Customer Reviews

Toshiba SD-4960 Universal Disc DVD Player with CD/DVD-Audio/SACD/MP3 Playback

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

 

 

In his review, Peter gave the Toshiba low marks for picture quality in component mode. At first, I was also disappointed, but I think that perhaps Peter didn't have the unit set up correctly. My old Panasonic DVD player would output component and S-video simultaneously, but this unit won't. If it's set to S-video, there is a component signal, but it's terrible. You have to go in the setup menu and select component out, either interlaced or progressive. Once you choose, you'll get a good component signal but no S-video. I was still not happy with the quality of the image, so I experimented. The black level was set to "on". I set it to "off" and finally got a great picture, better than the Panasonic it replaced.

I still have a couple of quibbles, though. I tested a DVD-audio (Hotel California). Interestingly, the menu choices are different when played in this unit. In the Panasonic, my choices were for DTS or Dolby digital surround. In the Toshiba, it's "surrond sound" or "stereo sound". The Panasonic was hooked up to my receiver by optical digital cable. It would play either format fine. The Toshiba should play both, but I don't know which it is choosing. I selected DTS on the menu, so I guess that's what it is. The signal will not play through the optical output, I have to use the 7.1 analog out. The sound quality is fine, but different from my receiver's DAC's (tested playing stereo CD). I'm waiting for some SACD's, so I'll reserve total judgement.

I also bought the unit to play back video CD's recorded in SVCD format. The Panasonic only played VCD. I use ProShow Gold and a disk that plays fine in other players has audio dropouts when played on the Toshiba. I've got some more experimenting to do to get around this problem. I hope it's not a back breaker.

In Summary:

Pros - Very versatile (DVD,SACD, DVD-Audio, Photo CD, JPEG, etc.
- Slim design
- Excellent picture quality
- Great price, nothing comes close for a SACD/DVD-Audio combo.

Cons - Either/or S-video/component output, not both at the same time
- Poorly written manual
- Confusing remote and menus
- Skipping audio on Photo CD (not fully analyzed).

I'd buy it again.
Doug

The Toshiba SD-4960 is a slim design but delivers big on sound.
I threw everything at it I could ... CD-R's, CD-RW's, MP3's, DVD-Audio and SACD's. All performed without a hitch and with great sound.
I had a Toshiba SD-4800 previous to this but it wouldn't play SACD's so I thought I'd make the upgrade.
I prefer DVD-Audio because it gives the visuals of lyrics, photo gallery, etc.. but I am happy with the SACD's I've purchased and have listened to. (sound wise that is).
It is missing the PRO-Logic feature offered on the SD-4800 for playing regular CD's on the system in Dolby PRO-Logic and I miss that feature.
The remote is a little tough to get to know without reading the book thoroughly.
You can't just rely on common sense as you can with most.
Figured it out after the book and seems to be stable but not that intuitive.
The "Bass Management" is nothing more than adjusting your speaker sizes in the audio portion of the menu. They had that on the SD-4800 and never advertised it so I guess it's just a gimmick of sorts.
Overall this unit gets four out of five stars for me.
With the reasonable price and an on board Dolby Digital Decoder it helped me out a lot. (My receiver isn't a Dolby Digital but has the 5:1 analog connectors for surround sound).
Buy it, you'll like it.

Toshiba makes outstanding DVD players and this model is no exception. As is the case with most good DVD players these days, this Toshiba has progressive scan which gives enhanced picture quality when playing DVDs with a high-definition TV. You may not have HD TV yet but you probably will have one within a year or two, at which time you'll want a top notch DVD player with progressive scan capability, such as this Toshiba.

For people who like great sound as well as great pictures, something very important sets this model apart from other good progressive scan DVD players: it plays both the new DVD Audio CDs and the even better sounding Super Audio CDs. Most modern DVD players play regular CDs as well as DVDs, but very few have the capability to also play both DVD Audio and Super Audio CDs which are the highest fidelity audio media currently available. And SACD circuitry can actually improves the sound of regular CDs as well. So if you want both the best picture and the best sound, a progressive scan player with DVD-A and SACD capability is the one to get. This Toshiba has both of these features at a very reasonable price.

I purchased the 4960 to replace a broken Toshiba SD-4700. What a disappointment! This unit is a huge step back from the 4700.

The PICTURE IS SO BAD, that I could not believe my eyes. I have a 55" HDTV, 3:4, made by Toshiba (don't they test their players on their TVs?) I am using the component inputs in progressive mode. What is so bad with the picture: Everything. First, it is not sharp enough, actually, this is an understatement. Second, the colors are washed away, grayish, dull. Out of the box, it is too bright. I tried all corrections possible on my TV, boosted the contrast (not that I am a big fan of high contrast), lowered the brightness, the picture was still bad. I am not too picky about the video and I am more concerned with the sound quality but this unit makes you want to throw your TV away. Nothing changes if I switch to interlaced mode.

The AUDIO section is excellent. There are some reports that the DACs are Blurr-Brown. I did not open it to verify this but they certainly sound like this. Very smooth, yet detailed, perhaps not as much as other high quality DACs but very listenable. The bass is somewhat soft and some may find the highs a bit muted but I am really being too picky here. It pushes the limits of my system (Marantz SR-7000 receiver, Definitive Technology BP-10 speakers). People with better equipment would not consider this player as a CD player anyway. The DVD-audio is excellent, too but not as satisfying as 2 channel DVD-audio that really shines. It is noticeably better that the DVD-audio on the SD-4700. I cannot say much about the SACD play - I own only one title - The Dark Side of the Moon, and it does not sound as good as I expected. The bass is a bit boomy, the sound is somewhat dark. Well, it is a 30+ years old recording. I read somewhere that the SACD is processed by a different DAC made by Phillips.

A big annoyance is that the LFE levels on DVD-audio and 2 channel stereo/SACD are very different - about 15 dB or more. The player does not have the ability to adjust the LFE or any other channel level. The bass management redirects the bass from the L, R, etc. speakers to the sub, if needed. It seems to work on DD, (on DVD-Audio maybe) but not on 2 channel stereo.

The REMOTE is terrible, the unit responds very slowly to it, sometimes never does, many controls are unintuitive. For example, the play button sometimes has to be pressed once, shortly, as usual but sometimes you need to hold it for a second or so if there is a menu on the screen (pressing it for a short time acts as an OK button). The problem is that when listening to CDs you do not watch the TV screen and never know whether Stop, Pause, Play buttons have to be hold or not. Most of the time, you have to hold them. Very annoying. The telephone rings, you press Pause, nothing happens. Then you remember that you have to press and hold. Meanwhile, the phone stops ringing. Another annoying thing is that the OK button is not in the center of the Up, Down, Left, Right ones.

I decided to keep this player as a universal music player and to look for another one for movies. I had to hook it up through the S-video inputs in order to free the component ones for another player. Then the big surprise came. The picture through the S-video inputs was excellent! If I did not know that it was coming from the S-video input, I would be very happy with my purchase. It was much sharper than before, better colors, better everything. I tried the composite input - still very good picture with visible loss of detail as can be expected.

A nice surprise is the pan-scan feature - it really works. It zooms anamorphic wide-screen movies so that they fit perfectly on a 4:3 screen with loss of some information on the sides, of course. The pan-scan on the 4700 never made any difference.

It does not play my DVD+R's. Actually, it does but the motion is very jittery. Toshiba said that they do not support DVD+R because they are in the DVD-R camp. Makes you feel happy.

I managed to fix the old SD-4700 and hooked it up again. The difference is striking - the SD-4700 has a way better picture than the 4960. They both use Zoran chips of different generations, I guess, so I cannot understand what went wrong with the 4960. I also tried Harman Kardon DVD-22 (excellent video but it has other problems) . The 4700 comes close after it, while the 4960 does not compare to those two at all, it is just terrible.

1 star for video, 5 for audio. Since this is a DVD player after all, my overall rating is 2 stars. One more than it really deserves because people with non HD TVs might be actually satisfied. It is a good value however, for the sound.

Update:

After 6-7 months, the player refused to play DVD-Audio. Toshiba replaced it with a new unit. Meanwhile, I discovered that the bass management is completely messed up. In SACD mode, it would not output any bass to the sub, if some speakers are set to large, others to small. If all are set to small, the bass is too strong and boomy. If all are set to large, the bass form the .1 channel is about 20 dB or so weaker than normal. This makes me believe that in "small" mode, the .1 channel is practically lost because the bass from the other channels dominates it.

Im a big fan of Panasonic DVD players and never really carred for much else untill i found this player really cheap somewhere so i thought i buy it for a backup to my panasonic,some things i learnrd about this player first the sound is terriffic as good as my $250.00 panasonic the picture also,its a nice looking player to slim and silver.A couple of bad things and the reason its still just a backup to my panasonic,first the remote is plan terrible what were they thinking its like the remotes we got when dvd player first showed up big and awkward cant find buttons in dark with all the practice possible and no option you cant even flip the time to see how much time remains on a dvd or cd.If you dont need all the bells and whistles and are just looking for good picture with great sound this is a teriffic choice,if your more technical and prefer more bells and whistles(color control,bit display,one touch cinema video,dialouge enhancer,digital noise reducer etc.) buy a panasonic s77s model or 47s.I recommend this highly even with the cons i have decribed above,picture and sound are just to good.