Toshiba SD-3980 Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Is it cold in here or is that just my Toshiba freezing up again?
Toshiba's SD-3980 is surprisingly slim and compact...probably TOO slim and compact for its own good.  I'm not sure what the advantage is to having a DVD player this small, unless maybe you want to put it on top of a small TV or something.  The disc tray is also uncomfortably slim (and flimsy), so you must exercise extreme caution when inserting and removing discs.  Size aside, the real problem I have with my SD-3980 is its tendency to freeze and/or pixelate once or twice during almost every movie I play on it.  Just like my old Toshiba SD-2300, the 3980 occasionally likes to pause itself for a few seconds before resuming normal playback.  It also likes to break the picture up into little square bits for a second or two every once in a while (just like my old SD-2300).  These incidents happen completely at random and for no apparent reason.  The SD-3980 also seems to have trouble returning to a DVD's menu after play is started.  If you're watching a disc and you stop it and press MENU, nothing happens.  You need to eject the disc and sit through those annoying FBI warnings all over again just to get back to the main menu.  These problems are not so terrible or so frequent that they render the player unusable; but they are bothersome as they keep you constantly checking your discs wondering, \\"Is this DVD scratched or is it just my Toshiba acting up again?\\"  Furthermore, the 3980's display window shows only the current chapter number, not the elapsed time; and you can't capture a screenshot to use as a wallpaper/background image like you could with the SD-2300.  On the plus side, this player is silver and silver is GROOVY.<br /><br />UPDATE: This thing DIED for no reason less than 1 year after purchase.  My 7-year-old Toshiba SD2109 is still going strong.  Go figure.