HDCD playback, Progressive scan component out! 2 disc drawer
Great value!

built in decoder kind of a waste of money

I had a really bad expirience with my denon unit which I just returned, and which was a shock to me, because I've never had any problems with any Denon products before.....ever. Oh well, life goes on. I got the SD5109 instead and paid a little bit more. I think its worth it, this units picture is the bomb even with S-video outs, and I plan on buying a progresive scan compatible TV this month so I'll update this review then. The audio is fantastic as well, especially with HDCDs...City of Angels soundtrack sounded wonderful. DTS movies were a treat as well. I like the dual disc tray...very convienient, also I havent had any problems with the remote, I actually kinda like it.
EVERY OTHER HIGHEND DVD MANUFACTURER TAKE NOTE OF TOSHIBA'S EXELLENT IDEA OF INCLUDING A VIDEO ESSENTIALS DVD WITH UNIT!
too cool. Menus super easy to operate, and setup was a breeze. I think my only beef with this unit is the built in decoder, this piece retails for 800 dollars(i paid significantly less)at this price point I would rather see them take the money from the decoder and put it into better video and chassis components. At this price point, almost everyone is going to hook this up to an outboard decoder. 4 Stars for value, simply because of built in decoder, 5 stars overall GREAT PRODUCT highly recomended

Similar Products Used:

Denon dvd-1500, Samsung, Pioneer, Sony

Progressive Line Scanning at under $500!!!

Crappy Remote... O.K. construction

Well for the money there is nothing better PERIOD. I have used the Panasonic which is just amazing, better than the Toshiba for sure.. BUT.. for $1,500 MORE.. it's not that much better. I have it set up to a Toshiba TN50X81 HD Ready set and it just looks great. The color is just amazing, sound is O.K. could be better, Panasonic wins in the audio department by far. But once again at under $500 the 5109 is a real contender. Some of these other companies (uhh Sony) are in big trouble.. even sony's flagship 7700 falls short of the 5109. Also... NOTICABLE difference w/ good cables, Canare Component is a good choice.
If you have a set that accepts Progressive Scanning don't waste your money on anything else.. other than maybee the 9100 (which I have not used YET) Overall Value is 6 Stars
Performance is a 4.5 ... wish I had a 16:9 set ...

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVDH1000 $2000.. OUCH!!!, Sony 7700 1999 model, lower end Sony's

Progressive output, dual trays, picture zoom, nice menus, built-in DD5.1, moderate price, vivid colors

Built-in DD5.1 (adds to price), light weight,

As an early adopter of DVD, I have been a supporter of this format since I bought the first generation Toshiba. Toshiba DVD players has had a very good reputation when compared to other players. My SD-2008 player has performed beautifully for the past two years on my former Mitsu 50" big screen. Having replaced this with a Mitsu 55" HDTV, I wanted to use a DVD player that can bring out more of the HDTV set. I bought the Toshiba SD-5109 from Vann.com for only $455 (HINT: Write them a letter instead of buying it only at the web advertised price)

After dialing in both the DVD component and s-video display on my HDTV with the included Video Essentials DVD (thanks Toshiba), I wanted to see how well the progressive scan display fared with the regular interlace display. I was amazed how well my s-video fared with the component video. In fact, in even displays less scan lines than component when pausing a particular scene. S-video appeared seemingly sharper than progressive components.

This is where the comparison ends, however. The progressive output's color was much more vivid and life-like. When displaying reference DVD movies on HDTV, the video was very film-like. There was just a sense of smoothness that was not there with s-video. With the minor loss in detail compared to s-video, it more than made up in vibrant colors and more realistic images. (Good luck Sony playing catch up)

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-2008 using Monster M-Siver series s-video

Outstanding picture Great Value!!!

None

Wow! What a Difference from my RCA DVD!!! When watching some dvd's on my Mits 55809 and RCA there seemed to be a tapestry effect in the video. The Toshiba progressive scan picture is extremely smooth and detailed. I can't imagine seeing a better picture in a theatre! I paid only 495 + shipping. Terrific package!!!

Similar Products Used:

RCA

Color saturation

Problems with light "patches" on letterboxing; soft picture with less depth; Motion artifacts; Cheap build

Bascically, see the weaknesses listed above. As I have a Toshiba TN50X81 TV with HD ColorStream Progressive Scan capability, I figured the 5109 PS unit was a perfect match . . . WRONG! While I thought the color saturation was clearly superior, I experienced an annoying problem that I can only describe as light "patches" that appeared to be eminating from the top edge of the screen onto the top letterbox strip, especially noticeable with darker scenes. And, before you all jump to conclusions, I calibrated my TV with Video Essentials (which I already had, although it's a nice touch to include it with the unit), and even had a tech out for 1-1/2 hours tweaking the convergence and centering the image, etc.

The funny thing was that this was not a problem with any of the regular interlaced-signal dvd players I've used. In fact, when I switched to the interlaced outputs on the 5109, it didn't show up at all. Even a second 5109 that I tried did the same thing. Thus, the only conclusion I'm left with is that the progressive scan image somehow caused this problem. It also seemed to slightly lighten the deep blacks, including the letterboxing, as compared to the interlaced signal.

Anyway, I finally returned the 5109 and bought a much less expensive Onkyo 525(B), which has performed flawlessly. The very, very knowledgeable salesperson I spoke to told me that he feels the PS technology is good, but still has some bugs to be worked out and needs to be perfected, although he'd never heard of this specific complaint before. He also stated that PS inherently tends to produce a softer image, particularly on Toshiba RP TV's, and that he personally prefers the superior depth and clarity of an interlaced signal.

I must say I agree 100% with him. Bottom line, while the price is right, I think people may be getting caught up in the lure of having the newest thing (as was I) and are overlooking what just plain looks best.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 530D; Toshiba 3109; Onkyon 525(B)

progressive scan

failed to play some DVD's and software crashed, and no dedicated fast scan

After reading the reviews for the SD5109, I thought this DVD was the one to buy. I went to BestBuy and bought it on May 25, 2000. I have had a few software crashes. And I tried playing the DVD "In To Deep" and the SD5109 would not play the audio soundtrak. I tried the DVD on other DVD players and it worked great. I went back to BestBuy and tried playing the "In To Deep" DVD on the floor model and it did not work!!! With all the problems I had, Best Buy gave me my money back!!!

Now I don't know what DVD player to buy with progressive scan??

I welcome suggestions?

Similar Products Used:

Sony330

Picture quality, menus, 2 disc versatility

none, but a vertical zoom feature would be nice.

Great picture, beautiful, beautiful, wish you were here... etc. Please see below for glowing comments. This is an excellent DVD player.

Okay, this is my only complaint which addresses the anamorphic vs. widescreen bars issue. Like many others, my Mitsubishi 16:9 widescreen can only zoom and expand non-progressive signals. This means that if you have a 16:9 widescreen and want to view the pristine progressive 480p signal from the Toshiba 5109, you need to use a DVD that is "Enhanced for widescreen TVs" or else the picture is vertically 'squashed.' Well, there is handy feature on the 5109 called "Zoom" that can zoom into the picture (maintaining the same aspect ratio) with 3 different magnifications. Here's my point: my only complaint is that it would have been great for them to include a *vertical* zoom that stretched the picture vertically and cropped the top and bottom off, thereby allowing non-anamorphic DVDs to be viewed in a somewhat acceptable way. It should be noted that the zoom does introduce some minor artifacting. Anyway, no other DVD player does this yet so here's to hoping there is some kind of resolution on this issue soon. In the meantime, anyone want to buy my copies of Armageddon and Titanic??

Excellent picture quality via S-Video and Component, Progressive scan (not used), Dual tray, Front panel menu access, Useful zoom functions.

Remote

The remote is very badly done. Having the scan forward and chapter advance share the same button is not a good idea.

The picture on a 27" JVC500D TV is excellent via the S-Video and Component Video outputs. There was a very slight color change between the two.

Have played about 50 DVD's during the period without any problems what-so-ever. Rating only reduced due to the poor remote. I actually purchased a universal learning remote and mainly use it now.

Have not tested the optical or coaxial digital audio outputs. The analog audio was not set correctly (gain was too low) and was reset by Good Guys. Will be testing the digital outputs soon - after purchasing a new receiver.

Similar Products Used:

None

Excellent picture quality via S-Video and Component, Progressive scan (not used), Dual tray, Front panel menu access, Useful zoom functions.

Remote

The remote is very badly done. Having the scan forward and chapter advance share the same button is not a good idea.

The picture on a 27" JVC500D TV is excellent via the S-Video and Component Video outputs. There was a very slight color change between the two.

Have played about 50 DVD's during the period without any problems what-so-ever. Rating only reduced due to the poor remote. I actually purchased a universal learning remote and mainly use it now.

Have not tested the optical or coaxial digital audio outputs. The analog audio was not set correctly (gain was too low) and was reset by Good Guys. Will be testing the digital outputs soon - after purchasing a new receiver.

Similar Products Used:

None

Dual discs, layout

remote didn't work, progressive scan didn't work either

I got this on an open box deal at bestbuy for $399 which I though was a pretty good buy. I brought it home and plugged it in but the remote didn't work and the progessive scan didn't work. So I had to bring it back and they didn't have any others soooo I moved on. I watched a few minutes of ToyStory on it to see how the picture and sound quality looked and it seemed average.

Similar Products Used:

RCA, pioneer 503, pioneer 434, onkyo 601