A1 stops when switching to cable.....

It's hit or miss. It should stop. And if your upconverting SD-DVD with it, it should stop as well.

I think your quesion about copy protection is a valid one. If I'm not mistaken, part of the HDMI connection is a communication back and forth with both pieces of equipment. If one stops communicating then playback will/should stop. As always, YMMV.

I do think some switchers and AVR's can sort of hold the HDCP and communication, but it will be hit or miss no matter what. Some displays are now offering PIP even when being fed highest res HD on the main display. This may at least be a work around if you want to check cable / sat whole watching an HD-DVD.

Have tried pausing it, then switching, then switching back and unpausing it? I could see that having a much better chance of working, but still probably hit and miss.

You could of course make a component video connection and get around the problem as well.

I think this is a particular A1 glitch, as my A2 doesnt do it, while my A1 does....

This is a quirk of the HD-A1 and HD-XA1. Virtually no other HDMI products do this, and there's no reason within HDCP that it should have to happen.

It's a mistake on Toshiba's part.

My HD-A1 does this every time to. Very annoying because I can't change inputs while watching a movie unless I want to have the disk reload and get back to where I was.

I have seen this happen on many HDMI devices. Certainly not limited to the A1 or HD-DVD players. At best it should run to the next HDCP negotiation which happens throught any given movie / title. Unless the switch performs the HDCP stuff to the source regardless of what display output is set for.

Yep it normal, I've had it happen as well. I went to cheek the twins score and the player stoped.

Prehapps a future update will fix this. Although its not a big deal. As I try to to watch all the movie.

Yes, this is normal with the A1. Unfortunately you're gonna have to learn to live with it, unless by some miracle Toshiba goes back and fixes this.

I just got mine and it does this as well. Very irritating. Other than that it's great!! Has anyone with the new 2.3 FW noticed if this fixes this issue or not?

This is a glitch of the HD-A1 and HD-XA1.

HDMI is a two-way communication, but when a downstream device (like a switcher) is in the path, the handshake should be maintained by the source even when a different input is selected. The vast majority of HDMI devices continue to maintain the link even if they're deselected.

Even if the source is connected directly to a display, the disc should continue to play, and the video output simply deactivated if an HDCP handshake can't be completed (such as when the display is off). The source should continually attempt to re-connect, and re-establish the handshake.

We've used the HD-XA1 in testing and observed this trait - rest assured, it's the player's fault.