3rd Generation HD DVD players arriving in October?
A recent post over at FormatWarCentral has revealed links to Amazon preorder pages, which contained product information about 3 new Toshiba HD DVD player models. These players were listed as the Toshiba HD-A3, HD-A30 and the HD-A35. Pricing on the new models was listed as $299, $399 and $499 respectively.
These Amazon product pages were taken down shortly after being noticed, probably at the request of Toshiba. Speculation also suggests that the full details on these new models will be announced at the CEDIA Expo this September, which takes place in Denver.
It will be interesting to see what if any new features these new 3rd generation HD DVD players bring to the field. On the other hand, these new models could just be due to Toshiba utilizing new manufacturing parts and processes and not so much due to new features.
The size of the players is expected to be a bit smaller, as the 1st and 2nd gen models are significantly larger than most standard DVD players on the market. Personally, my number 1 wanted feature improvement would be for faster startup and disc loading times, as the current generation HD DVD players lag in these areas.
The introduction of these new players will most likely push down the prices of current generation HD DVD standalones, making the jump into HD DVD even more affordable. We’ll be keeping an eye out for any official news on these new models, until then, stay tuned.
The HD-A3 continues the legacy of the A1 and A2 in only outputting 720p or 1080i signals. It should also not have the 5.1 analog outputs. I’m curious about the HD-A35 because it isn’t in the naming genealogy as the HD-XA1 and HD-XA2 – it could be the same as the HD-A30 with 24fps support maybe.