Toshiba SD-4990 Upconverting Progressive Scan DVD Player
Don't waste your time or money on this
Bought this at Best Buy without first researching (my fault).  Spent about $120 for the player plus another $90 for the HDMI cable.  Like the other reviewer(s) the player is not HDMI friendly.  You first have to hook up the player via S-Video or Composite cables to run the setup to select the HDMI (very cheesy, a lot of people were asleep in the design room on that). <br /> <br />About 1 out of 4 starts of the player, the picture goes horribly green and you have to restart the player.  <br /> <br />About 1 out of 5 starts the player completely locks up, you cannot hit the power button, it is non-responsive.  You have to physically pull the power cable to 'reboot' it. <br /> <br />During playback the player constantly freezes for 2 - 5 seconds (picture an extended layer change, but more frequent). <br /> <br />You can't easily switch between 4:3 and 16:9 movies, you have to run through setup.  This is a pain when you have a mixture of Widescreen and Fullscreen DVDs (we have a lot of children's DVDs that are 4:3).  The 4:3 movies stretch and the actors look fat. <br /> <br />OK, the good: <br />Video quality (when the player works) is pretty good.  I really can't tell the difference between teh upconverted HD [digital] image and the traditional [analog] image. <br /> <br />My first DVD player was a Toshiba (I think 2109) we absolutely loved it.  The only reason I replaced it after it worked for years and years was because we bought a new HD TV and I wanted a player with progressive scan.  I bought a Sony 5 disc changer that only lasted a year before breaking. <br /> <br />Not only would I NOT suggest this player, I would stay away from Toshiba players in general, my experience (and that of others) is that bad. <br /> <br />I now find myself having to replace our DVD player yet again, this time because the product failed to deliver what they were supposed to (a working product). <br /> <br />