Customer Reviews

Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

What many people don't realize is that Toshiba switched the innards of this unit somewhere in 2004.

The high rating on the review website and CR were based on earlier units built around the Toshiba TC90602FG chipset. Then Toshiba in all their infinite wizdumb decided to completely rework this thing, changing the innards to a whole new setup using the Zoran Vaddis 6 chipset, and continue calling it by the same model number so no one could tell them apart.

The Vaddis 6 and variants are the chipsets found in the lowliest of low DVD players like the ones you see for $39 at WallyMart et al

You can not put any credence in those old reviews from players tested with the Toshiba chipset. You now know why the reviews are so lopsided. "I don't know how you could call this thing bad, it's wonderful!" and "Are you crazy? This thing is a pile of doodie!" are common on any review site.

Given the mid 2004 change date you will are almost assured of getting a Zoran chipset. Avoid.

I have a much better player in my TV room but wanted a basic, inexpensive player for my bedroom. My only requirement was that it would play DVD's and not cost a fortune and, in that respect, my needs were completely met. The SD 3960 is cheap and it provides adequate picture and sound.

I seem to encounter a new side-effect every day, though. First of all: it's loud. It sounds like it's grinding pepper in there when it's got a disk in its mouth.

It also has a pretty good on-screen display function (it counts up and down, and also provides a little four-quarter bar graph to illustrate how much of the movie has been watched -- this may be standard but I'd never seen it). It does not, however, display a counter on its face which is kind of a drag when you want to check the chapter without interrupting the program.

When you push "OPEN" the drawer literally takes 10 seconds to eject the disc. I know, I know, I would never consider that a major inconvenience but when you want to change discs and you hit the eject and you count "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... c'mon, open up already!!!" It displays the word "OPEN" on its face the whole time so it's not like it's confused. Just slow.

Also, the player doesn't save your place when you stop in the middle of a program and it automatically shuts off after a mere five minutes. Sure, it saves electricity which is great but if I need to run downstairs for a second or grab the phone... I either have to make it quit, or rely on "STILL" or I end up searching through the scene selection trying to get back to where I was. Again, not a tragedy but after a while....

Like I said, though, I didn't expect much given the price. As a second player, it fills the bill. But if you're shopping for a primary player and you're lured by the price... you might consider dropping a few more bucks on one with a little more ability.

I purchased this player because it scored well on the benchmark tests at hometheaterhifi. They use objective technical standards for progressive scan players and rate them by traits (such as layer change time and pixel cropping). They use the same scene on the same disc for each individual benchmark and I thought this was a pretty sound way to measure a piece of consumer electronics. They were right.
My wife and I were early adopters of DVD technology and I got a dreadful Zenith way back in 1999. It worked - sort of, but didn't have seamless branching, a feature which allows interweaving of extra film (i.e. T2, The Abyss) into the theatrical release. The Zenith whirred, clanked and disturbingly clicked on occasion while rarely making it through a rental with even the faintest scuff. It really hampered our Netflix enjoyment. The new player works just fine after several movies my old player choked on. These include The Abyss, Time and Tide (a fun Asian action flick with poor transfer to DVD) and several diverse rentals for comparison. There was some pixilation on one rental, but it stopped my old player dead in its tracks and was fine after I cleaned the schmutz off the disc. Two weeks of use and not a whiff of problem - just solid if unspectacular performance.
The player has component outputs which allow high quality progressive scan images for progressive scan enabled TVs with compatible jacks. The image and sound are good and the layer transfer, although noticeable, is swift. The remote isn't terribly responsive, but I suspect this will improve once I replace the batteries that came in the box. The player is nice and quiet and the tray glides out silently (nice for when my 8 month old is sleeping) and only takes two seconds to open after pushing "open". The display on the player is rather lame - you can only see the chapter number. The on-screen display is quite nice with time elapsed and time remaining. I never thought this would matter, but simply love it now that I have it. The detailed on-screen display has everything and the kitchen sink, so I can deal with the lame player display.
I'm not a home theater owner, so this might not be great with a receiver, amp and surround sound - I simply wouldn't know. But for my needs - to watch movies without hassle and without going into credit card debt - this was a very good purchase.

This player does everything I expected when I finally decided on this model. It plays DVD movies with great picture quality, and plays home made DVDs as well. It will play DVD-R and DVD+RW with no problem, haven't yet tried other formats.

It also plays VCDs and mp3/wma CD-R and CD-RWs. The manual says only use 650 mb CD-R and don't use CD-RW, but 700 mb CD-R and CD-RW work just fine. Be careful with wma music file though. If a wma was made with Microsoft's copy protection, such as CDs ripped with Musicmatch, it won't play. You can pull up a display of song title from the music file name, it won't read id3 tags. It will read folders on mp3/wma discs and you can select random play from the play mode button on the remote.

Others have reported the player is noisy, and that it takes extra long to open the tray. I've experienced neither. Yes, there is no counter on the player display, but you can pull up the counter on screen by pressing the display button on the remote. It took a while to get used to the onscreen display, but after a couple of times of use, I actually liked it.

The remote could be a little better designed, but its certainly useable. But to me a remote is a remote, they all have too many buttons that you have to figure out. I'd never let a remote control be the deciding factor in a buying decision.

The setup menu on the player is very easy to use with great response.

Most reviews contain subjective comments regarding picture quality which to me makes the comments on picture quality not very useful. However, www.hometheaterhifi.com does very detailed objective testing of hundreds of players. For players under $200, this model ranked number 2 overall in picture quality. Please check it out for this model or any model you are considering.

Again, for the price, I think this player is a great bargain.

Purchased in January 2005, manufacture date on back is Oct 2004. The unit actually played very nicely for a few months then on to the intermittent skipping others have reported. A few weeks back the audio completely dropped out. Probably will not be another Toshiba in this household.

Reading the other reviews I decided to write in toshibas defense! The DVD SD-3960 is not all that bad...I mean come on its only 69.99, what do you expect it to do? Make you coffee in the morning? It just does what it says, Progressive Scan!!! I have not expirenced any problems with the player getting hot, or a flickering saturated picture. I switched from the Samsung N-501 Nuon player. And I noticed a huge difference. The Picture is brighter the sound has better range and the progerssive scan worked like i expected it to. The remote however is a POS BUT if your like me you have 50 remotes and one master universal remote to control everything, so no big deal. I hope this helps.

The player was working fine, no frills, but working. Then the audio just stopped. Video still plays fine but no audio. I have had two Toshiba DVD players fail on me now. Time to switch brands I guess...

I bought this DVD player after my last one broke. I had my last one for 4 years and this one for less than 7 months. The player got very hot and it froze up. This was a consistant problem. I am shocked. I own several Toshiba products and this is the first to crap out like this. I am left with a very shotty warranty and no DVD player. Very sad.

I would give this no stars if that was a choice. I know why this machine is no longer available. It is a lemon through and through. The audio died less than a year from the date of purchase. In addition. the remote is very difficult to operate - too many buttons and directions. My next DVD player will not be a Toshiba.

Toshiba is a very reliable, good quality mfg. This progressive scan DVD player is PRICED to sell! Compared to the "no name" garbage that is on the market, you can't go wrong with this one...Plays everything you throw at it - MP3's , media files burned off the web, JPEG files, scratched DVD's...Great sound quality for CD's...Compact size...100X FF, Zoom, etc.Quiet transport. This is a WINNER! Best yet, [...]