Toshiba SD-3950 Progressive Scan DVD Player

Got a good deal on this dvd player. Used this in the bedroom. Great for your bedroom TV setup and/or guest room. Expecting to watch full surround sound, with high def movie ... wouldn't be able to compete with top of line dvd players, but its good enough to watch "Friends" series in bed on the weekends.

The first one we bought was a real deal for the features, but it frequently wouldn't work--it would lock up. We'd have to unplug it, wait a few minutes, and plug it back in before it would play. Toshiba was apparently aware of the glitch. We returned it, got a replacement, and the replacement works great. Be sure you save the box until you're sure you won't need to return it!

I have had this player for a little over a year. I thought it was a great buy due to some good reviews and that it played many different "types" of movies. Well, low and behold, what I paid for is what I received. It pauses on many of my movies and shuts down. Right now, its not playing ANY of my movies. Not a good sign. I'm going to complain to amazon and the company who sold it through them. Buyer beware

(...) The price, toshiba brand name, and stylish design atrracted me to it. I have never had any problems with it -- owning it now for a full year. Nice picture, small and easy to use controller, and plays both regular dvds and my 'burned' dvds (dvd-r). If you can find a good deal on this player, go for it!

I purchased this DVD back in Aug. I moved in Oct that is when I started using it. It stopped working in Dec! I would put a store bought movie in and my screen would read unable to read disk. I bought this beacause of the name brand has a good reputation but I feel as if I would have been better off buying an off name brand.

I purchased this several months ago from Amazon after reading all the reviews -- including the ones that complained of pixellation and out-of-box failure. So I ordered this inexpensive unit with some reserve, and saved the box for months, thinking I might have to send it back.

But no. What I've found instead is that it reliably produces a stunningly-sharp, hi-def picture, and sends lovely, pure, unadulterated sound through to my surround receiver (Yamaha HTR-5650). I've got it hooked to a Toshiba 42" widescreen HD-ready RPTV (42H83), with Monster component video cables, and I feed it a fairly fatty diet of 3-4 DVDs every week. Not a pixel or a plip to be seen.

Of course, DVDs of movies made pre-HD-era won't look as good. Even this super-machine can't remove the grain from older discs.

The remote is a bit cheesy, not worthy of the sleek player, and the buttons can be inscrutable in the dim light of a home-theatre room. But that's a small quibble, considering the great value of this machine.

I purchased this when my MUCH-more-expensive Sony 5-disc DVD player died after just 14 months. The Sony will still play CDs, but I use it only as a "jukebox" when hosting dinner parties. When I want to play a single CD or CD-R, whether 80s pop, Linken Park, Joni Mitchell, a Mozart aria, or carpet-rumbling classical pipe-organ music, this Toshiba unit leaves my Sony whimpering in tail-dragging shame.

This is an amazing value, an absolute must-buy. Already have a DVD player in your family room? Buy this for your bedroom...and switch them when you get the chance.

As cheap as this player is it holds it's own with the more expensive ones! I have another Toshiba that wasnt bad and a Panasonic which was VERY expensive and this one is VERY well made! The features are great and I have had NO problems with it. Yes the remote needs to be aimed at the player but HOW LAZY are people to gripe about this? What you can't AIM it at the player? The player is a Diamond in the rough....You can't go wrong with Toshiba!

After reading the reviews, some of which were pretty negative, I still bought the Toshiba Sd3950...hey, it was in my budget. It hooked up immediately (even for a non-technophile), started playing beautifully. I like my electronics simple to operate and work without problems. This DVD player has given me all that. No sound problems, no problems with the remote, no problems period. My experience has been A-OK and I would buy this item again.

I purchased SD-3950 from Amazon.com about 5 months ago and I used it with a new Sony HD TV set. It was very easy to setup and operate. So far no problem at all. It can read minor damaged DVDs that my other DVD player can't read. The picture quality is good but I have no chance to compare with other progressive scan DVD player yet. The olny thing I don't like is when you use fast forward, it doesn't show you a smooth fast forward, but it jumps forward. Overall, it is a cheap DVD player (I paid for under $40 after rebate) with pretty good quality for me.

I Just read some reviews in professional audio forum, and many of them said this player can provide the HI-FI stander music source, and even marked this one as the best choice of CD resorce under the $600. I bought one, and found it is true it can produce very clean music.
However, when I tried DVD, the color was diffused. I just called AMAZON to make the replacement. after several days waiting, I got my second 3950, the audio is even better than the first one. Again putting the dvd in, it finally give the DVD quality color, however 20 minutes later, the same problem of color diffussing was appearing.
I dont have more time and energy to change this machine.
Anyhow, I still give this machine for 4 star, because I just bought it as the CD-player, and its audio along do deserve its price.

It works fine as a DVD player, no complaints. As a CD player, it's been a very nice surprise, indeed. The sound quality is substantially better (using the analog output of the Toshiba 3950) with this cheap DVD player than I get running a digital feed directly into my Harman Kardon receiver. There are some significant ergonomic issues with using it as a CD player, including the fact that the display doesn't show the track number. I just hope that I don't have the breakdown problems that some other folks seem to be having.

This unit is my 3rd Toshiba DVD Player and definitely the best one thus far. Easy set-up, great remote and crystal clear picture.

At this price, why buy anything else?

I have had 3 Toshiba players,including this one and 2 were DOA and after replacement from Toshiba, none have lasted for 2 years. Even at this price it isn't worth having a player that works one day and is garbage the next day.

The first player I bought was Dead On Arrival.
Contacted Amazon, they sent me a replacement - free shipping BOTH WAYS! Besides the replacement unit, I have another SD-3950. Both work great!

It reads all my custom-burned CDs (incl. CD-RW - VCD & MP3), DVD (DVD-R). No SVCD, though.

I am buying another one.

(RE: Alex from Bel Air)
I do not own the toshiba DVD player but would like to suggest something you may want to try. Since you are connecting to the TV audio (2 channels in most cases) without an extra audio receiver. You may want to disable the Dolby Digital or DTS function from the player while playing back. Both function separate sound into 5/6 channels but you are only playing 2 out of the 5. Hope that helps.

I originally purchased a Toshiba SD-1200 back in 2000. It had excellent playback and audio, but it finally died in 2003. It still plays cds, but it is unable to read DVDs. I chalked this up to 3 years of heavy use. Satisfied with the performance of the first Toshiba, I bought an SD-3900 to replace it. Now, a little after a year(and out of warranty), the second Toshiba is struggling in the same manner to start DVDs and access certain menu items. I have also experienced "trapped" DVDs that lock out the controls and force me to unplug the player. Some cds malfunction on the player as well. The cd begins to play, the index numbers start to jumble, and the sound stops. Very strange. I have kept the player more or less dust free and regularly used a lens cleaner, so it has been reasonably maintained. I am just going to avoid Toshiba DVD players from now on.

I bought this player for our bedroom, to entertain my husband while he was recuperating. I has seen a similar one at Costco, but this was a little cheaper and the free Super Saver shipping delivered it to my door in 2 days! It was easy to hook up with our Sony flat screen TV. Works perfectly. We've watched DVDs and photo CDs. The best surprise was how well it plays music CDs and mp3's. I don't know much about how audio works, so maybe the TV is why it sounds so good. Anyway, my husband no longer feels like we need to buy a sound system for the bedroom. So, I got a great DVD player at a great price, and saved on buying any other equipment! Highly recommend this one!

I was kind of skeptical after reading all the reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised. It works very well, the sound is great and it has a lot of functions you can play around with. After the rebate you couldn't really find a brand name DVD player in this price.

The Toshiba SD3950 has all the add-ons a basic DVD player owner could want. A very nice remote control, Auto-play for both DVD's and audio cd's (also autoplays Mp3's), very easy set-up...just plug in and let'er rip. That is where the niceties end.
The Toshiba SD3950 has terrible audio, primarily on Mp3 and CD playback. The sound is distorted, it's as though the outputs are overdriven. Audio on DVD's is not all that great either. You can set up the audio to hear dialogue using the audio settings, but you sacrifice overall audio quality, this because the player raises mid-range and nearly ignores other frequencies. Thus overall audio quality is sacrificed so you can hear dialogue you may not be able to hear otherwise.
Bottom line: NICE features, NICE Remote, VERY,VERY POOR audio!!!

I purchased this DVD player at Best Buy and was thoroughly impressed with the quality. Loved the remote control. The next day I went to watch another movie and the player would not even turn on. No power at all. I had only watched ONE movie on it before it broke. I took it back to Best Buy and they refunded my money and tried to get me to upgrade to the SD-3960 for $10 more!! Needless to say I was disappointed.

Great price,but had nothing but problems 1st time i used it no sound turned off the power restart it works fine,next dvd froze pushed all buttons even the power no response had to unplug the unit to get it to stop.did this on every other dvd i tried. Called toshiba was told to send it to them and they would replace it they sent me back model#sd-3960 it works fine,so i would aviod this model and get the new one sd-3960 i see amazon has it on sale too.

I bought and tested this unit. In simple terms, my two year old DVD player read my disks better than this unit. Needless to say I returned it.

i got the 3960 , someone wrote that the audio on 3950 isn't great, there is an EAM button and has 3 choices - normal,3D and dialogue. Choose the dialogue , the audio boosts up. don't know however if this feature is there on 3950

I'm guessing this price is LOW for a reason......I purchased this DVD player last November (a Christmas present). It operated beautifully: Clear picture; easy to follow instructions; sleak design; yada yada yada. I even threw out the box after destroying it to retrieve the UPC labels for the rebate -- something I don't normally do! I have used it on a daily basis to play my children's favorite DVD: "Schoolhouse Rock." You can imagine my frustration and disbelief by the fact that since 03/13/04, the darn machine refuses to display a picture!!!! Yes, I have contacted Toshiba's tech support, who were quite helpful. But their suggestions for fixing the problem have been unsuccessful. I could take it in for service; but it just wouldn't be worth it to travel 20+ miles to get this sucker fixed. Now I'm stuck with a useless DVD player, and two confused little guys who want their "Schoolhouse Rock" :-( My advise is to save your money. Spend the extra $$$ to purchase a better model/brand! And, by all means SAVE YOUR BOX! :-)

I bought this as a bedroom-only DVD player and am pleased with the picture quality. It's connected to a Toshiba 20" flat screen and the video image is wonderful. On first connection, there were strange pauses, but that never happened after setup was done. My only concern is that the volume does not go very high when playing. There is no receiver (it's a DVD to TV connection), and when I put the TV volume to full, the audio is hardly at high volume. I connected component video cables to the TV for stellar video reproduction and used the cheap in-box cables for the audio connection. It's somewhat irritating to play a movie at full volume and have it sound a notch above a whisper. If anyone has any possible solutions, please comment.

Great dvd player. Looks nice, very slim, very light, alright remote control. Yhe only draw back is the "forward and backward scan" buttons or the same as "next chapter" buttons.

Forget the video capabilities. Haven't even tried to watch a viddy on this thing. Been too busy listening to cd's. There is a web buzz on this thing being an incredible bargain as far as it's sound on cd's. The buzz is right and no one will believe how good it sounds unless they plunk down their cash and take one home and plug it in. I am dumbfounded. How in the hell did Toshiba make this little silver box produce the sound it does. Jazz, female vocals, piano, rock-n-roll, metal all sound great on the 3950. I have a $10,000 digital front end to compare this to and I'm not selling either one but the only place this little $70 box falls short is on the most intricate details. You don't get to hear all the way into the music but you get incredibly close. This thing sings right out of the box. I have been playing it all day and am just stunned.

This DVD player failed to perform right out of the box and is now on its way back to amazon. I have always preferred Toshiba video products and this is my first bad experience with them. I tried this unit with three different DVDs from Netflix. All experienced long periods (i.e. minutes) without any video output and when there was a signal it was often shifted to red. All three DVDs played without a problem in my older Toshiba player. There's a reason this model is so inexpensive. My suggestion is that you look elseware.

I read the customer reviews at Amazon.com for this unit. It seems that heat has been a problem. I bought it anyway because I had an SD1600 that played very well. I am hearing impaired, and wanted the dialogue enhanced feature, so I bought it anyway and gave the old one to one of my children. I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought an expandable towel rack. It straddles my DVD player and raises the cable box about 5 inches above the DVD player. It has performed flawlessly since Jan. 18, 2004. The dialogue enhancement was worth it. My son made a DVD-R and brought it over. Again, perfection. I have played almost everything on this unit. No problems. Just to keep everyone informed, I am still very happy as of March 3, 2004
No April Fools Joke. Still working great as of today.

I just picked this up from Future shop (Van, BC). Anyways, took it home. I was impressed in regards to the features, and the menu. I popped in Matrix Reloaded, and 45 mins through, the machine stopped playing. I couldn't get it to respond, nothing nadda. So I opened the dvd bay and popped in another disc, wouldn't even recognize it.

Went and found a review someone mentioned having to turn it off for 5 minutes to get it to work again, what a load! I tried that, and then put in another dvd, got 13 seconds in and it stopped again.

Won't read CD's, DVD's anymore, just stopped. And I just bought the thing two hours ago new!

All I can say is that, if you're lucky, you'll get a good working product, but we shouldn't have to be 'lucky' just to get a WORKING product!

I am pretty irritated, and will take it back tommorow.

I threw some Imation & Memorex DVD+R's in this unit and they all played w/o a problem. The picture seems very clear; the on-screen menu is easy to follow and I'd recommend this unit to anyone.

This player does not play all of the discs that Toshiba claims to. DVD+R/RW, definitely not, DVD-R/RW and photo CDs, some but not all. It is just fustrating!! Is it that difficult for Toshiba to have a player that plays all discs? Sony, Panasonic and even those cheap players can do it. Toshiba should be too. From now on, I will avoid Toshiba DVD products. Their new DVD recorder seems to be a good product (which can use DVD-RW) on paper, but based on my experience with this 3950, I think I will look at Pioneer instead.

I returned this player because although it was advertized on this site (and Toshiba's) as having an optical digital audio output AND coaxial, all it has is a coaxial output. I've seen others mention this in ratings, but as of the writing of this review neither Amazon nor Toshiba has corrected its specs on this unit.

Otherwise, it is an excellent product, producing a beautiful progressive scan picture through its component video outputs. It also offers some of the small things you can appreciate, like remembering where it was stopped so you can resume later where you left off on a disc. The onscreen menus are simple yet comprehensive. The mp3/wma audio cd playback (and the jpg picture viewer) work well, but have some restrictive naming requirements for the files - make sure to read the manual.

If it had had an optical audio output, I'd still have this player and be completely satisfied with its capabilities.

We got this for Christmas because it had so many features for a relatively low price, and had good reviews. Unfortunately, within a couple of days--after, sadly, we'd trashed the packaging--it began locking up on us. Turn it on, load a DVD, and suddenly it won't play, won't eject the disc tray, won't do anything. Toshiba said we needed to unplug it for five minutes and it would reset itself and work. Turns out that does the trick, but it's very annoying to have to keep doing it most of the time we want to play DVDs. Perhaps it's an unusual glitch and you'll have better luck, but Toshiba had heard of the problem. Save your packaging, just in case!

Basically, I finally broke down and bought a DVD player because Teh PS2 was choppy, and I was tired of Getting up from my couch to control the DVD playing software on teh Computer. With that being said, I decided to purchase a cheap DVD player just for the heck of it. As for teh quality of the equipment, I have a mixed review.

The Good:
1. It comes chock full of features
2. Progressive Scan
3. Multiple Formats including MP3, VCD, etc.
4. The Price

The Bad:
1. The Control is hammy. The buttons are tiny, (Could also use a backlight).

The UGLY:
1. This is the type of equipment that doesn't tolerate heat well. This means that if you do not want your pictures to pixilate, or video to freeze totally, You MUST NOT HAVE ANYTHING SITTING ON TOP OF IT. To the touch, the unit's cabinet feels hot to the touch on the top for the entire surface. If there is nothing on top of it, the unit works fine.

I have the British version of this DVD player; it is identical in every way other than one. We are given a multi-region option so that we can play DVD's from all over the world. Pretty good huh?

Anyway, I can honestly say this player is excellent value for money, does the word cheap and cheerful spring to mind?

Despite being cheap and cheerful however, this DVD player is attractive to look at, is almost all singing, all dancing, you can play most things on it from MP3s to VCDs as well as frightening your family with those old photos you have scanned onto a disc. I did that recently, I don't think my mother has forgiven for the photo I showed to the world of her in her 1970s garb, along with the BIG hairstyle!

The DVDs play crisp and clear, the instruction manual is dead easy to use, an equally easy set-up, I'm no expert and I'm in a wheelchair but I got it up and running with the minimum of fuss. The handset is nice and compact nothing looks shoddy, in fact I think it looks better than some of those expensive models that you see in shops, this is a real budget model, so cost friendly you can afford to give it as a present which I think is pretty cool!

A very good buy, and for once the adage if you pay peanuts you get monkeys is totally not relevant!

I have always favored Toshiba DVD players over all others, mainly due to their superior black reproduction. Black level expansion and PLUGE realy make a difference on any TV. The dialogue enhancer on this model is very effective, and the ability to play just about anything you throw in it is fantastic. You can pay more for a player, but I doubt you would get one significantly better than this.

I considered purchasing one of the off brand DVD players but decided to spend the extra $20 and get this one. I've had a couple of 4 year old KLH units which have been marginal (although worth what I paid) and decided to go with the Toshiba based on features and mostly positive reviews. I'm very pleased with it so far. It plays everything I have thrown at it including DVD+R and CD-R. One thing that I couldn't find mentioned anywhere is whether there was a random play mode for mp3's. Turns out that there is. This is a really nice feature which many cheap units don't offer.

I agree this is a good player for the price. Setup is quick and easy. My biggest complaint is that it lacks a digital optical output even though the technical description lists it as available. I contacted Amazon about this error in 11/03, and still no correction has been made to the description.

I've owned two Toshiba DVD players before, and have generally been happy with them. But this one arrived damaged (vertical bands of "snow" on the screen when playing DVD or DVD-R media).

According to the description, this player is said to have an optical audio out. It does NOT! I have contacted Amazon twice about this. Perhaps they will edit the information.

Sunday, December 14, 2003
I have a HD front projector with an 8'screen. It is easy to separate DVD players that play good or not on this big screen and I must say I do see every little fault that you would not see on a small television. My daughter always says to me "Dad, you're not watching the movies you're watching the pixels".
At any rate I've tried the JVC XV-N44SL and I must say it's terrible for NO player should stutter on panning and this applies to the XV-N55 as reported by Zdnet review. Same problem indicating this is a common problem to most JVC players. Simply unacceptable in this day and age.
I've also returned the Sony 725P for my projector would do a better de-interlacing than this player. So I went for a more expensive player and bought the Yamaha 5650. The initial impression was very good however the progressive scan in darker movies was the one that killed the feeling of an excellent player. No matter how I've tried to adjust the darker scenes, due to the fact there is no black level expansion the picture was just too soft and washed out. The remote is very small and cramped; I kept hitting the wrong buttons all the time. For a more expensive player this clearly is not good. So I've bought my last player the Toshiba SD-3950 and wow, for less than halve the price of Yamaha, I now have 3:2 pull down, black level expansion and perfect dark scenes to boot. Now some people might say it has the chroma bug (maybe yes and maybe no I just didn't test it yet), it's only a flag reader or something like that, but I say my eyes don't lie,
I like what I see and this is the best so far. I give it 5 stars for the remote is excellent, picture quality awesome and a very low price.

I bought this unit for the mp3 and jpeg capability. I have a 2 year old Pioneer that played all my home made dvd's and vcd's but didn't have the mp3 or jpeg features. To my dismay this unit will not play my vcd's. The owner's manual says it plays vcd's but it won't. I haven't tried mp3 cd's yet and some photos on a disc were skipped over, I'm not sure why. Dvd's played well- picture and sound were fine. Home made Dvd's were fine too. If you are not interested in vcd then add another star.

Toshiba makes top-notch DVD players with an excellent reputation for outstanding performance as well as quality and reliability. The SD-3950 has these desirable characteristics plus component video output for better picture quality and progressive scan technology for compatibility with HDTVs, all at a bargain price. You may not have an HDTV yet but you probably will have one within a year or two, so why not be prepared with a progressive scan DVD player when you can get one this good at such a low price? And the component video output will improve the picture quality even on non-HDTVs. This player is an outstanding performer at a terrific price.

My Toshiba SD-3950 was DOA out of the box. Bought at Fry's Electronics (not Amazon). In the process of working with Toshiba for a replacement unit. It's a hassle. Beware.

ANOTHER WINNER FROM TOSHIBA. THE J-PEG VIEWER IS A GREAT FEATURE AND THE LOOK OF THIS UNIT IS HOT. OVERALL, I GIVE THIS UNIT A 10.