Historically, one of the biggest advantages of HD DVD over Blu-ray has been the much lower cost of HD DVD players. On the other hand, most HD DVD players can’t deliver a 1080p signal, which many consider the Holy Grail of high-def. Toshiba’s new HD-A20 continues the tradition of low cost ($500) while providing 1080p output. Is it the best of both worlds?

FEATURES The biggest difference between the HD-A20 and Toshiba’s less-expensive HD-A2 ($400) is that the A20 can send a 1080p signal to the TV whereas the A2 is limited to 1080i.

Toshiba has departed from its previous remote design with the A20, whose handset is somewhat shorter than those for the company’s other players. It’s not illuminated, and many of the black-on-black buttons are the same size and shape, meaning you must memorize the layout to operate it in the dark.

The menu system is identical to the one Toshiba uses on its flagship HD-XA2 player (see our review), which is to say clean and well organized. However, I really miss the picture controls of the XA2 (contrast, brightness, and so on). Toshiba’s HD DVD players sometimes have different black/white and color characteristics than other components, such as DVD players or satellite and cable boxes, and the XA2’s picture controls solve this problem nicely. Oh well, I guess they had to cut costs somewhere.

Unlike most Blu-ray players, the HD-A20 (and all other HD DVD players) supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, though only regular DTS surround sound is extracted from DTS-HD soundtracks, eliminating any advantage offered by the new higher-resolution format. Also, there’s no 5.1-channel analog output as found on the HD-XA2 player and all Blu-ray players I know of. Instead, multi¬channel sound is conveyed by the player’s digital HDMI output, which also carries the video. (Standard Dolby Digital and DTS can be sent via the optical digital output as well.) The ability to deliver audio and video over a single cable is one of HDMI’s strong points, and HDMI-delivered audio sounds just fine to me, so I don’t think the lack of six analog jacks is a big drawback.

Just before putting this review to bed, Toshiba released a firmware update for all its HD DVD players that enables the online interactivity functions we’ve been promised since the format was introduced. (Blu-ray has made a similar promise, but my latest information indicates it won’t be available until late this year or early next.) Simply connect the player’s Ethernet port to your home’s broadband network and a whole new source of bonus materials opens up.

The first disc to utilize this feature is Warner’s Blood Diamond, which dramatizes the horrific African diamond trade. The online bonus materials include a map of Africa with detailed information about 12 countries involved in the conflict and a poll with five questions about how the movie made you think and feel about the issue. Another poll lets you weigh in about which Warner movies you’d like to see on HD DVD.

PERFORMANCE As I was configuring the HD-A20 to work with the Olevia 747i LCD TV (see our review), the player freaked out, quickly alternat¬ing between a screen full of digital hash and black. Toshiba sent a second review unit, which had the same problem. I finally determined that, among the TVs I had in the lab at the time, this happened only with the Olevia and only when I specified a resolution of “up to 1080p� in the player. Clearly, there is some sort of HDMI incompatibil¬ity between the player and this TV with a 1080p signal, which makes me won¬der if it might happen with other TVs.

After switching to the Vidikron Vision Model 70 projector and setting the HD-A20 to output “up to 1080p,� I popped in the HD DVD version of Mission: Impossible III and watched as the camera pans across the long staircase in the Vatican—one of the most difficult scenes for any TV or player that converts 1080i to 1080p. The player’s video processor did not perform this conversion very well, so the stairs were full of wavy distortion. Then I set the player’s resolution to “up to 1080i,� which turned the 1080i-to-1080p conversion duties over to the Vidikron’s internal processor. The picture looked better, though the Vidikron’s processor still produced some wavy distortion.

Next, I watched some of the new Planet Earth HD DVDs. The spectacular views from space were awesome in their detail—it was easy to imagine I was riding along with the cameraman in the space shuttle and looking through the cabin window at the world below. The browns, greens, blues, and whites of Earth from space were all spot on, making me feel like I was floating above the clouds. Close-ups were no less amazing—each hair on a bumblebee’s body was super sharp. Likewise, colors were glorious, from the delicate shades of spring to the more vibrant hues of autumn.

Watching DVDs on such a large screen would be unfair, since blowing up the picture that big emphasizes the softness of standard-def images, even those that have been upconverted to HD resolution. So I used the Westinghouse TX-47F430S 47-inch 1080p LCD flat panel reviewed in Issue 80. Using the player’s 1080p output, Star Trek: Insurrection looked a bit softer than I’ve seen from other player/TV combos—for instance, the foliage in the opening pan across the village was not quite as sharp and crisp as I’ve seen before. Of course, DVDs do not have nearly as much detail as HD DVDs in the first place. The colors were beautiful, though, with natural-looking faces and a blue lake that was begging for a swim.

The sound via HDMI was fine for the most part. Dialog was clear, music was rich and involving, and sound effects—from loud explosions to soft footfalls—were very convincing. Curiously, the player emitted a very loud pop a few times while I was loading a disc, which was disconcerting.

The online bonus materials were slow to load—the main menu for these materials took a full minute to appear, as did the map of Africa the first time I accessed it, though after that, much of the info was already in the player’s memory, so getting to it again was quick.

These materials are pretty sparse, but they point the way toward an ever-richer experience as studios add more online content to their titles. And the information about the countries involved in the diamond conflict was pretty interesting, although depressing.

BOTTOM LINE The HD-A20 works just fine when its resolution is limited to 1080i, but its performance at 1080p leaves some¬thing to be desired in certain types of scenes. For $100 less, you can get the HD-A2, which tops out at 1080i. Like the A20 at that setting, the A2 should deliver a superb picture to any display with a decent video processor.