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Toshiba SD-3900 Progressive-Scan DVD Player

Toshiba SD-3900 Progressive-Scan DVD Player

List Price: $149.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Meets all expectations
Review: I was looking for a progressive scan player under [money amount]. This player has all that I needed--plays jpeg files on CD-RWs, component video, and optical digital audio. The picture and sound are great. The remote is easy to use and I have had no trouble on rented DVDs or my computer generated CD-RWs. I haven't used all the features, but those that I have used worked well with the remote. This player is exactly what I wanted.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Meets all expectations
Review: I was looking for a progressive scan player under [money amount]. This player has all that I needed--plays jpeg files on CD-RWs, component video, and optical digital audio. The picture and sound are great. The remote is easy to use and I have had no trouble on rented DVDs or my computer generated CD-RWs. I haven't used all the features, but those that I have used worked well with the remote. This player is exactly what I wanted.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: An ok player with some usability problems
Review: I've been around the block with DVD players. First, I bought a Samsung which choked on playback and was incompatible with my TV, then I bought the Toshiba 2900 which worked but had an inscrutable interface.

This Toshiba 3900 really is perfect: the image is clear, sharp, and easily adjustable to any TV - even if you only have a regular-size old TV like I do, you'll notice that the image at first is weirdly vertical (like El Greco paintings) because the default output is for the slightly wider screen of the new digital TVs. Adjusting the output for my regular-size TV was easy, I just pressed "MENU", selected "Setup", and under "TV Display", I selected "regular TV", and the image output changed to be perfectly sized for my TV.

Clearly, Toshiba put some thought into the remote, which has the frequently-used play, stop, forward and rewind buttons slightly larger and centered nicely. The menu interface also is a breeze, in plain English without inscrutable icons or baffling toggles. The zoom feature, for example. is just as it should be: you press "ZOOM"; the display zooms (on the Toshiba 2900, pressing zoom led you into a forest of mystifying menu symbols and toggle options).

The Toshiba 3900 comes with progressive scan, an image enhancement feature now standard with DVD players. Both the progressive scan image output and the regular image output are crystal-clear and sharp on my regular old TV, and quite an improvement, particularly compared to analog broadcast.

Recording perfect VHS tapes from the DVD player is easy - simply by feeding the audio and video output from the DVD into the audio and video input for the VCR, I can record perfectly anything that's playing on the DVD player. I'm not saying you should do this, I'm just pointing out that it's possible.

The player has played every disc I've put in it without difficulty, even one that had been scratched.

And it has a sleek, understated gray brushed titanium finish that looks sharp. Friends have actually commented on how nice it looks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sleek, Sharp, and Easy to Use
Review: I've been around the block with DVD players. First, I bought a Samsung which choked on playback and was incompatible with my TV, then I bought the Toshiba 2900 which worked but had an inscrutable interface.

This Toshiba 3900 really is perfect: the image is clear, sharp, and easily adjustable to any TV - even if you only have a regular-size old TV like I do, you'll notice that the image at first is weirdly vertical (like El Greco paintings) because the default output is for the slightly wider screen of the new digital TVs. Adjusting the output for my regular-size TV was easy, I just pressed "MENU", selected "Setup", and under "TV Display", I selected "regular TV", and the image output changed to be perfectly sized for my TV.

Clearly, Toshiba put some thought into the remote, which has the frequently-used play, stop, forward and rewind buttons slightly larger and centered nicely. The menu interface also is a breeze, in plain English without inscrutable icons or baffling toggles. The zoom feature, for example. is just as it should be: you press "ZOOM"; the display zooms (on the Toshiba 2900, pressing zoom led you into a forest of mystifying menu symbols and toggle options).

The Toshiba 3900 comes with progressive scan, an image enhancement feature now standard with DVD players. Both the progressive scan image output and the regular image output are crystal-clear and sharp on my regular old TV, and quite an improvement, particularly compared to analog broadcast.

Recording perfect VHS tapes from the DVD player is easy - simply by feeding the audio and video output from the DVD into the audio and video input for the VCR, I can record perfectly anything that's playing on the DVD player. I'm not saying you should do this, I'm just pointing out that it's possible.

The player has played every disc I've put in it without difficulty, even one that had been scratched.

And it has a sleek, understated gray brushed titanium finish that looks sharp. Friends have actually commented on how nice it looks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect addition to my Toshiba 36AF62 TV
Review: Since I had Toshiba's 36AF62 TV, I wanted a good quality progressive-scan DVD player to match it. This player was an easy choice. I'm using the generic cables that came with it and the video looks great (better than using a PS/2). The remote is intuitive and easy to navigate. The zoom feature is great and makes viewing 16:9 films a lot better.

I'm moving up to component cables next month so it'll be even better. As a plus, this player supports the DVD-R spec. so I'll be able to burn my divx movies to DVD-Rs (after conversion to MPEG2 of course) and watch them on the big screen. (I haven't tested this out yet though, I've got to get a DVD-R/RW drive first) I'm a very picky person when buying electronics so being happy with this DVD players says more than you know!

Another bonus, you can turn off the front LEDs while the DVD is playing so no distractions, just the TV screen. The next step is to buy a receiver and hook the player's optical out to it.

Enough said, it's a great DVD player!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome player that is easy to hack (Region-free, etc)
Review: There is an easier way to make this player region-free than the one listed earlier.

1. Downloaded the file from:
http://mypage.bluewin.ch/a-z/chaos-kitties/downloads/RMTM0000.sit
(the file's 4kb big/small)

2. unpacked the RMTM0000.sit file with "StuffIt Standard Edition 8.0" (http://www.aladdinsys.com/downloads/index.html) Trail version.

3. Burned the whole DIR (RMTM0000) to a CD using Nero Burning ROM (ISO Level 1, Mode 1, ISO 9660)

4. Inserted the burned CD into the dvd, wait for the menu on the LCD of the dvd.

5. Pressed "0" then "PAUSE", turned the dvd OFF

6. That's it !!!, REGION FREE.
(From a post at: http://www.videohelp.com)

You can also hack the player to play SVCDs and to continue playing the DVD where it left off after a power-down.

If you have no DVD in the player. Turn it on. Press PAUSE 1 4 7 2.

A blue screen will appear. If you change the EPROM number listed to:

55 53 00 47 16 55 FD FF

Your player will now play SVCDs and will continue playing the DVD where it left off after a power-down.

I've played R2 PAL DVDs in this player (after the region hack) with no problems.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Can't go wrong
Review: This is the third Toshiba DVD player I've had. They've definitely worked out a few kinks that prior models suffered from. First, the 3900 has a workable remote, the buttons are logically arranged and it is easy to hold right-side up. The jpg feature works very well, pics are very sharp even at low resolution on my 50" TV. The zoom is incredible, not by having an absurd magnification, but for the extreme sharpness at high magnification. It also allows just a 'slight' zoom at the first notch, perfect for expanding a letterboxed movie somewhat without losing too much of the frame. (The SD-2805 model overdoes it and it won't work properly for this.) This player doesn't network, doesn't have DVI output, doesn't record, doesn't have a mega-byte-per-second indicator. Not quite cutting edge, but it does all the standard feautures, plus progressive, without faults. An impressive value, I'm placing my Amazon order for a second unit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Can't go wrong
Review: This is the third Toshiba DVD player I've had. They've definitely worked out a few kinks that prior models suffered from. First, the 3900 has a workable remote, the buttons are logically arranged and it is easy to hold right-side up. The jpg feature works very well, pics are very sharp even at low resolution on my 50" TV. The zoom is incredible, not by having an absurd magnification, but for the extreme sharpness at high magnification. It also allows just a 'slight' zoom at the first notch, perfect for expanding a letterboxed movie somewhat without losing too much of the frame. (The SD-2805 model overdoes it and it won't work properly for this.) This player doesn't network, doesn't have DVI output, doesn't record, doesn't have a mega-byte-per-second indicator. Not quite cutting edge, but it does all the standard feautures, plus progressive, without faults. An impressive value, I'm placing my Amazon order for a second unit.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Easy to hack for playing all regions
Review: This player can play non-R1 DVDs. It also converts PAL to NTSC. Here's the hack:

1. Put in non-R1 DVD.

2. When the region whine message appears, press: [menu] [1] [play]. The DVD should play, but with region message still up.

3. Press [Marker] then [Clear]; Message is now gone.

I rated this player at less than five stars because it lacks the ability to remember the last-played location on a disk when the power is turned off.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: An ok player with some usability problems
Review: This unit has a very good picture, and generally good sound, except I found the sound will occasionally skip for a moment, even on brand new discs. The remote is comfortable to hold and has faintly backlit buttons in the middle, which makes it easy to find in the dark. The "menu" button, unfortunately, is in the middle of a bunch of buttons on the top half of the remote, so it's difficult to find. Also the up/down/left/right buttons are on the bottom of the remote but are rather small.

Quirks: pressing fast-forward on the remote will only ffwd for about 10-15 seconds before freezing. You have to press "play" and then "ffwd" again to make it continue.

Also, it doesn't remember where you were on the disc when you power down the player. And it has an auto-off power saving function, so if you pause the movie and leave the room for 20 minutes and then return, it's turned itself off and you've lost your place.


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