Design
So on to the player then. The HD-E1 measures 430mm wide, by 345mm deep and has a height of 65mm. I was hoping the unit would be a lot slimmer and smaller than it really was as I wanted something that would resemble the size of current generation DVD players. However I wasn’t thinking about the hardware that was present inside. HD-DVD players contain a small hard drive unit too and it’s easy to forget that HD-DVD drives, as well as Blu-ray drives operate more like a computer rather than what one would expect in a DVD player. In addition to the decoding hardware it contains a microprocessor, an operating system, random access memory (RAM) in addition to the hard drive. The operating system (OS) transfers itself to RAM when the machine is switched on, which results in a slightly slower startup time then what most people are used to. It’s not that long thankfully. You’re looking at approx 25-30 seconds at a guess.
Aside from having a rather deep footprint to its name, the HD-E1 looks gorgeous with it’s clean lines running over its front, and a silver edge to its drop down front panel. The front of the unit is uncluttered and very tidy. On the left side of the unit, you will find the unmistakable On/Standby button with its red and blue ring of light. The ring illuminates red when the player is in standby mode and blue once the unit is switched on.
A single button graces the front of the player, which is the Open/Close button for the disc drive. The entire lower panel on the player drops down to reveal control buttons such as Skip, Pause, Stop and of course Play. To the right of these buttons is a surprising pair of 5v 500mA USB ports confusingly labelled as Extension ports. I was glad to see these, as they meant that they deliver sufficient enough current for me to charge up various portable devices that I own, such as my MP3/Video player, as well as my mobile phone.
At the back of the player you will find the usual video and audio ports. A HDMI, Component and S-Video port is provided for the video side of things, with the latter two being standard definition connections. For Audio, Optical and two channel RCA audio jacks are present as well as the single HDMI 1.2 port, which can transfer both audio and video through its cable. There isn’t an analogue surround sound output on this player so you will require a HDMI equipped home cinema receiver to take advantage of the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD signal, which cannot be carried by optical. These two audio formats are new surround sound technologies offering much improved and sharper sound.
A LAN port is also present mainly to deal with interactive HD-DVD online content on future films that require an optional always-on internet connection, as well as allowing the player to receive easy Firmware updates. Blu-ray currently hasn’t any form of internet access on its films despite the format being able to access the internet for data.
Toshiba aren’t well known for their remote controls, and the bundled remote is no exception. It isn’t even backlit, which isn’t at all impressive as most people who watch films in a darkened room will end up pressing the wrong buttons in confusion. However it’s not all negative. If you look closely at the photo you will see that the directional buttons have luminous markings on them so you can at least navigate without trouble. The remote typically uses 2xAAA batteries, which are provided.
