Toshiba SD-V394 DVD/VCR Combo

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9 x 17 x 3.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10 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: B000EBPJFG
• Item model number: SD-V394
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,386 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #72 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > DVD-VCR Combos

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Get maximum enjoyment out of both your VHS and DVD movie libraries with the progressive scan Toshiba SD-V394 DVD/VCR Combo. The multi-format DVD player is compatible with a wide range of disc formats, including DVD movie, CD audio, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, and VCD. You can play discs burned with MP3 and WMA digital audio files, and it's also DivX Home Theater Certified--meaning that it's compatible with video burned to disc using both the DivX video format. You can also view photo slideshows from Kodak Picture CDs with JPEG images.

The VCR features 19-micron heads that match precisely the width of the SP and EP azimuths and read only the signal recorded on each azimuth (not adjoining tracks). The commercial skip feature automatically advances the tape 30-seconds forward, bypassing recorded commercials. The Auto Clock Set function ensures that your VCR never blinks "12:00" again. A special data stream in your local broadcast source (where available) automatically sets the clock display and keeps it accurate--even when time changes to daylight saving and back. Other VCR features include 8-event/1-month programming and auto channel setup.

The DVD player provides the Digital Cinema progressive scan (3:2 inverse pulldown) function, which provides accurate, smooth film reproduction. With the Digital Picture Zoom interactive feature, you can select an area of the picture you want to zoom in on and magnify it. It can also be used to expand letterbox-only films to increase the viewable area on-screen. Other features include a four fast scan options (2x, 4x, 8x, 20x), multi-camera angle selection, 14-bit/108 MHz video digital/analog converter (DAC), 24-Bit/192kHz audio DAC, parental controls, and tri-lingual on-screen menus (English, French, Spanish).

The ColorStream Pro component video output allows the video signal to be sent from the DVD player to a component video equipped interlaced or progressive scan TV. When utilized with an HD-compatible set, typical NTSC artifacts-like video noise, dot crawl, and flicker-are virtually eliminated, resulting in a low-noise, highly detailed picture with unequaled color purity. The full range of video and audio connections include includes:

• Composite AV (RCA) In: 2 in (1 front), 1 out
• S-Video: 1 out
• Component Video (Y PB PR): 1 out
• RF: 1 in, 1 out
• Digital Audio: 1 coaxial output

Tech Talk
DivX is a compressed digital video format (like MP3) that's based on the MPEG-4 video compression standard. It can reduce the video from a DVD (MPEG-2) to around 10 percent of its original size while still retaining good video and audio quality, enabling you to store several two-hour length movies on burned DVD media.

Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.

What's in the Box
DVD/VCR combo, remote control (with batteries), AV cable, printed operating instructions

Product Description

PROGRESSIVE SCAN DVD VCR COMBO WDIVX

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice alternative, August 28, 2006

By 

John OBrien (Modesto, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toshiba SD-V394 DVD/VCR Combo (Electronics)

I couldn't afford the DSM-520 from DLink, and my family still used VHS (very retro). I saw this, and the DivX label caught my eye. So I bought it. Then I looked at the reviews, which were scant and negative. I decided to open the box and set it up so I could add a review for others.

My buyer's remorse has been appeased for these reasons:

1. It plays AVI's from CD or DVD. I have a library of DivX and Xvid, this plays them all from either CD or DVD! I haven't found, yet, what it doesn't play.

2. Easy to get up and running. Interface is a piece of cake. My fam has no problem with it.

3. Front inputs.

4. Great sound and options (basic, but enough).

5. Great picture even with compressed AVI's, DivX and Xvid.

6. Codec library is plenty sufficient. Burn any AVI to any media and it plays. (any that I've tried, so far.)

Improvements? The volume level between VHS and DVD is pretty drastic. VHS is loud, DVD needs volume (but sounds fine).

Contrary to another review, the display is fine for me. Easy to see. Maybe they didn't remove that sticky shipping film. I don't know.

How long have I had it? 2 days. Will update if it gives out.
How much? Best Buy $105, but I see they go for $79 here.

Don't let the reviews (or lack of..) deter you. If you are an AVI person (you know what I mean), this one will do it for you.

Update: 12/18/06
Still going strong. I use the heck out of this machine. Remember, there is a "DVD only" version of this for cheaper (without the VCR). As with any player, use the button to eject and close the DVD tray. This minimizes the loss of tray functionality.

Another very cool feature of the DivX player portion is that you don't have to Fast Forward through a DivX or Xvid, you can use the "Jump To" feature, and jump to the general place in the show that you want to watch. I skip the long intro to Band of Brothers, for example, and jump to the 2:25 time (I memorized the exact place at which the show starts, and jump to it).

Cheers.

67 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If you plan to use this for more than 6 months, don't buy, March 31, 2006

By 

Yazzoo7 (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba SD-V394 DVD/VCR Combo (Electronics)

I bought two of these units, exactly one week apart. I liked the first one so much, I bought a second one for the family room. 6 months later, almost to the day, the DVD drive on the first unit stopped working (I had to take the thing apart to extract the trapped DVD). One week later, on the second unit, the VHS tray began seeing a tape even though none was loaded which meant I couldn't load a real tape. So, 6 months after buying two combo units, I now have one DVD player and one VCR.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toshiba SD-V394 DVD/VCR Combo, January 14, 2007

By 

Musubi (Hawaii + Japan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba SD-V394 DVD/VCR Combo (Electronics)

After searching around for an inexpensive VCR (not satisfied with the DVD recorders currently on the market) to replace my broken Panasonic VHS, I decided to take a chance on this Toshiba combo unit. Considering the price, I was pretty impressed by the build quality as I was pretty much expecting something that would look and feel cheap. The outside case for example felt sturdier than housing on my last two Panasonics (just touching it lightly would make creaking noise) and the tape insertion mechanism didn't feel like it would break (unlike my last two Panasonics where the holder would wobble and often times have problems pulling the tape in properly).

As for recording, this unit records in either SP or SLP (kind of wished it had a middle EP mode). SP playback quality is very nice but naturally, means only around 2 hours of recording time on a T120 tape. SLP gives me 6 hours but the recording quality is ok at best. Playing back tapes recorded on my previous VCR's is hit/miss as even with the automatic tracking (it still has difficulty resulting in occasional jitters or noise at the bottom).

Since I didn't buy this for the DVD player, I only tried a few disks (just to make sure it worked) including a home video recorded onto a DVD+RW and had no problems with playback or quality.

The remote is on the smallish side but at least most of the buttons are layed out decently and has separate eject buttons for both the DVD and VCR.

There are just a few minor annoyances I had with this unit which caused me to dock one star. One is that the display counter always takes precedence over the time whenever the unit is powered on (at least there is a clock/counter button on the remote to switch between the two). Also, to do timed recordings, you need to remember to press the timer/rec button (most other VCR's I've had in the past just required turning it "off" (i.e. standby mode). One feature I really miss from my Panasonic recorders was the tape position indicator display. I now find myself occasionally ejecting the tape to check how much is remaining (I record in a mix of SP and SLP so it is hard to gauge by the display counter).

I've had this for almost a month now and have used it everyday to observe what kind of experiences I would have before writing this review. For the price, I'm pretty satisified and it probably has exceeded my expectations since most VCR's nowadays aren't that great quality. I'll add in update in a few months to cover how reliable it is.