Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Poor design September 19, 2005
37 out of 39 found this review helpful
Here are the good things: it does play DVDs, the remote works, and the apparent upconvert works as well.
Here are the bad things: DVD playback freezes periodically; the remote works poorly with limited angle tolerance and requiring multiple pressing of the keys at times; there is an annoying blue light on the tray door that can be dimmed via the setup menu, but then comes back to default after turning the player off; and finally, the selection of upconvert (1080i or 720p) is not retained after being set once the player is turned off.
This player is being returned tomorrow. I am very disappointed with Toshiba and think they have some serious rework of their design department ahead of them.
 Current best inexpensive Divx player January 24, 2006
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
I currently own a Toshiba 4800 DVD player and a Philips 642 Divx/DVD player. I use the Philips to play Divx/Xvid files, but the picture quality is not as good as the excellent Toshiba, so I've continued to use the latter for DVDs.
So, when I saw that Toshiba now has a DVD player that plays Divx/Xvid files, I was quite interested. I was hoping that it removed the annoyances of the Philips first generation player, and indeed it has:
- 28 character file name display instead of 11 characters on the Philips
- Plays GMC and QPEL encoded files that cause problems on the Philips
- Standard Toshiba DVD player remote codes which allow use of a universal remote
- Display button provides elapsed time, remaining time, file number and video and audio encoding details.
- Picture quality on both Divx/Xvid files and DVDs that is up to Toshiba's usual high standards.
I don't have HD (so I can't comment about upconverting), but I have a very good quality SD set, and I'm quite satisfied with the picture quality, so I've now replaced my Toshiba and the Philips with this player.
I have not yet had one disk freeze. My guess is that the first production run had a bad batch of lasers, and that subsequent production has better quality. I can't imagine why else the fall reviews describe this problem, while the winter reviews don't. (Note that any particular retailer might have old stock.)
Personally, I'm not bothered by the blue light, and neither is my wife. However, my player is up above the TV in the entertainment center. Probably the key is to not have the player at seated eye level where the blue light might be shining directly at you.
By the way, about the only annoyances with this unit are that "auto-play" is hard-wired into the unit - you have to press stop to get the menu of Divx or MP3 files. And, there is no "root" menu display of folders - left or up arrow goes to another folder's file listing. And, oddly the folder names are only 18 characters rather than 28 like the file names.
PS Concerning remotes - note that home entertainment devices are shipped with really cheap batteries that may have sat around for months or years. So, before complaining that the remote works badly, try replacing the batteries with new alkalines.
UPDATE: After another month, still no problems whatsoever (no disc freezes). And, I've discovered that it will play PAL DVDs as well as NTSC. Of course, there is still the normal region restriction.
2ND UPDATE: I've discovered that if any file has more than 64 characters in the filename, the player will hang. Thus, you need to burn your Divx, Xvid, Mpeg, Jpeg, MP3 and WMA files in ISO 9660 + Joliet mode (and do NOT check "Allow more than 64 characters"). This is actually in the player's specifications, but there are some things in the specs that don't apply - for example, you can use DVDRs in addition to CDRs and you can use RW disks. You don't need to keep track of any of this if you only burn DVD-VIDEO disks or VCDs, because those automatically conform to the same standards. If you do get a lockup accidentally from a filename longer than 64 characters, unplugging the unit and plugging it back in, should clear it.
By the way, I've read in another customer review that the player can read Ogg Vorbis files, but I have not had any success with that. And, in case anyone is wondering, it will not read MKV format files either.
And, still no freezes in playback.
kept it for only one reason (region-free) April 5, 2006
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
I purchased this player because it was the cheapest upconversion DVD player with HDMI (1.1) output that I could find in the store. It doesn't come with an HDMI cable so I had to buy one (which was actually more expensive than the player).
It definitely looks and feels like a very cheap player-very light and feels flimsy. The cheap comestics doesn't bother me, however. The product image from Amazon looks different than my SD-4980 so I posted the image of the one I have.
Once the player is turned on, the splash screen comes in low resolution and is ugly. But, the menus for setting up the DVD are simple to follow. It does't give you a lot of options for tweaking. The only essential settings I had to change was to display 16:9 , select video to component output and change audio output to bitmap (to receiver).
Picture and Audio quality out of the box is OK. After connecting the player to the TV using HDMI cable, I was somewhat disappointed to find very little difference on the picture quality. At least it didn't make it worse which could easily happen. Upconversion is possible ONLY through the HDMI cable. I like the little light indicators in the front panel, showing 480p, 720p and 1080i-so I don't have to guess which resolution I am using. The picture quality noticibly improved after I used their EPM (Picture enhancement) adjusting brightness and edge sharpness. There's also EAM (audio enhancement) 3D sound that works on PCM mode (2 channel audio).
One thing I didn't know was that this little cheap player is actually a region-free player. To "unlock" all-region capabilty, all I had to do was keep the tray OPEN and press, 2403960. It took me to a region setting menu. I pressed "enter" several times to "9" which is all-region. Now I can watch all my region 3 and PAL discs upconverted. This is the reason I am keeping this player. I thought of getting a better player. But, I decided there's no use to spend hundreds of dollars now on a more expensive, better upconvert DVD player since the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players are coming out soon.
I like this player!! November 7, 2005
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
After a year of frustration with a Philips DivX capable player, I found this Toshiba to be a gigantic improvement.
My primary reasons for buying this player were DivX capability, a decent remote, and quick recognition of video file names. The Philips would not recognize many DivX and XVID files, it would sometimes take more than a minute to set up a menu for a CD or DVD of DivX-encoded files, and the remote was the most poorly designed one that I've ever come across.
The previous review faulted the lack of retention of settings, especially for HDMI, and I can't argue. For me, though, it's not a problem since my primary goal is DivX playback. Its performance on computer video playback is exemplary. It sets up menus in just a few seconds. Playback of .avi files is flawless; it plays files that the Philips choked on without a bit of trouble. I've had NO problem playing back any DVD that I've tried, and it has NEVER hung up on me. [Since the review was written, I've played at least 75 disks, and it did hang up one one; however, my other player and PC did the same on this disk] The effective angle of the remote is no worse than on other DVD players that I've used, and is better than most. The remote is beautifully organized and quite comprehensive. The amount of information about computer video formats revealed by the Display button is impressive; this player can even handle Ogg Vorbis audio, which is an extreme rarity among players.
On the down side, the blue light that shines around the tray is really irritating, and so is having to cut it off every time you restart the player. I don't use a flat panel display, so the HDMI settings don't matter to me, but I can see it being a problem to those who need it.
For people who want DivX playback who are not bothered by the HDMI limitations or the blue light, this is an exceptional player. I'd buy this over the other DivX-capable players that I've seen without a second's hesitation. Now, if they'd only make a player capable of handling .ogm and .mkv files . . .
 excellent DVD player December 10, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this player for full price and felt it was very worth it. I wasn't looking for a DivX playback player... actually picked it up by accident! But I'm glad I did...
It plays DivX and XviD files perfectly, without fault. Like the other reviewer, I only had a problem with one file and I had the same problem on my computer. At first I burned the files onto a CD-R [1 file per CD] but decided to try out DVD+Rs and it works! I put around 6-7 files on it and they all play in a row. Just skip the track to get to the next episode.
It is a very slim DVD player, and the light doesn't bother me at all. The remote is excellent and has all that is needed.
I was considering buying the Phillips DivX player for a present recently, but after reading some reviews about it, I'm just going to buy this player because I know it works.
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