Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
NO USE FOR HOME BURNED MEDIA!, 20 Oct 2008
On the surface this looks like a great deal. Top brand, DivX playback, classy design and it comes with TONS of accessories - seriously, it comes with a carry case/car mounting straps, UK 3-pin and Euro 2-pin AC cables, 12v car cable, AV in/out cable, 5 hour battery, Toshiba branded pad-on-ear headphones and the obligatory remote control unit - which is great, as no portable I have previously owned came with that many accessories. But read on for the bad stuff.....
Apart from the fact the unit is VERY noisy in operation, i.e. seeking and reading discs, one of its main failings is that of the display....you can actually see the lines of resolution unless you are some distance from the screen. My last player, a cheap supermarket branded unit, had a better picture than this as regards perceived resolution - yet the colour, contrast and brightness are admittedly better on the Toshiba. But the unit's main failing for me was laser over-sensitivity. Which means while it will read clean, unblemished store bought DVD movies and what-have-you with out fail, it falls flat on its face with the use of home authored media. So anything you want to play that was recorded from your DVD recorder, or movies you have downloaded from the net and burned to disc are VERY susceptible to jumping/skipping, freezing and even causing the unit to reboot itself....or it just gets itself stuck in an endless loop of noisily trying to mount the disc...and failing. Now before you might think it is the media I use, I can assure you it isn't. I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden made media, which are recommended as being the best in the business, amongst other high quality brands. I also regularly use Nero's disc quality checker, and all the discs I keep scan with 90-98% quality scores. I can only imagine what would happen should someone try playing cheap brand media, burned at high speeds or, heaven forbid, scratched DVD's. I noticed that rewritable DVD's faired even worse off than single use discs. Of course many discs played through fine....but the rejection rate was FAR TOO MUCH to live with - considering the vast majority of my discs are home recorded media. I should add that I keep all my discs free of scratches and fingerprints....so that is not the problem either. I did manage to test the DivX/Xvid playback, and that was the same issue....on some discs the files played back OK, and on others the laser got too fussy with the disc and jumps, skips or disc rejection quickly ensued. I should note too that it restricts DivX file names to a measly 8 characters in length....which is also quite poor.
Of course, if you're buying the unit solely to use with store bought DVD movies, and you and your family keep your discs in MINT condition, I should imagine you'd be OK. IF you plan to only ever use it with headphones to muffle the lawnmower like noise that is, or you don't mind sitting a good few feet away to account for the display's shortcomings. The reason I have give it 3 stars is because perhaps there are people who could live with its drawbacks. I couldn't, however.
If you want my advice, don't buy it....and search Amazon for the Sony DVPFX720 7inch portable player instead. I bought this upon returning the Toshiba. It comes with the bare amount of accessories (5 hour battery, AC cable, 12V Car cable, AV in/out cable and remote control...no carry case or headphones), and it comes in a choice of white, red, blue or pink colour schemes. The white seems to be cheaper than the others and can be got for just a few quid more than this Toshiba on Amazon. But it's quiet, classy, built to last for years (it's Sony!) and what is more it does what it says on the tin - it plays every disc you throw at it. It is also DivX compliant, and allows for DivX files names of 14 characters in length. The display on the Sony is MILES better too. While it has the same 480x234 resolution spec as the Toshiba, you cannot see the lines across the screen. Perhaps this is down to the Sony using a 12bit video DAC, which is listed in the specs, I don't know....it's just a beautiful quality picture compared to the Toshiba. Trust me....you won't regret it. I certainly don't.
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61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good it is, a player for the car it isn't, 27 Sep 2008
I bought this DVD player to use by my daughter in the car and for myself while working away. The quality is first class with a rubber like covering on the outside of the top. The sound is excellent and combined with a screen that displays the colours in great depth, this was well worth the money. The only downside is that the bag is not designed to be used to hold the player in a car. when the top of the bag is open to watch the screen, the only thing which holds the player in place is a velcro strap which fastens across the loading lid. This means you cannot swap DVD's without removing the player from the bag. If you want a quality DVD player, this stills makes an excellent purchase.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An exceptionally high quality portable DVD player, 2 Jan 2009
I bought the Toshiba SDP715S portable DVD player a few weeks ago. The Toshiba SDP715S glows with quality and style. The quality of the picture on the 7" screen is perfect, and the 'Virtual Surround Sound' feature works really well. The battery life was very good too, far exceeding the 3 hour battery life listed.
I also liked the carry bag and other gadgets provided in the package. One of the other reviewers complained of frustration when using the carry bag in the car - this is easily rectified by simply placing one of the spare straps through the side vents behind the DVD screen.
I've used all kinds of DVDs and CDs on the Toshiba, and all of them have worked fine without any problems - including CD-R's containing JPEG photographs.
Overall, I would definitely recommend the Toshiba SDP71S portable DVD player - a high quality peice of kit at a reasonable price.
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