Rating: 
Summary: Excellent player with some minor problems
Review: I purchased the SD-4700 mainly for its progressive scan feature and I must say that it does make a big difference. I'm using this player with a Philips digital widescreen HDTV (32" tube) and, finally, I'm starting to see the full potential of the DVD format. Some people may argue that since a lot of new TVs (especially HDTVs) are equipped with high quality line doublers, you get all the benefits of progressive scanning directly from your TV, but at least in my case, the SD-4700 does a much better job than Philips' own "Natural Motion" technology in presenting progressive output while still maintaining that "film quality" of the... err... film :)The remote control is a lot easier to use than previous Toshiba models and provides very easy access to all the features you may need during playback (e.g. subtitles, audio and angle selection). It also contains a rather large joystick that makes it very easy to navigate menus. Also worth mentioning is the fact that all the controls are also available on the player itself. Very useful for these times when you accidentally "misplace" the remote. As for the supported formats, I had no problems playing DVDs, VCDs, music CDs & CDRs and MP3 CDRs. The MP3 support is very basic and has some quirks. For example, I still can't really understand how the player determines the order of tracks. Seems a bit random to me but there must be a logical explanation here :). Anyway, the feature actually does work, the overall sound quality is good and that's what counts. I haven't tested the player with DVD Audio discs yet so I can neither confirm nor deny the problems reported in other reviews. Now for the kinks, which are minor but still prevent this player from getting 5 stars: 1. Some widescreen HDTVs (my Philips among them) do not allow the user to manually set the aspect ratio for progressive signals. This means that you may get just a little bit frustrated when you play widescreen, NON-anamorphic DVDs ("letterboxed" -- where the "black bars" are coded into the frame to make it display correctly on 4:3 TVs). Your options with these DVDs are to either watch them letterboxed in a rather small 4:3 viewing area (annoying!), have the SD-4700 stretch them to 16:9 (annoying because it will mess up the aspect ratio) or use the zoom feature of the player to try and get the optimal picture (frustrating but doable). What this player really needs is a smart zoom feature that removes the black bars and scales the picture to fit the screen (like most widescreen TVs have) but I guess you just can't get it all. That said, since most new DVDs are anamorphic (contain no black bars and therefore always displayed in the correct aspect ratio), this can be considered a minor inconvenience. 2. The player has some problems displaying menu items in 4:3 progressive mode: highlighted menu items sometimes get totally messed up. This doesn't happen with native 16:9 DVDs or when you set the player to stretch everything to 16:9, so it's not really that big of a deal. 3. Pixel cropping - I think this player crops almost half an inch off the bottom of your picture (I made sure this was not a problem with my TV not being properly aligned). According to the AVIA test signals I used, over 25 pixels were cropped out and that's considered a little too much. Still, I guess many people wouldn't notice this glitch because their TVs are probably cropping so much more... :). All in all, I am very pleased with this player. You really do get a lot for your money here! Sure, there are a few kinks but they are not horrible (unless you are a non-compromising videophile). If you have an HDTV, you really owe it to yourself to get a progressive scan DVD player, and this is probably one of the better (and cheaper) ones out there.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding DVD player, mediocre MP3 player
Review: I purchased this unit wanting to have one player handle all formats, as well as progressive scan, which will be my next upgrade (16:9 format screen). As a DVD player, it doesn't get better than this! The player has exceptional picture quality with no "hangs" or artifacts. The freeze frames are crystal clear. The zoom function was far more useful than I had expected. It is amazing how far you can zoom in on a picture with minimal picture quality degradation. If you do not care for the black bars you are forced to have on some wide screen DVD movies, you can "zoom" as much of them away as you want! Right now it is connected to a Mitsubishi 46" with an S-video cable. This is the best picture this set has ever displayed. I can't wait to see what it will do on a progressive scan set! All the outputs you need for audio are there - coax, RCA, and optical, as well as the ability to handle Dolby Digital, DTS, etc. As an MP3 player, I am disappointed. Some files that played flawlessly on an MP3 player or PC had distortion, and LOUD sound artifacts when played on the Toshiba. Other similar files played fine. Although the addendum sheet stated to use 8 character file names and no more than a 74 minute CD-R, it seems to work also with 80 minute CD-Rs and CDR-Ws (same results with MP3 - poor). No problems when the MP3 file was burned in standard CD audio format, though.)Also, no problems with standard audio CD playback. The remote control was easy to use and intuitive for major functions. It is not the "universal" type. The menu structure is easy to use. The manual was clear, but I would like to have seen it broken down by type of media being played back. An extra manual is included to correct all the errors in the original manual Most of these correct functions the manual states the player will do, but in reality does not do. Overall, I am pleased with the machine as a DVD/CD player.
Rating: 
Summary: top quality in a top of the line dvd player
Review: I've had one other dvd player which was a entry level player, However when I saw the performance of the toshiba 4700 In a electronic store, I was blown away......So I bought the 4700 hooked it up to my dolby digital reciever and wow and double wow
you can set your center channel with this player so all dialogue comes through clear and crisp......Plus the fact you can put in your own screen savers etc etc.........buy it you'll love it........Owen
Rating:
Summary: top quality in a top of the line dvd player
Review: I've had one other dvd player which was a entry level player, However when I saw the performance of the toshiba 4700 In a electronic store, I was blown away......So I bought the 4700 hooked it up to my dolby digital reciever and wow and double wow
you can set your center channel with this player so all dialogue comes through clear and crisp......Plus the fact you can put in your own screen savers etc etc.........buy it you'll love it........Owen
Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE DVD PLAYER
Review: In my opion, i think this is the best DVD player on the market for this year. It supports all formats, dvd-audio, mp3 and progressive scan at the price (...). The picture is amazing. DVD-audio is excellent. Just like you are sitting right in the middle of the real concert. The remote is very useful and easy to use. You can't ask anymore from this DVD player.
Rating:
Summary: much better than your average progressive DVD player
Review: In response to the reviewer who felt this product is only fair: a little maintenance can go a long way. A $10-$20 lens cleaner might get your player to read discs again. But if yours is defective, it doesn't mean the model is not a very good performer, with excellent features. As another reviewer mentioned, Alon, I too have an HDTV that does not allow for aspect ratio control when viewing thru the progressive inputs. But the SD-4700 has a "full/4:3" setting in the menu to adjust for standard or widescreen DVDs, without distortion. It does have a problem with alignment of icons on the menu pages, but it's trivial and I'm used to it. The letterboxing on a 2.35:1 DVD (like Gladiator), can be easily eliminated by the easy-to-use zoom feature, if you don't mind losing a little side content and picture resolution. But if you want to watch a "super widescreen" release on a widescreen TV, what else can you do? Nothing's perfect, at least not at these prices. I wasn't aware of the cropping of pixels (thanks Alon), but overall, most DVD movies look fairly amazing when played on my Toshiba (CW34x92) 34". They seem to be a perfect match. The colors seem to be true without tweaking, and the definition is very impressive. That's what a progressive scanning DVD player can do when hooked up to a good HDTV 16x9 monitor.
Rating:
Summary: Very Very Good for the money
Review: Most DVD players sell on features these days rather than quality. That's a shame. There are some very good mid-priced DVD players that don't forsake quality just to load up with features. You can get very versatile DVD players for very little money... And then there is the middle ground and that's where the SD4700 holds firm ground. This isn't a [$$$] Integra or Denon or Marantz. But the Toshiba SD4700 is a very very good DVD player for about [$$$]. It's better than run of the mill stuff, very strong for the middle market, with lots of features that are reasonable quality. It even outputs progressive scan, although on a player in this price range, the quality of the picture is not going to be so improved by progressive scan as to make up for the weaknesses of a midrange player. But that's true of all the players in this price range. Even better is the SD5700 for about [$$$], basically the same features but slightly better quality and worth the step up in price imo. Basic build construction quality on all Toshiba is good.
Rating:
Summary: Very Very Good for the money
Review: Most DVD players sell on features these days rather than quality. That's a shame. There are some very good mid-priced DVD players that don't forsake quality just to load up with features. You can get very versatile DVD players for very little money... And then there is the middle ground and that's where the SD4700 holds firm ground. This isn't a [$$$] Integra or Denon or Marantz. But the Toshiba SD4700 is a very very good DVD player for about [$$$]. It's better than run of the mill stuff, very strong for the middle market, with lots of features that are reasonable quality. It even outputs progressive scan, although on a player in this price range, the quality of the picture is not going to be so improved by progressive scan as to make up for the weaknesses of a midrange player. But that's true of all the players in this price range. Even better is the SD5700 for about [$$$], basically the same features but slightly better quality and worth the step up in price imo. Basic build construction quality on all Toshiba is good.
Rating:
Summary: Nice machine, works well...
Review: Nice machine. And DVD is a fun medium obviously. I had to go to Radioshack and get a converter for my TV which is old and had a cable outlet only. Once I did that, everything worked fine. Because of DVD protection I couldn't hook this player through my VCR, or I could if I wanted to watch the brightness/contrast fluctuate widly and get a horrible headache. Honest, I wasn't going to copy anything, I just wanted to watch DVD. That problem solved, another minor one appeared. Europe is in Region 2, and the US is in Region 1, and the upshot is there's no point in ordering DVD's from Europe because once again, as with VCR's, the two technologies do not match. Apparently there are DVD players that can show both Region encodings, so if this is a real investment for you, you might want to take that into account. I can't remember how much I payed for this because the price then as now was too low to display (?), but it's a nifty item, and I enjoy it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Nice machine, works well...
Review: Nice machine. And DVD is a fun medium obviously. I had to go to Radioshack and get a converter for my TV which is old and had a cable outlet only. Once I did that, everything worked fine. Because of DVD protection I couldn't hook this player through my VCR, or I could if I wanted to watch the brightness/contrast fluctuate widly and get a horrible headache. Honest, I wasn't going to copy anything, I just wanted to watch DVD. That problem solved, another minor one appeared. Europe is in Region 2, and the US is in Region 1, and the upshot is there's no point in ordering DVD's from Europe because once again, as with VCR's, the two technologies do not match. Apparently there are DVD players that can show both Region encodings, so if this is a real investment for you, you might want to take that into account. I can't remember how much I payed for this because the price then as now was too low to display (?), but it's a nifty item, and I enjoy it very much.
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