Customer Reviews

Toshiba SD-3950 Progressive Scan DVD Player

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I returned this player because although it was advertized on this site (and Toshiba's) as having an optical digital audio output AND coaxial, all it has is a coaxial output. I've seen others mention this in ratings, but as of the writing of this review neither Amazon nor Toshiba has corrected its specs on this unit.

Otherwise, it is an excellent product, producing a beautiful progressive scan picture through its component video outputs. It also offers some of the small things you can appreciate, like remembering where it was stopped so you can resume later where you left off on a disc. The onscreen menus are simple yet comprehensive. The mp3/wma audio cd playback (and the jpg picture viewer) work well, but have some restrictive naming requirements for the files - make sure to read the manual.

If it had had an optical audio output, I'd still have this player and be completely satisfied with its capabilities.

I have always favored Toshiba DVD players over all others, mainly due to their superior black reproduction. Black level expansion and PLUGE realy make a difference on any TV. The dialogue enhancer on this model is very effective, and the ability to play just about anything you throw in it is fantastic. You can pay more for a player, but I doubt you would get one significantly better than this.

I purchased this several months ago from Amazon after reading all the reviews -- including the ones that complained of pixellation and out-of-box failure. So I ordered this inexpensive unit with some reserve, and saved the box for months, thinking I might have to send it back.

But no. What I've found instead is that it reliably produces a stunningly-sharp, hi-def picture, and sends lovely, pure, unadulterated sound through to my surround receiver (Yamaha HTR-5650). I've got it hooked to a Toshiba 42" widescreen HD-ready RPTV (42H83), with Monster component video cables, and I feed it a fairly fatty diet of 3-4 DVDs every week. Not a pixel or a plip to be seen.

Of course, DVDs of movies made pre-HD-era won't look as good. Even this super-machine can't remove the grain from older discs.

The remote is a bit cheesy, not worthy of the sleek player, and the buttons can be inscrutable in the dim light of a home-theatre room. But that's a small quibble, considering the great value of this machine.

I purchased this when my MUCH-more-expensive Sony 5-disc DVD player died after just 14 months. The Sony will still play CDs, but I use it only as a "jukebox" when hosting dinner parties. When I want to play a single CD or CD-R, whether 80s pop, Linken Park, Joni Mitchell, a Mozart aria, or carpet-rumbling classical pipe-organ music, this Toshiba unit leaves my Sony whimpering in tail-dragging shame.

This is an amazing value, an absolute must-buy. Already have a DVD player in your family room? Buy this for your bedroom...and switch them when you get the chance.

Great dvd player. Looks nice, very slim, very light, alright remote control. Yhe only draw back is the "forward and backward scan" buttons or the same as "next chapter" buttons.

Toshiba progressive scan at a great price. I comparison shopped other places and Amazon had the best price on this unit. The unit itself performs flawlessly and set up is a breeze. Progressive scan is a must have feature as the picture is much better than that of regular DVDs.

I have the British version of this DVD player; it is identical in every way other than one. We are given a multi-region option so that we can play DVD's from all over the world. Pretty good huh?

Anyway, I can honestly say this player is excellent value for money, does the word cheap and cheerful spring to mind?

Despite being cheap and cheerful however, this DVD player is attractive to look at, is almost all singing, all dancing, you can play most things on it from MP3s to VCDs as well as frightening your family with those old photos you have scanned onto a disc. I did that recently, I don't think my mother has forgiven for the photo I showed to the world of her in her 1970s garb, along with the BIG hairstyle!

The DVDs play crisp and clear, the instruction manual is dead easy to use, an equally easy set-up, I'm no expert and I'm in a wheelchair but I got it up and running with the minimum of fuss. The handset is nice and compact nothing looks shoddy, in fact I think it looks better than some of those expensive models that you see in shops, this is a real budget model, so cost friendly you can afford to give it as a present which I think is pretty cool!

A very good buy, and for once the adage if you pay peanuts you get monkeys is totally not relevant!

After reading the reviews, some of which were pretty negative, I still bought the Toshiba Sd3950...hey, it was in my budget. It hooked up immediately (even for a non-technophile), started playing beautifully. I like my electronics simple to operate and work without problems. This DVD player has given me all that. No sound problems, no problems with the remote, no problems period. My experience has been A-OK and I would buy this item again.