Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player
5 Stars ONLY if you have you own disks
Otherwise 1 star.  I use Netflix HD DVDs and of 5 played, 3 have given me fits.  On one, the system locked up tight and I had to unplug.  After that, I upgraded to firmware 2.0 and set audio to PCM encoding (per AVS Forum).  Even with FW 2.0 I had two disks that made the HD-A1 choke, although I was able to advance to the next chapter to get past the bad spots.  I could not advance using the remote, however; I had to use the front-panel controls. <br /> <br />You can say \\"That won't bother me\\", but it will.  Add in the fact that the remote is beyond unusable.  Add in the fact that just powering up to eject a DVD that you happened to leave in the night before takes a full minute to happen.   <br /> <br />Add in the frustration of not being able to stop and restart from the current position.  You know, common ordinary DVD standards.  Maybe it's me, but having to go back to the beginning of the movie after I hit Stop or adjust the audio settings seems dumb.  Dumber than dumb.  Add in the fact that you get a continuous audible alert if you leave the machine on Pause for more than three minutes.  Since you can't hit Stop, you're forced to play one second of movie and then hit Pause, over and over.  Else, be sure to tell Mom not to call when you're watching a movie.  Ignore these defects if you wish, but I wouldn't be surprised if you, too, end up sending Amazon an email requesting a return authorization. <br /> <br />The picture is fantastic, as well as the sound, so I believe 5 stars is warranted so long as you own your own disks and handle them carefully.  But Netflix or Blockbuster?  Forget about it.  You'll end up saying \\"Maybe that guy was right\\". <br /> <br />The unit will make your standard definition DVDs look much, much better on screen, so that's a plus.  It's not enough of a plus to put up with the unit's bad design, though. <br /> <br />The HD-A2 is supposed to have an improved remote.  They couldn't possibly have made it worse, so by definition it has to be better.  Hopefully, they've improved whatever error-handling needed improvement so that most of us who use online or neighborhood rentals also can use this box.  We'll see.  I'd hate to have to go Blu-Ray just to get away from Toshiba.