All around good player for the price.

Flaky with CDRs

I bought the 1200 last year, and was very happy with it. After reading some initial reviews on here, I was under the impression that the 1600 was basically a 1200 with the ability to play CDR's. DONT BE FOOLED! This does NOT play CDRs... and was never meant to do so. The manual even says, "this player does not play CDR or CDRW recorded discs". I tested out several CDRs, and it did play ONE of the 10 CDRs I threw at it.... and it was a green disc. It would NOT play (or even try) to play any blue dics... and since most of my discs are blue, then it's useless to me. Finally, I attempted to play the ONE GREEN/GOLD CDR in my older 1200, and it worked fine in it as well. So, if your going to pay extra money to get a 1600 over a 1200 because you *think* it will play CDRs.. then dont.

Anyway, now that that's out of my system... the players (both 1200 and 1600) are both supurb players and have never had a problem with over 40 DVDs I've thrown at them both. It also seems to handle layer changes much better than my friends' JVC and SONY units. With the coupon from Amazon, $150 is a great price for this player!

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Toshiba 1200

Cheap, works well, lots of features.

Menus are a bit slow, but it doesn't affect the movie playback.

I like this machine a lot. I've seen some of the cheaper ones from Samsung and no name brands, and they suck. This machine doesn't seem to skip, it has good sound, a very clear picture, and many other things I like a lot about it. I read the complaints about the Art of War. I don't really find that movie interesting so I won't rent it, but if there are any other movies that have trouble I'd like to know about it.

I've only tried about 15 DVD's on it so far, including a double sided one I purchased with El Mariachi/Desperado on it (Desperado is part 2 of El Mariachi. If you liked the movie it would be good to see the first, but it's only in Spanish so you have to use subtitles I guess.) I've had no problems at this point, and I do experience a little bit of slowness loading the menu on some movies, but I normally use that time to get something to eat or drink before watching the movie anyways, especially if it shows those stupid FBI warnings at the beginning. (To hell with the MPAA!)

All Three Video Outputs (Component, S, Composite), digital out, extremely crisp picture, 3d enhanced sound

Doesn't play my cd-r, remote takes some getting used to

I received this player as a present for Christmas, but I knew the cost. It has excellent features for the money. The picture is extremely crisp, it sounds great, and has many outputs. Eventually I can expand to digital sound (home theatre) and widescreen tv (component out). Currently I use S-video and the colors are much more defined. The blood in Deep Blue Sea really stands out. The 3d sound seems to make some difference on my Sharp stereo, but not a whole lot.

People complain about the remote, but I've gotten used to it over time. The DVD only holds one disc, but you only watch one at a time, so that's not an issue. I use my stereo to play CD-R, so that's not an issue for me either. Some people complain about the disc spinning noise when playing a movie, but if the volume is that low, you can't possibly be enjoying the movie. I barely hear spinning noises. Had no trouble playing all kinds of DVD.

I'm very impressed!! An excellent product. Anyone considering to get a DVD for a first time, look into this system.

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My first DVD player

component outs

my sd-1600 is unable to play any CD-R's ( some people are lucky enough theirs play flawless)

My girlfriend and her parents bought me this dvd for christmas. So far the only gripes i have with it is that it will not play any of my recorded audio cd's. It will however play regular cd's. The thing I like about the toshiba is the excellent video and audio quality. I have mine hooked up to my 27" Panasonic TV via the component inputs. All I can say is WOW! The quality is SUPERB!!!

I have rented about 20 movies from blockbuster since I got this player and all of them play flawlessly, yes that includes "Art of War." If you are looking for a great buy, get this player. it's worth it even if it does not play any of my cdr's.

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sigma degisns' H+ - connected to TV via s-video, audio as PCM/BISTREAM to my DTS receiver.

EXCELLENT picture quality. Played Shaft and Matrix and WOOOW!! It was like sitting in a theatre. Sound is awesome. Have it hooked to a Denon Avr 1400 with two JBL speakers. I can only tell you that my toshiba is a quality built unit with all of the features an entry level person can have. Zoom feature is great along with the black level enhancement. Other people say that they hear spinning noises. I haven't heard any noises coming from mine.

Remote is a bit confusing. Guess I need to get used to it. Also, hard to use in the dark.

Listen, do yourself a favor and purchase the toshiba. You'll be amazed at what this unit will do. Its a FANTASTIC DVD PLAYER.

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Panasonic RV30

Tremendous value for the money.

Doesn't pass 24/96 digital signal.

For anyone thinking about getting a new dvd
player, I strongly recommend this machine. I was
an early adopter to dvd. I bought Marantz's 1st
player in fall of '97 for $699.I was looking for
a player that would ouput component video. The
Toshiba smokes the Marantz for less than a third
of the price. Build quality is ok, better than I
thought. Picture quality is fabulous. It enables
you to set the black level on your display to
reference standard. The digital signal that is
ouput is quite good.For a single disc player,
I've read that this player may be the best sub
$1000 out there. For playing dvds, this is the
solution.

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Marantz 810

price to value ratio
Svideo and component video outputs
parallel video and audio output
small dimensions
Zoom

no optical audio output
manual says it cannot handle CD-Rs/CD-RWs
minor menu navigation and playing problems (see below)

About 5-6 months ago, I decided to set up an entry level home theater and needed an entry level dvd player. My rules for when I'd finally break down and get a dvd player were as follows:

- Decent entry level players could be bought for <= $200.
- Our local video rental store would have to start renting DVDs.

So, when these conditions were finally met, I decided to go get one. At the time, the only player that really met condition #1 was the Toshiba SD-1600. Now, 6 months later, there are a number of players from established companies (Pioneer, Sony) that are selling players under $200. When I first set up the SD-1600, I decided to get an entry level receiver (Pioneer VSX-D309) and surround sound speakers (Sony SA-VE315 package) that fit within my budget and my wife's interior design tastes - which meant that they had to be small. I stuck with my 4 year old Sharp 25 inch tv even though it had less than acceptable resolution capabilities. For playing discs, I have had almost no problems to report. We have rented probably about 40-50 discs and only one has not played (Free Enterprise - anyone else had this work on their SD-1600, I've be interested to know if you had and if perhaps it was just this one particular disc). The only other playing problem was with Army of Darkness - at the point where they are about to throw Bruce Campbell into the pit, the picture began pixellating heavily and slowing down to an eventual stop. I fast forwarded and ended up determining that it was about a 5 second slice of the movie that was not playable. I've also experienced the reported menu navigation problems with the Avia disc but the subtitle workaround fixes that problem.

As for other features, I particularly like the Zoom for zooming on on small text or other things in the picture. Who would have known that Mr. Potter has a strange skull shaped artifact on his desk in It's a Wonderful Life. Thank you DVD and zoom :-) Unlike others, I do not use zoom to somehow do my own pan and scan with letterbox images but I like it nonetheless.

Although I list the inability to not play CD-Rs and CD-RWs as a weakness, it is not currently a problem for me since I have no need for that. If this is an absolute must for you, then you may want to consider looking at the Pioneer DV-333/343 models.

Although the player does make some noise, it is still quiet compared to my Sharp VCR and this has not been a problem during viewing. Layer changes have been slightly noticeable but they also don't bother me during viewing.

My final comment has to with component inputs. I finally upgraded my mom's tv by giving her my Sharp and buying a new Toshiba 27 inch 27A40 for myself (the improvement in resolution for dvds was very noticeable - no more flickering credits). I finally got a chance to try out the component inputs (as well as Svideo for that matter). My experience with the component inputs is mixed. The Toshiba tv seems to have a slight bias/push toward green which is not annoying during regular cable tv viewing but when we watch a movie via the component inputs, all colors seem to be increased in saturation levels about 10-15 percent with green being the most "pushed". This does not occur with Svideo. Anyhow, watching movies via component inputs has becoming annoying since this "green" problem is something my eyes have glued in on. For now, we're using the Svideo output/input. I wanted to mention this since I do not know why the component inputs would have such a large increase in overall color saturation/intensity levels and if this is a feature/problem with the Toshiba DVD player or the TV. I'm suspecting it's the tv but I have no other component inputted tv to try the same experiments on. If anyone else has had similar experiences with Toshiba DVD players and/or tvs, I'd be interested to hear. For now, I'm not going to mark this against this DVD player.

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None

Clarity of picture and ease of use!
I have this big old RCA ColorTrak 2000 which has had a mediocre picture at best with my digital cable throughput, but luckily has a bunch of audio & video input/output.
I plugged the video/audio cable into the DVD and TV, switched the TV to AUX1, popped in The Whole 9 Yards (somebody shoulda warned me about this pile of poop), and up popped a super clear, crips picture.
After fiddling around with the setup a bit (didn't read the directions), I came across this feature that allowed me to adjust the black levels of the picture (Standard or Enhanced). I changed it to Enhanced and the picture got even better! I'm hooked. I'm not going back. This inexpensive Toshiba SD-1600 is king of the DVD court.

None found yet. I think the remote is fine if you don't need all of the bells and whistles.

I've used DVDs sparingly in my computer over the past few years with only mixed results and mediocre quality reports. That kept me from making the leap into the DVD realm.
So, I started small. The Toshiba is nice because it has the outputs for DTS receivers, which allows me to build up a home theater system around my budget DVD player.
I also like the fact that it's easy to use. When I first turned on the DVD player, some text kept scrolling across the player telling me to read the manual. It went away once I popped in a DVD, but it was a nice touch, especially for those of us who never read the manual. I actually reached over for it when the DVD player told me to, but remembered who was in control by the time I actually got there.

The clarity of the picture is what's really astounding. I suppose this could be like giving good German chocolate to someone who's had nothing but Nestle's Quik all his life, but I really do appreciate the difference in quality.
My VCR, although still plugged into my TV, is now the ugly step-sister. It's relegated to training videos only now.

Even though I only had The Whole 9 Yards as my test subject, I noticed how bright the image was compared to the movie theater. I've heard how the movie theaters like to turn down the bulbs to preserve their longevity, but I had no idea the difference it made. My VCR never really even made up the difference. Now, I'm looking forward to watching some of those innately dark movies like Batman (the first one, don't talk to me about the others) and the high-contrast movies like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, just to see them as the director and cinemetrographer intended.

Speaking as an audio/video neophyte, I think this DVD player is a great leap into the realm of high-quality, widescreen movie viewing. For those of us who really love the movies, take the leap. Dump the VCR and spend the $200 to get a DVD player. Blockbuster and Hollywood Video both have decent selections of DVDs now, so the excuses are getting thin.

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Just VCRs up to this point.

sharp picture(even on old tvs, Clear sound plays any rental dvd

remote

This is my first dvd player. When I poped in the first dvd and hit play I was amazed. The sound was clear and the picture was awesome! My CDs sounded great! This is a great dvd player. I didn't know my yamaha reciever would sound so good! The dts sound coundn't be beat. I highly reccomed this dvd player to anyone who is looking for a cheap dvd player for a great price.

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none

Excellent for the price

Remote

I picked up the SD1600 a couple of weeks ago. It's hooked to a middle of the road Denon/B&W/Panasonic system. I wanted something cheap and the only other decent player available is the Panasonic ??30. However, the lack of coaxil connections on the Panasonic and the additional $50 the Toshiba was the best deal. I have watched a number the titles already. Only had a hiccup on Gone In 60 Seconds, where it paused for a second. Other than that it has been awesome. It played Matrix, Gladiator, Patriot... with no problems at all. Nothing fancy just a good cheap player. As far as bang for the buck it is the best deal in town.