Price, size and features

Remote layout

I have read the reviews on the model and went against my better judgement and purchased this unit purely on price ($145).

I have been using it for about a month and, to date, have not experianced any of the problems/issues that others have had. I have viewed about a dozen DVD's and it connected it using s-video with my old TV and then with the component video with my new Toshiba. I don't know if I got lucky or if the build date (10/99) corrected any problems, but it's worked flawlessly.

The remote is not great, but I use a Home Theater Master 9000 learning remote anyway.

Great picture, great sound, GREAT PRICE!!

Remote layout

Purchased unit from Mercata for $135. Have played about 2 dozen different DVD's and not one hitch!! Has good sound on audio CD's as well. Remote control is akward to use due mostly to small, unlit buttons. Don't think you'll find better for less. Remote keeps me from giving it the highest marks. Great entry level machine.

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Toshiba 2109

good price, picture, sound, variety of connections

slow fast forward, limited slow motion, no slow in reverse

I bought this a second, semi-portable unit when I balked at paying the exorbitant sums demanded for mini-portables. It has about 60% the footprint of full-size players. I am basically happy with it and regard it as good value for money and a very cheap alternative to mini-portables. It is small enough to move around and will fit in many setting where a full-size will not. The picture was not obviously worse than my Sony.

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Sony 330

Price, size and outputs

slow loading, remote

I got this at Costco for 180.00. The picture is great. I have used it regularly (weekly) since Dec 1999. I have noticed a few times that a DVD may skip. I pause the DVD, hit play, and then it stops. This is not a regular occurence. I think it has happened maybe twice. I have watched over 30 DVDs and have seen no other problems.
It does require some patience because its not quick when loading the DVD. And the remote was confusing at first.

I also like the size of the DVD player itself. Its small and light. Its very easy to move from room to room and set up.

This is a great DVD to get as a starter. I am very easy to please, I don't need all the little extras. Although this player does seem to have them. I simply wanted something that would work and have a nice picture. This does it.

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none

Small Footprint

Where do I start?

We had problems from day one and, not having any prior DVD experience, blamed it on our discs... We figured they must be scratched or something. Well, it go tworse from there, first it would skip, then it would not play dual layerd DVD's and NOW it doesn't play any DVD's at all. So, we have owned it for 15 months, it worked for about 4 months and we have what is essentially an over-priced, underperforming cd player. Too bad we didn't opt for a better quality machine right from the get go. I would not recommend any Sharp products (other than a Microwave oven).
Save yourself the aggrevation - DON'T BUY ONE.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 1600

Price and feature set. Compact size.

Very slow to load and initialize playback. It was very sensitive to a damaged CD track (would not even skip past it like my CD player).

This was my first DVD player and was more of an experiment from Mercata ($130) than anything. Playback is working fine on my system, after about 12 DVDs. I can't compare color saturation or any other display attributes to other players. But, playback even in the most dynamic of scenes is flawless and the DD sound via my Yamaha RX-V995 is solid. There is not pausing, skipping or jittering reported by the other people. I bought this unit in January 2000. All in all, a terrific value so far.

Negatives: slow to load and doesn't handle damaged CDs well. Also, I sometimes have issues starting up the DVD menu display at first if I've been switching between sources with my receiver while making other adjustments, but this could be the Yamaha's fault.

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This is my first DVD.

Small size, Good video and Sound

Freezes occasionally

I had to return my unit to Mercata ($155), but Im NOT going to give it a thumbs down because the player was good except for the freezes ! Most of the movies including Matrix played flawlessly, but ocassionally (Once in 5 movies), it would start to freeze. Then the same DVD would play after some time flawlessly. So it was a Unit problem and not scratches on the DVD. Twice it just refused to play a movie from a certain point every time. But the Toshiba 2109 at my friends place played the same DVD well. Which makes me beleive that there is some problem with the player.

But its cheap price, small size, multiple outputs, excellent sound and picture make it a great player if you are prepared to stand the freezes once in a while.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2109

Component video, optical output

playback reliability

First of all I would like to say that for the price this player really should be a good deal. It has good video quality and nice dolby digital reproduction. Included on the back of this unit are sound outputs for dolby digital/DTS in both RCA and optical. Video outputs include composite, s-video, and component (nice). Unfortunatly like others here I have had problems with the unit skipping, sometimes terribly bad. The arrow buttons on the remote are terribly laid out also. If sharp could only fix the playback problem this would be a very nice DVD player for the price, at this time however I can't recomend it at any price.

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none

soundstage reconstruction, timbre, image definition and "sharpness"

none

Simply wonderful at the price! Even better than Denon DVD-2500. Sound, image, I have no words to describe this jewel.

price

freezing, can't handle some discs

My player freezes with some discs like many others listed.