Buy Toshiba SD4700 Progressive-Scan DVD PlayerToshiba SD4700 Progressive-Scan DVD Player Product Description:
- Super ColorStream Pro progressive-scan component-video outputs (deliver stunning visuals on HD-ready TVs)
- DVD-Video/DVD-Audio/CD/video CD/CD-R/DVD-R compatible (also displays CD and DVD Text)
- 24-bit, 192 kHz high-resolution, multi-channel DVD-Audio decoding and playback (for unparalleled realism and immersive music mixes)
- Video black-level expansion and PLUGE (for optimizing theater-like conditions in your home)
- Aspect ratio control and NAVI menu simplify setup and picture adjustments
Product Description
CONSUMER ALERT: This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009 to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the U.S.'s transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products. For more information, call the Federal Communications Commission at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY: 1-888-835-5322), or visit the commission's digital-television Web site at: htttp://www.dtv.gov.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
92 of 92 people found the following review helpful.
This is a very good player!
By A Customer
This player packs a lot of value into a relatively well priced package. On average, for a few more bucks than it's main competition (ehem...Panasonic, etc.), not only do you get progressive scan and CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3 playback but this unit also includes DVD-Audio, which delivers amazing sounding 24-bit 96KHz audio on 6 channels (or 2 if you prefer). It just kills regular CD audio. Toshiba's Colorstream Pro progressive picture on my Toshiba 43H70 TV (high def progressive rear projection) is as good as it gets for picture quality in this price range. No aliasing or artifacts, rich and detailed picture. Add optical, coax, and 5.1 outputs (all gold plated) plus component out (of course) plus cool looks (blue LED, scrolling + fading matrix display, cool navi menu, etc.) and you have an awsome player that people will drool over. Best in class for the money.
111 of 114 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent player with some minor problems
By Alon Yaffe
I purchased the SD-4700 mainly for its progressive scan feature and I must say that it does make a big difference. I'm using this player with a Philips digital widescreen HDTV (32" tube) and, finally, I'm starting to see the full potential of the DVD format. Some people may argue that since a lot of new TVs (especially HDTVs) are equipped with high quality line doublers, you get all the benefits of progressive scanning directly from your TV, but at least in my case, the SD-4700 does a much better job than Philips' own "Natural Motion" technology in presenting progressive output while still maintaining that "film quality" of the... err... film :)
The remote control is a lot easier to use than previous Toshiba models and provides very easy access to all the features you may need during playback (e.g. subtitles, audio and angle selection). It also contains a rather large joystick that makes it very easy to navigate menus. Also worth mentioning is the fact that all the controls are also available on the player itself. Very useful for these times when you accidentally "misplace" the remote.
As for the supported formats, I had no problems playing DVDs, VCDs, music CDs & CDRs and MP3 CDRs. The MP3 support is very basic and has some quirks. For example, I still can't really understand how the player determines the order of tracks. Seems a bit random to me but there must be a logical explanation here :). Anyway, the feature actually does work, the overall sound quality is good and that's what counts. I haven't tested the player with DVD Audio discs yet so I can neither confirm nor deny the problems reported in other reviews.
Now for the kinks, which are minor but still prevent this player from getting 5 stars:
1. Some widescreen HDTVs (my Philips among them) do not allow the user to manually set the aspect ratio for progressive signals. This means that you may get just a little bit frustrated when you play widescreen, NON-anamorphic DVDs ("letterboxed" -- where the "black bars" are coded into the frame to make it display correctly on 4:3 TVs). Your options with these DVDs are to either watch them letterboxed in a rather small 4:3 viewing area (annoying!), have the SD-4700 stretch them to 16:9 (annoying because it will mess up the aspect ratio) or use the zoom feature of the player to try and get the optimal picture (frustrating but doable). What this player really needs is a smart zoom feature that removes the black bars and scales the picture to fit the screen (like most widescreen TVs have) but I guess you just can't get it all. That said, since most new DVDs are anamorphic (contain no black bars and therefore always displayed in the correct aspect ratio), this can be considered a minor inconvenience.
2. The player has some problems displaying menu items in 4:3 progressive mode: highlighted menu items sometimes get totally messed up. This doesn't happen with native 16:9 DVDs or when you set the player to stretch everything to 16:9, so it's not really that big of a deal.
3. Pixel cropping - I think this player crops almost half an inch off the bottom of your picture (I made sure this was not a problem with my TV not being properly aligned). According to the AVIA test signals I used, over 25 pixels were cropped out and that's considered a little too much. Still, I guess many people wouldn't notice this glitch because their TVs are probably cropping so much more... :).
All in all, I am very pleased with this player. You really do get a lot for your money here! Sure, there are a few kinks but they are not horrible (unless you are a non-compromising videophile). If you have an HDTV, you really owe it to yourself to get a progressive scan DVD player, and this is probably one of the better (and cheaper) ones out there.
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful.A MUST HAVE DVD PLAYER
By A Customer
In my opion, i think this is the best DVD player on the market for this year. It supports all formats, dvd-audio, mp3 and progressive scan at the price (...). The picture is amazing. DVD-audio is excellent. Just like you are sitting right in the middle of the real concert. The remote is very useful and easy to use. You can't ask anymore from this DVD player.
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