Price Paid:  $319.00 from onecall.com

Summary:
AWESOME PICTURE IN PROGRESSIVE SCAN MODE ON A HIGH DEF-TV!!! I got this player for Christmas last year and am very happy with it. I wanted to find an inexpensive progressive scan player to use with my new toshiba 42h81 high def tv. It worked great but i always wanted to upgrade it, thinking there were much better players out there. So, recently, i picked-up a new toshiba sd-3800 thinking it would have a better picture...it didn't...after extensive picture adjustments, it was still pixelated and too contrasty...returned it to bestbuy. So then i bought the new denon dvd900. This one had to be better, right? It's newer, it has a faroudja de-interlacer just like my phillips, and it's a denon. Wrong again...this one looked better, but not as sharp as my phillips. So i hooked up the old phillips again and will be returning the denon after work today. Don't think i wrote this review to bash toshiba or denon in any way...i have been a toshiba fan since the dawn of dvd. I have one of the first toshiba dvd players produced (SD-3006) and love it, but it's not progressive scan. I let my cousin borrow it and he still uses it regularly. Toshiba players are great for glass tube tv's but not for high def projection tv's. I'm sure there are better players out there, but i'll probably have to spend a grand to find one. Not a good idea, now with the new blue laser dvd technology right around the corner. Christmas is coming again and i'm looking foreward to getting some new dvd's to watch on my old phillips. The 2 dvd's used for testing were: Star Wars II attack of the clones, and of course, LOTR The fellowship of the ring. Current bedroom system: TV: Toshiba 42H81 DVD: Philips DVD972CH AMP: NAD C340 Integrated CD: NAD 523 INTERCONNECTS: ALL Video: Monster Silver series ALL Audio: Tara Labs Prism 22 Note: Newer doesn't always mean better

Strengths:
-progressive scan picture: very detailed, smooth and lifelike. -faroudja de-interlacer -12-bit video DAC, most only have a 10-bit

Weaknesses:
-audio is a little subdued, you may not even notice... -slow opening, changing disks, but who cares...the picture is worth the wait...

Similar Products Used:
mostly toshiba's (3006,1600,3800) and a denon dvd 900

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Good Guys

Summary:
Very good DVD player and CD player. Has a very good picture... and plays scratched cdr''s well..a must in my case!

Strengths:
MP3, 5 disc changer, progressive scan, cdr/w player, nice blue display..also has 5.1 audio setup...every connection possible, and the picture is very good

Weaknesses:
This thing is slow! Slow turn on..disc change...everything is slow with this unit

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 1200 much faster response..but not as good a picture

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Good Guys

Summary:
Strenghts:
Feature Packed Unit, 5 Disks tray, Progressive Scan, MP3 playback, has many different hookup configurations that you would ever need and cool looking. I bought mine in Aug 2001 and by the time I wrote this review the price had not changed on this unit (I am an aggressive price hunter). So I feel I got a pretty good deal, and I feel it's a good value for all the features that you get.

Weakness:
1) The units’ physical size (It's a little big, but which is probably a standard size for now). 2) Very slow disk changing (removing disks from unit & switching between disks in the tray). 3) Remote Control!! The engineers that designed the remote must not of have done any homework the night before designing this lovely piece of hand art!

Similar Products Used:
Friend has the Philips Home Theatre System (which sounds and works great) that we hooked up and guess what, the same engineers that designed my DVD remote designed the Home Theatre Remote to!