Toshiba SD-5970 DVD Player with HDMI
Wow! What a deal!
I am so pleased that I made this purchase that I simply cannot wait to give you my two cents worth. I suppose I am motivated somewhat by the negative reviews I read about this product on these pages.    Honestly, I'm not sure what some of these reviewers are unhappy about. (I've even wondered if they all might be friends who share some kind of beef with Toshiba.) This little unit is so easy to set up. The HDMI works flawlessly. I have tested a number of  commercial DVDs and several I recorded myself with my Sylvania DVD / VHS recorder that I bought last fall here on Amazon. So far, I have not found a single problem. I have also found it to be very talented in other respects. For instance, when I insert a CD of mp3 files I recorded from iTunes, it knows the name of each song, not just the track number. (I never noticed that any of my other DVD players could do this.)    Some of the reviewers have talked about the remote. Well, what can you say about remotes? None of them are as good as we might like them to be; but this one is way above the one that came with my Sylvania DVD recorder. Yes, it has a lot of buttons; and perhaps they could be bigger and so on and so on; but it does the job just fine. I have not had any problems with response, as some of the reviewers seem to have encountered. (I think it's wise to use your own batteries ... very good alkaline ones. That always helps any remote to work better.) It's true that you have to learn how this unit responds; it just does not have a \\"hair trigger\\" response. (To give you a totally unrelated analogy, some bathroom toilets flush with just a touch; others have to be held down a second or two.)    At any rate, I am totally glad I chose this unit over the Panasonic that costs more than twice as much, especially since it comes with the HDMI cable, which would cost quite a bit if it had to be purchased separately. (Hey, you can use the savings on the cable alone and become an Amazon Prime customer and have this, and every thing else you buy during the next year,  in your home in just two days with no shipping charges.)    As you can see, I give it 5 stars; and I think you will too if you are looking for an inexpensive HDMI player right now. At this price, you really can't go wrong even if at some point you decide to replace it with something more expensive. You can always use it at the office or in a bedroom, etc.