Toshiba SD-4900 Progressive Scan DVD Player
Make It Region Free
First some generalities. The SD-4900 supports more disc formats than most players, including DVD, DVD-Audio, DVD-R, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, VCD, SVCD (see below), WMA, JPG. It will play both NTSC and PAL video, translating PAL for NTSC televisions. The picture and sound quality are clear. On the negative side, when playing CD-R media (but not CD, DVD-R or DVD), there is a low-level clicking sound; it sounds as though the laser reader is constantly tracking. Also, the player does not remember where you are in a movie when you switch it off (most DVD players do). Apart from these minor complaints, it's a good player.<br />Second, I come to the real reason for this review, which is that this is an easy machine to modify for region free playing and for SVCD viewing. You can find full instructions for these modifications at my home page [...] As they come out of the box, most players bought in the USA are region crippled, which means that they will not play DVDs purchased in Europe, for example. I take a very dim view of people preventing me from viewing DVDs that I have purchased on a player that I have purchased. If you do not live in the USA, it is very likely that you can go into a shop and buy a DVD player that will play discs from all regions, so this does not apply to you.