Excellent sound and video reproduction

Doesn't operate as smoothly as normal CD changers.

I've had this unit for 3 years and I use it almost everyday. I initially bought it thinking I would use it for both DVD's and CD's. I was wrong. Although, the sound quality it outputs when playing CD's is stellar, it does not operate as smoothly as a 5 disc component CD player. It is loud and takes a long time to switch discs and find songs on random play. As well, it won't random play Mp3's. Nowdays, I occasionally use it to play CD's, but I usually use my Kenwood changer instead (even though it doesn't sound as good). The unit is especially good at playing DVDs. Dispite not having progressive scan it displays a beautifully clear picture on my HDTV-ready 50" Toshiba rear projection TV. The best feature of all is its ability to play DTS encoded DVD's. I'm always disappointed when I find out that a DVD "only" has Dolby Digital and not DTS.

mp3 playback, CD-R/RW playback

short life

I bought this in DEC 2002 to replace my JVC player that I purchased in 1998 to get the newer features of mp3 playback, CD-R/RW support etc. Fast forward to Dec. 2003, and the unit's toast. Poor reliability.

Excellent picture quality, easy-to-use remote, supports pretty much every format I've thrown at it (including cd-r and cd-rw, both as audio cd's and as mp3 disks).

does make a little bit of noise when its searching all 5 slots on the platter when the tray is closed.

I spend a good deal of time going over reviews of DVD players, talking to customer reps at stores, and demoing all my friends hardware (including the single disk model of this player). Boy am I impressed. I didn't even use it as a dvd player when I first bought it (I couldn't stand the macrovision from my vcr on the 13" in my room). It works great as a 5disc audio cd changer. And the first disk I played was a 7year old burned disk of mp3's. It played them better than my computer does. Since then, I've tested this sucker as best I could, even MP3's on cdrw (which btw, isn't really recommended by the manual). I've played my scratched Matrix DVD, and it played fine (it would keep freezing on my Hitachi). Even scratched rental dvd's are no match for this player. Unfortunately, I've not been able to test the digital output or its dts support. I'll probably be writting a second review when I've done that. The quality of picture is excellent, and even the simple 2-channel going to my old stereo is almost a match for my roommates 5.1 surround (don't even ASK on this one). Let this be a lesson to anyone NOT to buy those all-in-one theatre surround systems that INCLUDE all speakers and subs. This one we have has cheap fans and heatsinks, and makes as much noise as a loud computer, which is not ideal for watching movies. Its by RCA too. Lets leave it at that. The features of this player are great too. The zoom works great, and has never frozen the dvd, even if i pause the movie and 'forgotten' while I go out to dinner. Very responsive when going through menu's as well. And the fact that I can be watching one movie, and replace all 4 other slots with anything else at the same time, hey, thats just nifty.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony, Claritone, Panasonic DVD Players (various models)

Features Direct Disc Acccess from Unit

Build Quality

Unit broke less than 1 hour of setup. Build quality was very poor. While watching a DVD the movie froze up and the unit started making loud noises. It sounded like the disc was inside spinning faster and faster. The unit was unresponsive and wouldnt even turn off. Unit damaged DVD by ejecting the disc while still spinnning making some nice circular scartches on 2 of my DVDs.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic dvdvp52

5 DVD changer plays DVDs, CDs, CD-R/CD-RWs with MP3s. 3 output options: video, S-video, and component video can change discs while 1 is in play good remote

can only play shuffle/ random for 1 disc not all 5 discs

Bought this at Costco (Toshiba Model SD-K615) to replace the $400 Sony 301 DVD changer I returned (when I realized it didn't play shuffle/random all discs or play CD-R/CD-RWs with MP3s). this Toshiba 5 DVD changer plays DVDs, CDs, CD-R/CD-RWs with MP3s. it has 3 output options: video, S-video, and component video. it can change discs while 1 is in play. it can only play shuffle/ random for 1 disc not all 5 discs. the unit works well-- sound is great, on-screen menus are good, and remote is easy to use and logical. it is a little slow to start but so was the Sony and reading reviews of other players this seems a common complaint. but at 4 months the unit stopped working. parts & labor warranty is 3mo -- parts only is 12 mo. so after a bit of trouble finding who my local dealer is, I took it to my local authorized repair shop ready to pay the $58 labor. every time I called they said they were still waiting for the part. after 3 weeks they said the part is not yet available at Toshiba. so I called Toshiba and sent a firmly worded FAX including the fact that I would write a review on audioreview. I got an immediate response. 1 month later I finally got my replacement unit. so customer service people were pleasant and accommodating and I rarely had to wait to speak to a rep. but overall my experience with them was very slow (plus their hours are limited). also seems you must be pro-active (a squeaky wheel) tomove things along. they sent a FedEx shipping label by US mail which took a week to arrive. then I found it was for FedEx ground which was also the mode for shipping to me. all told it was 3 days shy of 8 weeks from the time I took the unit in to getting the new one. Toshiba laptop computers will send out a replacement unit while yours is in transit. Crutchfield will ship a replacement unit while yours is in transit (they actually charge you for a new unit and then credit it back when the defective unit arrives). Toshiba should do this for their DVD players. I'm glad to have my great little $150 DVD changer back in action, but why did it take so long?

Similar Products Used:

Sony 301 DVD changer/jukebox