Toshiba SD-3950 Progressive Scan DVD Player

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0000BV0XV
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,074 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Get the most from DVDs and CDs with Toshiba's SD-3950 single-disc DVD player, whose ultimate progressive-scan ColorStream Pro component-video outputs produce seamless, flicker-free images with high-definition and HD-ready TVs. Built-in MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) decoding let you compile music on a PC and listen to it on a stereo or TV, and you can even watch customized digital-picture slideshows using recordable CDs filled with standard JPEG image files.

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the SD-3950 stands ready to deliver the full potential of DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

The SD-3950 also performs 3:2 pulldown. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion. Conventional composite- and S-video outputs bring compatibility with nearly any television. The "expanded" mode in the player's black-level setting produces richer, deeper black tones in every image. PLUGE (Picture Line Up Generation Equipment) delivers black as well as below-black signals to a television.

A set of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio output (coaxial) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver. The player's internal digital-to-analog converters work at 24-bit, 192 kHz resolution to ensure optimum sonic quality from a range of digital program material.

Enhanced Audio Mode (E.A.M.) offers three sound settings: normal (off), 3-D (virtual surround sound enhancement), and dialogue expander (which enhances center-channel frequencies in the range of human voices during playback of multichannel content). Other playback options include Power Picture Zoom (which lets you magnify a select area of an image), bookmarking (up to nine marks), and parental lock.

What's in the Box
DVD player, remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, and a stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable.

From the Manufacturer

With innovations that provide flawless picture performance, unequaled color detail, and studio-quality sound, Toshiba is your source for the very best in DVD, and the SD-3950 meets all your expectations and more.

Features include:

• ColorStream (component video output): Offers a more than 200 percent improvement in color compared to an S-video output jack. These outputs allow the highest-quality video signal to be sent from the DVD player to a component-video-equipped TV. When this connection is utilized, typical NTSC artifacts--like video noise and dot crawl--are virtually eliminated, resulting in a low-noise, highly detailed picture with unequaled color purity.
• Digital cinema progressive (3:2 pulldown): Delivers the smoothest, most film-like images to any progressive scan television, such as an HD-compatible one, and ensures maximum resolution.
• Video black level expansion: Provides greater contrast and richer black tones.
• PLUGE (picture line up generation equipment): Enables consumer to properly set brightness controls on their connected display device.
• Power picture zoom: This interactive feature allows you to select an area of the picture you want to zoom in on and magnify it. Enhanced digital processing during moving video or freeze-frame playback produces superior color fidelity and resolution, even when you're zoomed in. Also can be used to expand letterbox-only films to increase the viewable area on-screen.
• Coaxial and optical TosLink digital audio output: Sends the audio signal to an audio/video receiver in its digital form allowing access to the Dolby Digital/DTS track encoded on the DVD disc.
• MP3- and WMA-compatible audio playback: Expands the players' functionality to include playback of custom music collections encoded via MP3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) digital audio format onto CD-R or CD-RW media.
• EAM (enhanced audio mode): Provides appropriate sound enhancement for different DVD technologies.
• JPEG viewer: The Toshiba JPEG viewer enables a user to display digital photographs, created on a personal computer in the JPEG digital format, on any television. An intuitive onscreen display assists in the creation of customized slideshows with a few simple clicks of the DVD player's remote control.
• Bookmarks: Players with this feature let users virtually mark favorite locations/scenes on discs inside the player. The bookmark feature provides quick access to those scenes the user wants to view again or demonstrate to a friend. Select players offer up to nine bookmarks for greater accessibility.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great player, December 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Toshiba SD-3950 Progressive Scan DVD Player (Electronics)

Sunday, December 14, 2003
I have a HD front projector with an 8'screen. It is easy to separate DVD players that play good or not on this big screen and I must say I do see every little fault that you would not see on a small television. My daughter always says to me "Dad, you're not watching the movies you're watching the pixels".
At any rate I've tried the JVC XV-N44SL and I must say it's terrible for NO player should stutter on panning and this applies to the XV-N55 as reported by Zdnet review. Same problem indicating this is a common problem to most JVC players. Simply unacceptable in this day and age.
I've also returned the Sony 725P for my projector would do a better de-interlacing than this player. So I went for a more expensive player and bought the Yamaha 5650. The initial impression was very good however the progressive scan in darker movies was the one that killed the feeling of an excellent player. No matter how I've tried to adjust the darker scenes, due to the fact there is no black level expansion the picture was just too soft and washed out. The remote is very small and cramped; I kept hitting the wrong buttons all the time. For a more expensive player this clearly is not good. So I've bought my last player the Toshiba SD-3950 and wow, for less than halve the price of Yamaha, I now have 3:2 pull down, black level expansion and perfect dark scenes to boot. Now some people might say it has the chroma bug (maybe yes and maybe no I just didn't test it yet), it's only a flag reader or something like that, but I say my eyes don't lie,
I like what I see and this is the best so far. I give it 5 stars for the remote is excellent, picture quality awesome and a very low price.

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's a great player when it works, January 13, 2004

By 

The Masked Avenger (Springville, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba SD-3950 Progressive Scan DVD Player (Electronics)

We got this for Christmas because it had so many features for a relatively low price, and had good reviews. Unfortunately, within a couple of days--after, sadly, we'd trashed the packaging--it began locking up on us. Turn it on, load a DVD, and suddenly it won't play, won't eject the disc tray, won't do anything. Toshiba said we needed to unplug it for five minutes and it would reset itself and work. Turns out that does the trick, but it's very annoying to have to keep doing it most of the time we want to play DVDs. Perhaps it's an unusual glitch and you'll have better luck, but Toshiba had heard of the problem. Save your packaging, just in case!

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for the price but BAD in Heat tolerance, January 12, 2004

By 

"drcoldfoot" (Mount Vernon, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba SD-3950 Progressive Scan DVD Player (Electronics)

Basically, I finally broke down and bought a DVD player because Teh PS2 was choppy, and I was tired of Getting up from my couch to control the DVD playing software on teh Computer. With that being said, I decided to purchase a cheap DVD player just for the heck of it. As for teh quality of the equipment, I have a mixed review.

The Good:
1. It comes chock full of features
2. Progressive Scan
3. Multiple Formats including MP3, VCD, etc.
4. The Price

The Bad:
1. The Control is hammy. The buttons are tiny, (Could also use a backlight).

The UGLY:
1. This is the type of equipment that doesn't tolerate heat well. This means that if you do not want your pictures to pixilate, or video to freeze totally, You MUST NOT HAVE ANYTHING SITTING ON TOP OF IT. To the touch, the unit's cabinet feels hot to the touch on the top for the entire surface. If there is nothing on top of it, the unit works fine.