Originally Posted by BobY

I suspect both the HD-A1 and the HD-AX1 use the same main board and the only real differences between the two are certain components aren't populated on the HD-A1 main board (trivially reducing the feature set and cost) *and* Toshiba is probably eating more margin on the HD-A1 (or selling it at a loss).

RCA could have their own flavor by populating some of the features (like the RS-232 port) that were left off of the HD-A1. Or it could just be innacurate preliminary info. If Toshiba really wants to convince people that someone else is making HD DVD players, they should have put a little more effort into the RCA--the front panel layout and display are identical. Clearly it's the same guts with the front panel marginally re-styled by RCA (rectangular buttons instead of round). It's probably built in the Toshiba factory on the same production line as the HD-A1/HD-AX-1.