have to be Toshiba's HD DVD high-definition players: the no-frills model HD-A1 ($500) and more upscale HD-XA1 ($800). Toshiba won the race to be the first to market with a true high-definition disc player. Both HD DVD players first arrived on retailers' shelves in mid-April along with a handful of HD DVD movie titles.

You may have heard about the high-definition "format war" between HD DVD and a Sony-backed format called Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray players and movies finally became available in late June. At some point, perhaps when a few movie titles have been released in both formats, we may conduct a head-to-head comparison of the two high-def disc formats. But this review is all about HD DVD.

I had the chance to try out the HD-XA1 for a few weeks and it was a revelation. The high-definition era of home theater has finally begun.

It's not your daddy's DVD player

Compared to the current crop of slender, lightweight DVD players, the HD-XA1 has a bulky industrial look, and it tips the scale at nearly 28 pounds. The Toshiba temporarily replaced a Sony DVD changer that's a few years old. I connected it to Sony's KDS-R50XBR1 rear-projection SXRD TV, a 50-inch 1080p display praised by videophiles and reviewers as one of the finest currently available (see my review). I thought a 1080p display would provide the best match for the Toshiba player's high-resolution output.

A large power button on the left side of the HD-XA1's front panel is the only obvious control. The bottom half of the front panel is a sliding door that slips out of the way to reveal the disc drawer and a handful of basic controls. From the moment I hit the power button it was obvious this was no ordinary DVD player. A powerful fan kicked on that was louder than the TV's fan, and the HD-XA1's display read, "Welcome." That message remained for about 40 seconds while the player's operating system booted up. The 40-second wait isn't just a one-time event; it happens each time you power up the player.

You've probably never had to wait for your DVD player to boot up, but the HD-XA1 is as much a computer as it is a disc player. Its high-tech innards include an Intel® Pentium 4 processor running at 2.5GHz, and a gigabyte of high-speed memory. Once an HD DVD disc is loaded in the tray, it takes another 30 seconds before anything appears on the TV screen (standard DVDs load a bit quicker). Compared to the speedy, intuitive operation of today's typical DVD players, the HD-XA1 is slow and somewhat clunky.

HD DVD delivers jaw-dropping picture quality

My first HD DVD viewing experience was Universal's lean and likable science fiction flick, Serenity. After watching just a few minutes of the movie I found that the HD-XA1's operational quirks had faded into insignificance. What a spectacular picture! Crystal clear, detailed, and exceptionally clean, lacking any trace of noise. There was a deep sense of clarity and detail that extended to background objects, too, creating a strong sense of 3-dimensionality I've never seen with standard DVDs. While I'd watched brief HD DVD clips at trade shows, the HD experience was much more compelling in my own living room.

Before HD DVD, over-the-air digital HD broadcasts had been my reference for high-definition picture quality. I subscribe to DishNetwork's HD package and a few channels — HBO, ESPN, The Discovery Channel — consistently look very good, but the signal compression that Dish applies makes those channels look slightly soft by comparison, with occasional picture artifacts. Over-the-air HD broadcasts simply deliver a higher level of clarity and sharpness. HD DVD's picture quality is a significant step above the best over-the-air HD I've seen. HD DVD's maximum data transfer rate (bitrate) is nearly twice the maximum rate for over-the-air broadcasts, so it's really not surprising that it looks better. Also, this first batch of HD DVD titles uses "VC-1" video encoding that's up to twice as efficient as MPEG-2, which is used for over-the-air broadcasts and standard DVDs.

I tried both HDMI and component video connections, and while HDMI may have been a hair sharper, I couldn't detect any meaningful or consistent differences: both looked fantastic. Unfortunately, the player doesn't allow instant A-B comparisons — the HD-XA1 can't output video over HDMI and component video at the same time. And switching the connection type via remote caused the player to stop, then re-start playback from the beginning of the disc.

I wasn't surprised that HDMI didn't deliver a clearly superior picture — that's consistent with my previous experiences. On paper, HDMI's direct digital connection would seem to have an advantage, especially feeding a digital display like the Sony SXRD, but I haven't seen a reliable improvement in picture quality in real-world use. And aside from the picture quality question, there were a few times when I got no picture, and a message on the player's display that read "HDMI Error." Since it had been working fine, I knew it wasn't a connection issue. Turning the player off and on didn't fix the problem, but I finally was able to solve it by ejecting the disc and reloading it. I've run into HDMI compatibility issues between players and displays before, but I've never seen a "Component Video Error" message!

When playing an HD DVD disc, the HD-XA1 was able to output maximum 1080i resolution over both component and HDMI (just not at the same time). This was a pleasant surprise because leading up to the launch of HD DVD, we'd been told that these players would be required to "downrez" high-definition signals via the component video output. Only secure digital connections like HDMI would be allowed to carry full-resolution HD. The Hollywood studios insisted that all high-definition players be compatible with a new copy protection flag called an Image Constraint Token (ICT). However, none of the first batch of HD DVD discs includes the ICT, and there have been rumors that the studios may hold off on implementing it until 2010. It's a very consumer-unfriendly "feature," and I hope they just drop it altogether.

Toshiba recommends setting the player's output resolution to match each disc's resolution as closely as possible. Since all of the titles released so far have been 1080i, that makes it easy. So, as counterintuitive as it may sound to owners of displays with 720p or 768p native resolution, selecting 1080i on the player will result in a noticeably better picture than 720p. When I tried cycling through all the resolution options, I found that 720p didn't look much if any better than 480p, including some jaggedness on menu text. Switching to 1080i, the picture snapped into sharp focus and artifacts like jaggies were gone.

A superb "upconverting" DVD player, included for free

One of our editors, Julie, and her husband, are also big fans of the movie Serenity. They came over one evening to watch it in high-definition and brought their standard DVD copy for comparison. First, we looked at a couple of scenes from the DVD and it was immediately clear that the HD-XA1 is also a superb upconverting DVD player. (Later on, I compared the HD-XA1 to my Denon DVD-3910, a highly-regarded upconverting player that sells for $1500. The Toshiba was a match for the Denon overall and seemed to outperform it slightly in its handling of dark, shadowy scenes.)

OK, time to switch back to HD DVD. Despite the HD-XA1's excellence at upconverting standard DVD video, the superiority of the HD DVD picture was immediately apparent to all of us. On closeups, there was much more detail. You could count the pores on the actors' faces, and objects and surfaces were revealed in nearly molecular detail, where even tiny imperfections were easily visible. Images looked noticeably more dimensional; objects in the background that looked fuzzy on DVD were sharper in HD. On the ship's bridge, lights, meters and controls looked crisp, as did the lettering on crates in the cargo hold.

HD DVD's superior picture quality was very evident on the Sony's 50" screen. But the people who will appreciate high-definition discs the most are those with larger rear-projection TVs or front-projection systems. Owners of TVs with screens under 40 inches might not notice a big improvement — especially if they're already using a high-quality upconverting DVD player.

The sound of HD DVD

Along with its fantastic picture, HD DVD offers the potential for improved surround sound realism. I use the word "potential" here because I wasn't actually able to experience it in my system. I'm embarrassed to admit that when it comes to sound, I'm still a knuckle-draggin' 2-channel guy. Even though I don't have first-hand experience with the HD-XA1's surround sound capabilities, I would like to pass along some info gleaned from the player's manual as well as numerous discussion threads at AVS Forum.

Compared to standard DVDs, the HD DVD format provides much more sophisticated options for audio. Sound formatting for HD DVD discs is different from that for standard DVDs, and HD DVD players have internal sound mixing capabilities that are far beyond those of even high-end DVD players. HD DVD players internally mix the soundtrack information with "menu sounds" and "button sounds" that are related to HD DVD's interactivity. The player converts all sound to the all-purpose high-quality digital audio format called PCM.

To enjoy the best-quality multichannel sound from HD DVDs, hook up the HD-XA1 to your A/V receiver using either HDMI or 5.1-channel analog connections.

The remote's motion-sensing illumination sounded like a cool feature, but didn't work consistently.

A few stumbles when it comes to usability

Picture quality is the HD-XA1's biggest strength; ergonomics are its main weakness. Routine operations that are quick and consistent with any $100 DVD player were hit-or-miss with my sample of the player, and quirks and glitches have been reported by other users, including the tech-savvy early adopters who populate the AVS Forum. Toshiba has addressed many of these issues with a firmware update, which is available here.

Maybe the most noticeable shortcoming was the remote control. One of the main step-up features when you go from the basic model HD-A1 to the HD-XA1 is motion-sensitive illumination on the remote. (Illumination is essential — when I checked out the HD-A1, I found that the lettering on its non-illuminated remote was virtually impossible to read in anything less than bright light.) But my HD-XA1's remote illumination was totally erratic. A few times, footsteps on the floor were enough to activate the remote's illumination, yet when I'd pick it up, the backlighting would flicker or go out altogether. Replacing the batteries didn't help. I found myself tapping or even shaking the remote to get it to stay lit.

Finally, I called Toshiba's customer service department, explained the problem, and received instructions on how to "reset" the remote. That involved removing the batteries and pressing and holding each button for 3-5 seconds. Unfortunately, the reset didn't help. Another issue with the remote was that I couldn't always tell if the player was receiving the command. The player responded slowly, and if I got impatient and hit a button more than once, it seemed to confuse the player. The solution to that issue involved going into the player's menu and activating a confirming electronic "beep" that sounded whenever I pressed one of the remote's buttons. That simple change made operating the player much easier.

HD DVD is the real deal

It would be hard to overstate the sheer coolness of slipping an ordinary looking 5-inch silver disc into a player and watching gorgeous high-definition images spill onto the screen. While it's easy to nitpick certain operational or ergonomic aspects of this first-generation model, any high-definition player should be judged primarily on picture quality. On that score, the HD-XA1 exceeded all my expectations, both in its playback of high-definition material and its superb upconversion of standard DVDs.

For home theater fans eager to experience high definition on a disc, the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray players makes choosing a player unnecessarily complicated. Head-to-head comparisons of picture and sound quality and ease of use will no doubt be illuminating, but out of the gate HD DVD has set the bar pretty high when it comes to picture quality. The HD-XA1 definitely delivers the best-looking high-def picture I've ever seen.