Great Price

Long 'spin-up' times for Audio CDs

I bought the Toshiba 2109 at A&B Sound here in vancouver for $299 Can.. It was the only one and it was a return from another customer. I came home and before I even hooked it up I checked this site.
The picture quality is great! Even on my old 21" Hitatchi. The zoom feature is super for watching 'widescreen only' movies, like the Matrix on my tiny TV. I haven't noticed any artifacting or any pauses with movies like the Mummy or Matrix. My brother has the previous model and it pauses halfway through both those movies. I did notice some lip-sync problems in The Red Violin. I'm not sure if it was the movie or the player.
I wish the player didn't take so long to spin up when you put an audio CD. It'd also be nice if it played CDRs. The only player that does in this price range is the Zenith. Overall I'm really happy with it.

PS: In case you haven't figured it out yet, the remote sucks.

Name recognition, plus price:value

Zoom great but "Zoom" display stays on the screen when in use.

I picked this up from Ubid.com auction for $220 (including S&H)brandnew. Consider the following: I get 13 free rentals from Blockbuster (currently charging $3.69 for 2 nights), plus 5 rent-2-for-price-of-1 at Hollywood Video (currently charging $3.50+tax for 5 nights), and finally 15 free rentals from Netflix.com (but you have only 30 days in which to redeem all 15 before the deal expires, keep DVD's for 7 days, then return by free mail). Essentially, that's more than $100 worth of free rentals, making the price of this machine cheaper than cheap VCR's.
I have played about 10 movies so far and it works excellent -- an incredible quality upgrade from VHS. I am still trying all the various functions this device offers. The zoom feature is very cool, plus the freeze frame photo pause: Hollywood will certainly be forced to make sure even the smallest clues written on notes are accurate becuase everything is so easily read. As one other critic pointe out, the zoom addition is useful for watching wide scree movies (if you don't like them) by zooming once or twice and fill the whole screen. However, the one flaw that Toshiba has made is letting the "zoom" graphic displayed onscreen vanish. If you want to watch in zoom then you have to put up with the small "zoom" print in the lower right corner. Also, I have the set connected using Monster Cable S-Video2 cable and the sound using Acoustic Research Pro series audio cables (I compared this with Monster Interlink400 and did'nt hear any difference -- even cranked; much cheaper too). Currently the DVD is going through Dolby Pro Logic, but I'm looking for a new Dolby Digital/DTS reciever to add along with my DishNetwork DDS 4000 reciever (which too will have a Dolby D adapter added through the high speed port).
Bottom line: the Toshiba 2109 is excellent and with the name, I expect to get a lot out of it. By the way, Sony has by far the worst customer service department in the world. I and a rep from the California Consumer Protection Agency will never buy Sony products again, just becuase of their service.

picture clarity

horrible remote

I've had this unit for 2 weeks, and I love the quality. There has only been two glitches, both when I played Psycho(1960) tonight. When zooming in on one scene, the zoom feature didn't stay centered. It dropped down each time until on zoom 3 , you had half a black screen, and half the tops of peoples heads. I stopped the disc, and restarted it and it worked perfectly after that. Also, the unit beeped by without using the remote. These glitches only happened once, and are extremely minor. The complaints I've read about in regards to "terrible anamorphic downconversion" are overstated in my opinion. From what I understand, the artifacts associated with anamorphic downconversion, are reduced in some dvd players, by the use of a soft focus filter. It masks the artifacts by giving the picture a soft, hazy effect. Toshiba seems to go for definition and resolution, which hightens artifacts like shimmering and wavy lines. I've only noticed these artifacts in really "busy" scenes. Also, these artifacts are also noticeable in VHS movies. It doesn't bother me because I've been conditioned to seeing tweed jackets look like they are alive even while watching broadcast television! What I like about the player is dependability. It's never 'frozen up' or skipped a track, or paused on dual layer discs. I'm never worried it might no play a certain disc which I may buy or rent. I'll take the artifacts over possible reliability problems anyday!
I'm giving it 4 stars, instead of 5, because the remote is such a nuisance. The buttons are way too small and close together. It's easy to hit the wrong buttons in a darkened room. The previous models had a really nice remote, that's still used for the SD-3109. Toshiba cheapened the remote for this model, and almost everyone hates it!

price

doesn't play CD-R VCD

No good. Doesn't play VCD and CDR

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-70000

Great picture quality, low height

That darn remote!

Equipment used:

Denon AVR-1500 Dolby Surround Receiver
Polk RM-5000 Speakers, Polk Monitor Series 2 (for surrounds)
Pioneer SD-P5183 51" projection television
Other equipment, but isn't part of this review.

Picture quality is wonderful and found that I got dramatically better results using an Audioquest S-1 S-video 2-meter cable over cheapies. Color saturation was dramatically better, black levels were better (settings changes were much more noticeable as well), and overall picture clarity was substantially better. Compared to the composite video out, it was absolutely no contest when using equivalent cabling.

The only less than terrific picture on a movie was when playing the Alien 20th Anniversary Special Edition, the right half-inch of the picture was noticeably breaking up.
Since it doesn't occur on other DVDs, I believe it's far more likely to be a problem with the DVD itself.

CD and DVD audio quality is good using AQ Turquoise interconnects but doesn't come close to my Sony ES 80-series changer in CD playback performance. For $219 for the Toshiba versus $700 for the Sony, it's silly to compare output sections anyway. Connecting the digital output of the Toshiba to a Denon or Pioneer Elite DD Receiver would render the point moot since both brands have excellent on-board digital processing to rival the Sony ES player.

Now about that remote...After using it for two weeks, I'd gladly pay extra for a larger remote since my hands are large to begin with. I've given up and started using a #2 pencil's eraser end... It works well but the pencil gets lost between the couch cusions.

One oddity in using it so far is that the 2nd side of the Mummy Widescreen DVD that has the bonus features, the player suddenly stops recognizing it's remote. This problem repeated every time I put the 2nd side of the disk on first after power-up. Not a good thing considering all the control features you need can only be found on the remote. Otherwise it's operation has been flawless. Has anyone else had this eccentricity?

In all for the $219 dollar price (onsale.com), its audio and video performance is beyond reproach. Great product, Toshiba!

Similar Products Used:

None recently.

Unit would not load DVD's when taken out of box. Took it back for a SONY 530D, store said the Toshiba had a bad laser. Not my idea of quality control.

Picture Quality, Zoom function, Component Outputs

Remote is not back-lit

Picture quality is excellent. I don't have the lip-sync problems I had with the Panasonic. I hooked it up using the component output/input and I don't have the dot crawl you get with S video. The zoom function is a nice touch and the black level expander gives perfect blacks. I can't give this player a high enough rating, and it was a great value as well, I picked it up at my local Fred Meyer Store, one day special for $209.99.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic A120

Excellent Picture and price.

Remote

Best value for the price. Excellent picture quality and sound. Remote could have been better designed.

video quality, price

remote not backlit, ok build

Overall a great player for the money. Great picture quality, I preferred it over the Panasonic although I would have liked the Panasonic as I have a Panasonic TV. Wish the build was a little heavier. Got it from Sears of all places with a coupon for 259.00 shortly after it's release. Cant beat it for the price and free dvd's. The sony was also nice, I just couldn't find the same type of deal.

Similar Products Used:

panasonic's player in this price range

Picture, Multiple features, Overall quality

Difficult to use remote

I did a lot of research before choosing the 2109 and I'm glad I did. The freezing and dropout that cheaper brand owners complained about have not been a problem with this model. Very satisfied.