After reading the reviews here, and the cool deal 800.com was having (10% off, $75 for DVDs, free shipping), plus the 15 free rentals and 5 free DVDs from Toshiba, how could I not get the SD-3109? This is my first DVD player and I very impressed with it. No artifacts popped up on any of the movies I have watched, and the audio is outstanding. CD's sound great as well, although I have not used any HDCDs yet. I also did not run across any of the pause problems (flickering, etc) that some people have mentioned in reviews here. The two trays are great, I don't have to change disks as often. As for the remote, it seems like every piece of equipment that I have gets slammed for having an awful remote, so my feelings are - you have it, you learn it, you live with it. If you want a 'great remote', go and buy one of those programmable ones that cost $150+ with the LCD touch screens. Also, I am not one of those people who can hear the subtle differences in cable type, etc. - just your average everyday user who put a system together with the help of this site. I am quite happy with the way everything turned out, and I can't complain one bit.

I have had the SD-3109 for about a month now, have a limited supply of new DVD's but have to give this unit the big thumbs up. Haven't had a problem with it, no lip sync probs and the layer changes are so smooth in transition that it would seem like a mastering problem. If you blinked, you'd miss it.
As for music CD's, it does the job as good or better than my dedicated cd player. Apparently the remote sucks but the company I bought it from accidently packed it with the remote for a SD-3108. This remote is good other than it doesn't have the disc change feature on it. (I have got a Marantz Uni remote that I use now however).

The unit isn't perfect as I like having the dual disc available but the way Toshiba engineered the "one tray does it all", I am not sure if I like that. Its a bit on the noisy side when changing and if your into a "heavy" feel for your components, this isn't for you. It's as light as a feather.

The jack pack is great. Comes with component video out (my TV has the "In"), 2 ch stereo outs, coaxial and optical digital outs and a 5.1 outs. Terminator 2 was phenomenal. I highly recommend it.

I was originally looking at Pana's A310 or Pioneer's DV 606 but when this 4th gen unit has HDCD capability, dual tray and was $200 (CDN$$) less expensive, it was a no brainer. I toyed with Pioneer's DV414 and the SD-3108 but then went for this. I got it for $650 (CDN) or about $425 US$$

It's not perfect but its better than 4 stars and they don't have a 4.5 (as that's what I'd give it) so its gets 5 stars.

Todd

I love this UNIT, I got it from ONECALL for 332 plus shipping to Canada which was another 30 bucks, not bad.. I got the rebate for the 5 FREE MOVIES, but on the back it said it was valid only in the STATES. Can anyone confirm this? Is there any way I can get this movies ?

OK , I just got my hands on this baby, after having watched a few movies on it. I have a couple of problems with it. Previously I have had the misfortune of owning the Panasonic A120, with which I have had terrible pixelization problems. However the image quality, when working was much better than this Toshiba. I found that when watching The Truman Show via my SVGA cable. I experienced extreme screen shaking near the top of the letter box cut off during most of the bright `white' background scenes. I find that the whites are too smudgey and `lively' on this unit, and sometimes cause that `shaking effect' I do not know if this is the fault of the player, or just the way things are. I do however remember that the PANASONIC did not have this problem. Should I have my unit exchanged?

Please, if anyone has any information regarding this, i would appreciate a comment.

I just received this unit on Saturday and set it up easily. Loaded DVD and ran the machine, the picture quality is very good and clear. I have a 35 inch Toshiba TV 4:3 and the letterbox dvd played fine. what's good is the zoom where you can take it 1 level up so you dont loose much of the widescreen picture.

The only downside I find is that i have audio cd's backed up using cdr's and they did not play, "disc error message" The same with cdr VCD's

You try and find a DVD player with as many features for this price: DTS, DD, HDCD, Gold plated connectors, RGB video out, dual trays, 4 generation head. You can't. The remote is the weakest link, but if you have a good HT system you should have a good remote as well. Plus I got this thing for 300 with 10 free DVD's and a ton of free rentals.
PS: The unit has trouble with CDR's, rumor is that the higher quality blues work fine. I have not tested this out.

I'm on my 2nd 3109 unit. The first one lasted about 2 weeks. While playing a CD (an HDCD by the way) the unit gave a few seconds of garbled output, as if it had hit a bad spot on the disc. It recovered, and completed the disc. I attributed this to a smudge or finger print on the disc, as it was new. After that, the 3109 would give me disc errors on any CDs I attempted to play. It continued to play DVDs fine, recognizing them immediately upon insertion.
CDs gave the "loading" indicator on screen & you could hear the machine spin the disc, attempting to read the data. Eventually, a check disc message came on the display. In my opinion, the failure cost this unit a speaker.

I left the unit unplugged overnight, hoping that it just had a "brain cramp"and would heal itself. No luck. I was within my 30 day return period from my retailer, so packed that puppy up in the box and exchanged the unit. The replacement seems to work fine (still on the first test disc).

I hope this is not a sign of quality problems coming down the line on this model. I had played about 6 DVDs and 10 CDs on the old machine before it quit.

As I understand these machines, they use a single laser for both CDs and DVDs, using some type of focusing for the different media. I'm guessing the CD focus went bad or the HDCD decoder bit the dust, taking the CD read ability with it.

I really enjoy this machine, so here's hoping I just got a bad one out of the pile.

I purchased my unit at H.H. Gregg for $349, including 15 free rentals, 5 free DVD's, and $10 DVD coupon.My unit has performed flawlessly the 3 weeks I have had it so far. By far I am pleased with my purchase so far. It's far better than any of the other units I have demoed.

The first DVD I tried was "Video Essentials" to set up my video system to ISF standards http://www.videoessentials.com/ (this will eliminate most any problems that most have with shaky bright whites and other artifacts). I then tried Desperado, and others as I got them in the mail. I am using a Toshiba 36" cinema series flat screen TV with Componet Video inputs. Component video has such a high signal quality over S-VHS. It makes the DVD experience the one and only format I'll watch till something better comes out.

Audio output for standard CD's is about the same as any mass produced unit, but the greatest bargin from this box is HDCD compatibility. My "Stabbing Westward" HDCD sounded better in HDCD in the SD-3109 than in my 16 bit CD transport. I can't wait for DVD audio disk! Audio CDR's were not a problem, I used Philips Audio CDR's and Sony's Audio CDR's. Duno if it is the disk or the way they are burned that allows the player to read it. Dolby Digital output from this unit great, but the way to go is with DTS. DTS is by far a superior format, and the SD-3109 makes the most of it. In DTS, the Dragonheart DVD where the dragon is flying around the slayer is litteraly portrayed in the DTS format. I was looking around my room for the dragon! DTS's 6 discrete channels of highly sampled audio just blows away DD AC-3's bit-pooled bandwidth limited channels.

The remote on the SD-3109 does exactly what it is supposed to do, except it would be nice if it was back-lit. I have the remote from the SD-3108 on the way which is bak-lit, and has a functional jog-shuttle wheel. When a good multi-remote comes out that can literally control everything, with out having to replace batteries once a month, I'll get it.

I've had this player a little over a week, and I can say that I'm truely impressed! The picture is better than almost everything I've ever seen. I've been intresteed in dvd from the beginning, and I've check out a lot of players. I was concerned about the Toshiba's at 1st because they had many glitches in the beginning. Obviously, Toshiba has got their act together.
This is one great player! Video is wonderful, sound on dvd is excellent, 2 trays is very nice, and HDCD is awsome. But as with all things in life there is room for improvement. The remote sucks! On cd sound its not up to par with players in $500.00 class, that is unless your listening to HDCD. But what can we expect? This unit was ment to play dvd's 1st, and it doesn't get much better than this unless you spend 3 times the price. Then I'd really have to question if your getting getting your moneys worth. Besides,cd's are just an after thought of the dvd format.

The search is over, Toshiba SD-3109 is where its at. Go get yourself one.

Just purchased the 3109 and have mixed feelings about it. The downconversion leaves a lot to be desired. I watched Babe Pig in the City and noticed some waving distorted lines. I also noticed this more extensively on Rush Hour, for example, there is a scene where straight stripes on an static airplane look like a sine wave. Plain non-widescreen enhanced discs are great, sharp, good color, nice saturation. Sound is also good, but the wavering lines are really distracting. Would get the sony but don't like the reports of lip sync problems and besides I had horrible luck with sony tvs. I had a run in with 2 defective units (Best Buy is evil!), so am wary even if they say a fix has been implemented.