I wasn’t planning on buying Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player when I did. When I went to go buy my Plasma TV I had given myself a budget of $5,000 dollars and I didn’t end up spending that. The store I was at was using an HD DVD player to demo some of their TV’s and I was in love. So instead of just going home with a new Plasma TV I went home with a Plasma TV, a Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player and a few HD DVDs.

I am in love with this machine! HD DVD players still are kind of pricey and I am sure in a few months or at least by the end of the year they will be considerably cheaper. I guess I had to pay a premium for being an early adapter but to me it was worth it.

I picked up the Batman Begins on HD DVD with the machine and after getting everything hooked up and making sure my DirecTV was working with the new Plasma and everything I sat down to experience my newly improved home theater in all it’s glory. WOW, I don’t know if I will ever leave the house again. The Toshiba HD-XA2, connected to my plasma via HDMI, puts out a simply superb picture. Combined with my BOSE sound system I was in home theater heaven.

The HD-XA2 is a very sleek looking black design, that looks beautiful next to my BOSE equipment, I just wish my DirecTV equipment was black as well. Load time on HD DVD is kind of slow but from what I have heard it is that way with all of the players, it’s not really too bad, it doesn’t bother me too much. The HD-XA2 can play regular DVD’s as well but I find the image quality on my BOSE equipment to be far superior. The best thing about the player is the full 1080P output though, it absolutely blows away regular DVD and my new Plasma supports the full 1080P.

If you are thinking about buying yourself an HD DVD player take a long hard look at the Toshiba HD-Xa2, it puts out the best image quality I have seen to date.