Toshiba SD1700 DVD Player
Very happy
I bought it in December 2001 and have had minimal problems with it in the 10 months since I got it.  It works with every DVD rental I've tried.  I have seen it pause on some rentals, sometimes up to 8 seconds (usually less), but it always recovers, and when it does happen, it's only once per movie.  I've seen the pausing on about a quarter of the movies I've rented.  I have never seen it just freeze up and not continue though.  Also, I think the pausing problem was caused by dual-layer DVDs.  It never occurs on the ones that use the older format.<br />One might think \\"gee what an awful thing.  It pauses during playback??\\"  It's not a progressive scan player, which I hear is a problem if you're viewing movies on an HDTV.  I just have a regular TV.<br />I have found it easy to use, with an intuitive set up screen, and you can adjust some settings during play.<br />You can set up default settings like if you want it to automatically show the movie in TV (square) format, where the sides of the image get clipped off, but gives you a bigger image vertically (as happens on most VHS movies), or letterbox format--the movie's typical proportions, which shrinks the image vertically, looks like a rectangle in the middle of the screen, where the image goes, and black rectangular regions on the top and bottom of the TV screen.  The advantage of letterbox viewing is you get to see the *whole* image as it was originally meant to be seen.<br />It has \\"virtual surround sound\\" which creates some interesting effects during playback on a modest stereo setup.  I would call it more \\"3D sound\\" as it creates the illusion of something happening \\"right in front of you\\" or \\"happening off in some other room.\\"  Sometimes I've found myself looking around the room because something will happen in a movie that makes it sound like it occurred \\"behind me, off to the side.\\"  It makes me think something actually happened in the room, not in the movie.  It's a bit of a mindfake. :)  In my opinion, truesurround sound is more all-encompassing though, like in a good movie theater, this includes the music.  With virtual surround, the music sounds like its coming from the stereo, not \\"all around you.\\"  It helps enhance the sound effects though.<br />It also has an \\"enhance dialog\\" mode that makes people's voices sound louder.  This turns off virtual surround though.  I find it's helpful sometimes since I live in an apartment.  Having virtual surround on dampens the volume of people's voices for some reason, requiring me to turn the sound up.  This can make the volume too loud overall for my neighbor's liking.  So the enhance-dialog mode is nice, since it emphasizes dialog more so I don't have to have the volume up so much.<br />There's a \\"normal,\\" 2-D audio mode as well (plain stereo).<br />It also has digital audio outputs which I haven't tried as I don't have any digital decoders.  These are really only worth it, in my opinion, if you want to set up a true surround sound system.<br />One thing you will want to consider in the cost of this or any other DVD player, is an RF modulator.  This player does not have an \\"F-type\\" (also known as \\"coaxial\\") connector.  It only has component video and S-video output.  Component output separates the video into chroma and luma signals, and unless your TV understands this, you won't be able to watch anything.  The modulator takes these signals, plus the component analog stereo audio signal, and converts it to RF (what your typical TV understands) with an F-type output connector.  Last I checked these modulators cost about $$.<br />What I do is hook up the video to the modulator and hook up my stereo to the analog stereo outputs (I don't hook them up to the modulator).  That way I get the video on TV and the audio on the stereo.  The analog outputs use standard RCA audio/video plugs.  Very easy to get.<br />The video quality is very good.  The colors are vibrant and crisp.  I have noticed that on many movies when a long, thin lineis displayed, like a rope or wire, the image of these things look a bit \\"jaggy,\\" almost as though you were looking at it on a computer screen.  In some cases, when looking at a tight cross-hatch pattern, you will see a moire pattern on the TV.  From what I understand this is caused by the chroma/luma signals.  Even though you convert the signal to RF, some characteristics of the original signal still get through and most TVs do not have combs to filter the video signal, which would otherwise smooth the image out.  This is noticeable, but I don't consider it a big minus as the effect is minor.<br />This is my first DVD player, and at the time I bought it, many reviews said that it was a good first DVD player.  I agree.  It's simple, doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it basically has worked with everything I've thrown at it and plays it well.<br />In general I'm so happy I got a DVD player!  The movies tend to cost a bit more than their VHS counterparts, but they are worth it!  The control you have over the viewing experience is nice.  Plus, most movies come with extras such as audio commentary by the film's creators that plays during the movie (which you can turn on if you're interested), and they often have things like interviews with the people who made the film, deleted scenes, and other interesting extras.<br />I give it 4 stars because of the pausing issue.  I gotta admit it is irritating when it happens.  Other than that, I'm very pleased with it.