Toshiba SD-1600 DVD Player
an excellent value
By my thinking, there are two prime contenders for the value DVD market, the Toshiba SD-1600 and the Pioneer DV-333. Both are good players and there are tradeoffs with either one. With either unit, you'll get great picture quality and great audio (of course if you have a 5.1 or DTS receiver, your DVD player doesn't affect the audio quality, as your receiver does the decoding). Both also offer component video output and coaxial digital audio, useful if you have more expensive home theater setup.<br />Of the two, the Pioneer offers the ability to play recordable CD's and CD-RW's by including a second laser. Most DVD players, including the Toshiba, are either unable to play CD-R(W)'s or play only certain brands, because of the laser frequency differences between the DVD and CD formats. I don't own a burner so this wasn't an important distinction for me. In order to meet the $200 price point, Pioneer includes little else in the way of special features. The DV-333's case comes across as &quot;cheaply&quot; made, but the unit is covered by a comprehensive 1 yr. parts/labor warranty, which is unusual for this price - the SD-1600 has 1 yr. parts / 90 days labor, which seems to be the norm.<br />While the Toshiba offers a few &quot;gimicky&quot; features, such as the ability to magnify the image to remove letterbox bars (a feature that I found degraded the image unacceptably), it does include the incredible &quot;video black level expansion&quot; feature. What this does is make the &quot;black&quot; reference point of the video signal &quot;true&quot; black rather than the sort of dark-gray black you're used to. I find this to be an amazing improvement - check out Apollo 13 in normal and then black enhanced mode.<br />Since I wasn't able to find any real reason (at the time) to choose the DV-333 over the SD-1600 or vice-versa, I decided to buy one and see how I liked it. Well, the black level expansion decided it - it's worth buying the SD-1600 just to have it. Don't confusethis with &quot;image adjustments&quot; found on other players (the DV-333 for instance). I have heard that the black level expansion circuitry on high-end Sony's is better, but have never actually seen it. If it's better than this, that's saying something.<br />So, why the four stars instead of five? A few things. First, the unit is a bit noisy, certainly not noticeable from &quot;couch distance&quot; but audible if you're lying on the floor near it listening to a CD. Second, layer changes are noticeable, particularly if they occur in the middle of a scene. Conversely, on well-mastered disks which put layer transitions between scenes, they're invisible. These problems certainly aren't enough to counter the positive aspects of the player, but suggest areas that Toshiba could address in future revisions.<br />In short, an excellent value, with the particularly notable black level expansion feature which in and of itself makes this a good investment.