Easy to Use – Clean Layout – But For the Budget Conscious

Author's Rating:

Pros: Easy to use and setup, not very expensive

Cons: Not as good as the DVP-NS425P in removing artifacts

The Bottom Line: 
Only for those looking for a decent player with a budget in mind

Author's Review
Finding a DVD player for cheap is not hard to do, but with that cheap price comes a cheap product. Finding an inexpensive DVD player with enough features to make most happy is not necessarily that easy of a task either. Toshiba has come up with a design that most will find attractive; the SD-3950. This unit in whole is a very simple design based on emerging technology. If ever you found yourself saying that “I want a DVD player that will do what I want it to do, but don’t want to spend $100 or more”, then look no further.

Format Capabilities

This player can support audio and video formats including DVD, DVD-R, VCD, most CD-R, and most CD-RW discs as well. (CD-R/CD-RW discs recorded by CD-DA method can be played back. Some CD-R/CD-RW discs may be incompatible due to laser pick-up and disc design. DVD-R discs recorded by DVD Video method can be played. Some DVD-R discs may be incompatible due to laser pick-up and disc design – As according to Toshiba.com) This player can also read normal CD’s, most MP3’s, and WMA encoded discs.

Progressive Scan

As with any good DVD player this player does have Progressive Scan. Progressive scan can only be viewed when using component video cables and a component cable television that can reproduce more than 500 lines of horizontal resolution.

Progressive scan is just a better way of displaying a picture. With this feature the picture should look more natural with less flicker and attention grabbing artifacts. This unit does good, but I should point out that theDVP-NS425 by Sony does a better job of removing artifacts that this player does.

Input / Outputs

Of course we cannot leave out the most important part of enjoying our DVD player, the connections. This unit has for video Component, S-Video and Analog Outputs and for Audio Coaxial and Analog. This is more than enough for the average user who will most likely be purchasing this unit

Setup

Setup has to be as simple as it can get. Just take the RCA red, white, and yellow cord out of the box, plug into the video in on the receiving television, plug into the DVD player and then plug the DVD player in. (Hint – Make sure that the television has power and in on). Then turn the DVD player on, put in the desired DVD to be watched, and press play. If you want you can change the settings under the menu, but for the most part you can leave the menu settings alone. Enjoy you DVD’s!