Toshiba SD-P1400 Portable DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: A Really Nice DVD Player`
Review: I received this Toshiba Portable DVD Player as a Christmas gift from my wife. In a word: Wow! This player rocks and it's stacked with features. I like the remote control. Very cool! The best thing about this Toshiba DVD player is the screen image quality. Crisp and clear. It's also small and lightweight making it very easy to travel with. I like the dual headphone jacks. I get great sound quality when listening from my headphones. Yes, the built-in speakers don't put out the greatest sound but there's a remedy for that: Just connect a pair of external speakers to one of the headphone jacks and Presto! you have decent surround sound. Harman/Kardon speakers are my preferred choice. The only little draw back to this player is that I like to keep a spare battery available as a back up. Other than that, this is a nice player for anyone to have and enjoy. Toshiba has made a fan out of me.

Rating:
Summary: Re-rating: Bad quality...a possible lemon.
Review: In an earlier detailed review, I had rated the Toshiba SD-P1400 4 stars, one month after buying it. Now, almost 3 months down the line, I have lowered the rating to a single star (I hate It!!!). The unit worked great for a few days until we decided to go for a memorial day trip. The LCD just would not display anything, although there was sound. I reset all the controls to their factory setting and still no picture. I am the type who takes good care of my stuff, and immediately ruled out any damage to the unit. I took it back to BB (TG, I had extended Warranty on it) and they immediately replaced with a new one, no questions asked. Apparently, the new one had a different issue. The entire "set" looked a little different on careful observation, which led me to believe this may have been from a different assembly. When I powered it on, I realized that this unit had less audio, more noise from the DVD motion and bad picture quality. The LCD on this one was a different quality than the original one. This one looked a little brighter (good), but the "grain lines" were very visible and the picture appeared distorted. I am taking this back to BB and will demand money back.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, I returned it
Review: In the store I compared this to the 7" Polaroid PDV-0700. The screen on the Polaroid can be seen easily from any angle, not so for the Toshiba, which looks black from an angle. But the Polaroid was not in stock, so I bought the Toshiba. At home I put in a DVD and discovered that the spinning of the motor is very loud. It is masked if you turn the volume up loud, but it is far noisier that an Initial DVD player that I also tried out. Based on that alone, I returned it.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, I returned it
Review: In the store I compared this to the 7" Polaroid PDV-0700. The screen on the Polaroid can be seen easily from any angle, not so for the Toshiba, which looks black from an angle. But the Polaroid was not in stock, so I bought the Toshiba. At home I put in a DVD and discovered that the spinning of the motor is very loud. It is masked if you turn the volume up loud, but it is far noisier that an Initial DVD player that I also tried out. Based on that alone, I returned it.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Rad Award
Review: It's good to see 1980s style industrial design has come back. The geometic parts actually fit together like they're supposed to. It can be put in a bookcase like a REAL book without crazy round parts sticking out like sore thumbs. It is a true labour of love.

As for the player's picture: benissimo! The speaker quality isn't a surround sound stereo system, but I didn't expect it to be. Besides, if I use it in the car, I'll use headphones. The controls are almost eye-poppingly easy to use. It is a nice change from 40-key remote controls I've seen for household DVD players (like APEX).

Rating:
Summary: Travelling with child for 8 days
Review: Personally I think this unit is great. Some features were very important as I have a very precocious 2 1/2 year old. The sound quality and picture were great. Yes, if look at it from the side the image is dark. This is pretty standard with LCD displays. Importantly, the buttons on the unit are integrated into the top cover. This is also the same with the remote. Sticky fingers, food and minor splashes can be cleaned up very easily. The picture is very crisp. The bottom has very sticky rubber dots which kept the unit in place while my son was moving his tray on the plane up and down. We very easily plugged the unit in the audio/video RCA connections on the TV at the hotel. It worked flawlessly. The remote is as thin as two credit cards, very easily stowed. I used the unit to watch my own movies with headphones and found the experience enjoyable. All in all I would highly recommend this to any parent who wants a great unit for the money.

Rating:
Summary: Great Player But Could've Been Better
Review: Pros: The 7 inch screen looks clear, bright and good contrast.

It's small and compact.

Great battery life (sufficient for a 3 hour plane ride).

Good price for a screen this size.

Reliable brandname.

Cons: No inputs (Amazon states incorrectly that it does) so you can't hook up a Playstation or Xbox or other external device.

When the power is off, no memory on where you left off (a feature other players have).

Speakers not great but this is the norm for portable DVD players and I expected that. My kids and I mostly use headphones anyway and that was plenty loud and clear enough on a noisy airplane.

Does not come with a carry on bag.

Conclusion: I still give it 4 stars due to the price, screen size and quality and being a reputable brand compared to some others out there.

Rating:
Summary: Good overall value, lacks line-in.
Review: Reviewing after 30 days of home/mobile use.
Cons: My three disappointments with the SDP1400 are: 1) No A/V Line-in...so, no gaming on this one. 2) Lack of Forward and Reverse control on the unit itself. There is one on the remote, though. 3) MP3 playback is bad...file gets broken into multiple segments when playing causing a noticeable skip.
Pros: 1) A/V out and PCM out 2) 2 Headphone jacks 3) Car power adapter included (and works). 4) JPEG viewer is a nice to have.
Overall: Superior picture quality (if not the best)...whites tend to be extra-whiter. Sound is clear and loud from the in-built speakers. No skipping when used in the car. Battery seems to be good and lasts for about 2 hrs on full charge. Styling is slightly better than average. If not the best, its overall good value for $284.

Rating:
Summary: Small Flaws Limit Stars
Review: We bought this for a long driving trip, and found that the car charger was not really long enough to power the unit while it is attached to the back of the front seat. We drive a Subaru Outback, so minivans and larger SUV's seem likely to have such problems. In addition, the plug often came out of the cigarette lighter.
We have also found the unit tempermental in which discs it plays - it doesn't want to play the Lion King, for example, only the previews!