Video quality, plays many formats

Remote is adequate but nothing to write home about.

Multi-format disc playing at almost rock bottom price.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Sony, Phillips

Progressive scan picture is breathtaking and DVD audio will knock your socks off!!

YOU CALL THAT A REMOTE.WHAT A JOKE!!

Good luck finding a DVD player that beats this one's picture and performance at this price!!

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-434

Prior to posting my actual review, has anyone addressed the transport system (haven't read anything in any of the reviews)? Need to determine if I should rush to return my unit to meet the 30-day return policy. I'm finding that the transport mechanism (from disc insertion, to playback, to stop function, etc.) is very noisy. Perhaps this is just a characteristic of the 5700 model (considering there were no skips or lock-ups during the viewing and listening of my first DVD and CD on this unit). The transport functions and reading of the discs sure seemed to be noisy (and I am aware that every unit will emit a certain degree of noise). Any feedback will certainly be appreciated; and then I can continue with my review of this player. Thanks.

Prior to posting my actual review, has anyone addressed the transport system (haven't read anything in any of the reviews)? Need to determine if I should rush to return my unit to meet the 30-day return policy. I'm finding that the transport mechanism (from disc insertion, to playback, to stop function, etc.) is very noisy. Perhaps this is just a characteristic of the 5700 model (considering there were no skips or lock-ups during the viewing and listening of my first DVD and CD on this unit). The transport functions and reading of the discs sure seemed to be noisy (and I am aware that every unit will emit a certain degree of noise). Any feedback will certainly be appreciated; and then I can continue with my review of this player. Thanks.

all around features

slightly complicated audio output adjustments, no SACD

This is my 2nd review of this product, but this time with DVD Audio and HDCD tested. The video qualities of this machine is excellent like everyone has said, but there are diverging opinions on the audio quality of this machine. The previous reviewer said the CD playback is poor compared to his Musicial Fidelity player...well duh?!? His Musicial Fidelity player is a dedicated CD machine at 3x/4x the price above the Toshiba. I've played DVD-audio and HDCD's and the Toshiba and I can say the sound quality is quite good, but not excellent..but for the price you paid for the Toshiba it's a steal. Realistically, how many DVD players on the market can outperform a dedicated CD player...so why complain about the CD performance. Maybe the previous reviewer should complain his Musical Fidelity CD player doesn't play DVD's!!!

Excellent picture quality. DVDaudio playback. Attractive styling. Decent remote.

Poor audio quality with CD's. Intermittent noise when playing CD's. Wouldn't play at least one CD I own that has no problems playing on my PC or Musical Fidelity A3 CD.

I've had this since January and am dissapointed with the sound quality out of the unit. I am also dissapointed with the lag when transitioning from the first to second layer on video. The picture quality is very good though and as a video player I have few reservations. If you are in to great quality music then purchase a seperate CD player like the Musical Fidelity A3 CD like I did. You won't be sorry you did. If you are not a sound quality nut and can put up with some foibles of the player then this may be the only player you need. Good luck. Price in Canadian dollars/ Monopoly money.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi 250-crap don't buy even if given a good deal. Hitachi DVP-505U, not bad.

Reliability, picture quality, DVD audio quality, playback and adjustment features.

No significant weaknesses.

An all around excellent machine. Feature packed, with the exception of SVCD support. One thing most people do not realize is that for DVD audio playback you must make use of the 6 channel analog audio out. Connect these to the 5.1 analog inputs on your receiver for true DVD audio. You must also press the NAVI button on the remote and switch over to analog 6 CH. If you do not use the analog out your DVD audio will be compressed, sound about half as good, and will be processed as a Dolby digital 5.1 soundtrack. Overall this machine kicks ass. With options like multiple angle simultaneous playback and a screen saver you can capture there is plenty of toys. Most importantly I have watched a DVD at least every other night for the past 5 months and the 5700 has never missed a frame. A solid machine.

Similar Products Used:

Being in the electronics sales field I''ve tried them all.

Wonderful Picture and Sound, Zoom, Super-Audio Capability. I would give this thing a 5 star overall rating, if not for the quirk described in the review section and the Weaknesses section.

Funny behaviour after pressing "Stop" while in "Zoom" mode, and then "Play". One has to press "Stop" and "Play" a second time to get back to a normal letterbox 4:3 picture.

The picture and sound on this machine are wonderful and overall it is a great buy. I have noticed an idiosyncracy with it and I need feedback from other owners. If the quirk can be found in every unit of this model, I will be happy to keep it. But if I discover that only my unit has it, it is obviously defective and I should return or exchange it. The quirk is as follows: I consider a normal picture on this unit a letterbox picture 4:3 ratio. Whenever I watch a DVD in "Zoom" mode, and I press "Stop", then "Play" again, the picture that appears on the screen is horizontally compressed and the black bands on the top and bottom of the picture appear narrower than in the normal letterbox 4:3 picture setting for this unit. To get a normal letterbox picture, I have to press "Stop" and "Play" a second time. I add that I currently own a 10 year old 20 inch Sony TV with interlaced picture. But I bought the DVD Player in the hope that I will get a Progressive Scan HD or HD ready TV in the coming months. I also picked a player with a zoom feature because one of my pet peeves is not being able to see a movie on TV, any TV as it was filmed. The Zoom feature lets me reduce the picture size to the point that I can see the whole picture in a movie as it was filmed, despite the fact that what I see on my current TV,especially when I have reduced a widescreen movie, is a picture the size of a glorified Postage Stamp. Now, I believe that it is normal if you press "Stop", as opposed to "Pause", this will disable the "Zoom". But I am not sure that, after pressing "Play" the picture should come back compressed as I have said. So I need to know if other owners of this Unit have experienced the same problem. If they have, then obviously the unit has this idiosyncracy built into it and I will not return/exchange what is otherwise a great machine for the money. But if only my unit appears to have the problem, then I will take it back. Please let me know if your units behave the same way. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Jeffrey N. Toronto

Similar Products Used:

None

HDCD, MP3, DVD-A playback Progressive Scan

Chroma Bug Layer-change "skip"

This is an excellent single-disc DVD/CD player. The SD5700 has excellent video playback for a player in this price range, even using the S-video connection as I do. The colors are vivid and accurate, and the resolution is suprisingly high on my Sony Wega. I''''ve noticed only a hint of the chroma upsampling error that is common to DVD players (I saw it last the fountain steps in the "Roman Holiday" scene of "Nurse Betty"), and I understand this to be a prevalent phenomenon. I do occasionally get the layer-change "jump" that is mentioned below, but I don''''t find this troublesome. In any event, the overall picture quality is absolutely great. The sound quality is also excellent. I use the optical output when viewing DVDs (to take advantage of the multichannel sound) and use the analog output when listening to CDs. The digital output sounds overly bright and harsh to me when I play CDs, although this could just as easily be the fault of my receiver (Yamaha HTR-5280) as the Toshiba player, since in "digital mode" the receiver is decoding the PCM signal. The decoder on the Toshiba does a great job, especially with HDCD-encoded CDs, and provides audio playback that is superior to my (old) Pioneer CD player. I was surprised at how many HDCD discs I had in my music collection, and how much better they sound on this player. MP3 playback is quite good as well, especially when the MP3s are encoded at 320 kbps! Overall, I highly recommend this player. The HDCD and MP3 decoding were the primary reason I selected the SD5700 as, and I found few other quality DVD players that offered both features (the next cheapest one was the Harmon Kardon DVD 50 at $599, and it doesn''''t play DVD-Audio which the SD5700 does).

Similar Products Used:

None

great player

none

I also encounted audio drop outs..try going to radio shack and buying a cheap $15.00 a/c line filter solved my problem..no more drop outs