If I'm going to spend that much money, to only play half the high definition DVD's that exist, it'd better play the highest quality HD. Too bad for you Toshiba.

"that much money"? This player is about as much as a good upconverting DVD player (I'm an Oppo fan) with the bonus of free HD-DVD's (ten, for me). It does a very good job of upconverting and I needed an upconverter anyway for my new 61" 1080p TV. Regular DVD's look sharp and clean. This one fits the bill for what I need and I get the HD benefit, basically for free. I don't see any downside here. The player can certainly stand on it's own merits. Please keep in mind that you are watching an entry level model and you will, I think, be very happy with the results. Be sure to perform firmware updates for best results.

I bought it. Good picture quality, didn't find out it was 1080i only, until I got home a tried it(Toshiba website has a 1080P sticker on it's webpage) no markings on the box either. Tried a few dvd's and some would not even play even after updating the firmware. Started playing HD DVD's and noticed the movies would freeze or skip at around the 1:16 to 1:30 mark on most. Did some reading on other forums and found that this is a common problem that can either be resolved by exchanging the player or the movies. It sounds like the technology in the hardware and movies are not making ends meet. Also boot up and ejecting takes forever. In all I was not able to feel like I was getting a reliable product, it's still bleeding edge, all you have to do is look on the Toshiba website http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/hddvd/ go to support and then FAQ's.

I returned it as it seems to be unreliable.