vibrant colours and very decent sound

loud motor, made in china (possible reliability issues?)

This is the first DVD player I've owned and I must say I am pleased with this unit. The picture is great displaying solid, absolutely vibrant colours even with the cheap rca cable it came with, and the sound is good too. I particularly like the enhanced picture modes that allow you to adjust picture darkness and contrast.

My only major complaint is the motor. It's loud and distracting and I find that this really takes you away from the immersive experience of watching a movie. I also found the laser to be very unforgiving in that it picks up even the most minor scratches on a dvd’s. The unit has a tendency to heat up after 2 hours of play time. It does take a while for a dvd to load up and the remote is somewhat confusing to use, however I find these two to be relatively minor complaints.

I was told that dvd players are excellent for playing CD's and that it is oftentimes better than your average dedicated CD player so I did a direct comparison. I found that the sound produced with the Toshiba unit made the music sound a somewhat livelier with an emphasis on the mids, however, it was not as detailed nor refined as the sound produced by my Yamaha cd player. Nonetheless, it was very close. By the way, does anyone know if it’s advisable to use the Toshiba unit as a primary CD player?

Overall, I give the Toshiba 2710 a 5 for value because it is so flexible but a 4 overall because of it's loud motor.

The following is the equipment I used for this review:
Sony 27" Trinitron TV
Yamaha rx-v393 amplifier
Yamaha cdx-390 cd player
Energy Take5 speakers w/s8.2 sub
Monster audio cables
Standard RCA video cable supplied by Toshiba

Similar Products Used:

first dvd player

good picture quality/good sound/remote easy to use/good price.

it skips, it freezes, and the dvd stops playing.

I would not recommend this dvd player to anyone, unless you intend to puchase extending warranty with it. After playing a dvd video for a while, the system keeps skipping, and then freezes. And guess, what? it freezes, the power would not come on, and I lost my dvd video, for it got stucked in there. I had to return it to amazon.com, with the dvd still stucked in there.

Similar Products Used:

jvc/toshibasd1700