Great sound and picture (when it works)

It didn't work very long, despite of the fairly high price.

I have had problems with my DVD player recognizing discs. Thought my son was doing something wrong because every time he tried to use it he said it didn't work. But when I tried, it worked fine. Then... it finally stopped working for me. It wouldn't stop loading or would say insert disc, or would try to load a disc when one was already loaded. It cost me so much and I bragged about it so much to my wife when I bought it, I don't have the heart to tell her I apparently bought a piece of junk. I went out and bought a $79 replacement, but it doesn't have the picture or sound I had become used to. Now I have a nice paper weight. Thanks to the reviews I just read, I will open the thing up and see what I can see that may make this thing work for a few months.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba wide screen TV, other brands of DVD planers (cheaper ones that still work).

Picture and sound quality have been good. The player output quality exceeds the capability of our other equipment.

I feel like the human interface wasn't carefully thought out; it seems a little rough at times. The reliability of the player is not excusable. The player mechanism is little different than ones made 10 years ago for CDs. The changer mechanism is not really that complicated. Flex cables like the ones in the unit can be very reliable in commercial equipment, but the sharp bends I saw inside my player are NOT the way to treat these cables.

Same problems as others with "insert disk" errors and disk loading. Based on my experience and the reviews I've read, I think this player was released for production before the operating software was debugged and before any significant reliability testing was performed. There is no point in buying products from a company that operates in this mode. Unless someone can point to some remedy offered by Toshiba, this device will be my last Toshiba purchase. DETAILS: Bought the unit new, based on reports that it was a good machine with many features. We left it in the box for over a year until we had finished shuffling stuff around the house. Early on, we discovered that the machine was not smart enough to lock out an attempted load of a 6th disk (closing the changer drawer with 5 disks loaded when there is still a disk in the reader). I had to partially disassemble the machine twice to retrieve loose disks. After about 15 months of light use (<20 DVDs, 100-150 hrs of CDs), the "insert disk" error appeared. I disassembled the player again and discovered that a CD or DVD would spin up in the player mechanism, but apparently the player could not read the data. -- The disks were quickly rejected. I removed all the circuit cards to be able to clean the player optics with lens paper. When reinstalling the circuit cards, I took care to clean and carefully reinsert the many tiny ribbon cables into their connectors. The player immediately was healed -- for about 15 more hours. "Insert disk" then reappeared and I have yet to try another repair. I suspect that the ribbon cable connection to the player mechanism has an open conductor: Many of the ribbon cables in my unit have very sharp right-angle bends, which would weaken and likely break some of the conductors.

Similar Products Used:

Previously had a mutli-disk CD player that played for 5-6 years with moderate use and no problems.

Just wanted to add my two cents - received this as a gift which my husband specifically asked for because of the Consumer Reports rating. Just over 2 years old and we're now getting the "insert disc" error. Tried to clean it but it won't recognize the cleaning disc. From what we've read we're sunk but just thought we'd add to the # of reviews as a warning to anyone looking at this product.

Did everything I needed it to do until it broke.

Prior to two weeks ago I would have said the only weeknesses were its inability to read burned CD's and the slowness of the changer. But it broke right in the middle of a movie night I was having with friends. Now, it will not work and will cost more to fix than to buy a new one.

I have the same problem many have described in these reveiw. It will not read any discs. Very frustrating to have invested in this thinking it would last me awhile. I did the one of the few earlier positive reviews under "Janice". Disregard that review, please.

Worked great for a year. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy to get the playing DVD/CD out too.

Nearly impossible to use without remote. Goes bad after about one year, or earlier. Lemon, I have two and they both went bad. Both manufactured April 2000!

This player started out working fine, however about about one year of use, it would not reconize disks. This is the same problem that many others reported. I took mine apart and found that a cable on the top of the laser unit tends to generate a bad connection (back middle). If I disconnect it and reconnect it, I was able to get the unit to play for another year before the cable became hosed from reconnecting time and time again. I purchased another one from e-bay, with the same problem, but I could only get this one to work for a few weeks! Perhaps if I can buy a pack of these cables, I can keep mine working for a little longer before I can purchase a better one.

Worked for a year. Crisp image, if and when the disc loads.

Won't play half of the DVDs for unknow reason. Panel reads "Insert Disc". I won't be repairing it since it costs $250 or more. I've learned to trick the machine by pushing play then menu as the trays shuts, but that's a crapshoot also.

I contacted Toshiba about the skipped disc problem and showed them all the negative reviews from amazon and here and they were no help. They did not offer an repair and would not admit to any known problems. The don't seem to value their customers and now they've lost another.

Similar Products Used:

None

Picture quality, versatility (dts, Dolby 5.1, HDCD), good looks, dependable/reliable to date, good zoom and set-up features (aspect ratio, inputs, outputs, etc.) good sound even with CDs.

Need remote to play DVDs; difficult continous play set-up for CD play; remote not illuminated. CD-R/RW/MP3: unable to play any tried so far.

Picture quality is superb. Several notable features are dts and DolbyDigital decoding built-in; HDCD; component/optical outputs plus S-video; parallel audio analog/digital coaxial are output simultaneously -- good for CDs played out from main speakers and into second room system if not digital; good remote but not illuminated. Should be operable w/o remote for DVD but isn't; difficult to get to set up for continuous play for CDs as changer, poor shuffle/random play for CD; won't play CD-Rs tried so far. Nice appearance but quite large. Has been very reliable so far--maybe just got lucky based on several reviewers bad experiences, knock on wood!! Overall, quite pleased with unit. Good CD sound (much better than my old Technics changer) and great picture with old (1991) Mitsubishi tube TV and new (2002) Toshiba digital HDTV-ready TV.

This was a great unit (for the first two years) until...it stopped reading CDs and DVDs...kind of an essential element for DVD players...wouldn't you think? The carousel functions...changing disks, etc. but when it tries to read CDs, DVDs...it figures nothing is there and asks you to 'Insert Disk.' Didn't bother bringing it into to be repaired...based upon these reviews...don't need to pay $100-200 to fix something that can be bought new for almost the same price. Agree with the other reviewers that you shouldn't have to buy extended warranties to protect yourself from faulty manufacturing. If my unit became faulty and it was more of an anomaly...I might say I got a lemon...but having read these reviews, I am beginning to suspect that this unit should have been 'recalled'. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up an extended warranty. I am concerned that manufacturers treat these as 'throw away' units...simpler to replace then repair...but as a consumer, I don't like 'throwing away' my money. I've had no other problems with Toshiba products in the past...but after this, I'll stay clear.

I've enjoyed this unit for approx. 1 and 1/2 year but just had the same experience of discs. not recognized by the player. CD's and DVD's in great shape but the unit would not recognize them and did not load/play. Now I'm stuck with the issue of buying again or trying to have it serviced for ??$$. This unit was even reviewed by Consumer Reports as a "top buy".

HDCD decoder (if you can detect it?!!!)

Shuffle mode, lack of cdr playback, somewhat "clunky" when changing discs, *****unrealiable laser mechanism*** (that is what a cd/dvd player is ALL about after all!!!)

I should start this review by noting that the more recent these reviews get, the worse the reviews get from the owner. ***Take note possible Toshiba consumers!**** I bought the Toshiba SD3205 around the end of March 2001 and it worked great up until January 2002. It stopped recognizing any of the 5 discs in the carousel. All of my cd''s are in mint shape and played perfectly in my G4 and portable cd player. The laser mechanism was faulty. I was fortunate that the machine broke down during the 1 year warranty and I didn''t pay anything for parts or labour. Within a week I had it back home and it worked fine again. But just this week a new problem''s come up. When a cd is playing it can radomly pause whenever it feels like. It has even skipped too. I''ve got 1 more week on the warranty and I''m taking it in again and either selling it or trading it in (if I can!). Come to think of it, once in a while a dvd will just pause for a couple seconds and then continue on. Usually after 50 minutes into the program. I''ll mention that to the repairman too. This really dvd player has really let me down. I knew it wasn''t going to play cdr''s, but I at least expected it to play my cd''s and dvd''s problem free for at least 2 years. I was sold on the HDCD feature and having a revolving carousel that i could fill with 5 cd''s and put on the shuffle mode to get a great variety mix. But it can''t even do that very well. It will only concentrate on 2 to 3 of the cd''s radomly. I should have stuck with the single tray dvd model instead. I bought a Yamaha cd player (single tray) in 1988 and it still sounds better than this machine even without the HDCD decoder. I guess that''s just some gimmick that''s all hype. Remember Q sound? I won''t be buying a Toshiba product ever again! I shouldn''t have to protect myself with an extended warranty either. Breaking down twice within a year is a poor rating in my books.