Read this - it may help you select the DVD player
Written: Apr 20 '00 (Updated Apr 22 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great features, Simple and solid onscreen display, Great price, Competes well with Sony hi-priced DVD players.
Cons: No RF out, Sloppy remote, Features not useful to many users.
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| harinair's Full Review: Toshiba SD-3109U DVD Player |
Great value for the price
I already have a good home theater except for the receiver, which does not have a DTS decoder. Hence I needed a good DVD player with Dolby DTS decoder. Man! The prices of the DVD players with DTS and 5.1 channel out are very high; it costs a $100 more than the regular one. At this point I felt bad that I did not go for a expensive receiver. This time I came across the Toshiba line of DVD players which are not expensive and which are as good as many Sony hi-priced DVD players. After comparing the features, price and looks of three major models, I decided to buy the Toshiba SD3109. It was as a power-buy in Mercata.com and they were giving a $50 less for the first purchase.
After getting the DVD player, I have seen more than 40 movies in it. The picture and sound quality is exceptional, the features are great, the player looks good, but remote is not up to the mark. I played many movies like ?Matrix? and ?Entrapment? to The Bug?s Life? and ?Tarzan?. I really enjoy having and using this product and sure, I am a very satisfied customer. I have come across comments that this DVD player is not playing some movies correctly. It is actually the problem with the disc. If you see broken images or bad audio, then you should try wiping the disc with a clean cloth. Mostly you may face this problem when you put in discs that are having scratches. It occurred to me twice ? ?The silence of the Lambs? and the ?Tarzan? did not play correctly; I returned the movies and got a replacement, which worked perfectly. I have seen that some of my friends have also brought this DVD player after seeing it in action in my home.
The only thing I do not like about this DVD player is the remote. I would have liked the rewind, play and forward buttons in the same row. Unfortunately rewind, slow motion and fast-forward are in the same row. The remote has all the good features including fluorescent buttons, but it does not have an appearance. Anyway a person like me who has 4 different remotes need to buy a Universal remote. When you put in a bad disc, this DVD player gets stuck and mostly you end up switching it off and on.
Read this because it may help you
1. It is not advisable to buy a DVD player with high-end features like this one if you do not have a 5.1 ready receiver or home theater - better go for a simple DVD player. Use audio video out of that to connect to your TV. When you plan to buy a home theater remember to buy a fully capable digital reciever.
2. If you have a DTS capable dolby digital receiver, then it is better to buy a cheaper DVD with digital out ? use digital out to connect to the digital input of your receiver and utilize the digital decoder of your receiver.
3. If you do not have audio/video inputs in your TV (My friend?s TV had only the RF input), do not buy any DVD player before you buy the new TV. DVD players normally do not come with an RF output and the only way to work around this situation is to connect audio/video out of your DVD player to the audio/video input of your VCR and taking the RF out from the VCR to connect to your TV. Another way is to purchase an RF converter. If you use VCR to convert the signal to RF, then your DVD player messes the autogain control of your VCR to prevent copying. The picture starts fading in and fading out and lines will also appear in picture. Finally you may be forced to shell off another bunch of dollars to get an RF convertor!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
harinair
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Location: Livermore CA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 2 members
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