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Toshiba SD 270E
by NotMyToothbrush
Everyone needs some sort of DVD player in their lounge for watching movies late at night. Commonly, this device is now a multi-function device such as a games console but there is still a market for a standalone DVD player. I believe that this DVD player is perfect within this market!
The design of the DVD player is great. It ... is a deep, slightly reflective, black colour and incredibly thin and sleek. It doesn't take up the TV stand that we have it on and as our TV stand is the same black, it matches very well with the design of the lounge.
Setup is as simple as most DVD players, simply plug it into both the wall and the TV via the cables provided and change the source on the TV to get started.
One the DVD is in, you can either navigate through menus using the provided remote control or you can use the action buttons on the front of the player. As menus are often pretty simple, I usually just use the buttons on the player whilst I am putting the DVD in. As you would expect, these buttons are very responsive and do not have issues whereby you press them and nothing happens like can happen with some remote controls. Saying that, the remote control does not have any responsiveness issues. I have had a couple of DVD players which can be awful to use with a remote as nothing gets recognised unless you are right next to the player, but the range of this remote is great, I can even be in another room (but with a clear view of the player) and it will still work perfectly fine.
An advantage of this DVD player over cheaper ones is that it has the ability to play DivX coded content (known as DivX codec content). DivX codecs can only be read by certain players as it requires a special licence to use as it is a commercial codec owned by Sony - despite this, DivX is surprisingly common and having a DVD player without this licence can mean that many of your DVDs, especially those filmed with home camcorders, will not play.
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Toshiba SD 1010
by broxi3781
Some years ago we bought a DVD recorder which just happened to have multi region playback. When my oldest stated taking an interest in cartoons - I found there was a huge selection of American movies and cartoon through Amazon. It started with a few Hotwheels DVDs but then we added Disney and more. By the time my youngest was born we had ... a fair collection of Region 1 DVDs, but this player was on its last legs. I found a cheap replacement at Asda, and the DVD collection continued to grow. Most importantly - all of our Teen Titan DVDs are American, as well as 2 How To Train Your Dragon films, Mario and Yoshi, The Penguins of Madagascar Zombie movie etc.. Since my youngest enjoys watching DVDs in bed, and he has a little DVD set up in his bottom bunk, I began searching for a multi region DVD player, but I'm afraid most are quite expensive. I bought this for two reasons only. It plays region one and region 2 DVDs and it was only £16 including delivery from ebay.
If you are only looking for a dvd player to play region 2 DVDs - do not even consider this player. It does not represent good value for money for this purpose. A new Toshiba SD 1010 from Amazon will cost you over £70, while a refurbished one may come in closer to £30. Ebay does have a good number of refurbished models available from only £18 now, which is still quite good for multi-region, but not for region 2 only. You can but a better, smaller, DVD player brand new from Argos, Tesco or many other outlets for less than this - with a remote.
Many of the Toshiba SD 1010's on ebay are being sold without the remote - and the remote is apt to cost almost as much the machine ( £9.95 - £11.95 from ebay). My son's player does not have a remote - and there is no fast forward, rewind, skip etc on the dvd player itself. This means the DVD player can only be used to watch a DVD straight through. The only buttons on this player are power, stop, play and eject. The addition of fast forward and rewind would have made this a much better product , but my son is only 4 - he can live without it, and in all honesty another remote in his room is another thing to go missing and me to have to search for.
According to the Amazon site this player will play "DVD-ROM,DVD-R,DVD+R,DVD-R DL,DVD+RDL,DVD-RW,DVD+RW,DVD+RWL,DVD Video,Divx,MP3,Jpeg,Video CD,SVCD". I'm afraid I don't even know what most of these are. I have played only region 1 and region 2 DVDs in this. I have never played a DVD-R, MP3, Home made or copied DVD so I can not say if these really work or not, but I did notice before buying this some reviewers had problems with DVD-R. As this wasn't an issue for me - I didn't worry about it.
Play back on this machine is average. It is not brilliant. It certainly does not have the same sharpness and definition that my upscaling HD Blu Ray player has,nor does it have the same richness of sound. But when I consider that this is used only for older animated series it is certainly adequate. I feel that if I wanted to use this player for something like concert DVDs I would be dissapointed, but the sound quality is fine for Teen Titans or Super Mario Brothers. This is also being used on a 16" flat screen TV, and with such a small screen - you won't notice any problems in resolution. As far as quality I would rate this as exactly the same as an Asda or Tesco machine.
It is quite a bit larger though. My Asda DVD player is a little tiny thing this is 12.5" inches long, 8" wide and 1 3/4" inches high by my measurements. ( please note measurements made with a ruler so may be slightly off - my son has lost my tape measure again) It is a big heavy thing compared to modern DVD players. This is a good thing for me. It sits very nicely on a shelf in my son's bunk area and is very well balanced and heavy enough to not fall down easily. I also like the fact that the door seems extremely sturdy and well made as children are not always the most gentle in loading and unloading DVDs. Overall, this a big but solid and well made machine. If I wanted this in my front room though, this would be too big as I already have a PS3 and Virgin + box taking up room in a small cabinet.
Another possible issue with this machine is that it is often sold as multi region - but depending on where you buy it - this may or may not be the case out of the box. The specs with amazon say this plays NTHC ( region 1 - American) and PAL.. However Amazon also has a disclaimer saying "Blu-ray players and DVD players sold by Amazon.co.uk play UK (Region Two) Blu-ray discs and DVDs only. Discs from other regions will not play on these products. " This isn't always true of Amazon Marketplace - so it just depends what seller you buy this from. I would not buy this with out verifying through the seller that this will play Region 1. However - if you happen to get a model with a remote - you are meant to be able to make it multi region by typing in a code - but this is meant to be the case with many DVD players and I didn't want to buy one I might not be able to make work.
Do you need multi-region? A lot has been made about the fact the DVDs are much cheaper in the USA, and by buying a multi-region DVD player, you might be bale to save a bundle on movie purchases. I suppose it depends on where you buy from them - but in my experience, most of the time this is not the case. By the time you pay shipping charges the savings are often minimal - although you may be able to get a better deal if buy several at once. On average I would spend £8 for an animated DVD which - if anything is slightly more than I would spend here, but there have been a few exceptions, most often when someone here is offering a region 1 DVD on ebay and the fact that most DVDs players will not play it means it gets few bids. The only reason I would pay the extra money for multi region is the fact that many DVDs are never released in the UK. If you like older programmes, or children's cartoons, American may be the only way to buy them. We bought the first Hotwheels DVD in region 2 , but the others were never released here, and the Teen titans DVDs alone make this machine worth buying in my opinion. We like the old Mario cartoons as well. In my opinion, the only reason to pay for multi-region is if you want to watch different and unusual programmes.
I am quite happy with this machine, it isn't perfect, but it suits the task I purchased it for very well. At the time of purchase, the next closest in price for a DVD player was £32 for another player without a remote or nearly £70 for one with, so this was very good value for money. At the moment though - Tesco has the newer version of this , the Toshiba SD3010 multi-region for a stunning £35. The newer model has HDMI upscaling and of course would include the remote - so I would jump at this one. The machine itself appears identical - it is the same casing just different insides. Assuming the sale is over by the time you read this - I would buy this again only at the right price. I would pay up to £20 without a remote or perhaps £35 with a remote. Anything more than that and I would choose a newer model.
* like most DVD players you will need a scart cable to connect this - or if buying the newer TOSHIBA SD3010 a HDMI lead for best results.
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