Customer Reviews

Toshiba SD-4000 Progressive Scan DivX Certified DVD Player

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I bought this unit to replace an old Panasonic DVD player which had a problem with the slide out tray rarely staying out, so we were always fighting with it.

The toshiba won because of the price, component outputs, size (it's nice an small height wise) and the remote looked to be ok from the picture on the box. Plus I work for a Toshiba subsidiary. :]

Overall, I'm happy with the unit, though I do have some issues.

Minor: It's slow to powerup and respond. If the unit is off and you hit the 'eject' button on the player (not on the remote) it takes around 10 seconds for it to work. I find this annoying, esp when I'm in a rush in the morning to mail a DVD back to netflicks on my way to work. *grin*

Minor: The layout of buttons on the remote is not ideal. When will companies take a look at the TiVo remote and replicate it's wonderful layout and design features? The remote is certainly useable, but those buttons you use the most are NOT highlighted in any useful way. At least they're grouped in the center mostly, where your fingers fall when you pickup the remote.

Major: For whatever reason, about an hour into some movies, though not all, the video/audio sync starts to drift apart from each other. This drives me crazy since I don't hear as well as my wife and I seem to watch lips and notice if there's a disconnect. I'm hoping there will be some sort of upgrade available for this unit, but I'm not holding my breath.

Stopping and restarting the playing of the movie seems to fix the issue, but not completely. My old panasonic never had this issue.

I have NOT had a chance to try playing CDROMs with MP3s or DiVX movies, but others seem to think it works just fine.

Putting in a disc of jpegs works ok. A bit clunkly, but it's not really anyone's fault since they need to handle a whole bunch of directory layouts, which is tough.

Overall, if the Audio/Video sync problem wasn't there, I'd be happy, esp for the price. But the sync issue is going to bug me I'm sure.

Another solid entry from Toshiba. Very stable picture on standard def TV. Build quality a little better compared to SD3990. No issues so far playing my recorded media CD/R, DVD-R, DVD+R. Again, pleased with picture quality. Moire, jaggies and stair step issues are minimal.

I purchased this to replace my previous DVD player (a Panasonic turntable) because, frankly, I never used the turntable functionality and I wanted to be able to play DivX format movies.

I've had the unit for a few days and like what I see so far. It plays many different DivX format movies flawlessly (the filtering removes all blockiness I saw on my PC), whether they are PAL-encoded or NTSC-encoded (although PAL encoded DivX files fill a box in the center of the screen).

Also, the player easily browses through music CDs with MP3 and WMA format music. The browse window looks like a simplified Windows Explorer, so you can see the names and folders containing your music. Unfortunately, longer names get cut off because the lettering is fairly large.

It also will automatically resize any DVD to fit your screen, and handles both widescreen and standard format TVs. It can also output standard or progressive video (the latter is smoother but needs a higher end TV to support it). The resizing feature is a great feature with smaller TVs (i.e. <40 inch), or if you don't have a 16:9 aspect ratio TV.

NOTE: if you plan to use Composite video, hook up the DVD player using S-video, then switch the DVD player to use Composite video (it is not automatic). You will also need to purchase your own composite video cables (the box comes with RCA stereo connectors and an S-video connector).

In addition, regular DVDs play well on the player. The only glitch I encountered there was The Princess Bride special edition didn't seem to revert back to widescreen presentation when I reset it in the DVD player's menu.

In terms of features missing---this player does not upconvert movies (i.e. if you have an HD TV, it won't try to generate a larger picture).

Basically, if you're looking for a versatile, multi-format DVD player, this is an affordable, well-performing player. It does have its glitches but they seem to be minor. Overall, this is a great value.

These are the problems we found:

1. Audio-visual synchronization malfunctions frequently.

2. The images are elongated. The actors appear taller than they are.

3. Discs with even the slightest flaws stop playing, and sometimes even new discs with no flaws cause difficulties.

In order to finish one rented movie, we had to go out and get another DVD player. We ended up buying a Sony DVP-NS57P for a few dollars more and are very glad we did.

Problems!

1. I did notice the audio-video synchronization issue that others have mentioned. After a while, voices do not match lips!

2. After owning the unit for about 10 days, the unit would not turn on until letting it sit unplugged for about 15 minutes.

I have retrieved my DVD from the unit and will be returning it for a refund!

Not a bad player, not a great one, either. The image quality is not better than that of a 3-4 year old Toshiba DVD player it replaced, and I have seen better players (HK, for example). It is not bad either, I guess this is what you can expect at this price range. I notice some heavy motion artifacts on some DVDs but it might be my HD TV, or the combination of the two. I am using the component outputs.

I keep buying Toshiba because they have nice zoom feature - it zooms 20-30% - apparently, that ratio depends on the way the movie is recorded (anamorphic or not, etc.), in order to give you the best quality. It is very useful with movies with 2.39:1 aspect ratio. This is the only reason I bought Toshiba DVD player this time.

My player has the audio/video sync problem that almost everybody is reporting. I found a firmware upgrade on the Toshiba-Canada web site, and this resolved the problem. This upgrade is not posted on the Toshiba-US web site yet, a few weeks later. This shows how careless Toshiba is about its products; I had similar experience with other Toshiba products.

Since I bough this DVD player, I've had issues with the audio. It drops out intermittently during a movie. About 45 minutes into a movie, the audio would always get out of synch with the video. Finally, after about four months, the audio dropped out completely. I returned it and exchanged it for the Sony DVP-NS57P. I've always been sold on Toshiba products, but they dropped the ball on this one. Unfortunately, I will definitely have to think twice from now on before buying another Toshiba product.

I bought an SD-4000, partly because of the reviews here on Amazon, so that I could play avi files on my TV. The files play perfectly on my computer, but simply would not play on the SD-4000. The small print in the manual says that avi files will play only from CD-Rs, so I split my files and burned them to CD---and they still wouldn't play.

Not sure what the problem is; some reviewers of this player have had no trouble at all with avi files. Maybe you'll be lucky!!---but just in case, be sure to buy from a store with a friendly, liberal return policy.

The Toshiba SD-4000 Progressive Scan DVD Player is a great looking DVD player with a good picture, but awful sound. If you only want a DVD player for decoration than you may be in luck with sleek black styling. You may also like this dvd player if you read captions instead of listening to the movie. But if you plan on turning on the sound please choose another player immediately.

Sadly, I did not read reviews on sites like [...] before I bought this product. But just like numerous other users have realized, this player fails to sync up the sound with the picture. After watching about an hour of a movie, I begin to notice the sound not matching the picture. If you are going to watch anything longer than 1.5 hours that just watch the second half another day, because after an hour or so of use the player gets too tired to keep up.

Please stay away from this product as you may be equally dissatisfied. It will ruin every movie until you throw the dvd player in the trash or struggle with Toshiba to replace it.

I hope this helps.

If someone gives this to you for free, don't take it. The player doesn't even play CDs. I also have issues with the audio separating from the video. After about 30 minutes, it becomes very noticeable. I have to press stop and play to make them almost match. Another thirty minutes later, I have to do it again. It does respond slowly as someone else mentioned. You have to hit a button and wait for it to decide what to do. It drove me nuts when I first got it. Overall, this player should never have been manufactured at all.