I am very satisfied with this player... I originally had it hooked up to a TV that only had component video, and the picture was quite good and the sound was excellent in 5.1 mode. I recently picked up a cheap Samsung 25" TV (I'm not rich) which has S-Video input for $249. I am even more pleased with the dvd player now. The picture is quite excellent. I have tried about 15 movies so far and all have played very well. I am also very happy with the HDCD features on this unit (try Beck's Mutations CD or 311's transistor (not the best album but sounds great in hdcd) to see what I mean).
Would not hesitate to recommend this product to anyone but as dvd is a rather new technology it might not be a bad idea to pick up the extended warranty.

I'm interested in Toshiba SD3109, I'm greatly appreciate it if anyone can tell me where I can get the best price. The lowest price I read from here is $284 include shipping. Thanks a lot.

I went to Best Buy and tested different kinds of dvd players and the only one that struck me is this Toshiba 3109. I tested with DVDs, VCDs, and CDRs. The only drawback is it could not recognized CDR. I used Hi-Val CDR with 4x recording.
Have anyone used a different media and it works ? This is the only obsticle I have before buying this piece of beauty...++++

About three weeks ago, on 7/9/99, I reported a opticalsensor problem, which my SD-3109 couldn't detect any disks
and prompt with INSERT DISK even after I insert CD/DVD. I sent
my player for repair, the defective part was replaced and everything
seems all right. But only after 3 weeks, this exact same problem
occured to my SD3109 again, and I have to sent back for repair again.
I owned this palyer for only three and half months, and I have
to send it back for repair with the same problem TWICE. I don't
believe it is only my bad luck. I think the optical sensor must be
defective in manufacture/design.
This time I give it two stars because of this problem

Bought Toshiba SD-3109. Right out of the box it would not read any DVDs. Two stars for it's promises and decoder. No stars for performance. Maybe will try Sony....I'm a little worried about another Toshiba failure.

I spent 4 or 5 hours trying to get this thing to play. It kept giving me a "loading" message. "disc error" on a normal cd. remote was very non-responsive. It takes over 15 seconds to get the disc to eject. this is disappointing. I will send back for a refund and look for something else hopefully of better quality. good luck to those of you who have the unit working well out of the box, hope it holds up.

Well, it appears from other postings I'm not the only one having problems with this player. Today, after 2 months of ownership, I had to take it in for repair because it fails to detect and play discs, instead displaying the message "Insert Disc" after a disc has been loaded.

I haven't had any problems with my Toshiba 3109 yet. So far, it's been a great player.
Question for those reporting the problems with discs not being recognized - are you using the 3019 for DVDs, CDs & HDCDs or just for DVDs? I realize the player is supposed to play all 3 with no problems. I'm just curious if the problem happens due to the way the player handles CDs or HDCDs (I've heard rumors about the 3109 making a clicking sound when playing HDCDs so I only use my Mega CD changer now for all my music CDs - especially since half of my CDs are CDRs).

I hope I don't have the problems the last few posts reported. Based on my experience (and based on reviews of other players in this price range - namely the Sony's lip sync problems), this player still earns five stars from me.

I purchased this unit from Ubid for $291 + shipping two weeks ago. Have watched 5 dvd movies. Excellent picture quality. Haven't experienced any problems so far. I would consider the $291 well spent. 5 star for Toshiba SD-3109.

I got a 3109 shipped from a friend who works in Best Buy, Altamonte Springs, Fl. At the time I was a bit apprehensive as I didn't know anything about the player. That was in May... After a 2 month "burn in" period, I can safely say that this was $314 well spent. Picture and sound are really quite brilliant, even on a mainly PAL tv, with realistic colour and no artefacting; s-video performance is excellent. The component output would be the ideal connection, but tv's here do not afford that luxury. I managed to do a "head-to-head" test today with a Pioneer DV-05 Elite (THX Ultra) player on a Toshiba 55" back-projection set and Yamaha 1092 DD amp. Both myself and the DV-05 owner could not tell the difference. In fact, he was quite taken with the menu system on the Tosh, wishing the one on the Pioneer was "as good". It even sold my wife on a Dolby Digital amp. Discs used for testing were Lost In Space, A Bug's Life and Austin Powers. Lip-synch problems were clearly visible on the Lost In Space & Austin Powers discs on the Pioneer, but were not in evidence on the 3109. Not bad for a machine over half the price of the DV-05.Forget about all the gimmicks offered by other machines. DVD is about movies and as far as I'm concerned, you'd be hard pressed to find one as capable of producing as high quality pictures and sound in the same price range. This player will be released in Europe next month, and the black level enhancement will only be available on NTSC-capable tv's. The price - $750.00. I have no hesitation in awarding 5 stars.