Played all of my discs until recently, great video and decent sound for the money. Was a great hi end model at the time, for a very good price.

Will not play the newer discs, lousy customer support!

Hello all this is an update to my original review from 1-02-01. The unit was shipped to Atlanta for firmware upgrade this past Friday. Unfortunately my cries and rants for a free upgrade went nowhere. I guess since I was one of the first buyers of this machine, Toshiba wasn't even considering my request for a "freebie". I will NEVER BUY a Toshiba product again! $65.00 is a small price to pay to get my beloved player back, but if she fails again or needs anymore "upgrades", I will destroy the player and buy a new, cheaper unit from ANY manufacturer. Toshiba forced me into buying the Sony reference player, DVPS-7700.( At the new and improved price of $500.00 how could I go wrong?) Oh yeah before I bought, I called Sony and made sure my player would play the newer discs. (My unit was built Nov. 2000) and I purchased in Dec. 2000.) Good luck and hope to all of you who have to yet send the player in for upgrade. I hope you get lucky!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVPS-7700

Outstanding image quality. Easy to use remote. Jog shuttle feature. Nice looking unit.

Was among the most expensive units when I purchased it.

I had no problems with this DVD player until last week. I purchased a copy of "Me, Myself, and Irene" and received the "Please Check Disc" error. I read the comments here, and found out that my player also has all the problems with all the other movies mentioned here, I just hadn't run across them previously.

When I contacted Toshiba, they told me I could bring the unit into a local center and have it repaired there. However, they all wanted to charge $60-$100 for the upgrade. When I inquired as to the possibility of a free upgrade, they mentioned Norman's Electronics. So, today I shipped off the unit to Atlanta. I pressed them to authorize the free upgrade at my local repair center, but they refused. I just hope the upgrade doesn't take 2 1/2 weeks.

Sony DVPS-7000

Sony DVPS-7000

After 3 years my SONY DVPS-7000 need repair it will be cust over $300.00.

I thing in general the laser beam of DVDs have a short life time.

Easy to Use -Sleek Black easily fits in Home Theatre

Does Not Play All Discs

I just read the review prior and was happy to know I'm not going crazy. I kept getting either "Please Check Disc" or
a disc just wouldn't load and then it wouldn't eject and I couldn't get the "power" button to respond. I had to trip the circuit breaker to eject the disc!

I've tried to call the Toshiba Customer Service #800/631-3811 at least 100 times in the last week and I get a busy
signals every time when I choose "Speak to a Rep". I went
to the Toshiba Digital Website and sent an email.

Right now I'm trying to get in the door by trying extension 1 "sales". YEAH. Sales answered after 15 minute hold in cue. I told her my plight and she has just transferred me to "Customer Service" and I'm now on hold in cue with them. At least it's not a busy signal!!!!

American TV repair has stated that they have the chip I need in stock, but that they will need an "authorization code" from Toshiba in order not to charge me. I'm hoping I have good luck like the prior review!!!

Good video

Customer Support

Firmware / "Check Disk" error for Toshiba SD-3108

For anyone who has the "check Disk" problem with their Toshiba SD-3108, here is what happened to me & how I solved it. Maybe it will help you too (sorry it's kinda long).

The story starts when we bougt the Gladiator DVD. We put it in our SD-3108 & got the infamous "check disk" error. So, first thing I did was log on the net to see if anyone else had this problem. I found out from reading various sites onthe net that the Toshiba SD-3108 has some sort of a firmware upgrade issue that would prevent it from playing this particular disk.

So, I called up Toshiba service, and sat on hold at least 40 minutes. Finally a person came on. I told them that we purchased a DVD Video disk & it wouldn't play in our SD-3108 machine. Note that I DID NOT blurt out what I knew the problem was. I wanted to give them the opportunity to be an upstanding company that takes care of its customers.

Well, as soon as I said I got a "check disk" notification, the service person said "oh, it's a scratched disk, happens all the time, you need a new disk". I told him I was sure it wasn't a scratched disk and... but he stopped me and asked if I had exchanged the disk yet.

Ok, I could see this was heading in the wrong direction, & that even though I knew that they knew about the firmware upgrade issue with my player, they weren't going to volunteer anything. Bad Toshiba, BAD!

So I then told him that the reason I knew it wasn't a scratched disk was that I had looked on the net & found that there was a firmware issue with this model. He then put me on hold to "check with the technical people" (ie go get some coffee). He then asked me for some numbers written on a small white tag on the bottom of the unit. I told him what they were, he put me on hold again, & came back to say that yes, indeed, I had a firmware issue. He gave me the phone number & address of my local service center & suggested I call them.

Now, my unit is over 2 years old and out of warranty, so I asked him if there would be a charge for this error correction (hoping Toshiba would step up & fix their faulty machine). He said he didn't know, & that I'd have to call the service center. Well, I had already called one service center and talked to them prior to my call to Toshiba (knowledge is power), and they had told me that the charge would be $75.00 - $95.00 (seems a bit steep to me to corect a problem that Toshiba knew about when they sold the machines.)

So I told him (in as "lawyer" a voice as I could) that according to their documentation & owners manual, their player would play any disk with the "DVD Video" symbol, and that the Gladiator DVD I just bought had that symbol, and yet their player would NOT play it. He asked me to hold again to check with his supervisor (uh, sure...). When he came back, he said that they would take care of the labor costs, & that they would fax the authorization to the service center.

I took the player to the service center, & because this particular service center is so great, they went ahead and fixed it for me without yet having received the fax from Toshiba to pay them for it. It now works great!

In summary, here's what worked for me when talking to the Toshiba service center about this particular problem:
1) Tell them your SD-3108 DVD player will not play the Gladiator DVD disk & it's not scratched or otherwise damaged (assuming that's true)
2) Tell them you know about the Firmware Upgrade issue with the SD-3108
3) Look up the number written on the white tag on the bottom of your player & tell them what it is
4) If they don't offer to fix it for free, then tell them that according to their own documentation (P 51 of the owners manual), this player can play any disk with the "DVD Video" disk mark, that your disk has that mark, and that the player DOES NOT play it. The implied threat being that they sold a product through false advertising. They SHOULD offer to fix it free at this point (at least labor, which is most/all the cost as no new parts are required)

Toshiba could have made a loyal customer out of me, but instead, trying to save a few bucks, they missed out on my ever purchasing another Toshiba product. While it's true that I did eventually get my player fixed for free, the slimy way they didn't tell me what they KNEW was the problem, & didn't offer to fix it for free up front, and how I had to really keep pushing, I have to recommend to everyone to NOT PURCHASE A TOSHIBA PRODUCT!!! The quality of this DVD player seems fine, but if you ever have to deal with service, you'll be left hanging out to dry unless you really really push hard & have all your facts lined up.

I sincerely hope that more people will use the internet to share information on the behavior of manufacturers, both the "bad" stuff, which usually gets much more press, but also the "good" stuff. Maybe manufacturers will get the idea that being honest & doing what's right by their customers is the only way they will be able to sell their products & stay in business.

*WAS* a good quality player

Defective Firmware that Toshiba refuses to take responsibility for

I've got the same "Check Disk" error that many others have posted when playing some of newer DVD's.

This is an issue with defective firmware from Toshiba, as many first generation DVD players still play these same movies.

The fact that it is a widely known firmware issue, makes it a DESIGN flaw. I really believe this opens Toshiba up for a perfect Class-Action lawsuit by not taking responsibility for their design defect and charging half the cost of a new player to download new firmware into the unit to fix their software bugs.

I think this would parallel another class-action suit Toshiba recently had with Floppy Drive controllers in some of their laptops. If Toshiba doesn't start taking more responsibility then I might consider contacting some firms about taking this suit on.

I'm interested in hearing how many others are having these problems with Toshiba.

Great features, good audio and video quality, pretty good looks, great bang for the buck

Had to have the firmware on my unit upgraded

I too was one of the unlucky ones that had to have the firmware upgraded to play the latest DVD format. I had to wait about 45 minutes on the phone to talk with a Toshiba customer service rep. They took my info and confirmed that my unit needed a firmware upgrade and that I had to send it to Atlanta, Georgia to have it fixed. Initially, they wanted me to pay the $49.00, but I told them that I've heard that people (from this board) were getting the upgrade for free. The rep. put me on hold to ask his supervisor about it and came back and told me that they would pay for the upgrade and extend the warranty (on the upgraded chip)for 90 days. Leadtime was 19 days from the time I mailed it off till the time I got it back. The repair center that it was sent to (Norman's Electronics, Inc.) in Atlanta sent me an email when they received the unit (I included a cover letter with the player explaining the problem and included all my contact information). They also followed up with hardcopy of the work order via snailmail.

So far the player plays fine, and a couple of the "unplayable" DVDs I've tried since the unit was repaired plays without any trauma.

Overall, I guess I'm pretty satisfied with the player in general, and my experience with Toshiba on how my case was handled. Even though it was a hassle to call customer service, go to the post office pay $20.00 to ship it across the country, and wait 2 1/2+ weeks for the unit to be repaired, I've had 2 good years of service from it and now I'll have many more (I hope). Good luck to those who still need to upgrade their players.

Video quality, Audio.

Firmware upgrade needed. Customer Service took a couple of weeks to respond to my emails. Remote

Bought the player in Nov. 98. No problems with it until 6 months ago when I began to receive the dreaded "Please Check Disk" error. I finally sent it in today. I hope it turns out ok. The player has been terrific. No problems to date (other than the firmware upgrade). Although it is inconvenient I will probably get another Toshiba because the audio and video are huge improvements over vhs. I am extremely happy with my player that it was worth spending $49 for the upgrade plus $20 for shipping even though it is 2 1/2 years old. The black level is excellent. I like the remote configuration but I don't like the fact you have to be relatively close and have a direct line of sight to the player for it to operate. My next dvd player purchase will be a progressive scan model (probably a Toshiba) and this will go into the bedroom.

Similar Products Used:

n/a

PICKED UP TOSHIBA 3108 THIS PAST SATURDAY. A GROUP OF FRIENDS CAME OVER TO PLAY CARDS SUNDAY WHO HAD NEVER SEEN DVD BEFORE. POPPED IN "THE USUAL SUSPECTS" TO GIVE EXAMPLE OF PICTIRE QUALITY AND SOUND. WELL THEY WERE SO IMPREESED WE ENDED UP WATCHING THE WHOLE FILM,PLUS 2 VOLUMES OF SOUTH PARK. MOST OUTSTANDING PRODUCT.

Toshiba hits one again with the 3108. Black level is very good, and is one of the few dvd players on the market to have an adjustable black level. Digital and Analog 5.1 outputs are outstanding. Front panel is very simple and a class act. Picture is perfect, and the on screen menus are fairly easy to navigate. Very hard to beat, relatively inexpensive considering top of the line dvd players. I would rate the Toshiba among the best.