Customer Reviews

Toshiba SD-3800 Progressive-Scan DVD Player

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this player because of the video features (3:2 pulldown, progressive scan) and the reasonable price. I have it hooked up to a Sony 51" 16:9 television and a 5.1 sound system. Using the optical sound output and component video out I get great video and audio. Monsters Inc. and Toy Story 2 look absolutely incredible. It has yet to skip even once on the 25 or so movies I've played on it so far. The remote has some nice features as well. You can switch audio options (5.1, 2.0, commentary, languages) on the fly as well as the angle and subtitles. I don't use it for mp3's or vcd's since I play them on my PC instead. I would highly recommend this player.

I bought the SD3800 to upgrade from my older DVD player. I specifically picked this one because it had VCD, JPEG, and MP3 compatibility. Sadly, the MP3 portion is a joke. Despite following all of Toshiba's restrictive compatibility requirements (ISO9660 Level 1, 8-character file names only, etc.), it will only play a few songs and then stop. It does not use the M3U playlist and will not play all the songs in a directory, much less the whole disk.
The only positive thing about purchasing this unit is that the VCD and JPEG aspects seem to work okay, albeit very slow.

After countless review reading for DVD players, I was set on either a Panasonic or Toshiba NON-PROGRESSIVE SCAN DVD player as my first. ... Luckily, I had a chance to buy this one WITH PRGRESSIVE SCAN..., so I grabbed it.

After pummeling the DVD player in its first 1-2 weeks of ownership with about 20 hours straight of Stargate SG-1 DVD collection viewing and rental movies, I can safely say that it's a great buy.

The menus are easy to use for setup, and the unit features nice zoom and image capture features, if you need that stuff. The documentation for some of the features could be a little better, as I couldn't find the section on storing bookmarks or memorized DVD chapters for viewing later. That may be something that I'll find on my laptop DVD player and software rather than a standalone unit.

Finally, the sound, through my piddly RCA-jack-only TV is VERY LOW. I have to turn the TV up about 5 extra notches to hear the dialogue on movies. There is a dialogue enhancement mode for sound, however, that helps with the quietest rentals that I've enjoyed.

Bottom line -- a great DVD player, if you can get it at a [good] price. Too bad it doesn't come in black.

I bought the SD3800 to go with my Toshiba 57H82 HDTV. There was an obvious improvement in the picture and clarity over my old Toshiba 1600 which played many enjoyable DVDs. The SD3800 upconverts to 540 and that matches the Toshiba HDTV. It was easy to set up and has worked great for the last month. The remote is nice and large with easy access to buttons. It allows easy adjustment of audio settings and provides zoom controls that help you to fit the screen to your TV if you need it. It is nice and compact and fits well on top of my TV. There are many choices and you can find good info at [website]to help you make your decision.

Great performance and picture, though has the annoying habit of occasionally locking up during load/unload, have to pull the power plug (and dismember entertainment center to get at it) in order to regain control.

I Love this DVD player. I used to have problems with DVD's skipping if they were scratched from the rental store, but have never had a problem with this machine. I also like how you can set the DVD player to beep every time you choose a command. This DVD player is full of features and an excellent product.

Toshiba makes top-notch DVD players with an excellent reputation for outstanding performance as well as quality and reliability. The SD3800 has these desirable characteristics plus component video output for better picture quality and progressive scan technology for compatibility with HDTVs, all at a bargain price. You may not have an HDTV yet but you probably will have one within a year or two, so why not be prepared with a progressive scan DVD player when you can get one this good at such a low price? And the component video output will improve the picture quality even on non-HDTVs. This player is an outstanding performer at a terrific price.

This thing locks up and skips on almost 75% of the disks I put in it, including brand new ones.

If it a rented disk with a few scratches, forget it. I end up using a free Apex someone gave me just to avoid this thing.

I found this DVD player easy to setup and it seems to work pretty good. I've had a couple of DVD's that freeze up during playing, so far I'm unsure if it's a problem with the DVD or the player.