Just wanted to share a deal I found on the Toshiba 2nd gen HD-DVD player.

J&R has it for $599 and ther's a mail in rebate from Toshiba for 5 free HD movies too! I haven't seen it from any reputable retailer for under $650 yet.

[Link: jr.com]

Amazon has the same player for $576.48 here:
[Link: amazon.com]

And the 5 free movies as well.
Great Customer service from J&R though.
Nevere ordered Electronics from Amazon.
I own the XA-2 and love it. Toshiba mails me Firmware updates on a CD as they become available. Great customer service from Toshiba too.
My major gripe about the XA-2 is no discrete codes for on and off.

Does anyone know if the HD-XA2 or XA20 has discrete power ON/OFF codes? I'd sure like to know before I consider buying one.

The XA-2 does not, as stated in my previous post. Not sure on the XA20. But I doubt it does.

Thanks for saving me the time of going out front to check the display model. What a turd....errrr I mean toad.

I do really like my XA-2. Using the Silicon Optics Reon chip it is one hell of an upscaler. But I will move on to another player someday. Hopefully some Mfg. besides Toshiba will come out with a machine that is not a toad.

Can anyone tell me the difference between the HD-XA2 and the HD-A2 and HD-A20 and (if there is one) the HD-XA20? It appear the "X" adds a couple hundred to the cost of these players and I'd like to know what "added feature" is worth four times the value of most standard DVD players these days.

I don't know about the HD-A20 but the most crucial differences btw the A2 & XA2 is the XA2 has a native 1080p with v.1.3 HDMI. The A2 only outputs 1080i and its HDMI is v.1.2. Additionally, the XA2 has 5.1 channel analog audio out, the A2 doesn't(this is a critical shortcoming for HD audio capability, DD+ & TrueHD). The only way you can get the benefits of DD+ and TrueHD on the A2 is through an HDMI AV connection. At present, HD DVD players will convert these higher resolution audio formats to multichannel PCM and transmit it on an HDMI connection along with the video. For you to hear this, your AVR or pre-pro must be capable of playing multichannel PCM audio received via HDMI. Some AV receivers & pre-pros with HDMI connections are merely switchers and can't handle HDMI audio.

Without this HDMI audio capability you'll be limited to hearing only the downconverted output over the optical connection (NOTE: The A2 eliminated the digital coaxil audio out). DD+ or TrueHD signals are decoded and converted to PCM in the player. This PCM signal is then re-encoded as a 1.5 Mbps DTS bitstream, which is then output over the Toslink connection and decoded yet again from DTS to (ultimately) analog by your AVR or pre/pro. This is bad news for those who are still without a DTS decoder in their AVR. They'll be stuck listening to downmixed analog two-channel output from the legacy RCA jacks.

If interested, the XA2 has bi-directional RS232 control, the A2 doesn't have RS232.

One "added feature" that puts the cost so high is the Silicon Optics Reon chip. This same chip is used in high end Denons that retail for $1600 and up.
Add that with it being 1080p and HDMI 1.3 puts it above a "standard DVD player".
I have no HDMI receiver. But the XA-2 also has 5.1 analog out. Which is how I have it wired to my Yamaha DSP-A1. That gives me all the audio codecs available at this time:
DD+, DTHD and DTS.

Thanks bookaroni, the use of the Silicon Optics Reon chip really makes it a winner. Like you said Denon uses Silicon Optics, not the Reon but the higher end Realta T2 chips in their top end (5901ci, 3901ci & 2930ci) DVD players after finally realizing the macro blocking issues that abounded with the Faroudja DVDi chips.

To be fair to the Blu-Ray camp, the Samsung BDP-1200 also uses the Reon chip, has HDMI v.1.3, and also supports video at 24 fps. I know this isn't a big deal as most displays (w/o external processors) can't handle 24 fps, but it' still worth mentioning.

Actually the 2930 does use the Reon chip while the 3930 uses the Realta chip. The difference between the 2 is the Realta is programmable.
From what I hear the Sammy is the best Blu-Ray player out right now. Using the Silicon Optics chip in any machine is a big plus. It is amazing how SO kicked Faroudja to the curb.
Here is a very good review on the BDP-1200:
[Link: ex-designz.net]
And here is a very good review on the Toshiba HD XA-2:
[Link: guidetohometheater.com]

The XA-2 is suppose to get a firmware upgrade soon for doing 1080p/24. Which is a big thing to me as I own the Pioneer Elite PRO FHD-1 which will do 72fps.

Well, BestBuy had the HD-A2 on sale this week so I picked one up for $299 there. They didn't advertise or tell me about it, but online I found out that I can get 5 free HD-DVDs with it by sending in info and proof that I own one. Of course the 5 must be picked from a VERY limited list, but free is still free. The A2 did find a software update for itself once I had it set up on my network. I don't know what the upgrade might have "fixed", because the upgrade was it's first task and I didn't use it before that.

You can still get the 5 free DVD's. Go here:
[Link: tacp.toshiba.com]

And click on 5 Free DVD offer. A PDF file will come up that you can print out.

Thanks, Book. Of course I'd already figured that out.

Geez, I almost read your entire post. Gotta give up coffee.