- Great value for money. - Accepts a gazillion of different formats including CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD-A. - Built-in DD and DTS decoder, which a number of Nakamichi AV receivers need.

Noisy transport mechanism - but there is an easy DIY fix!

I recently picked up one of those off eBay for US$99.95 by one of the top 10 sellers, refurbished back to original factory condition with a 90 day Toshiba warranty. For this sort o price this player is a steal, especially because I was looking for a DVD player with built-in DD/DTS decoder to complement my Nakamichi AV-500 audio video receiver that does not have these decoders, but can interface with a DVD player that has them. So far I have used the SD 4800 only for stereo listening, and that's what it will mainly be used for. Initially I found the transport mechanism to be intolerably loud. Even when in 4-5 meter distance from the machine, the noise of the CD turning was so pronounced that it was highly disturbing in quiet passages of classical pieces. I eventually opened the top cover of the player - an easy operation, only 5 obvious screws need to be removed and the cover comes right off. I noticed that there is heaps of space all around the transport mechanism. No wonder that the thing is so loud - the whole box acts as a resonance chamber. There is at least an inch of free space on 3 sides of the transport mechanism, and I filled this space with cut-to-shape sheets of a foam material that came as packaging material with some other appliance I bought recently. On top is just enought room to squeeze in some thin foam material. I used Foamies from the Walmart crafts department for this purpose. I didn't bother to take the transport mechanism out, and put something at the bottom of the box. Closed the thing again, and BINGO! The noise has almost totally disappeared. In normal listening distance from my rig I can hardly make it out, and it certainly isn't distracting any more. Now I am happy with the SD 4800, and at the price they currently go on eBay, you can't go wrong with this player!

Similar Products Used:

This is my first DVD player, but I have used numerous CD players, including Denon DCD 810 and a decent McAudio Car Hifi system.

Price-feature content Excellent picture Quiet transport Great sound on DVD Audio discs

Progressive scan picture is flawed

A fine DVD player at a good price. Bought it primarily to listen to dvd audio discs, excellent there. Unfortunately no bass management for sub/sat speakers. Very quiet operation during playback. Good remote, but no button to display time remaining on disc. Progressive scanning feature is a waste of money. My Sony HD set does a much better job. In progressive mode, the player can't reproduce color borders properly. They are marred by horizontal lines (chroma upsampling bug). When the TV de-interlaces the picture, it is perfect. I have heard it should be called progressive scam.

Similar Products Used:

Two previous generation Toshiba's (great machines)

Good Pro Scan picture.Dvd Audio is very nice option for this price range.

No bass management if your using small speakers.

The SD 4800 is a nice player for anyone looking for a inexpensive DVD Audio player.Progressive Scan is a plus for any HDTV.Dvd Audio is very detailed and sounds good.However if you don't have full range speakers you may have problems with the bass management.All my speakers are full range so I didn't have to worry about setting them to small.Overall player does excellent for the price it goes for.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer

Pirce

I agree with the first review that didn't think much of any improvements with progressive scan. The interface for this player is very slow and clunky. Fast forward leaves a lot to be desired. Every time you do a chapter advance, you have to reset the picture size if it isn't on the default zoom level.

Similar Products Used:

Sony S-360

Wonderful picture, Great sound, Flexibility, Price

None

I bought this player as a back-up to my problem prone Marantz, and I must say that the picture is slighlty better than that of my $600 Marantz! Cds sound great too! Wonderful Player in every way for the money.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz VC-5200

on screen menu, sound output

display is extremely dim, you can't see it when you watch a movie

This is a good great dvd player for the price but I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about with progressive scan. Before I purchased this one I had a Sony interlaced model and it worked just as good as this progressive scan. I think they should call it progressive scam because there really is no difference.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

It did have a great picture and sound when playing a regular DVD and it does have more features than the Sony 715.

It did not play DVD-R disks. Locked up the machine so that disk would not eject. Maybe I got a defective sd-4800.

I have just recently started to archive all of my VHS tapes to DVD but found that my old Pioneer DVD player would not play them. So I researched this site and others and decided since the sd-4800 claimed to play DVR-R disks, I would try it out. Well, it still would not play my DVD-R disks. In fact, when one of these disks is loaded into the machine, the whole machine locks up and I had a lot of trouble just trying to get the disk to eject. I tried my disks in a Sony 715 and all formats DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW play just fine. Since copying my VHS tapes is what is important to me right now, I'm going to return the sd-4800 and get the Sony 715.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 715 played all DVD formats with no problems.

DVD-A, progressive scan, and nice picture for under $200 USD! Good digital PCM output for CDs (provided you have a good DAC available).

Bass management isn't good. Stutters at disc layer changes (unlike my old ProScan player, as I recall). No SACD playback. Chroma upsampling bug is STILL present.

I upgraded to this progressive scan DVD-Audio capable player from my old Divx-"enhanced" ProScan 8680Z interlaced player (which actually worked quite well for me, in contrast to many reviewers on this site). The progressive scan from the SD-4800 actually looks superior to my Toshiba Cinema Series 50HX81 HDTV's own 3:2 conversion (fed from the SD-4800's interlaced output), which I found interesting given this player's very modest price of MSRP $280 (compared with the HDTV's original MSRP of $3200!). E.g. Star Trek: Insurrection's opening sequence showed smoother diagonal lines. Several of the DVD-Audio discs I've tried do sound better than their CD counterparts (even using my NAD C541 CD player), though I've done no comparisons with other DVD-A (or SACD) players. However, the actual mixing/mastering of the discs probably matters more than the format. E.g., some DVD-A tracks sound HORRIBLE in 5.1 surround sound, while the 2-channel high-resolution mix sounds better than CD (as hoped/expected). Thankfully, most DVD-A discs contain a 2-channel version! I had one insurmountable problem, however, where Foreigner 4's DVD-A had a faulty menu (probably the disc, but I don't know). The 5.1 mix was of the worse-than-CD variety, and the 2-channel mix could not be played at all. Even getting the 5.1 mix to play required some effort on my part... (and I managed to return this disc) And, by the way, I don't believe the limited built-in bass management works with DVD-Audio but only with DD. CD's sound OK (but not great) through the analog out, but my $500 NAD C541 CD player is clearly superior (as one might expect). However, using the SD-4800's digital output and my Anthem AVM-2's fairly good DAC's, CD's are perhaps indistinguishable from the NAD playback! With my older NAD 760 receiver, however, going digital into the receiver was clearly the WORST choice (from either transport), for that receiver's DAC's are clearly inferior to those in the C541 CD player (and the Anthem AVM-2). While I never did any formal comparisons of picture quality, I have been very pleased with that of this player, esp. at this bargain price. I recently learned that it, like most DVD players, has the infamous "chroma upsampling bug," but I have yet to be particularly distracted by it. I was a little irritated, however, by the fact that every multilayer DVD stutters for a second at the layer change. I don't recall such an annoyance on my old ProScan DVD player. There is no DTS decoder, making it necessary to connect both digital and 5.1 analog connections, but the built-in Dolby Digital decoder sounded perhaps even a little better than that in my old NAD T760 receiver. I think it sounds better with the SD-4800's built-in bass management defeated, however, even if you perform no outboard bass management (contrary to conventional wisdom).

Similar Products Used:

ProScan 8680Z DVD player, NAD C541 CD player, Anthem AVM-2 preamp/processor, Toshiba Cinema Series 50HX81 RP-HDTV, NAD T760 A/V receiver, Chiro C-500 5-channel amp, Thiel CS1.6 & SCS3 front spea

Remote supplied controls my Toshiba TV, progressive scan, Better remote than my last DVD player

Multi-channel out allow only large front speakers, not a weakness for me but maybe to some

Right out of the box, great performance, sound and picture are much more crisp and clear than my SD-2200 which this unit is to replace. Mates well with my mid-mid-fi system. DVD-A performace: although this is my first DVD-A unit and I have always listened to my music in 2ch I bought the only two DVD-A's that I could stomach (Metallica and Queen) and was BLOWN AWAY, totaly amazed by how good it all sounded, and I am not by any means either a Metallica or Queen fan

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-2200, good unit too

Great video(prog scan). Audio for cd's good for dvd player. DVD audio sounds very good.

Build quality good, but not terrific. Toshiba puts their $ inside the unit-evidently. 5 disc panasonic cp-72 has same features(prog scan+dvd audio) with a nicer build but no Digital coax output!

This is a superb machine. I've compared it directly to players with the faroudja DCDI chipset(panasonic cp 72) and feel it offers the same picture performance viewed thru a HD Monitor- it may be a hair better but certainly not worse. DVD audio sounds as good and perhaps better than the JVC player that I had last. The jvc was a fairly good performer...until it stopped playing cd's after 6 months.(90 day labor warrenty doesn't show much confidence in thier products). Customer service people obnoxious at JVC. Guy told me it was my reciever that was faulty! B.S.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic dv 50, Jvc dvd75gd, panasonic cp 72.