The Toshiba SD-V280 DVD/VCR Combo Unit is Nice.
Written: Jul 15 '02 (Updated May 20 '03)
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Pros: Two units in one, plays all kinds of formats, picture and sound quality.
Cons: DVD copyrights make recording to VHS impossible.
The Bottom Line: If you want an excellent DVD/VCR Combo, this is the one for you!
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| Ironcladd's Full Review: Toshiba SD-V280 DVD Player / VCR Combo |
“This DVD/VCR Combo is NICE”.
by James P. Zaworski
I don’t know if you are like I am, when it comes to new technology, I am intrigued and interested, and seemingly have to try it out, yet I am hesitant to leave the old and familiar behind. This interesting nature of how technology changes our lives, and thins our wallets, applies very nicely to the discussion of replacing videocassette tapes with DVD’s. Now, again, if you are like I am, you have amassed a huge array of videocassettes, movies, stuff from TV, home videos, etc. There are stacks and stacks of them on shelves, and you never seem to have enough blank tapes around when you need them.
Then, DVD’s come onto the market. They are more expensive, but take up less room. They have crystal clear digital quality, all kinds of features, and are so darned neat! So, what do you do? Do you replace all of your hundreds of videocassettes all in one grand expense and buy DVD’s? Well, I am not prepared to do that, so I wanted to ease into a DVD player with a little bit of a compromise. My existing DVD player doesn’t play all of the digital formats that are available (VCD, MP3, mpeg, avi, CD, etc.). I also didn’t want to totally give up my VHS player either (which was an aging cheapy unit). I shopped around, and found a good deal at Amazon.com on the Toshiba DVD/VCR Combination Player SD-V280. I purchased it and received it within two days from them, in June 2002. I am extremely pleased with the new unit. What follows is a table of information about the Toshiba DVD/VCR Combination SD-V280 unit, followed by an evaluation of the unit in terms of what I like and what I don’t like about it.
Table of Information on the Toshiba DVD/VCR Combination SD-V280.
Manufacturing Company: Toshiba
DVD Player: Yes
DVD Recorder: No
DVD viewing format: NTSC
Video VHS Cassette Player: Yes
Video VHS Cassette Recorder: Yes
Plays Compact Disc Video: Yes
Plays Compact Disc Audio: Yes
Dolby Digital: Yes
Plays VHS hi-fi: Yes
Plays MP3 files: Yes
Plays VCD: Yes
Plays CD/R: Yes
Plays CR/RW: Yes
Plays DVD/R: Yes
Copies DVD to VHS: Yes, but not copyrighted DVD’s.
DTS Video Out: Yes
Warranty: Yes, 1 year with extensions available.
Virtual Surround Sound: Yes, Spatializer Virtual Surround.
Remote Control: Yes, a silver one (just add one more remote to the plethora of remotes!)
All the typical DVD/VHS/antenna/audio in/video in/audio out/video out connections.
Digital Clock settings and tuner: Yes
Special Playback features: picture search, still picture, slow motion, frame by frame picture, CM skip, Video Head cleaning (automatic), Repeat Playback, Zero return function, video index search system, timer recording, stereo playback, separate audio program, playing in favorite order, picture zoom, and more!
Cost: I paid $199 with free shipping from Amazon.com on a promotion, and also used a $25 coupon, making this a sweet $174 deal!
Things I like about the Toshiba DVD/VCR Combination player/recorder SD-V280.
The first thing that I like is the dual nature of the beast in question. I can put in a DVD movie and a VHS movie, and can watch one or the other on my TV. This feature is great for a Saturday night when you rent several movies, in both formats (my video store has more in VHS these days than DVD, but all the new releases are in DVD, so I inevitably get a mix of formats to watch). When its movie night, I usually watch two or three movies in a row, so this unit is great because you don’t have to change discs or tapes right away (not that this is a big deal). The DVD/VCR switch is all that is needed to view either format on the appropriate TV channel (I use channel 3 for the VHS, and the input, or “Line”, channel for DVD).
The next thing I like about this unit is the picture quality that results, both in DVD, and in VHS. It plays in VHS hi-fi, and I have never seen such crisp and clear quality on a VHS player before. When pausing on VHS play, the quality is so crisp and clear, you would be hard pressed to think it wasn’t a DVD that you were watching!
The next thing I like is the audio quality of this unit. I don’t care what format you are watching, the sound seems very good. I have a stereo TV, but it never sounded this good before with other VHS or DVD players.
The next function I really like is the fact that this unit can play a multitude of functions on the DVD side. Recently, I downloaded a bunch of music files in MP3 format, but found that my old DVD wouldn’t recognize this format, and neither would my CD player (an older, 1992 model). I also have some mpg movies on VCD, or video CD, and these wouldn’t play either on my old DVD player. Further, the VCD format stuff I have is all on CD/R, recordable CD format, or CD/RW, rewritable CD format burned from a computer. Even further, I have home video from a non-digital video camera that has been transferred and transformed into some other format, equally undecipherable from my old DVD unit. Well, the Toshiba SD-V280 can play them all! DivX format, avi, mpg, CD, VCD. CD-R, CD/RW, DVR-R—you name it, this unit can play it!
Another feature that I like is the hookups for video camera in front of the unit, which makes watching without a disc nice too.
Other features I like are the incredible speed of rewind and fast forward of the VHS player, the auto record function, language selection features, repeat playback, the automatic video head cleaning (I had never heard of this before), the zero return function, and the ability to program the show you are watching in any order you like.
Things I don’t like about the Toshiba SD-V280.
The main thing I don’t like is that copyrighted DVD’s cannot be recorded to VHS cassette tapes. This is one of the reasons that I had purchased the unit, but found that there seems to be no way around it. Still, it isn’t all that bad, because one can record “ripped” VCD’s that are similar in quality and sound as a DVD, with a smaller picture.
That’s the only thing I don’t like, and further, I know that soon, a recordable DVD to DVD player that can overlook the copyrights, or a DVD to VHS unit that can do the same, will be on the market in the future, prompting still yet another paradigm shift in the technology world of home electronics!
All in all, I am extremely pleased with the Toshiba DVD/VHS Combination SD-V280 unit. There are functions that I haven’t tried on it, and am still learning all of the ins and outs of it. I have recorded from TV and from another VHS unit to it, and it records excellently. It’s picture quality and sound quality are immaculate, and it is a convenient unit for the movie buff who has lots of VHS cassettes, DVD discs, and all kinds of other stuff too!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
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Epinions.com ID:
Ironcladd
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Member: James Zaworski
Location: Shenzhen, China
Reviews written: 475
Trusted by: 151 members
About Me:
I am an English teacher, Archeologist and Anthropologist.
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