Picture, Sound, value

Remote (poor design)

This is my first DVD player. Looked at this site for a long time to get some ideas on good low cost players. For my use I'm very happy overall with this player. I feel that the picture quality is excellant, sound seems to me to be well above average. I found this one at Best Buy for $249 and grabbed it up when I saw that price. Best price I had seen on the web at that time was $333.

Packed with all features
HDCD

Light, Mediocre Construction

Just picked this up mostly for the HDCD, although the DVD is amazing, esp using optical hook and Dolby Digital.
The HDCD is awesome, goto www.hdcd.com to see all the CD's encoded in this format...if you love music, clean and simple, this is a huge bargain in the $310 range.
The DVD picture is clean and the zoom feature helps if you want to fill your screen on letterbox films, ie The Matrix. For the price and sound, you cannot loose.

We'll see on durability over the coming years...

Watch out for refurbished models at UBID, remember these things have very sensitive moving parts...I would buy new and local for return ease.

Final Analysis:
For the dollars--it is excellent.
For the HDCD--it is stellar.

Very good picture quality, what you would expect from DVD. Has the option of using either digital coaxial or optical connection. Has auto-shut off feature, which can be a strength or weakness depending on your preference. Zoom feature is nice for close-up viewing of special effects. Dual tray is good for watching back-to-back movies.

The remote could use a lot of work. The worst feature is the scan forward/reverse and chapter skip utilize the same buttons. Horrible idea. More often than not, when you are trying to scan ahead/back you end up changing chapters instead....major pain!! Also, the remote buttons are phosphorescent instead of being lighted, so unless you have the remote under light the remote buttons aren't viewable in the dark after a short period of time

Overall I'm very pleased with the 3109. The picture is excellent, features are good, and the price is very reasonable (about $250). The only major drawback is the remote scan/chapter select buttons.

Similar Products Used:

None

Low price, dual tray, component output, HDCD, DD/DTS capable

SLOW! Problems reading many discs, pauses on most dual-layer discs at the "switch point".

I'll have to admit I was hooked by the "gimmick" of the dual tray on this machine, but have found it to be useless, as the discs do not automatically continue after the first one finishes, and the changeover time is about 20 seconds.
The picture quality is as good as any DVD player I've seen, somewhat better than the JVC 501 which I used before, but I've had WAY too many problems with the thing misreading, and sometimes NOT reading discs...I will say that it performs flawlessly on most (except dual-layers, it has a noticeable, irritating "pause" at the switch point on almost all of those) material, but occasionally "locks up" on some...notably the new release of Fritz Lang's "M" at about 31 minutes, Enemy of the state (around 40-45 minutes), and 4-5 others.
I'm looking for a new player...this becomes quite irritating after a while.

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JVC XV501

Picture quality, sound dynamics & price.

None that I have found to date.

I have purchased this product whilst in Switzerland as they
are drastically cheaper than at home in the U.K.

I did my homework on this product and lo and behold the
write up and comments suggested by the reviewers of this
product made my mind up immediately, This is truly a
wonderful machine.

The picture quality is superb with an enormous sound-stage
to boot, wonderful clarity.

p.s. i have contacted Toshiba Customer Care about one
niggly problem and they have helped me sort it out.

As most films are in widescreen and you use the zoom, lets
say you zoom to zoom 1, to get rid of the title in the
bottom right hand of the screen you do the following :-

1. Press zoom on the remote
2. Press setup on the remote.
3. Press setup on the remote again.

This removes all titles until you stop the movie or power
off etc. I haven't tried this yet but I will later on.
It is not a "hard" fix.

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Pioneer

Price for given features

Remote

Great deal, with the HDCD, DD 5.1, and component outputs, but on the whole I think the 2109 is a better deal unless you already have a Dolby-Digital ready reciever.

confused

Does it have Dts out

I'm very confused some of the reviews show that the Toshiba 3109 has no DTS out and wish it did. Others claim that the DTS digital out is one of the things they like about the product. Can someone clear this up for me so I can decide which unit to purchase. I believe the Panasonic A320 definetly has the digital out. Would appreciate any comments.

a/v is good with ~$300 price

Very poor reliability/quality

I bought this 3109 player last May.
Now this player broke again, failing to
detect/recognize any cd/dvd disks.
This is the third time with similar problems
with less than one year.
I am totally disapointed with such a poor product
quality.
I am sick sending this player to repair shop again
and again. Probably it is the time to throw away
this junk.

I will never buy any Toshiba products from now on.

Great Picture, Great Price Rannge

Does not play CDR

My first DVD player and I'm very plesed with the picture. I haven't got my av reciever yet so I can't comment on the sound and the complete home theater expierence. I would recomend this product to anyone

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two cd charger,sound picture

zoom,

Good sound , good picture , excellent overall value