Toshiba SD-4900 Progressive Scan DVD Player
Excellent performance with one big annoyance!
I bought this DVD player to replace an irritating Go Video model that wouldn't play audio CDs and loved to skip at the slightest scratch in a rental DVD. Overall, the Toshiba SD-4900 has been a worthwhile replacement, especially considering its low price! It has performed very well with almost every DVD I've rented, even ones that are a bit scratched up. It plays audio CDs perfectly and I've had no need for a separate CD player component in my stereo system.<br /><br />The remote is a little annoying -- some of the buttons aren't grouped in an intuitive way -- but once you've used it for a while, you do get used to it, and it's no big deal.<br /><br />I'm not an audiophile or digital video expert, so I won't comment on the technical specifications. I actually have the signal routed through a tuner that dates back to 1986! Obviously, this means I sacrifice the clarity of a digital signal, but I have to say the picture still looks great -- it's only going to get better if you're using quality, modern equipment to go with this player.<br /><br />So what is the one big annoyance? On my old DVD player, if I was interrupted and stopped playing a DVD, I could come back later and pick up where i left off, as long as I didn't eject the disk. Not so with this model. Unless you leave a disk paused (which isn't supposed to be a good idea for lengthy periods of time), the DVD player will shut itself off automatically after several minutes... and it will lose your place in the movie, even though the disk was never ejected. Very annoying if you get interrupted even once or twice.<br /><br />Still, on balance -- I recommend this model for its excellent performance for the price.