Toshiba HD DVD player as Transport

Well, the original question posed by the post concerned audio. That is the idea of using the player as a transport for use with a high quality external dac. The thought was that perhaps with the ram buffer, it might be a relatively inexpensive way to achieve a low jitter result but perhaps that is being naive. Maybe the fan noise rules out even attempting this, but for $300 - $500 this is a ridiculously cheap experiment when one considers the cost of traditional high end digital transports. The video could be looked at as a free bonus.

Just about everything in life can be measured against---what you had before--and how that compares to what you replaced it with.--My AX1 via a WireWorld hdmi--going into a Ruby; with HD-DVD material is better than anything I've seen. --However on SD material, my Arcam 27 is much,much better.---(Not to mention its stellar CD performance)--4/5 years ago this player was a killer in its price range--($3,000)---Most are probably comparing their Toshibas' upconverting of SD; to a lessor player. All in all these Toshibas are breakthrough players and for the money it does a lot, really really well.

I'm thinking that going with an internal DAC with an inherently low jitter stream is preferable to sorting out the new jitter issues arising from the SPDIF receiver in you external DAC (3 ext DACs to my name). Give a listen to the Toshiba SD-3990

I hear the HD DVD players are Linux based and that means booting/slow.

VERY good transport as far as I can tell when I get myself to use it for CD and not have an HD DVD filling its innards. I'd say that applies and can't hurt to try it. Regarding the comments of it not being a good standard upsampling DVD I can't say I agree, I think it looks quite good on a very hi resolution video setup.

My experience differs, mine is very fast when opening and closing while using cd's about on par with a normal cd player. SD playback with the upconversion (which only works via the HDMI port and not the component because of the macrovision copy protection scheme) looks much better then the Phillips DVDSA963 I had before. HDDVD looks fantastic via HDMI or component (HD-DVD's as of yet do not have the ict flag set limiting resolution on the analog component outputs). My only complaint with mine is the noise of the fan.

I own the XA1 with a Sept. build date.I think it's faster/ w/ new firmware. At HD- it's pretty hot.The thing ain't nearly as good as my 5year old Arcam at upconverting. I wouldn't bother to put a second SD disc in there. AS a cd player/w/dac?? Why not, should be ok. Sure there are 2 million better cd players so you just have to think:--everything matters,transports included. However the #1 thing that matters is your budjet.

It is such a hassle to use. Loading and unloading is extremely slow. Much lower than my PC. It does a fine as a transport as far as sound quality. Just add a lot of time to the equation each time you want to switch CD's. Usually I am not one to complain about such things. This though is an extreme case IMO.

I have one, was going to use it for that but the first generation is rather loud because of the cpu cooling fan. When music is playing you cannot hear it but during quiet passages you can hear the fan. I have been trying to isolate mine or get a replacement heatsink to minimize it. Other then that, hd-dvd's and upconverted dvd's look amazing.