Toshiba SD-3109

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Toshiba SD-3109
Does anyone know if the 3109 has hit the street? I've had one on order from buyvideos.com since 2/21. I was told on 4/2 that it would not be shipping for another 2 - 4 weeks. (They were offering them for $299 when I ordered, so am considering waiting it out since I haven't been able to find a lower price.)

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Toshiba SD-3109
It has hit the streets.
It seems to play CD-Rs.
It has no output jack.
It seems to downconvert to 48kHz.
see reviews at www.audioreview.com under cd_players.

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Toshiba SD-3109
I have been watching the various generations of DVD players pass by, and this generation of most brands seems to have fixed a number of problems. The 3109 in particular ($399 at Tweeter etc.) has a truely beautiful and artifact free picture, especially if you use the "blacker than black" setting. Be aware that you will need to re-set your picture controls on the TV. By turning down the "picture" level and turning up the "brightness" you wind up with vastly increased dynamic range in the picture while suddenly displaying incredibly subtle shades of color. Yes, even in normal mode you will see good colors, but try the blacker than black setting as I have described (increase "brightness" only enough to bring up shadow details).
The only complaint I have is the remote control. The functions are awkward to get used to and limited.
I did enjoy the three zoom levels with panning ability, very cute and necessary when trying to read credits on all those letterboxed movies.
The TV I am using is one of the newer Panasonic units with the extra dark screen - semi flat tube. When properly set up, this combination is (based on recollection - not direct comparison) the equal of studio reference NTSC monitors I have seen. Subtle pastel colors, shades of brown, green, blue and red that I had given up looking for in the past.
The sound quality is better than any off the shelf cd player I have owned, but I can not hear a tremendous difference between the 96/24 dvd audio disks and *good* quality regular cds. The average pop cd sounds pretty lame compared the the minimalist miked 96/24 disks.
The build quality is average for this price range - decent but on the light side. I opened up the unit to have a look inside. Three circuit boards, one each for power, digital, and output. The digital section has a shiny steel shield covering the entire board (possibly to keep out noise from the switching power supply). The capacitors in the output stage are standard Japanese electolytics.
I also had the opportunity to see inside the top of the line 9000 unit by toshiba, their "Cinema Pro" unit. It is much heavier, thanks to a big slab of resin in the base. The power supply seems the same, the output board is inverted (perhaps to hide its sameness with the lesser priced unit) but uses slightly better grade electrolytics (you can tell by the color). The digital section in this unit does not have the shield and has a small daughter card mounted on it with an extra chip. This may have something to do with fancier on-screen menues. Basically - the Cinema Pro unit is (in my opinion) a rip-off. It retails for about $900 at Tweeter, compared to the nearly identical 3109 at $399.
The 3109 is a terrific performer with a few warts in the area of the remote control, but if you are after picture quality with competitive sound quality, this unit is a great buy.

Overall Rating: 9
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Toshiba SD-3109
I sell the 3109 for $355.00 at www.sounddistributors.com. I feel for the money you can not buy a better DVD player. Dual cartridge holder - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dual Disc Twin-Tray Transport

HDCD Precision Filtering and Decoding

10-Bit 27 MHz Advanced Video D/A Converter With High Resolution Filter

ColorStreamâ„¢ Component Video Outputs
Built-in Dolby Digital Decoding (6 ch Output)

DTS Compatible Digital Output

Spatializer® N-2-2 Virtual Surround Sound

4X Picture Zoom (25 Sectors)

Ergonomic Remote with Fluorescent Keypad

Video Black Level Control this is a unit thats hard to beat!!

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Toshiba SD-3109
Does anyone know if this machine plays CD-R and/or CD-RW disks? I appreciate your help since I plan to get this machine but want to make sure it plays CD-Rs. Thanks.

Richard

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Toshiba SD-3109
To answer the last post, no, it doesn't play CD-Rs, at least not consistently.

I highly recommend buying a CD Player (a 60 CD Changer can be had for about $150. The players that can play CD-Rs consistently, namely the Pioneer 414, have other problems like lipsync. Even the new Sony's don't play CD-Rs and have been rumored to have lipsync problems.

Back to the DVD Review...This is a very good play, tons of features. I looked at the Sony 550 but the price wasn't justified and it didn't have zoom. The 3109 has good slow mo speeds, 1x reverse, and the fastforward, rewind at 2 & 8X are nearly as good as the Sony's smooth scan (I can't tell a difference). The remote isn't that great, but there's no such thing as a piece of hardware coming with a great remote (buy a Marantz and you'll be very happy).

Great player. Haven't tested the downconversion yet (but will rent twister soon and post a comment after viewing that movie).

Overall Rating: 9
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Toshiba SD-3109
I will probably buy one of these because of the dual tray design and how well
most people seem to like it. I have played with it in the store a few times and like it. I would appreciate any comments people have on it's CD audio preformance. I have seen it for $329 at www.supremevideo.com.

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Toshiba SD-3109
I just purchased the Sd-3109 today. I paid 397$ plus tax at a local dealer (no shipping) So far, in searching the internet, it seems that I made a good selection.

One question to others reading this:

There is an option for using either (but not both) "75 ohm Digital Coaxial" or "Optical Digital" Cable to my AV reciever (it takes either one).

Anyone know the difference?

What little i found on the internet tonight is that the "Coaxial digital" is recommended to the "digital optical" cable because there is no conversion from electrical to optical, then back to electrical again.

Please note that this is not the "left channel +/left channel -" coaxial type cable, but one cable that carries all the sound of all 5 channels to the reciever.

Any comments?

Thanks in advance!

Bruce
BPinkham@sleh.com

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Toshiba SD-3109
Some other notes:

The Toshiba SD-3109 supports:
-Dolby Digital (not just DD ready, but decodes the signal)
-DTS Digital Out
-HDCD
and something called
"spatializer N-2-2" (have no idea what it does)

I have the manual in front of me (79077034 - S 9876109600) and I am reading it off the front cover.

I noticed the "contents page" did not list all the features.

Bruce

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Toshiba SD-3109
Both audio and video quality is excellent. Have not run into any problems. Good remote, and zoom feature is great.

Overall Rating: 10
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Toshiba SD-3109
I had the pleasure of owning a Toshiba 2108. This system had an annoying defect regarding audio dropouts. I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with that. Good news is that Toshiba will take care of that problem free of charge. Now regarding the player, I have owned 3 differnt brands/models. Hands down the best of the 3 was the Tosh 2108. I originally owned a Philips then the 2108 and now just recently purchased a 3109. The features on the 3109 are very impressive. Sound on that system is everything it should be. The difference falls on the video quality. I had both the 2108 and 3109 running via s-video connection on a v-series sony trinitron. The 2108 picture quality was so impressive that it didnt take 2 or 3 minuets to realize i had made a mistake. Picture on the 3109 is grainy and color is not to par(by comparison.) Not many people would notice this if they purchased this player as thier first. Take my adivce the picture quality is quite poor, compare when you buy.

Overall Rating: 5
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Toshiba SD-3109
Great DVD player. Two trays, HDCD Decoding, completely re-designed on screen information system, better remote that the 2109, but not as good as the older 3108 (at least that's what I found in my research). Some of the problems that have been mentioned about this player are the chapter search keys double as the forward/reverse search keys depending on how they are used (if you push and hold, they are foward/reverse keys. If you just push once and release, they become chapter search keys) which took a little getting used to, but not a very big problem for me thus far (I have a One For All Cinema7 universal remote for everyday use and rarely use the supplied Toshiba remote at all. The keys on the Cinema7 perform as they should...channel up/down being chaper search and the FF/REW keys being forward/reverse search).

The ability to pass 0.0 IRE is a great addition (I didn't have this ability on my Panasonic A110) and allowed me to get a really great picture. The 4 step Zoom Feature is very nice also as is the re-designed bit-rate meter (also lacking on the A110). Also, this player (as do other Toshibas I'm told) displays both chapter time/time remaining and total time/time remaining. I love this little caveat (again, missing on the A110). Also, since I'm planning on upgrading to a display with component inputs, the addition of component outputs on the 3109 is fantastic!!

Overall, the major flaw in this DVD player, as with the other Toshiba models, is the way Toshiba decided to handle downcoversion of anamorphic discs (enhanced for widescreen, enhanced for 16x9 televisions, etc.,) on regular 4x3 television sets. I feel they could have done better. It was distracting at first, but the more I use the 3109, the less I notice the downconversion artifacts. This is the only reason I'm deducting a point for this player. For the price, the Toshiba SD3109 is the top player for me at least.

Overall Rating: 9
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Toshiba SD-3109
I've had my Toshiba SD-3109 for 3 weeks now and am thoroughly enjoying it. I got it at 800.com for $399 -10% (e-mail list discount)+$75 credit towards DVD purchase (got The Kubrick Collection for a net $5) Delivered. No tax or shipping. I couldn't find a total deal that good anywhere else.
The picture quality (through S connector) is just fantastic, after tweaking the TV with Video Essentials. The sound is nice but I don't have a Dolby receiver yet. Next! Also next is a projection TV with component in, most likely the Toshiba TP61H60. Unlike a previous comment I think the color output from the 3109 is fantastic, could he have a defective unit? I've had LD players for over 15 years and this is my first DVD and I'm totally blown away by the quality of content. The only negative about this unit, and why I downed it a point is the remote. I saw the 3108 remote and am very sorry Toshiba chose not to make the 3109 a successor to the 3108 and keep that remote or an upgrade from it. The included remote "glows" but is not back lit, and has no jog shuttle. My Pioneed LD player has a jog and I really like it when you want to get down to frame detail. Well, maybe my next player in a few years. Other than that it's a joy, and I do reccomend it. The dual disk and HDCD capabilities are quite a nice bonus. I have a few HDCD CDs and they sound quite rich.

Overall Rating: 9
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Toshiba SD-3109
I purchased this unit back in May (2 months ago) and took it in for repair today. Player began pixellizing during the middle of a rental (Civil Action) and eventually froze. Upon trying to replay the disc, nothing happened. Then when I ejected and resinserted the disc, the platter displayed "Loading," followed by "Insert Disc/No Disc." Same thing happened when I tried to play several discs from my own collection. No problems, except for some minor pixallization during a couple of rental playbacks (scratches?), prior to this major breakdown.

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Toshiba SD-3109

I purchased this model from an internet vendor for $309, and with shipping and handling it came to $320. Overall I think that it was well worth the money.

The component input gives the picture an especially nice touch. Of course you need a component input compatible TV to use this feature.

Overall Rating: 9
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Toshiba SD-3109
I compared a number of DVD players and this player produced, by far, the best picture I have ever seen. The 3109's picture is crisp, clear, almost life like with no digital artifacts. The color has to be the most vivid of any DVD player on the market. In my opinion it blows away Sony's top of the line DVD model.

Overall Rating: 10
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Toshiba SD-3109
No sound on forward scan mode

Overall Rating: 9
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Toshiba SD-3109
Go for Sony's if you want better picture quality. Returned two of them with lip sync problem. Poor decompression.

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Toshiba SD-3109
I've had this player for almost 4 months, after originally buying the 2109 i decided to get the upgrade to the 3109 and i love it. I've had no problems with it at all, the quality of the picture and the sound is amazing! I have noticed a very very slight delay when changing chapters, this has only happened maybe 3 times over the course of 50++ movies or so.
I had also looked at the sony and denon dvd players but i feel i got the best machine possible, and this is coming from a man born with a Sony remote in hand!
k.

I highly recommend this unit!

Overall Rating: 10
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Toshiba SD-3109
Real nice player. Only problem / issue I have with this player is that you can't disable the zoom font, even if you disable the display.

Overall Rating: 9
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