Rating: Summary: Great bargain for the price! Review: As a lover of all things audio-video, I must say that the Toshiba SD-1200 is one fine machine. I personally own an older model SD-500 sony from two years ago, a Toshiba 2008, toshiba 3108, and a creative labs dvd player for my pc, and I must confess that the toshiba SD-1200 is a great player. The color reproduction from the toshiba is outstanding, and I have always felt that toshiba dvd players produce a brighter, more vibrant color scheme than any other DVD player that I have seen. The definition, and black level detail in the Toshiba SD-1200 is better than any other DVD player in that price range. The only thing that is not as good as it could be is the players in-player letterboxing. If you are like me, you watch your movie on a standard 4:3 tv which means that when you are watching an "anamorphic" dvd, the player must convert the picture to be displayed on your tv. The Toshiba SD-1200 has a tendency to add wavy edges to scenes that contain parallel lines that are close together. For example, in the movie aliens, the floor of the fortress they are in has many closely spaced metal divisions that can tend to look like liquid metal when the camera slowly pans over the surface. Having owned or seen many dvd players in this price range I know that this is a problem for all dvd players, but the Toshiba SD-1200 handles this problem the best. The only players that can letterbox well are the $600 and up players, so this should not be a knock on the Toshiba SD-1200. The audio outputs provided great sound when I fed them into my dolby digital/DTS receiver, but the omission of an optical output may upset some people. All in all, I think that the Toshiba SD-1200 is a great deal for the price and offers great audio, and video performance.
Rating: Summary: Great player at a great price Review: I was shocked to find a high quality name brand player at this price with DTS out, component video out, and lots of other bells and whistles (zoom, expanded black level, etc.). It compares very favorably with my 1 year old+ Pioneer 414, which cost me $100 more. Its ease of use and features had me banish the Pioneer to my bedroom!
Rating: Summary: Great player (quality and features) at great price: get it! Review: I got this player just a week ago and love it already. My father already had the older Toshiba SD2109 (the previous model- the SD1200 is the breand new replacement), and it seemed good, so I followed those reviews; see those for more detail if you want, just note the improvements in this model.The SD1200 has the same good points as the SD2109, but adds VideoCD and CD/Video Text capabilities. I was even able to play some old VCD2.0 tour videos from China, they worked great, no glitches! Played Matrix fine. Video quality is superb, both on S-Video output and of course component- SV had a little less color saturation than component. Dolby Digital sounded great! Note that this player has some important features vs others: let alone the low price and quality! ! + the price- only $230-250 for ALL the features you'd want in DVD! Don't pay more! + outputs both Dolby Digital and DTS- compatible w/ all movies then. (does not decode, but no biggie- put that in your receiver, not dvd!) * Note it only has coax digital audio out, not toslink optical. Make sure your reciever is compatible (my JVC RX888 is great.) Will output dolby digital, dts, PCM digital audio out. Has regular RCA analog also. You can select options & which to output via remote. + has all video outs: component, S-Video, and composite. Note some others like Sony SVP330 do NOT have component out, only svideo! + plays videoCDs (unlike SD2109). + has slow play mode (1/2, 1/4, 1/8) as well as fast fwd/rvs scan. (doesn't seem to have reverse slow.) Other players only have "pause/step", what's the point of having a random-access disk w/ great slow/freeze frame picture, if you can't play slow to see big explosions in detail? :-> + has a nice interface, eg onscreen- good, unobtrusive, usable menus overlaid on the video. Can also change most options on-the-fly w/ buttons on the remote, eg subtitles, audio select, etc. with minimal text on the screen- good for changing specific things quickly w/o distracting from the movie. All menu options are easy to understand, eg no "cool looking" but unusable interface (JVC555 was kind of hard to use in that respect.) - Remote buttons are a bit small, and play/pause etc. are not "highlighted" or bigger, so you have to look at the remote (no backlight.) + dimmable display on the player, if you don't like distracting time counter etc. in your stereo rack. + resume-from-stop mode, eg stop, then optionally resume from where you were. You can also input exact HHMMSS to go to, and zips there immediately. + screen saver for long pause, to not burn out your new big-screen projection tv :-) otherwise all the comments for SD2109 also apply. I haven't noticed too much noise (disk tray/rotate) playing disks, seems quiet. Nice build eg tray is solid opening/closing. Small and light, but heavy on features and performance! I've heard this and SD2109 are not compatible w/ CD-Rs, though, I've played some "mix" discs a friend made for me, and seems to work fine. Not sure if they are CDR or CDRW or what, but they do work. Highly recommend this player. Get it.
Rating: Summary: Exceeds expectations Review: This is a perfect DVD player for all but the most dedicated home theatre aficionados. It has the cool features plus great quality at a great price.
Rating: Summary: A Great DVD Player With Killer Features Review: This is the best DVD player you can get and it has a good price, it has a triple zoom so you can get in close on things you have always wanted to see beter in movies, I went over to my friends house and his DVD player (A Genral Electric) didnt even have a zoom, the remote is small which I like insted of a big clunky one you will not be disapointed with this trust me everything about it is perfict.
Rating: Summary: Great all around product Review: The Toshiba sd-1200 is a nice lightweight and low profile DVD player. The manual is easy to read and set up is very simple. I haven't had any problems with any DVD's. The remote is a little small, but laid out well. Sound and picture are great. For price, this is the best value.
Rating: Summary: Rob Review: This player had good picture quality and sound, however, the unit boke just over a year after purchase. The picture still works but the audio no longer comes through. It is going to cost $150 to repaire and the warranty just ran out. Needless to say I will not purchase a toshiba as my next player.
Rating: Summary: Lemon Review: The principal point I wish I'd heard before buying this generally excellent player: You can't play most DVD's without the remote. So if you've misplaced the remote, no movie. Most of us just put in the disc and hit play, so one more button (enter) on the player would have made such a difference in convenience. The mentioned remote is itself poorly designed. The buttons are all small and black and mostly rectangular, poorly revealed by a flat dark surface and even smaller type, whereas most remotes now are multicolored and contoured for comfort. The DVD's response time to commands is only OK. The single biggest factor in our choice was price, and it plays DVD's fine and hasn't broken in a year. But for a modicum of effort and minuscule cost Toshiba could have made the player much more pleasurable to use. If necessary, I would spend an extra [money] to alleviate these noted concerns.
Rating: Summary: It was good... Review: until it broke. The repair technician said the laser pickups were made by Samsung, and a steady stream have been coming in for repair. It would cost (...)to replace, so I might as well buy another player. I've had the unit for almost a year now. Great picture, useful zoom for those too-wide movies, and adequate remote.
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