Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player
Has Toshiba really gotten this bad?
I bought the Toshiba SD-3960 DVD player yesterday, replacing a 5-year-old low-end Panasonic player.  I was amazed to find that this brand new Toshiba was a step backward in almost all aspects compared to the 5-year-old Panasonic.  I've always bought Toshiba products (the Panasonic was a gift), because their products, until now, have always offered consistently excellent performance without the Sony \\"I'm special\\" price.  This player is so bad that I will have to rethink my opinion of Toshiba, just based on this single product. <br /> <br />I have the player installed in a cabinet so I won't address heat or noise, but the unit is unusable as a movie player.  It seems that every time that the DVD media changes titles within the disc, the player hesitates for about a second, show the \\"play\\" symbol.  It is very distracting to try to watch a movie and have the player hiccup every 15 to 20 minutes. <br /> <br />Although I have a master learning remote, and so don't have to use the nasty little remote provided, it is a catastrophe in user interface design: The play/stop/pause are presented as if they are secondary controls, with the menu navigation arrows given precedence. <br /> <br />All in all, this player seems so poorly conceived that I will not bother to look for another Toshiba as a replacement.  Toshiba has shot itself in the foot with this one.