Customer Reviews

Toshiba SD1700 DVD Player

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

I didn't want a DVD player to double as a CD player, or to hold up to 5 DVD's... the single tray here is fine, after all, I watch one movie at a time. I just wanted your basic DVD player with the standard features. This SD1700 by Toshiba delivers excellent picture quality (500 lines of resolution). Standard features like the necessary S-Video output, Dolby Digital and DTS output and various special effects... Zoom (up to 4x), slow motion, multi-language capability (if available on the DVD), and 3 speeds of fast forward & reverse (2x, 8x, 30x). The only special effect I personally haven't been able to use is the "multi camera angle"... I have about 50 DVD's and none of them offer this multi angle. The Toshiba is a sleek black box and the remote is easy to use with the push buttons well positioned. If you're looking for a basic unit to play your DVD's on - this is the one. Great player for the price.

After reading all the reviews about this DVD player and other compairably priced one's (130-230) it was a toss up between this model SD1700, the RCA RC5240P or the Panasonic RV31K. I went out to a local electonics store and compared all three on the floor and then took home the SD1700 and RV31K (picture quality on both was exceptional) and would return the loser. The toshiba played the Matrix with out a hitch, while the panasonic paused three times, test two involved DAS BOOT, even on VHS this movie has exceptional sound on an ordinary set of speakers, on DVD format the sound is awsome only if the player can properly process it and send it to your receiver. The toshiba did great for it's price, while the panasonic sounds slightly better than tape. For the price the toshiba can't be beaten. I will admit that there are other players out that offer more bell's and whistle's, but check out their reliablity and customer reviews. I personally have played 103 dvd's on this set and have only had one pause (the dvd was dirty). Give this dvd a try, it was made to play dvd's, not to be a jukebox (it does play cd's). It is a great intro or bedroom dvd player and you can't beat the price.

I bought this player earlier this year as a Father's Day gift for my dad. After spending a lot of time researching DVD players here and in "Consumer Reports", I found that Toshiba was highly recommended as one of the most reliable, trouble-free brands on the market. I stand by that opinion 100%. Although some people have gotten defective units, or have perhaps not cared for theirs carefully enough, this unit has been cared for properly, being kept in an entertainment system cabinet, and I've had ZERO problems with it when I use it. I have a Sony® Playstation 2® for myself, and even with the current DVD Driver version (Version 2.10), some of my discs cause it to choke up and it will refuse to play them. That is not the case with the Toshiba. All of my "problem" discs run with ZERO difficulty, and play exactly as they should. If you're looking for a RELIABLE, quality player at a fair price, you can't go wrong with this Toshiba model. If you're one of the unfortunate individuals that got a bad machine, TAKE IT BACK AND EXCHANGE IT! You shouldn't be experiencing the problems you're having, so get another one. I GUARANTEE you won't be disappointed if you get one that functions as it should.

I would go for the Toshiba SD-1600 (also available on Amazon.com for the same price), instead of this one. The SD-1700 is basically the same unit as the SD-1600 right down to the buttons on the front panel, except for 1 major difference. Whereas the 1700 has a 4-speed FF & REW shuttle function over the 1600's 3 speeds, the 1600 has 550 lines of horizontal resolution as opposed to the 1700's 500. Having to decide between the trade-offs, I would have to place the 1600's superior resolution over the 1700's extra speed shuttle function. There have also been complaints by 1700 owners of failure problems (mostly crashing and skipping) after 6 months. What really bugs me is how the engineers took an exceptionally sound unit (the 1600), changed a couple of things around, release it out onto the market under a new model name, only to have unsuspecting owners discover later that they've ended up with a lemon- all because of insufficient testing by the manufacturer. BUY THIS model only if you prefer 1 extra shuttle speed + unreliability over higher reliability and better picture quality- which is what DVD is all about in the first place.

After reading many, many Amazon.com reviews we knew that a true test of a DVD player was the ability to play THE MATRIX without skipping or stopping. We initially bought a Sony DVP S300 and it kept skipping at certain parts. Returning that one, we then tried the Panasonic RV31 but it was even worse...it refused to play ANY portion of THE MATRIX. We then bought the Toshiba SD 1700. What a difference! It handled THE MATRIX with no problems AT ALL. If you're wanting to buy a great DVD player for little investment...look no further.

I purchased one of these DVD players 18 months ago, and recently bought a second one for use at another location. It is the undisputed best of the bunch when it comes to midrange DVD players. Picture quality is outstanding, and it performs on par with units that cost over $100 more. If you are looking for an economical DVD player - this is the one to have.

I selected the Toshiba because it had a few extra features like zoom that the Panasonic brands lacked. I didn't know if zoom would be useful but I figured it was a good feature to have. Now I'm glad the Toshiba has zoom capability. It allows me to enlarge the picture area from wide screen to full frame or near full frame on a standard 4:3 TV. Of course the picture sides get cut off but that's not a big problem for me. Karaoke and listening to CD's are not important to me.

That said, Hannibal froze up on me badly in many places. There was one spot I could not get passed unless I directly went to a second past the freeze spot. It must have froze up 10 times while watching it. The DVD was a rental but it played fine on my PC's DVD player.

Another reason I selected the Toshiba was the 10 free rental DVD's from Hollywood video. ... Go to toshiba's web site and search for the offer.

The Toshiba SD1700 DVD player is a successor to a well-known SD1600. For [a reasonable price] it features "Parallel Video Output" and DVD-R playback.

Looks

I don't understand what is wrong with Toshiba, but they continue to produce DVD players that look plain and cheap. If you don't think so, please do not read the previous sentence. Oh well, at least the looks do not influence performance.

The front-panel design has only buttons for basic functions, everything else is performed through the remote control.

Setup

Setup is quite easy, assisted by Toshiba's "First Setup Menu".

Picture and Sound

Both picture and sound quality are excellent. The picture quality is great, when the player is connected to the TV with an S-Video cable (to avoid Moire patterns). Toshiba claims the player features 500 lines of horizontal resolution. The SD1700 also makes a good CD player.

Video Outs

The player has the composite, S-video outputs and ColorStream component jacks. The best way to connect DVD player to TV is to use component-video outputs (if you have a TV that has this type of input), since this method bypasses both TV's comb filter and color decoder.

However, difference in quality with S-video connection is negligible, so S-Video is second-best method of connection. It allows you to bypass TV's comb filter (the device that separates chrominance and luminance from the composite video signal) and avoid rainbow-like Moire effects, which happen when the comb filter mistakes luminance for color information.

The difference between picture quality using composite video connection and S-Video is apparent, especially on TVs with cheap comb filters. And even 3-D comb filters have problems with moving images, so S-Video is much better and allows you to bypass comb filter and feed the separate chrominance and luminance information directly to your TVs color decoder.

The player has a feature called "parallel video out" that allows you to watch the movie on several TVs/Monitors at once by connecting to them using S-Video, component (ColorStream) and composite outs.

PLUGE allows the player to pass "blacker-than-black" signals to your TV than needed, eliminating the gray color in places where the black color should be. You can see how "Black-Level Expansion" works from my review.

Audio Outs

Toshiba invented optical digital audio out, which is why it is sometimes called Toslink. Surprisingly, SD1700 does not have it, but rather features Dolby Digital and Digital Theater Sound (DTS) compatible digital coaxial output. Which provides the same sound quality, easier connection and allows you to use cheaper cable with RCA-type jacks.

Note: with coaxial digital audio out, it is recommended to use a cable that is designed to transfer composite video signal, since the bandwidth used is very similar.

The player also has analog (left and right) audio out (RCA type). To get surround sound you can either connect analog out to Dolby Pro Logic equipment or use coaxial digital out with Dolby Digital or DTS decoder. Or you can either use stereo sound from the analog audio out, using Spatializer feature when appropriate.

The SD1700 features Dialogue Enhancement mode, which boosts the center speaker sound level. The player is also CD-Text compatible.

Features

The player has other "standard" DVD features: parental control, CD-audio playback, camera angle select, multi-language and multi-subtitle select, Spatializer N-2-2 Virtual Surround Sound. But it also has some advanced features: 4-power zoom, x2 playback, 1/8x, 1/4x and 1/2x slow scan, x2, x8, x30, x100 Forward and Reverse high-speed scan and Time Search, Title Stop.

Remote

The remote is reasonably sized with good button layout - Left/Right and Up/Down buttons are centrally placed, with the Enter button in the middle.

Bottom Line

The SD1700's looks can be contested, but the performance and features make it a good choice. However, there are better choices in the same price range.

We purchased a Toshiba 1700 as our first DVD player. I spent a lot of time researching different models learning what you need and don't need. I was well aware of the freezing up that a lot of people talk about. But even knowing that I was unprepared when it actually happened. It happened to us while watching both "The Cell" and "Act of War". In Act of War it frozen about 4 times in one certain frame but always unfroze itself. In The Cell there was one part of a scene that we could not get past. I was able to frame past that part and then rewind up until just a hair after the point where it kept locking up. Keep in mind that these two movies were rentals. We have watched countless other movies, both rentals and movies we have purchased and not had a problem.

But for the small freezing problems I would never give away my DVD player. The picture is unsurpassed by TV or VHS. (If you have a TV that is only 1 to 2 years old). As far as sound, we have a BOSE surround sound system with a Panasonic Digital Receiver which make the movies come alive.

Remember here the DVD technology is still in its infancy!!! Don't spend all kinds of money. They will only get better!!!

Do I think this is a good buy? Definitely!!!

It's a shame that some people have had defective unit's, and thus drag the rating down. I also read reviews and audioreview.com and it seems to me that a bad unit can come with even the greatest of dvd player's. I have had this DVD player for nearly a month and have been using it probably too much. Have watched at least 50 movies on it or so already, and have used it for long hours. I have not incurred one problem with it. Extremely positive review.