Two Disc Gem of a DVD Player
Written: Dec 23 '00 (Updated Mar 17 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 2 disc, DD decoder on board
Cons: Fast Forward same button as next chapter
The Bottom Line: Two disk tray is very handy. Well designed. Sturdy. Excelent audio/video quality all around. No CDR/CDRW support for audio or VCD though.
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| MikeD03C's Full Review: Toshiba SD-3109U DVD Player |
I bought this in February with a group-buying program online. This was my first DVD player. I was already familiar with the Toshiba line of products so I was confident in its quality. Upon arrival the first thing I noticed was that it was packaged very well. This was a good sign.
The back has digital coax and optical out, as well as a 6 speaker analog out. There is a decoder on board for those who don't have receivers that have a DD decoder. This unit also supports HDCD, which doesn't mean much for most--I have not tested that feature. There are component video outs, s-video out and standard composite out. I use coaxial digital out to my Onkyo 575x receiver and use s-video to my TV.
Upon popping in my first DVD (Matrix of course :D), I was astounded. This was the most awesome thing I had ever seen. The picture was perfect.
Since then I have rented over 110 DVDs to play on this DVD Player. It has never had any problems with any discs. Layer change pauses are always brief. This player has given me no troubles at all except for once.
I (stupidly) was moving the DVD player around when I accidentally hit switch disk and the switcher got stuck. About 30 minutes later involving shaking, praying, and swearing the thing finally came out. It gave me a quick scare but I survived. Don’t take this as bad design though. Just unplug the thing when moving it or keep it unloaded—simple as that.
Sound quality is perfect too. I’ve listened to Dolby Digital and DTS disks and have been nothing but impressed on my B&W sound system.
The menu on this DVD player is very svelte, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing. I wish all on screen displays were like this. Most important setting changes require you to stop a disk though—which is acceptable.
The remote is rather large. The buttons for the less important functions are covered by a slider (think of that one silver Nokia phone…). Some find this annoying—but I rather like it. The buttons are made of a glow-in-the-dark material. The one problem with this remote is that the same button is used for chapter advance and fast forward (same for rewind). You hold down the button to enable 2X fast forward, then press it once again for 8X then once again for 30X. However, if you don’t hold it down for long enough this will skip a chapter again. This is semi annoying for some, but I’ve gotten used to it. It does make it a pain to set up a universal remote though.
I would recommend this player for anyone who doesn’t have a receiver with a Dolby Digital decoder, someone who wants dual disk capability, or anyone looking for a solid DVD player.
-Update-
I can finally report on the ability of this player with burnt media. I cannot get any type of CDR to work in this player. I have tried Sony, Memorex, some cheap off brand and even the new PNY black bottom (like Playstation disks) CDRs to no avail. I can get Memorex Platinum CDRWs to work halfway. But the video CD comes up very garbled and unusable (The VCD I burnt was standards compliant to the T as it plays in other players). This frustrates me quite a bit as I would have appreciated burnt VCD options but I didn't look for that when I bought it. If you plan on playing CDRs or CDRWs on this unit then you should look elsewhere. I am lowering this to a 4 star because most all newer DVD players play at least CDRs. It is still an excellent player for DVDs alone though.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
MikeD03C
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Location: North Central Indiana, USA
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 2 members
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