Toshiba SD-6980 DVD Player
Good start but not year ready for prime time...
I really tried to like this player.  I wanted an upsampling player, needed SACD, and the CF slot was a big plus.  Video quality was decent, not as good as my old Marantz DV-4000 (admittedly retailed for $499 5 years ago) but better than the POS Genica I have.  Color rendition above average for this price range, definition was average. <br /> <br />I thought the upsampling actually degraded the DVD quality marginally.  The 1080i output flickered into my Pioneer Elite PD920HD, I figured it was a bad unit, so returned it to OneCall for replacement (by the way, kudos to OneCall for their excellent service!).  The second unit flickered in 1080i as well; it flickered both with DVD's and CF cards.  By the way, having your photos displayed in 720P or flickering 1080i ROCKS!  Great way to share photos with friends, they all ooh and aah on how great your photos look.  Unfortunately with this player, the upsampling only works out of the HDMI output.  FYI, when you display your photos in HD, you lose most of the flexibility of jpeg display--you can't zoom, do a slideshow, rotate images, etc.  Not a big deal, but you ought to know before you invite your buddies over.  I found that good ol' component 480p provided cleaner video than either the 720p or flickering 1080i.  Your mileage may vary since I'm using a fixed panel. <br /> <br />Sound quality was just OK, bass reponse wasn't as deep as the better DVD players, but you can't expect Toshiba to put a decent power supply in a $199 player.  SACD was somewhat disappointing, no imaging, weak bass, but the treble was remarkably grain free.  My 1980's $600 Theta Cobalt D/A processor kicked the SACD all over the room. <br /> <br />Others have remarked about how counterintuitive the remote is.  I found that the skip chapter buttons were where the fast forward button should be, and vice versa.  Ditto for the power and drawer open buttons.  In upsampling HD mode I thought the DVD player didn't respond very quickly.  Just my $.02, this ismy first Toshiba I've owned. <br /> <br />The manual is well written; this player is a breeze to set up, I just wish they would explain what some of their menu settings are. <br /> <br />In summary:  For a retail price of $199 (I paid $151 at OneCall), this player does a whole lot.  It plays SACD's, displays jpegs from your DVD's or CF/SD card in HD, upsamples to 720p or 1080i, played every SVCD, DVD+R, DVD-R, MP3 disc I could throw at it.  It does everything reasonably well, probably far more than I could expect for $151.  If the 1080i didn't flicker I'd keep it, but as it does, I'm returning this player.  Maybe it's just my display, although I can't see how it would be as it doesn't flicker with my 1080i upsampled DVR using the HDMI input.  I'll miss the CF card slot...