HDTV Reviews don’t usual talk about HD DVD Players in their own right but we’ve decided to diversify our output and see what happens. The Toshiba HD-EP30 is a compact HD DVD that packs a big punch. Playback capabilities include HD DVD Video, DVD Video, DVD VR, CD Audio and CD-DA.

Now with the battle between HD DVD and Blu-Ray heating up, some of you may wonder which platform you should get. The answer is - it’s still hard to say. Although Warner and 80% of Studios are going Blu-Ray, the 2nd and 3rd biggest film studios are still on the HD DVD bandwagon - exclusively so it’s likely that the war between the two formats will be ongoing for some time yet.

The Toshiba HD-EP30 takes an age to boot up. This is an annoyance as you’d expect better with new technology. On the plus side it does come with a couple of extras such as 2 free HD DVD’s to get you started and a bundled HDMI cable (which is great).

If you have a selection of American SD DVD’s prepare to be disappointed as the Toshiba HD-EP30 will not play your Region 1 SD DVD’s. Toshiba needs to release a region un-locker quickly…. The region lock problem does not affect HD-DVD’s which will make it a minor problem in a few years.

What is good about the Toshiba HD-EP30 is the excellent job it does on up-scaling standard DVD’s. Even older DVD’s look great so if you have a choice between this and an ups-caler the Toshiba HD-EP30 would definitely be the better option.