This made a great gift
Written: May 28 '00 (Updated Jan 05 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice picture, well-designed remote, other nice features
Cons: Can seduce you into watching a movie when you should be washing your car
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| puter's Full Review: Toshiba SD-3109U DVD Player |
Updated January 5, 2001
I've had a DVD player in my computer for a couple of years and have loved it. I still haven't been able to convince myself to purchase a standalone player for myself since I have my computer connected to my TV; but I did decide that my parents needed a DVD player, whether they knew it or not. Thus began my quest for a high-quality (but not obscenely overpriced) standalone DVD player.
I wound up purchasing an SD-3109 for my parents for Christmas of 1999, and they haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. The remote was much better designed than any of the other remote controls they have, in that it actually has an intuitive layout. It also conceals some of the less frequently used buttons under a slide-out panel toward the back end, to make the remote even easier to operate without having to look at the buttons in order to press the right ones.
One of these concealed buttons is a "Zoom" button that allows you to zoom in on a portion of the screen with up to 4x magnification. For people who really dislike watching movies in letterbox format on a regular TV, this Zoom button can zoom in on the center of the picture enough to almost eliminate the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, the zoom factor is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen for as long as the zoom function is enabled.
If you really must, you can use some more of the concealed buttons to play and replay part of a movie in a continuous loop. I'm guessing this feature was designed mostly for use in store showrooms.
The player has a screen saver that displays the Toshiba DVD logo after a movie has been paused for a certain period of time. The SD-3109 also allows you to resume from the exact point where you left off, in the unfortunate event that you are interrupted while watching a movie. This way, you can press Stop instead of keeping the movie paused for a long period of time.
Along with all of the standard DVD playback capabilities, this player has dual disc trays that allow one disc to be swapped while the other is playing. All of the connectors are located on the back of the unit, including standard RCA outputs for people without a high-end home entertainment system.
The SD-3109 also supports high-end output options such as S-Video, along with your choice of DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. For those who have S-Video but not surround sound, the stereo RCA audio outputs can be paired with the S-Video output. The unit also contains an N-2-2 3D spatializer which is supposed to emulate surround sound, but I haven't noticed much difference in sound on my parents' TV with it enabled or disabled.
The SD-3109 is packed with features, but it's polite, too. Immediately after it's powered on, its LCD panel says, "Welcome to Toshiba DVD." When it's powered off, its LCD panel says, "Goodbye!"
All of the technology and nice creature comforts packed into the SD-3109 reflect all of the essential attributes a person should look for in an affordable DVD player.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
puter
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Member: Rob
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 5 members
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