Toshiba SD-P5000 Portable 15" LCD TV / DVD Combo

Rating:
Summary: Great Picture and Very Portable
Review: I find this unit is well built and it has an excellent picture with a good quality signal source in. While a tad heavy relative to what you would guess while looking at it, I transport it easily in a 15"H x 3"W x 18"L padded portfolio laptop-styled carry bag and use it mostly on my boat. I have had no trouble playing any DVD's in it and they too present a very fine picture. I suspect another reviwer who complains got a bad sample or lacks a decent antenna system or signal source in. I don't have his problems and have compared the picture directly and favorably to my high quality large Sony TV picture with a satillite signal into each and adjusting distance for each. A very nice unit.

Rating:
Summary: Big, but bad
Review: Pros>>>
- Big Screen
- Great sound
- Versitile positioning options
- Great connectivity options

Cons>>>
- Very poor screen resolution. Everything is pixelated and fuzzy (not good when you're expecting a DVD quality picture)
- Very heavy. I expected it to be somewhat heavy given the screen size, but it's quite a bit bigger than I expected. Much bigger and heavier than my 3 year old notebook
- Won't play DVD-R's. Despite what it says, I tried 5 different movies recorded on DVD-R's and none of them worked. They all work on all 4 DVD players I have in my house, but none of them work on the this thing.
- Brightness bars at the top and bottom of the screen are very apparent in low light conditions. The overall screen brightness is great, but it's overpowering at the top and bottom of the screen. Adjustmenst fix it somewhat, but it's impossible to get rid of completely.
- When the disc is spinning up at startup it sounds like a muffled lawn mower. Very loud. During play it's not noticeable though.

Final notes:
Screen size and sound is great. It's not a very portable device though due to it's weight and clunkiness. My biggest gripe and the reason I won't keep it is the picture quality. It's poor at best and not even close to what a DVD sourced picture should be. If you want a big screen and a device that will connect to anything (tons of I/O ports) at the cost of portability and picture quality this is for you. It however, is not for me.