Next, I put the HD DVD of Phantom of the Opera into the player. I was chagrined to see that it took exactly 47 seconds between the time I put the HD DVD into the player and the time the picture appeared on the screen. With the disk finally began its playback, my frustration and gnashing of teeth quickly abated, because I saw a magnificent high-definition picture on my screen the likes of which I hadn't seen before. There were very few compression artifacts, the sound was crisp and clear, and the colors were extremely saturated. Here was the nearly-saving grace of the Toshiba HD-A1. The HD DVD format is capable of magnificent playback quality. That factor alone may make this player worth its $500 purchase price.

Now that I've gushed all over this player's quality, let's get back to the realities of this ill-conceived product.

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