Toshiba SD-4990 Upconverting Progressive Scan DVD Player
Decent Player With Some Firmware Issues.
I have had this player for about 90 days now, and I, too, have experienced the \\"freeze\\" problem. I called Toshiba for some help, and they suggested letting the unit reset itself by unplugging it for five minutes or more. I tried it.<br /><br />So far, after viewing five more DVDs to check the unit, the freezing has ceased. I can't say it won't come back, but this fix seemed to make a difference as the freezing became more and more frequent, happening on EVERY DVD, until I applied the reset. Now it seems to be working perfectly. For now.<br /><br />As for the quality, it tends to crush blacks a lot, at least when using 720p/1080i over a HDMI-DVI connection. This can be fixed- sort of- by increasing the brightness level on the player for every DVD (usually setting it around 11-14 does the trick). It's a shame this player doesn't remember the brightness setting, but the workaround does the trick most of the time and the picture quality is decent. Colors are good, and the only problem is that if you set the brightness too high, you'll crush whites instead. When you find the sweet spot, it's a decent player.<br /><br />Sound is as good as any $100 player, and your receiver will have more to do with sound quality than the DVD player, I suspect.<br /><br />Nitpicks: The player requires initial setup on component or composite video. It does not natively support DVI and requires you to have an adapting cable if you lack HDMI and want to upconvert. Like most upconverters, it will not do the upconversion via component video, so skip this player if you lack DVI or HDMI. The menu is pretty simplistic, but that can be a good thing. The IR for the remote control seems weak, and requires being directly pointed at the unit to get a response. The tray open button seems to require a good, solid push to register your desire to eject a disc.<br /><br />Good things: This player handles DVD-R, DVD-RW, and other burned discs like a pro. It's an excellent DIVX player. JPEG viewing is decent, even allowing high definition modes that allow you to see uncompressed images. Audio discs play very well (but the interface is a little clumsy).<br /><br />All in all, it's a decent purchase. The Sony upconverter is better, but I had severe issues getting it to work on an HDMI-DVI adapter (it wouldn't upconvert on anything but straight HDMI). Given that this was the only player I could find that handled DIVX and upconverting over HDMI-DVI, it's probably the best choice out there for some people. All in all, I'm happy.is decent, even allowing high definition modes that allow you to see uncompressed images. Audio discs play very well (but the interface is a little clumsy).  <br /> <br />All in all, it's a decent purchase. The Sony upconverter is better, but I had severe issues getting it to work on an HDMI-DVI adapter (it wouldn't upconvert on anything but straight HDMI). Given that this was the only player I could find that handled DIVX and upconverting over HDMI-DVI, it's probably the best choice out there for some people. All in all, I'm happy.