Toshiba HD-E1 DVD Player

I love this player. The picture quality is stunning on my 42" HD Plasma TV. The player only goes up to 1080i not 1080p, but as my TV only goes up to 1080i that's fine, also 1080p will only be of benefit on screens larger than 42" anyway. It also up scales ordinary DVDs to near HD quality and does quite a good job. Menus are OK and fairly straight forward to navigate and use.

It's got a RJ45 connection on it so you can view website links that the studio have put on the HD DVD film and you can also download the latest firmware update from Toshiba too, but you do need quite a fast connection for this, I have an 6meg connection and it took an hour to download. It's got optical audio out which I have hooked up to my Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 surround sound system and it sounds great. The manual that comes with it is average, had to read some of the items a couple of times to understand what they were saying.

What don't I like about it? One small thing is the start-up time. When you switch it on it can take about 45-50 seconds for the drawer to open, a lot longer than an ordinary DVD player, but you get use to it.

With some HD DVD titles I have, the picture at times when the camera was panning quickly, seemed not to be as smooth as it should be, a bit on the jittery side, as if the fps were droping, but with the latest firmware upgrade this seems to have fixed this.

Why did I buy it? The first thing that attracted me was the price, half the price of Blu-Ray players. Second thing was the SD DVD upscaler. Third, it came with a free HDMI lead. Fourth, it looks quite nice too.

I've only seen Blu-Ray in a shop, but what I have seen HD DVD seems to be of equal quality, some people say it's better. So if you are thinking of going down the HD road, I don't think you can go far wrong with this player.

This HD dvd player is like nothing u have every seen before.

Its so good, i bought two and am selling the spare on ebay!!

I have the Denon 1920, and the quality difference is amazing.

Its a must!!

Its taken some time to make the move from CRT to LCD HD TV and it got to the point where I just had to find a way to play HD DVD's. I tried a number of upskaling players which is OK for regular DVD playback, with improved 1080i output but for a true representation of HD playback this was the only way to go. The down side of this player is the speed at which it works, unfortunatley this is slow becuase is 1st generation technology and is still very much in development. Menu's and loading times are frustrating but once you are up and running the visual and audio experience far outweighs the negatives.

I been very pleased with the dvd player since i've bought it. It works well and gives a amazing piture. The only thing i was disapointed with, was my cheap £30 LG dvd player that i owned for 4 years before would play cd's with J peg pics of the computer were this one doesn't. Still over all very good machine

Just bought a HD ready TV with limited budget left?
Then buy this player with Transformers and Planet Earth HD-DVD.
I bought this player because it was very affordable. There's a firmware available that allows the player to become multi-region for standard DVD as well as HD-DVD.
Its a very good entry level HD machine but playback does suffer when there's a lot of action on HD-DVD.
For the price, you won't get 1080p.
The build quality does feel cheap too.
It takes just under a minute for the player to start up.

Be aware! This player is NOT for the home cinema purists.

I purchased the HD Player on eBay, the item was only three months old in perfect condition saving a considerable amount of money with three HD DVDs worth £20 each. I'm more than satisfied. I have purchesed other items and never been let down by anyone. There are some good people on eBay it's a pity a certain few let the system down, but if you are carefull and check the people out you are dealing with you should have no trouble. I'm retired and eBay saves me money I can't speak highly enough of them Kindest Regards carry on the good work. Nick Stammers.

This is a fantastic HD DVD player,looks good with excellent picture and sound which is great for your first HD DVD Player.The only thing i dislike it it can take i while for the disc to load up but that is the case with all HD DVD/Blu-Ray Players.Forget Blu-Ray in the format war this is the best for price and features which blu-Ray still have not got.

I bought this dvd player as i have gone fully HD and is the cheapest HD dvd player available. Plus it is brand new. Excellent in every other than the size. IT IS A BIG UNIT.

HDDVD may be going out of fashion, just like Betamax did, but you just can't knock the quality to price ratio. Superb picture and enhanced sound quality like you couldn't believe. It's a pity Blu-ray is taking over.

The downside to this player is that it comes from the first generation of HD DVD players. As a result its 1080 output is only interlaced, not progressive. This is a minor flaw in the great scheme of things however, as with HD DVD being technically superior at the time of losing the format war but still losing all the same, buying one will have a limited life on your shelf.
So why get one? Because upscaling a DVD to 1080 will look the same regardless of whether it is P or I on almost any HD TV, and so as a DVD player this will do the job nicely with the added bonus of playing any Hd disks you can manage to pick up cheap!

Ultimately the HD DVD players days are numbered. A dedicated upscaling DVD player will load faster and be cheaper, and LG's forays into the world of combination Bluray/ HD DVD players will almost certainly lead to all BD players playing both formats- just as the CD writing war of + vs - and the subsequent DVD writing war both proved futile as every player on the market now plays all prior formats.

As for this particular player, don't pay more than about half the price you would be willing to pay for one of the later Toshiba models, such as the EP30, as this has quite a slow start up time and can glitch on some disks a bit too often. But if you're TV is limited to the middle level resolutions of HD or you see one at a bargain price then believe me you could do much worse!

Good range of connectors, good upscaler and handles wide format range. Shame this format is now dead. useful bit of kit for handling non-commercial discs.

used for commercial purposes in artists art installations using video concepts

Excellent quality DVD player. As well as the HD DVD functtions, this makes an excellent job of upscaling standard DVDs. Given the price fall in HD DVD items recently, this would be worth buying just as a decent SD DVD player. Go get one!

the dvd really good value, there is nothing i disliked about it. i brought it because i thought all dvds were going to be hd but it seems not as blue ray is taking over. never mind the player does play normal dvds too.

Looks very nice, packed remote, but easy to use. Cracking quality picture, very pleased. So far only bad point is that it seems to be very slightly jerky at times, like it can't keep up. But i don't think it detracts from the enjoyment at all.

Having bought a few HD-DVD's to use with an xbox 360 decided to try and get a proper player to replace my ailing dvd player.
The reviews of the Toshiba's are good so I took the plunge, I was not disappointed, The HD picture is stunning and the upscaled dvd picture is superb! add thet to cracking sound and you have a bargain even if you only play normal dvd's on it.

IT IS A VERY GOOD HDDVD PLAYER SHAME ABOUT THE LOADING TIMES AND WHEN I HEARD THAT HD DVDS ARE NOT SELLING ANYMORE BECAUSE OF BLU-RAY

If you have an existing library of DVD's then as important as the new formats is the ability to make the most of everything you've already got.
I bought this one knowing it was last years model but it matched my Pioneer 50" plasma perfectly at 1080i,the upscaling function from standard DVD's is sometimes good enough to make you believe you are watching HD-DVD disks.
It makes a damn good CD player as well.
It seems that most existing HD-DVD and Blu Ray titles are only mastered in 1080I anyway so a cheap player like this one (I paid £75) is actually a brilliant way of getting into HD.

it is sleek, shiny and does its job perfectly.

I bought this because at the minute i only have blu ray and want the benefits of both. The argument and battle, like the betamax battle, will no doubt go on for a year or so plus but having acces to both for so cheap, you cant go wrong.

the picture quality, even though it is only 1080i, is awesome.... money well spent.

To get this item at nearly half price and delivered to your door is nothing short of brilliant. Thank you for all involved.

Hd dvd players are can be brought very cheaply secondhand and are a bargain way into high definition movies. Although it is a format no longer supported, players and discs are cheap and pleantiful, picture is excellent and there is no regional codes to worry about.
The E1 is a european player but will play any american HD DVD's straight out the box, and can be hacked for multiregion dvd.
Only downside is no 1080p output(will do 1080i).

I was given as second chance offer on this item which I was more than happy to accept. I paid promptly as I always do and received a very nice email from the seller. All seemed fine, or so I thought. The seller replied stating that Pay pal had suspended my payment to them. I checked my pay pal account and the transaction had gone through fine, so the problem was at the sellers end. They then responded by saying that unless I gave positive feedback the payment wouldn't released. Rightly so I said I normal only give positive feedback when I get the goods. The seller replied asking if I'd received the goods to which I replied no! When I asked for the Royal mail tracking number I never received a reply.
At this point I contacted eBay as all my emails had fell on deaf ears. EBay advised that I should give positive feed back then I might get the goods. Surely It's at my discretion whether or not to give positive feedback on receipt of the goods not give it to try and get the goods. Having taken eBay’s advice I still haven't heard from the seller and still haven't received the goods. After this incident I will be reluctant to use eBay or pay pal again as being forced to give feedback to get the goods that I have paid for is not my idea of good customer service.

the item arrived quickly but without the remote control as stated in the items brief contacted the seller but no reply as yet....

This item is amazing. The upscaling of standard DVDs works really well. Genuine HD DVDs give stunning picture and sound quality but DVDs that are high quality almost reach the full 1080p HD DVD quality. In the product war between Bluray and HD DVD, Bluray won and there will be no more titles in HD DVD format. Many younger people have moved over to Bluray so they can buy the latest releases. If I did want a particular title I would just buy the DVD which my machine would upscale for me and its likely I wouldnt see much difference between that and a Bluray version. This Bluray thing is overrated, the cost of a Bluray player and Bluray dics just isnt worth it. This is the perfect time to buy an HD DVD player, they are really cheap right now on ebay. The HD DVD discs are really cheap as they wont play on anything other than an HD DVD player. There are hundreds of titles to choose from as long as you dont want the very latest titles. This player will only play DVDs in region 2 Pal format. HD DVDs are all multi region. The player is actually NTSC region 1 capable. If you go to Toshibas Australian site you can download the firmware to make it multi region. Problem is Nero copies the file as data and it wont work. Upgrade Nero 7 (45 mins aprrox) and it will recognize the dowloaded icon as an ISO image file and burn it onto a CD. You must use CD-R and reduce the speed to say 4X. Once in the player it will ask you if you want to upgrade. It takes about 15 mins. If the player is running on 2.8 firmware for other functions upgrade to 4, it wont interfere with the multi region change you have just done. A word of warning, do not touch the player while upgrades are taking place. If you do you will have to bin the player. Do not use DVDs either as these will knacker the player also. Follow these instructions and your player will play all American discs and European ones as usual. You now have a fabulous player that 3 out of 4 prefer to Bluray. If you do have plenty of dosh ignore all this and pay through the nose for Bluray, its up to you. I have the above model and a stack of discs for less than £80. Finally you must have an HD ready TV. To get the full 1080p or i quality you must discard the scart cable and use an HDM1 i cable. Thats about it buy one and have fun, you will be amazed. Full Dolby digital plus with 5.1 surround sound.