sound & picture quality, build quality

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One of the best DVD players on the market.

Similar Products Used:

denon 5000, onkyo 939

audio, video, faetures....and the list goes on

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i preoviously had a sony 9000 es progressive scan dvd player. although it was a wonderful machine, to me it was not worth the price paid(1,500). so i returned the unit and decided to keep my interlaced sd 3109 for a while longer. i then came across a pretty good deal on the 9200. all i can say is WOW. the picture on the 9200 surpasses the picture of the sony 9000 in my opinion. the audio on the 9200 is incredible as well. i have not even tapped into the dvd audio capabilities yet. all in all, i am extremly pleased with this dvd player and I highly reccomend it.

Similar Products Used:

toshiba sd 3109, sony 9000 es

audio, video, faetures....and the list goes on

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i preoviously had a sony 9000 es progressive scan dvd player. although it was a wonderful machine, to me it was not worth the price paid(1,500). so i returned the unit and decided to keep my interlaced sd 3109 for a while longer. i then came across a pretty good deal on the 9200. all i can say is WOW. the picture on the 9200 surpasses the picture of the sony 9000 in my opinion. the audio on the 9200 is incredible as well. i have not even tapped into the dvd audio capabilities yet. all in all, i am extremly pleased with this dvd player and I highly reccomend it.

Similar Products Used:

toshiba sd 3109, sony 9000 es

DVD-A,HDCD,Progressive video outs,Good DACs

No adjustable dither even though HDCD has a variable filter built in. No SACD. Cost twice as much as it should.

Toshiba must be a bunch of retards, because one of the greatest inventions in audio are the advanced dithering and filtering options built in to the Pacific Microsonics HDCD chip. Why the hell didn't they include a munual adjustable dither? Because they're idiots! Even Sony includes a custom filter option on their SACD player. I have a feeling that DVD-A might be consigned to mass produced garbage, while SACD will be manufactured to a higher quality. Yes the 9200 sounds good, but we all own volumes of CDs. If you're going to include oversampling and high bit rates, at least let us fiddle with the dither! I spent 1500 bucks on this thing and I can't even use the features that are already built into the chips inside it! Even the Rotel CD player did it!

Phillips has chickened out of the DVD-A scene. Pioneer is now the ONLY company planning a universal DVD-A & SACD player. Lets see if they follow through. And add that PMD-200 and adjustable dither for chrisakes! Even though it will cost $5000 I bet they don't include the dither. Hell, if they indeed don't, it'll be cheaper for me to just buy a separate SACD player.

How hard could it be to combine a Crystal universal DAC, PMD-200, and let us adjust the dither? Hmm...maybe I'll take this back and wait out this fiasco.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 991, Linn Sondek CD12, dCS Elgar, Sony SCD-1, Denon DVD-3000

Sharply defined picture,Good build & Excellent sytling.DAC's Used are top notch, which adds Up to a Dynamic Soundstage.

SACD Capability would have made this a Stunner! Price should be lower to sell to a larger audience.Also accessibility is an issue most dealers don't stock it at all.

The Tosihba Sd-9200 Is An All around Top Notch Machine. The main question is Software which is finally begining to become available. The best 2 DVD audio's Just released are Brain Salad Surgery & LA Woman. LA Woman's Source Tapes are different and FAR! better than the DCC or HDCD Box. Some tracks are longer than before. Brain Sal. Sur. has an excellent Mix Which creates a whole New Pespective.
The 9200 Gives you a Golden Opportunity to hear these DVD-Audios in Their Full Glory! Hope More Titles are available Soon.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-09,Technics DV-A10

Everything. Sound quality, picture quality, built-in features.

None that I have come accross.

What can I say? This DVD player is absolutely stunning!!

Please note: I have the Australian version, the SD-900EE, and some of the specs I am quoting may differ from the US version.

It has just about everything you could want for in a DVD player: DVD-Video; DVD-Audio; HDCD; 10 bit/54MHz progressive scan video; DD, DTS & MPEG decoders; DVD-Audio decoders, 24/96 & 24/192 and a not too bad remote control either.

It doesn't have SACD or THX certification, but I think I can live without these little extras.

Sound: Where should I start? I have a $1,000 Denon Alpha CD player, and it out performs this with ease, in fact, it makes my old CD's sound like new again, with sounds I've never heard before. The in-built decoders are excellent, in fact I don't even use the one's in the amplifier anymore, I just use the power amp section only. It has excellent depth and soundstage, and with some of the better DTS and THX DD DVD's, the speakers just disappear. As stated before, the sound quality is absolutely stunning!!

Video: Again, what can I say? The picture quality is out of this world. With all the built-in video enhancement, the picture quality is first rate. You can see every blade of grass on the ground and every hair on people's heads. It up-samples from 4-2-2 to 4-4-4 video, plus it has 10 bit / 54 MHz progressive scan and interlaced output.

Build quality: It's built like a tank and weighs about as much, 11 Kgs (23 Lbs).

I can't recommend this DVD player more highly, it's absolutely stunning, and as I always say, do yourself a favour, go and have a look and listen, you positively, absolutely, will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SDK-310

Great Build Quality, Simple yet elegent Appearance, top-notch video and audio decoding.

Digital outputs downsamples everything to 16/44.
HDCD only works with internal DACs.

I purchased the SD-9200 to use with my Toshiba 56H80 RPTV. But my primary interest was its DVD-Audio capability. So far, I have very mixed feelings about the unit. There is much to like about this unit, which make its several design flaws all the more frustrating.

My first impression of the player was the obvious quality the its build implies. It is so solid and heavy that it makes you wonder if Toshiba purposely weighed it down with lead or if the weight is legitimate due to a good power supply and chassis. Regardless, the simplicity of the player's appearance exudes elegance and its operation is in keeping with its high end status.

As a DVD player, it is hard to fault. It's picture quality is top notch. Some reviews have mentioned, problems such as slight ringing, the mpeg decoding bug that plagues most players, and combing on certain material that is common on most progressive scan DVD players using the genesis chip. That said, I have personally not noticed or not been bothered by any of these things. In fact, I am thoroughly impressed and content with the picture quality as is everyone else how has seen or used this player. The menu is well laid out and gives the user plenty of options to tweek the picture. In addition, the player has the ability to change aspect ratios in progressive mode which bails out most users with RPTV's that don't offer this ability when using progressive inputs. This includes Pioneer, Panasonic and Philips televisions. Ironically, Toshibas own RPTV's don't need this feature.

As a CD player, the SD-9200 is again hard to fault. Its internal DACs are of very high quality. The player can decode HDCDs which is useful for those with a decent CD collection and can play 24/96 DADs. However, these formats only work properly from the 2 channel audio outputs, not from the 6 channel audio outputs or from the digital outputs. Why can't the front channels of the 6 channel outputs be identical to the 2 channel outputs? This forces you the connect the player to your processor via three different mechanisms, 6 channel, 2 channel, and digital. Then the user has to know which output is the best for the particular cd and set the menu to that output. I find this tedious and unnecessary.

Even worse, the player downsamples all digital output to 16/44. This is particularly distressing because it means that its not passing all the bits a cd or dvd has to offer. For example, 20 bit HDCD recordings or 24 bit DADs get digitally sent as standard 16 bit cd quality. This downconversion should be optional, not automatic. The only way to get around this is to use the 2 channel audio outs. This is not ideal for most modern processors which need a signal in digital form requiring the processor to convert the signal from analog to digital then back to analog, defeating the purpose for having a high resolution signal to begin with. Fortunately, this won't be an issue for everyone and when it is, it only applies to a small portion of most peoples music collection.

As a first generation DVD-Audio player, this player has the same limitations that every other DVD-Audio player has. That is there is no bass management, requiring the use of full range speakers, and there is no digital output requiring a six channel input on the processor. I'm sure future generation will remedy both these limitation, but for now Toshiba can't be blamed because no other player does this either.

For now, all I have is two DVD-Audio discs (KD Lang and The Corrs.) Both sound great, but its hard to gauge the added resolution because the multi-channel recording adds a dimension to the music that I'm not use to. I could compare it to the dolby digital track in the same discs, but why? I rather just enjoy the DVD-Audio track.

Overall, most people will be happy with the player. I just wish they could have catered to the high-end user better. If the player's digital outputs worked better, I would be thoroughly happy. There is no question this is a great DVD-Video player, but for the audiophile who has first-rate DACs or a high-end processor its not an ideal transport. Even so, I don't think you will find a better DVD-Video/Audio player for less, so that alone makes it worth the money.

Outstanding video performance, DVD-Audio playback, good CD and HDCD performance, well-built, solid value considering the feature set

My unit occasionally locks up during fast forward and reverse

Video

I have been using an entry-level Sony player (DVP-S330) for some time because I wanted to wait until DVD-Audio and SACD playback were included in DVD video players. I decided to place my bet on DVD-Audio and go with the SD-9200. This piece is my first "step-up" DVD player and I've been very impressed with its video performance so far. I use a small 24'' Wega TV, so I didn't think I would notice a huge improvement in the 9200's 480i output over the Sony, despite the large difference in price. But the images with the Toshiba are noticeably sharper and more detailed, while still appearing quite natural. This difference in image quality may be due to the fact that many Sony players are designed to produce a softer (but by no means unpleasant)picture, thereby avoiding motion artifacts. Nonetheless, I think it's still very noteworthy that this player can distinguish itself on such a small analog TV with S-video. I'm sure that using this player's progressive scan output (480p)with a high definition-ready set capable of displaying the full resolution of anamorphic DVDs will yield even more impressive results. (I'll have to save up for such a TV.)But if you're like me, you won't be disappointed with the 9200's plain old 480i output. The player also has the full set of picture controls for those videophiles who love to tweak.

Audio

I have only one DVD-Audio disc, Core, from Stone Temple Pilots. I'm not a real big fan of this band, but I wanted to test out the new format. I would say I'm very intrigued so far: the disc envelops you in sound in a fairly compelling fashion, and its use of the real channels doesn't sound too artificial or gimmicky. I think as the format matures, we will hear even better mixes that should really sound cool, making it hard to go back to 2-channel listening. The 9200 handles DVD-Audio well, although navigation between tracks is a little slow. To be fair, I suspect all of the first crop of DVD-Audio players will have this problem.

Regular CDs sound very good, but this aspect of performance was harder to evaluate, as my Marantz SR-18 receiver tends to stamp its sonic character on all CDs, making them sound somewhat alike, even through a player's analog outputs. Overall, though, I would say that the 9200's CD performance is certainly solid enough for me to give it full-time CD playback duties and retire my old Rotel CD-only player.

My only negative is that my unit seems somewhat quirky in operation. It has locked up on me a few times while fast forwarding and reversing during video playback. Also, I've had some trouble with navigation when using the advanced tests on the Avia disc. It may just be my unit, but if anyone else has had similar problems, let me know. Because this player performs a number of complex functions very well at a reasonable price, I'm willing to put up with a few minor glitches.

If you can get this player at around $1100 like I did, I would say it's a great value. I can't imagine that one could find a player that significantly exceeds (or even slightly exceeds)the 9200's video performance without spending a whole lot more. I've only seen the Sony 9000ES in a brief audition, but if you're comparing the two, your choice will probably come down to price and whether you prefer SACD or DVD-Audio playback. I don't think anyone would be displeased with the video performance of either player. However,if multi-channel sound from one of the new high resolution formats (SACD and DVD-Audio) is important to you, it's worth noting that the Sony's SACD capability is limited to two-channel discs.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-S330