sound, picture and knock on wood error free playback.

switching audio outputs for dvd audio.

Over the past year this has given me no trouble. The chomabug i have not had issues with. No svcd sucks but soon to have dvd burner in the future so no matter. Have never played mp3s on it. Dvd audio sounds awsome although when i forget to change to 5.1 out and get mad that a new dvd a sounds bad at first listen is a bummer. However when i remember and give it the real juice and hear it how it is supposed to be . how nice it is.

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none

Beautiful picture. Color saturation.

Chroma bug is absolutely, completely unacceptable.

I'm reading many favorable reviews, but let me offer up this warning: the chroma bug mentioned in a previous review is not something that can be ignored once you've noticed it. If you have a progressive scan display, for example I have a 37" Panasonic Plasma @ 853x480 res., this problem will be noticeable and irritating to the point of distraction. I first noticed the bug while watching FLCL. FLCL is a beautiful disc, and the Toshiba serves up wonderfully saturated colors and an otherwise gorgeous picture. But notice once, notice always...during particular scenes (read the following articles for details and pictures: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.html) horizontal lines appear. For example, in FLCL episode 1, the lines are most obvious when the disc is loaded and the production company logo appears and during the final bridge scene. In FLCL episode 2, the lines can be seen approx. 15 seconds into the episode as the scene cuts to a white background with gray feathers falling. There are numerous other instances which are far more distracting because of their brevity ("did you see that? did it do it again?!"). I point these examples out as these were the images I used to diagnose the problem. Read about this problem before buying. There are plenty of other players available that have solved this problem. NOTE: I cannot speak of the 2003 model, and am not aware of any Toshiba fixes. Regarding other players: I popped FLCL into my girlfriends Wal-Mart panasonic player, for which she had previously received much grief, and whallah! no chroma bug. Admittedly, the colors were not as vivid, and the picture not as pretty, but the fly in the ointment properly removed.

VIDEO AND AUDIO PERFORMANCE

TRANSPORT NOISY IN OPENING AND CLOSING

NO PROBLEMS.VERY-VERY PLEASED WITH VIDEO QUALITY.EXCEPTIONAL AUDIOPHILE SOUND QUALITY.TO PROVE THIS,I SYNCHRONIZED AND COMPARED HIGH END ORIGINAL 2 TRACK TAPES IN MY COLLECTION WITH HDCD NEW RELEASES OF THESE MASTER TAPES AND THE HDCD'S SOUND CLEARER,TRANSPARENT HIGH END AND SOLID CRISP BASS.EVEN MY OLDER CD'S SOUND BETTER ON THIS TRANSPORT.FULLY RECOMMEND!!

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SONY 5 DISC PLAYER AND TOP-OF-THE-LINE SONY SINGLE DISC AUDIOPHILE PLAYER

An excellent picture, and sound to match - well, at least with regards to DVD Video.

CD quality isn't as good as my Arcam 8SE; quite a difference in price, however! Technical problems with the unit haven't allowed me the time to experience all of it's features!

A rather mixed review of this unit follows; I have had the Toshiba for a year and a half and, being as I am quite busy with work and the rearing of a child, don't have much opportunity to sit down to watch movies. The unit was purchased for just that reason, and I am happy to say that when the machine is working, I fully enjoy the quality of sound and picture. So, herein lies the problem - the unit doesn't seem to want to work for more than 5 or 6 playings at a time. It has already been in for service (just beat the end of the warranty period)and after I picked up the unit, it only played a few more movies, before locking up again! The problem is that the drawer won't open once the DVD is in, and the unit says to put in a disc! Argh; if only I could get the drawer open again! Needless to say, I can't rank this unit too high, as the frustration factor has truly reduced my pleasure factor with this unit!

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This is my first DVD player; I may be in the market for another one, soon.

Good picture and 5.1/DTS sound quality. DVDA and HDCD are nice 'high end' features. Plays a wide range of discs.

MP3 playback had an odd background noise on many songs (at least w/the one cdr I tried out).

I held out for a long time before buying a dvd player, because I wanted the most features for the money. I'd say this unit definitely wins that title. Will play most any disc you throw in it. I've played CDR mp3's, CDRW's, CDR Video CD's - all played fine. Haven't tried DVDR yet, but I've read it will play certain types. DVD picture and sound quality are very good. DVD-A sounds good (better than cd anyway), but lack of bass management is annoying. Having to go into the setup menu to switch to 6 ch analog out for DVDA is annoying, but I only own 1 DVDA disc right now, so not a big deal for me. MP3 sound quality varies by song and bitrate, but is decent. I did hear an odd sort of background noise on many of the MP3's I listened to. Not sure what that was. I would say cd sound quality is not as good as my old Denon cd player, but its not bad, and is probably as good as any average stand alone cd player. HDCD decoder is a nice feature as more and more HDCD's are being produced. I'm giving a value rating of 5, because there is no other player at this time for the money I paid that can touch it. My dream unit is the Denon 4800, but its still way too expensive. The Toshiba originally retailed for $399 - I paid about $190 (incl.ship). I'm giving an overall rating of 4, because for their original asking price, I would expect a little better MP3 and cd playback quality.

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None.

Excellent picture quality, excellent bang for the buck.

I was deciding between this and the Panasonic RP-56, both these were considered really good for the money but boy am I glad that I bought the Toshiba (which was more expensive). The picture quality on my Panasonic Tau and a Monster component cable is amazing. I can't wait until I buy a Plasma or Tau/Wega HD ready set. I haven't even utilized the Prog Scan yet. As for the lag when switching from different layers, I haven't seen to many DVD players that avoid this and the lag is what I would call a very minor irritation, especially when the DVD movie explains that this will likely happen on the box cover. As for the remote that some people complain about. I think the remote is a design winner with all of the buttons easy to find unlike most other where the buttons are small, hard to read, and impossible to find in the millions of buttons that they cram onto the unit. You cannot get more bang for your buck. Having previously been employed at a DVD authoring firm, where a Samsung, Sony and JVC and Toshiba products were used for testing I've seen a number of units there and at friend's of mine. I would buy this unit over all the new units Toshiba came out with since and all of the Panasonics with the exception of the RP91.

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Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, JVC

Great video in progressive mode. Ability to fine-tune the image quality. Built in dolby 5.1 decoder. Very reasonable cost.

Horrible manual. My god, it is just BAD! It is difficult to find any of the features that I am interested in. I had to go through the manual page by page and flag all of the features that I am interest in. It doesn't even have an index. The remote is very poor. It is difficult to navigate the setup menus. Also, some of the setup features are not available through the setup menu. You have to use this NAVI feature to get to them.

I recently acquired an HD television set and have been watching movies on my old Toshiba SD1600 dvd player (through component video output). I could readily make out "stair steps" on diagonal lines (roof tops, Gandalf's hat in LOTR, etc...) with the old SD1600. I purchased the SD5700 because of its progressive scan capabilities. I must say that I am very impressed with the video quality of the SD5700. On my new television, the progressive scan makes a huge difference. I am very glad I spent the money. As a little experiment, I hooked the SD5700 and the SD1600 to my televion through S-video cables. I did not see any improvement of the SD5700 over the SD1600. As an extra bonus, I found that the SD5700 has the 5.1 dolby decoder built in. I pulled a couple of old amps and speakers out of the basement and hooked up the dolby 5.1 surround sound. It sounds fantastic (although the three separate volume controls are a bit clumbsy). The SD5700 has a tuning feature that sends out white noise through all of your channels and allows you to balance the volume. Basically, I have a very nice sounding surround sound "system" for no additional cost thanks to the SD5700. This certainly seems to be a fantastic unit for the money. Best $200 I ever spent on a piece of audio/video equipment.

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Samsung (absolutely the worst piece of crap electronics I have ever owned). Toshiba SD1600 - Very solid little unit. Good image on standard resolution television.

Cost

MP3 Quality

This is a really good player for the money. The only thing that I'm not happy with is the MP3 quality on this product. I listen to a lot of MP3s on a lot of different products. I usually use 128 bit files. On the SD5700, most MP3s sounds very hollow with no punch. These exact same MP3s sound great on my computer and my portable MP3 player. And if I take the exact same MP3 and convert it to a standard CD audio file it sounds great on the SD5700. And if I plug my portable MP3 player into my home stereo system the exact same MP3 sounds great. Anyone else have this problem?

Good Build Quality Excellent Picture and Sound Quality Low Price (Paid $217 Including shipping)

DVD-A Output requires switch to 5.1 Analog output mode. This defaults to Prologic for non-DVD-A (i.e. Normal CD's)

The 5700 is an extremely good value for the money. I don't know of another player that has all the features for this low price. The picture quality is excellent (non-HDTV). It also has a great deal of flexibility in picture setup. I have tried DTS, DD5.1, DVD-A (24/96k), CD's and HDCD's. I find the sound quality to be pretty good. I have compared the 2CH Analog out to the 2CH Digital (DAC on my Receiver, NAD T751) and I can hear subtle differences, but nothing I can really attribute to one being better than the other. I have also compared the 2CH to the Sony XA1ES. Again I couldn't hear any 'real' differences. I opened it up to take a look under the hood. The build quality looks very good, and the boards are laid out very well. The video processing is handled by the Zoran Vaddis V chip (http://www.zoran.com/products/dvd/vaddis5.asp). The DAC's are Analog Devices 1833's (http://products.analog.com/products/info.asp?product=AD1833). There no electrolytics, ceramics etc in the output signal path. Others have brought up the annoying switch required from DVD-A (analog outputs) to the Digital Outputs. One additional 'feature' is that if the analog ouptuts (internal decoders) are selected and you play a CD (2 CH sources), the analog outputs switch to Pro-Logic. There is no way of turning this off... I did find that their tech support was pretty prompt. I emailed them a question and received a very detailed response in a day or two.

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Various Panasonic

Remote functions are better than the past Toshiba players.

None

Great Picture, versitile Zoom function, fast chapter changes, ability to customize picture (Color, tint, contrast, ets). Be aware that buying a Progressive DVD player may not yield a noticibly better picture than what you already have with your standard DVD player!! I have a Sony 61HS30 that used it's own Progressive output when watching DVDs. I expected a more High Definition viewing, but the picture is just a bit better that the 3109...The picture quality is breath taking with both Toshiba products!

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Toshibe 3109