Sound, Video, Ease of Use, Features, Refinement

Remote, Initial Clipping of next CD

After pondering which player to buy for over a month, I finally gave up the good fight and picked up the 4205 ($359 from Onecall). Bottom line: both the 4205 and Onecall.com are highly recommended.

The details are as follows: I'll admit it, the HDCD decoding initially sucked me in. I have Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia and frankly, I doubt any more will come of this sub-format, but to be safe I figured I'd get a player with it. With my HK AVR75, the HDCD decoding is a non-issue - it adds a bit of warmth but it's barely perceptible. Having said that, on with the review…

This is my first changer, so the pros and cons of changers are things one will have to judge for one's self. Personally, I liked the idea that I could toss five discs into the player and not have to bother for a few hours. Is the drawer slow and/or noisy? I've found it to be neither - I'm relatively impatient but didn't stand there waiting on the "close" mechanism, and as for the noisiness, I didn't hear a thing - the unit's safely stashed behind glass doors in my cabinetry, so if it's loud, it's not an issue for me.

I tested it with several discs - Patriot Games, Criterion's Silence of the Lambs, Blazing Saddles, Criterion's The 39 Steps, North by Northwest and For Your Eyes Only (Limited Edition). All of them were perfect - no problems with the picture quality whatsoever. I like the way the digital zoom smooths in and out - much improved over the prior "on/off" zooms of the prior generation of players. Black was perfect and fire onscreen appeared natural and true, unlike my prior Toshiba, which made flames appear as if they were comprised of orange powder. Soon I'll test Terminator 2 and see what happens with the last twenty or so minutes of the film. If this player passes that test, I'll be 1000% sold.

Sound-wise, both for CD's and DVD's, this unit was bulletproof - the sound was warm, clear and flowed perfectly. The aforementioned HDCD experiment was a non-issue, as I'd probably opt for listening via an optical cable rather than the RCA's, but neither here nor there - everything, including CD-R's, played perfectly and sounded great.

The little features, ie the two-level dimmer (normal, low, off) and the on-screen display, were well-executed and suggested refinement, as were the improved interface for DVD playback, and the ease of set-up (about ten minutes for an experienced home theater person) were pluses. The only negative, as has been rehashed here, is the one- or two-second clip of the first track on the upcoming disc. I don't know why this happens but it's a definite negative. Not worth eliminating this player from consideration, but it simply shouldn't be happening.

The remote, for me, is a non-issue - it took me about a half-hour to stick all the buttons/commands into my Marantz uni-remote, and I didn't get a "missed signal" (ie a re-learn message) once. The unit seems to have a wide berth as far as remote aim, so that was a nice intangible.

I'd definitely buy this one again - at the price I paid, I made the right decision. I'd prefer to have a player with the Marantz, Denon or HK name on it, because when I think Toshiba, I think notebook computer, but this product's a winner. It does everything I want it to do and it does it extremely well. The only missing feature is mp-3 playback, and I can't see spending an extra $200 or so for an HK product that plays mp-3. I might buy the Stereo-Link (www.stereo-link.com), a product that connects your PC (via USB port) to RCA patch cables into your receiver and allows you to use your stereo for PC sound. Doesn't seem that important, however.

Bottom line: At $359, I'd buy this changer again without hesitating.

It really warrants a 4.5 overall rating -- that clipping of the first track on a new CD is almost inexcusable -- but the thing does everything else so much more impressively than I expected that I caved in and went up rather than down. It's a winner, folks.

Equipment: Harman Kardon AVR 75, Klipsch KG-2 front left/rights, the Boston Acoustic Micro 90c Center Channel, Infinity Reference Series surrounds, monster cable speaker and interconnect cables (except Phoenix S-Video cable), Denon CD 820, and a KLH sub.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2108

Plays CD-R's, Good remote, quiet, good menu system, lots of tweakable settings, powerful "zoom" feature, solidly built.

Unlighted remote, some bugs in the system.

I actually had an Onkyo DV-C601 for a day, but it wouldn't play CD-R's, so I returned it. A player isn't worth the box it comes in if it can't play CD-R's, IMO. The customer service droid at Circut City had the gall to tell me no DVD player can play CD-R's! Ha!

This Toshiba has one of the best remotes in it's price class. The joystick control is very intuitive and very easy to use. I had the whole remote memorized and could operate most functions by feel after one movie, plus the Virtual Remote feature is cool (on-screen view of the remote). It also has a "zoom" feature that allows you to enlarge the picture and pan around using the joystick. This is a great feature if you have a regular 4:3 TV and letterboxing bugs you. You can zoom in the picture to multiple levels and fill your screen. The sound is excellent and the picture is also good. The center channel sound comes through exceptionally clear on this unit. Much better than any other DVD player I've tried and it's very noticeable. Dialog comes through very clearly and is never drowned out by the other channels. The Onkyo actually had a better picture, but I'd gladly sacrifice a little picture quality to be able to play CD-R's. I have experienced the "lockup" problem as others have mentioned, but it happened only once when loading a music CD. I had to unplug it to get it to reset. Absolutely no problems or glitches when playing DVD's so far. This is definitely a good unit and worth a look. I searched very hard to find a quality multi-disc changer that could play CD-R's and had a decent zoom feature. The Toshiba SD4205 fit the bill nicely.

Similar Products Used:

Sony S570D, Onkyo DV-C601

cd-r, great remote, play x-change, quiet operation, zoom, fast loading, good telephone and email support

quirky -- sometime taking one or two tries to load a dvd

Great player with the one exception, about every 4 dvds, it tries for 10 seconds or so, then reports disc error or no disc. when I stop it, and open the drawer, it will get it the next time around. I have an email into Toshiba. I will report back when I hear

Similar Products Used:

sony 550, sony 660

5-disc, built-in DTS decoder, CD-R capable, price

Some remote buttons are hidden under a flip door

Have had this unit for about 2 months now. No problems to report related to build quality, etc.

We have watched about 10-15 DVDs so far. And also use it as a CD player. It performs both functions without any hassles, including playing generic brand CD-Rs burned on my PC.

The unit seems to take a long time to skip from disc-to-disc. But since I have no way to compare it against similar units, I really don't know how this unit measures up against others. Some of the remote functions are hidden under the flip door which makes them a little bit hard-to-get-to. The mini-joystick control on the remote takes some getting used to, but allows some cool navigation once you do.

The zoom function is pretty cool to eliminate letter-boxing (I don't have a large enough TV to match the room). Had no hassles ordering the unit from Dynadirect.com (found them via the free service at pricescan.com). The price I paid included shipping.

Similar Products Used:

none

Picture, audio, 5 disc capacity, ability to play lots of formats, ease of use

location of surround sound and shuffle buttons on remote (they are under a panel). The player makes a little noise when changing discs, but it's not noticeable unless you are near the player.

This is my first DVD player, and it was purchased to not only play DVDs, but to replace my 17 year old CD player as well. First, this player is very easy to use. The buttons are laid out in a sensible manner, and the remote is vary easy to navigate. The video quality is outstanding, and the audio is very good. I do not yet have a home theater set-up, so I use the surround sound function, which does add depth to the audio. A drawback for me is that the player stays in surround-sound mode when I play CDs unless I remember to turn off the surround sound, and the button to do so is under a panel on the remote (it should be on the front of the player). In a perfect world, the player would automatically switch off the surround sound when playing a CD. Overall, the player is amazing for the price.

Similar Products Used:

n/a

Excellent sound for both CD and DVD (specs. almost as good as some top CD-only players), Changer w/random play, Nice remote layout

Random play button hard to get at (on remote), Auto-start sometimes annoying, Only one Digital Coaxial Output

I've had the Toshiba SD-4205 for two weeks now. For reference: Reciever is a Sony STR-DA777ES; TV is a Panasonic 27" "Panaflat" (550+ lines of resolution); Speakers are all Optimus-- LX-10 (front), LX-8 (rear), CS-5 (center), and SW-200P 12" 200 watt powered subwoofer; wires are 12 gauge Superflex (General Cable Brand). Now, on to the review:

First off, the Toshiba SD-4205 has every function I could want, including zoom, angle, preview, repeat play, shuffle (1 and 5 disk) play, on screen programming, HDCD decoding, and most of all *ability to play CD-R's*. The only feature I wish it had is an extra digital coaxial output so I could run one to the DVD and one to the CD audio inputs on the Sony 777ES. You can run a splitter or run two different types of outputs (choices are digital coaxial, optical, and analog...I chose analog for CD and dig. coax. for DVD). It also has component video outputs, but I used the S-Video output run through the receiver.

Video quality is excellent. I have compared it to the video quality on the Toshiba SD-2200, and can see no difference. Since the SD-2200 gets rave reviews on video quality, this one should also: Video quality is stunning, and I have not seen any hint of pauses or glitches while severly scratched (rental) DVD's.

As if the video alone isn't enough, sound quality really makes this one stand out from the crowd! According to Toshiba customer support, the SD-4205 offers more than 112 dB for signal to noise ratio, a dynamic range greater than 106 dB, and a total harmonic distortion less than 0.001%. If you are curious where this stands, take a look at the specs for the Sony DVP-S7700 DVD/CD single disk player (THD <.0025%, S/N >115 dB, Dyn. Range >100 dB) or the Sony CA9ES CD changer (THD <.0023%, S/N >117 dB, Dyn. Range >110 dB)...very close indeed, and at almost 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of either of those two!

Numbers aside, the sound from the SD-4205 is smooth, with natural vocals in both movies and music. The soundstage is better than that of the HK 8550 (...not to mention predicted reliability...) and the Yamaha CD player I used to demo the Sony 777ES with. Too many CD player/receiver combinations (..since the receiver plays a larger role in the sound..) sound as if you are listening to the music or movie through a long concrete tunnel: distant or "tinny" ...But that is not at all the case with the 4205 (and 777ES)! I close my eyes and it sounds as if I am surrounded by the action in the movie or sitting in a live studio listening to the band record the album (really...). Simply excellent sound.

Another plus is that this player has been able to read older CD's (maybe not as good of quality as current CD's)that my old player (Sony) could not read.

Build quality is also excellent. The disk drawer is sturdy, the individual disk recesses are a good depth, and overall finish on the whole unit is great. Everything on the remote is well set-up, with the exception of the random play button being hidden behind the flip-up panel. Some people may prefer a backlit remote, but I think the glow keys are just fine.

Overall, a great unit, both in design and execution. A real winner from Toshiba!

Similar Products Used:

HK 8550 CD player, Toshiba SD-2200 DVD player, Yamaha CD player (don't know model number, but it was their "top" model for 1999), cheap Sony model

5 CD/DVD disk tray. (that should be listed in the descripton above) Random play of all 5 disks. Price. Picture quality.

Location of some controls are not ideal.

$380 at ONE CALL.

Many reviews of multi-disk DVD players complain that they do not have the "random play" function that CD changers have. I don't know about the other players but this one has it. It is important to me since I use this as my primary music/CD player as well as for movies.

However, as far as I can tell the random play can only be initiated from behind a panel on the remote. There are a couple of other buttons that aren't placed ideally and the DVD machines screen does not display a list of how many tracks are on a CD. The remote glows but does not light up. The tray makes some noise changing disks but in a cabinet it goes unnoticed.

Otherwise, the player is great. The sound and picture quality are awesome. It has easy to use remote controls. It has several speeds of rewind and forward, all with perfectly clear picture. It also has several zoom functions that work well. The player has many inputs including S-video, component, and composite. All in all, well built, great performance, and average layout. For the price it is outstanding.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

Good sound when playing DVDs

Broken twice right out of the box

Right out of the box I tried playing DVDs and CDs. Plan on playing CDRs in the future. DVD part worked great, good picture and great sound. Then I tryed some music CDs. Tracks were skiped over on several CDs. I'm talking brand new ones too. I tried cleaning the CD and a diferent track would be skiped. They played just fine in my old CD player. I took it back to Video Only and exchanged it for a new one. Got it home and the door would not open up no matter what I did. So I took it back to get my money back. Don't buy anything from Video only if you think you will be returning it for a refund. Even thou I used my debit card at the purchase, they said it will take at least two weeks to be credited back into my account. I guess we will see.

Similar Products Used:

none

Built-in decoder. CD-R compatablility.

Remote

I purchased the 4205 to go with my Toshiba Cinema Series TV. It is a great match. This is the first DVD I've owned, and I was concerned about buying because of some of the mediocre quality I've seen from friend's player. The colorstream outputs give the best picture I've seen so far from DVD. My Dennon receiver was AC-3 "ready" and connecting this player was a breeze. The sound quality is as superb as the picture.CD's have been no problem at all, so far, and I have some pretty old CD's.
I love this DVD player.

My only complaint so far is the remote. It is somewhat clumsy to navigate the DVD menus and often takes multiple inputs for a function to work. The unit "beeps" when receiving a signal from the remote (a little annoying), but sometimes no action is taken by the player.

Still, I definately recommend this unit. It is by far the best value I've seen for a DVD changer with on-board decoding.

FYI -- had trouble reading or recognizing discs -- Toshiba's Response: Software upgrade

I loved this player (see previous post) -- except that one third of the time it would not detect dvd's. I wrote Toshiba, and here is their answer - fyi.

There is a software upgrade, which should resolve this issue. Your player should be sent to the service facility listed below.

Please include your name, address, phone #, and a brief description of the trouble you are experiencing. If your player is out of the one year warranty period, the
cost of the upgrade is $49. A check or credit card # and expiration date should be included with the player. If your player is still within the one year warranty period, please call 1-800-631-3811 before sending your
player.

Toshiba America Consumer Products
3653 Clairmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30341
1-800-795-7557

Customer Solutions Center


To: Customer_Support@tacp.com

Subject: Re: dvd 4205


1. The model number and serial number of the product in question.:
--Toshiba Cinema Series SD-4204 5 DVD changer

2. The code located on the bottom of the player
--013N

3. A brief explanation of the trouble you have been experiencing,
including
the DVD title(s).

--Often times when I put a dvd in the player tries for 10 - 15 seconds to read it, then reports "disc error" or "no disc" This has happened on several discs which work fine on my Sony 660 including: "southpark bigger,
longer, uncut," "terminator 2 ultimate edition," "prince purple rain," "ac/dd no bull," "evil dead 2," "national lampoon's vacation," and "clockwork orange"

I have read this problemis relatively prevalant on audioreview.com. is there a firmare upgrade? is mine a lemon? please advise, I have 6 days by which I can take it back to Good Guys, where I bought it.