Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player

I bought this when I couldn't afford much more. It worked okay, but it has with it several annoyances.

First of all, when ever there is a flash of bright light during a movie like an explosion or a quick change of image, the screen flickers. This doesn't happen during regular TV programming. It's rather annoying to have the screen flicker during action sequences so many times. Or when there are flashes of images during an intense scene.

Then there is the chirping. This DVD play emits a loud and high pitch noise as it plays dvds. Sometimes I can tap it to make it softer, but it's still really annoying.

Another thing is that it takes a long time to eject a DVD. It takes so long, and I end up pushing it again to see if it works, then it ejects and pulls back in and I have to wait again.

Don't buy this, it's really annoying.

Given another chance, I would gladly go back and spend the extra $20-30 for a quality DVD player. I quickly began to suspect poor workmanship when I first turned the player on and it told me "no" instead of "on," a small issue but a sign of things to come. It struggles to pick up the signal from the remote, often requiring several attempts for any command, and then takes hesitates for several seconds before responding. The information given on the small screen is limited and not terribly helpful. Also there are no arrow buttons on the actual DVD player so if you lose the remote and Your DVD's menu doesn't start on the "play movie" option, you're out of luck.

Just after a few months of owning it I ran into the same audio-dying problem that others have run into, and then it was totally worthless. WTF? Not only that, but also from the day I got it this thing it has never once had the ability to remember the last place I was watching. As soon as I hit stop or turn the unit off, all memory gets lost and the next time I hit Play I'm forced to start all over again from the very beginning of the DVD. I trashed and replaced this thing with a Sony and have been very happy ever since.

I bought this thing because I have another Toshiba DVD player (SD-3750) which is a very good DVD player. Unfortunately the 3960 is a terrible DVD player. Even when it worked it was very slow at starting up, seeking, and starting the movie. It quit working about a year after I bought it, specifically the svideo output quit, the audio quit, and all I was left with was composite video out. Not sure about component because I didn't have a tv with that feature. The DVD player is now in the trash.

I am so completely disappointed with this product. I bought the Toshiba SD-3960 DVD player with "progressive scan" technology two years ago in an attempt to upgrade from my old Sony DVD player. I then foolishly gave my old reliable Sony DVD player to my sister as a gift, and I kept the new Toshiba for myself. What a huge mistake! 2 years later and the unit has never worked correctly.

Meanwhile, my sister watches more DVDs than I do and she's still using that same old Sony player I gave her when I foolishly attempted to upgrade to the Toshiba with "progressive scan." The Sony DVD player is three years older than the Toshiba, and it worked perfectly from day one. It still works perfectly to this day, and I am sitting here with this piece of junk Toshiba player that I can't even use anymore. This DVD player is total garbage. I am so tired of struggling to get this thing to work.

The most common problem I have with this player is that it will play about 3/4 of the DVD with only the occasional picture glitch or temporary freeze up, annoying but not a total deal breaker, but then after about the 3/4 point, it just keeps getting worse and worse until towards the end of the disc it won't even play at all. It constantly skips and freezes up, the sound starts making a digital helicopter noise, all distorted and choppy, the picture turns to pixels and finally it freezes and stops playing altogether. Then I just sit there while I listen to the disc drive inside trying to spin and then stopping, spinning then stopping, over and over again while the picture stays completely frozen and pixelated. If I try to replay the scene, it just does the same thing again. If I try to clean the lens with my DVD lens cleaning disc, there is no improvement. This machine is useless through and through. I am so disappointed in this product. I will never buy another piece of electronic equipment from Toshiba ever again. I should have known the $80 price tag was too good to be true. I should have stuck with a brand I trusted, good old reliable Sony. I will never buy a Toshiba product ever again.

I wish I had read the other reviews before I bought this, because just as others before me, the player lost sound after less than a year's use. It worked well before that. At least there are subtitles!

I would give this no stars if that was a choice. I know why this machine is no longer available. It is a lemon through and through. The audio died less than a year from the date of purchase. In addition. the remote is very difficult to operate - too many buttons and directions. My next DVD player will not be a Toshiba.

The player was working fine, no frills, but working. Then the audio just stopped. Video still plays fine but no audio. I have had two Toshiba DVD players fail on me now. Time to switch brands I guess...

Purchased in January 2005, manufacture date on back is Oct 2004. The unit actually played very nicely for a few months then on to the intermittent skipping others have reported. A few weeks back the audio completely dropped out. Probably will not be another Toshiba in this household.

I bought the Costco's version of this Toshiba model. The price is almost in the throw away zone because repair costs would probably equal its' value. We replaced our Panasonic player because of the dreaded "H07" error message...that wouldn't go away. The Toshiba worked great for about 3 months and then started skipping, freezing and stalling while playing. This is sometimes to be expected with rental or library dvds but even on good discs and when the discs were cleaned it would still freeze. The picture quality and sound were comparable to any dvd player, but when watching an exciting movie, it is really annoying to have everything come to a halt. This makes the natives..'children'..very restless. Not to say the adults. That was the only problems with the player. I didn't try a lens cleaning kit so not sure if that would have resolved the stalling, freezing issues.

Returned and purchased a Sony player, DVP-NS41P. So far much better but time will tell. There wasn't a great price difference, so it would appear that most manufacturers have their basic dvd players in the same ballpark.

Toshiba isn't a bad manufactured product..our Toshiba VHS player has worked without any problems. This is a basic plug and play dvd player with nothing special. It can be installed in a matter of minutes. Just plug, throw the batteries in the remote and watch away. It really would make a good kids room dvd player. One that you wouldn't worry too much about. Just watch out for them when they come hunting you to fix the freezing of their favorite movie.

When I bought this I wanted a simple, no frills DVD player. The store I bought it from had the unit on display, but not the remote.

There are two things about this player that I'm not thrilled with. The first is the remote. The arrow keys are in the middle of the remote -- which is fine. But the play and pause buttons are tiny and hard to find. The remote itself is pretty small, so the fact that the buttons are small isn't surprising. But I would have preferred a larger remote. Or one with a slight redesign to make it easier to use the most common buttons.

The other issue I have with this player is that it freezes. On perfect, brand new discs with no defects. It doesn't happen too frequently, but enough to be annoying. A "fast forward" followed by a "play" almost always fixes the freeze. Or a "rewind" then play. And it rarely if ever freezes again in the same spot. The exact same disc plays perfectly in my computer's DVD drive, so I have to blame the Toshiba player.

For the money, though, this is a decent player. Aside from the above mentioned quirks, it's been fairly reliable. I have had the player for a few months, and it has played some discs that I was sure were beyond hope (video rental places don't always have the highest quality discs). It does take a long time to open the tray after watching a movie (as mentioned in another review) but I've experienced plenty of worse treatment from electronic devices.

I was very disappointed to learn that I'd purchased this as a gift and when the person received it, it only worked for 2 days then quit.

I was however, very pleased that Toshiba responded to the broken item without question an replaced it (and upgraded it) free of charge. I would recommend doing business with Toshiba because their customer service is great. But unfortunately I cannot recommend this DVD player.

Well, in the last 2.5 years I have owned 3 DVD players: Panasonic, Sony, and now the subject Toshiba. Can't compute the fortune I've spent on DVDs, but what's the point if the players always conk out after only a few months???

In 1997 I purchased an RCA VHS player, and you know what? It's still going strong. Talk about getting my money's worth. Granted, the resolution on tapes is obviously not as sharp as the DVDs, but who cares anymore? What's the point in spending a ton of money on DVDs and then having to replace the players every 6 or 8 months? How distressing it is to be trying to watch a film on DVD and wondering when the image is going to either pixel or skip or freeze-frame or just stop altogether.

I'm thinking that these manufacturers are low-pricing the units to where the consumer says, "Well, it's not expensive." But we get what we pay for: a cheaply made, unsound and unreliable piece of equipment that gets trashed sooner than should be. And the manufacturers reap the benefits of re-purchases on players that probably only cost them $3.50 to build and ship.

My romance and fascination with DVDs and DVD players is O-V-E-R.

Bought this in Jan. From about week 2 it started having trouble reading ANY disc... new or old. It gets worse and worse. It's such a piece of junk that I don't even want it repaired! I could replace this unit with a dead cat and have the same functionality. Last Toshiba piece I ever buy.

What many people don't realize is that Toshiba switched the innards of this unit somewhere in 2004.

The high rating on the review website and CR were based on earlier units built around the Toshiba TC90602FG chipset. Then Toshiba in all their infinite wizdumb decided to completely rework this thing, changing the innards to a whole new setup using the Zoran Vaddis 6 chipset, and continue calling it by the same model number so no one could tell them apart.

The Vaddis 6 and variants are the chipsets found in the lowliest of low DVD players like the ones you see for $39 at WallyMart et al

You can not put any credence in those old reviews from players tested with the Toshiba chipset. You now know why the reviews are so lopsided. "I don't know how you could call this thing bad, it's wonderful!" and "Are you crazy? This thing is a pile of doodie!" are common on any review site.

Given the mid 2004 change date you will are almost assured of getting a Zoran chipset. Avoid.

After grinding slowly to a halt, my Toshiba SD-3960SU DVD Player is no longer working. For a while it would display the DVD menu and work if I pressed play, pause and then play again. But now it makes a lot of read/write noise and finally just stops all together with a frame frozen. It might work again, but this its definitely grinding to a slow and noisey death.

The quality controls at Toshibas DVD factory must be extremely low or not existent. I had 3 models breaking down in 4 month. The first one did the usual skipping and hanging up every 10 min or so, the exchange model stopped producing any picture after less than 2 month and the third one is now hardly playing any DVDs - new or used. It was a great disappointment and I can only discourage anybody to think about buying it regardless of features and price. A 29.90 $ model can not be worse.

This DVD player's performance has nothing to do with "setup" or using the "component" video outs. It basically lasted me 3 months and then stopped reading half the discs I stick in it whether they are new, old, owned or rented. My older Toshiba sd-2109 lasted 3 years and still works better this this sd-3960 does right now after only 3 months. For half the discs I put in it; the door takes forever to open, the motor makes strange sounds, it pauses constantly sometimes starting back up and sometimes not, or it just displays bad disk. For those of you that can't understand the bad reviews, count your blessings. You lucked out in a manufacturing process that is lacking quality control. Just because yours works doesn't mean 100% of them will. This player has an unually high failure and defect rate. It was a complete waste of $50.

I bought the Toshiba SD-3960 DVD player yesterday, replacing a 5-year-old low-end Panasonic player. I was amazed to find that this brand new Toshiba was a step backward in almost all aspects compared to the 5-year-old Panasonic. I've always bought Toshiba products (the Panasonic was a gift), because their products, until now, have always offered consistently excellent performance without the Sony "I'm special" price. This player is so bad that I will have to rethink my opinion of Toshiba, just based on this single product.

I have the player installed in a cabinet so I won't address heat or noise, but the unit is unusable as a movie player. It seems that every time that the DVD media changes titles within the disc, the player hesitates for about a second, show the "play" symbol. It is very distracting to try to watch a movie and have the player hiccup every 15 to 20 minutes.

Although I have a master learning remote, and so don't have to use the nasty little remote provided, it is a catastrophe in user interface design: The play/stop/pause are presented as if they are secondary controls, with the menu navigation arrows given precedence.

All in all, this player seems so poorly conceived that I will not bother to look for another Toshiba as a replacement. Toshiba has shot itself in the foot with this one.

I purchased this player about 6 months ago. At first it performed well. After a couple of months, it began to reject many new DVD's as containing disk errors. When I tried playing these on other players including other Toshiba 3960's, the disks played without difficulty. Since then, the problem has gotten worse with DVD's that used to play being rejected now as having disk errors. Sometimes they will play, sometimes they are rejected. Disks that are played will often freeze in the middle or show repeating skips. I realize that IF the player works, it must seem like quite a bargain. What I have experienced and what it appears many others have also experienced is that many of these players are defective and are no bargain at all.

I chose this model because it was recommended on several Internet audio forums for providing the best sound quality at such a rock-bottom price. In fact, it is used by referenceaudiomods dot com as the base model which they convert into a super high grade audiophile-quality CD player by adding in certain components!

I still have my trusty old Panasonic for watching movies, but I use this Toshiba for listening to CD music, and it does provide a really nice sound quality---more detailed but also warmer and more "alive" than most DVD players, which tend to sound kind of cold and closed with music.

Don't really understand what many other reviewers are complaining about, I've yet to have any problems with mine---Toshiba as I understand it is one of very few electronic manufacturers to NOT outsource their products, so they retain quality control over all of them. I've never had a problem with their laptops or TVs.

My 5-year-old Pioneer dvd-player recently died on me and I purchased this Toshiba model. It seemed to have all the features I wanted and looked like a decent player in the store. Did I make a mistake!
It is not at all user friendly. Like other reviewers stated, it takes forever for the tray to open, playback freezes often between chapters, it grinds more often than a beginner shifting a manual car and there is no display on the front of the player.
Furthermore, the remote is a royal pain to use. The design is horrible. I have had the player a week now and still can't find the buttons on it without an exhaustive search.
Also, compared to my last player, this model is really slow. It takes a rather long time for a dvd to initially load.
On a personal note, I also do not like the scan feature on it. My last player would scan until you released the button and then begin play again. On this model, once you hit the scan button, it goes into fast-forward or reverse mode until you press play again. I personnally find this annoying.

I am not at all happy with this player and it is going back to the store this afternoon.

This is by far the worst DVD player I have used

Takes at least 10 seconds to open the tray and to load it takes 30 seconds sometimes

Of the 20 DVD's I have tried to watch atleast 5-6 had to be played on a different player since this player worked as if I had put in a stone disc

i was able to watch only 2-3 movies without any skipping

VCD's are ruled out although claims are made
DVDs that are good on other players are termed as bad

It starts grinding when moving between chapters

i would reject this player outright even if it is offered for 4.99 instead of 49.99

Toshiba should stop selling this than wasting the postage money of the clients by sending another useless player

I used to really like Toshiba products, but not so much anymore. This DVD player has a lot of problems. I bought it off of Amazon and have had it for two weeks. With component cables hooked up, and sending in both 480i and 480p this player will flash the screen black when there are moments in movies with bright flashes, such as lightning or flash bulbs. Doesn't sound like it would happen often but it has happened in every movie I have watched on this player. Also, it will hang between chapters in about 1/2 the movies I've watched. I would really recommend purchasing another brand, spend a little more. I'm sending this one back to Toshiba and will purchase from another company. It's not worth the price.

I bought this DVD player during the Christmas Season and used it one time to play a full length movie, and a second time to play a 30 minute work out DVD. Then...All of my DVD's are "BAD."

This DVD player won't load/play any of my DVD's. Considering that I have to now contact Toshiba to repair my "new" DVD player bites.

This unit has played everything video I have put in it so far including DVD+R which is not listed as compatible. The picture is very good using the composite hook up, and incredible using the componet hook up. One minor flaw,the display shows only chapters and not time elapsed. You can press the display button on the remote and easily view time elapsed. I am using this strictly as a DVD player so I have no views on the audio. It is well worth the price even if just for movies.

First off, let me say that I own two Toshiba DVD players: this SD-3960 (one month) and an SD-1600 (four years). I love the 1600 but it all of a sudden has problems reading slightly scratched discs, so I got the 3960 as replacement. Only, now, I'm having more problems with the new 3960 than the old 1600!

Out of the box, the 3960 rejected 2 brand new DVD discs. Not a good sign! I've had numerous other problems (with both new and old DVD discs) including:
- complete freeze during playback
- obvious mpeg decoding artifacts during playback (the screen turns to multi-colored jibberish squares for a split-second, and if I "rewind" and replay the scene again, the jibberish is gone!)
- the Skip/Next button not working and instead freezing playback
- Play from menu not working (the screen goes blank, the unit's display shows the chapter number incrementing 1, 2, 3... etc.)

I've contacted Toshiba customer service and they are going to exchange my player for another one, at my expense for shipping costs. If possible, I'll update my review when I get it.

Needless to say, I'm seriously regreting the purchase of this DVD player. The MP3/CD playback works great, though.

UPDATE, March 2 2005: I received my replacement, except they sent me a completely different model! As such, I'm keeping my 1 star rating for this product and will rate the replacement product separately.

i did some research on this dvd player before buying. i checked out consumer reports and they recommended this model. i usually associate toshiba with high quality, but not this time. this dvd player will not play all region one dvds. i recieved 6 dvds for christmas and it would not recognize 3 of them. i found out that i am not the only one with this problem with this model. next it will not save the point you are at in a movie when you turn the power off. finally, the front panel display only shows the chapter number and not the time elapsed. the good points are that for the disk it plays it produces good sound and picture.

I bought this DVD player after my last one broke. I had my last one for 4 years and this one for less than 7 months. The player got very hot and it froze up. This was a consistant problem. I am shocked. I own several Toshiba products and this is the first to crap out like this. I am left with a very shotty warranty and no DVD player. Very sad.

Toshiba is a very reliable, good quality mfg. This progressive scan DVD player is PRICED to sell! Compared to the "no name" garbage that is on the market, you can't go wrong with this one...Plays everything you throw at it - MP3's , media files burned off the web, JPEG files, scratched DVD's...Great sound quality for CD's...Compact size...100X FF, Zoom, etc.Quiet transport. This is a WINNER! Best yet, [...]

I can't imagine why this DVD player has received several mediocre or bad reviews. I have one hooked up to my Toshiba 35AF44 TV and get a terrific picture with no problems. I can't imagine getting a better picture at any price, and the price for this unit is so low it's almost like getting it free. Perhaps some reviewers didn't hook their's up correctly or didn't perform the few simple set-up instructions. Anyhow, if you're looking for a very good major brand progressive scan DVD player at a bargain price please don't let a few unfavorable reviews scare you away from this terrific buy.

I purchased this player because it scored well on the benchmark tests at hometheaterhifi. They use objective technical standards for progressive scan players and rate them by traits (such as layer change time and pixel cropping). They use the same scene on the same disc for each individual benchmark and I thought this was a pretty sound way to measure a piece of consumer electronics. They were right.
My wife and I were early adopters of DVD technology and I got a dreadful Zenith way back in 1999. It worked - sort of, but didn't have seamless branching, a feature which allows interweaving of extra film (i.e. T2, The Abyss) into the theatrical release. The Zenith whirred, clanked and disturbingly clicked on occasion while rarely making it through a rental with even the faintest scuff. It really hampered our Netflix enjoyment. The new player works just fine after several movies my old player choked on. These include The Abyss, Time and Tide (a fun Asian action flick with poor transfer to DVD) and several diverse rentals for comparison. There was some pixilation on one rental, but it stopped my old player dead in its tracks and was fine after I cleaned the schmutz off the disc. Two weeks of use and not a whiff of problem - just solid if unspectacular performance.
The player has component outputs which allow high quality progressive scan images for progressive scan enabled TVs with compatible jacks. The image and sound are good and the layer transfer, although noticeable, is swift. The remote isn't terribly responsive, but I suspect this will improve once I replace the batteries that came in the box. The player is nice and quiet and the tray glides out silently (nice for when my 8 month old is sleeping) and only takes two seconds to open after pushing "open". The display on the player is rather lame - you can only see the chapter number. The on-screen display is quite nice with time elapsed and time remaining. I never thought this would matter, but simply love it now that I have it. The detailed on-screen display has everything and the kitchen sink, so I can deal with the lame player display.
I'm not a home theater owner, so this might not be great with a receiver, amp and surround sound - I simply wouldn't know. But for my needs - to watch movies without hassle and without going into credit card debt - this was a very good purchase.

Its amazing how good quality these inexpensive players are. I've always been happy with Toshiba electronics, and I'm thrilled with the slim design and easy-to-configure menus on the SD-3960SU DVD player. The price point is fantastic, it has the ability to play all of my computer files including MP3s, and it looks like its more expensive than it is. I love it.

I checked out Consumer Reports and Home Theater Hi Fi's DVD benchmark. This player gets higher marks than most players and does so at less money. Sure it may have quirks, but the image it displays is very good.

Perhaps some other reviewers didn't have it hooked up using the component (not composite) hook-ups?

This player does everything I expected when I finally decided on this model. It plays DVD movies with great picture quality, and plays home made DVDs as well. It will play DVD-R and DVD+RW with no problem, haven't yet tried other formats.

It also plays VCDs and mp3/wma CD-R and CD-RWs. The manual says only use 650 mb CD-R and don't use CD-RW, but 700 mb CD-R and CD-RW work just fine. Be careful with wma music file though. If a wma was made with Microsoft's copy protection, such as CDs ripped with Musicmatch, it won't play. You can pull up a display of song title from the music file name, it won't read id3 tags. It will read folders on mp3/wma discs and you can select random play from the play mode button on the remote.

Others have reported the player is noisy, and that it takes extra long to open the tray. I've experienced neither. Yes, there is no counter on the player display, but you can pull up the counter on screen by pressing the display button on the remote. It took a while to get used to the onscreen display, but after a couple of times of use, I actually liked it.

The remote could be a little better designed, but its certainly useable. But to me a remote is a remote, they all have too many buttons that you have to figure out. I'd never let a remote control be the deciding factor in a buying decision.

The setup menu on the player is very easy to use with great response.

Most reviews contain subjective comments regarding picture quality which to me makes the comments on picture quality not very useful. However, www.hometheaterhifi.com does very detailed objective testing of hundreds of players. For players under $200, this model ranked number 2 overall in picture quality. Please check it out for this model or any model you are considering.

Again, for the price, I think this player is a great bargain.

I didnt buy this, but rather won it at a company picnic. It is nice that it does mp3 and jpgs, but almost all players do now adays. what it lacks is, a good dvd player though. I seriously watched "the great outdoors", an classic comedy with not too much action, and several time the picture became pixelated because the player couldnt handle it. Half way through "mulholand drive" I took it out and put it in my old panasonic player (at least 3 years old) where it played perfectly. beyond that, it is slow at opening the door (not too big of a deal), has a terrible midget remote, and a display that doesnt show time elapsed or anything else. you can get a much better player for the money.

I have a much better player in my TV room but wanted a basic, inexpensive player for my bedroom. My only requirement was that it would play DVD's and not cost a fortune and, in that respect, my needs were completely met. The SD 3960 is cheap and it provides adequate picture and sound.

I seem to encounter a new side-effect every day, though. First of all: it's loud. It sounds like it's grinding pepper in there when it's got a disk in its mouth.

It also has a pretty good on-screen display function (it counts up and down, and also provides a little four-quarter bar graph to illustrate how much of the movie has been watched -- this may be standard but I'd never seen it). It does not, however, display a counter on its face which is kind of a drag when you want to check the chapter without interrupting the program.

When you push "OPEN" the drawer literally takes 10 seconds to eject the disc. I know, I know, I would never consider that a major inconvenience but when you want to change discs and you hit the eject and you count "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... c'mon, open up already!!!" It displays the word "OPEN" on its face the whole time so it's not like it's confused. Just slow.

Also, the player doesn't save your place when you stop in the middle of a program and it automatically shuts off after a mere five minutes. Sure, it saves electricity which is great but if I need to run downstairs for a second or grab the phone... I either have to make it quit, or rely on "STILL" or I end up searching through the scene selection trying to get back to where I was. Again, not a tragedy but after a while....

Like I said, though, I didn't expect much given the price. As a second player, it fills the bill. But if you're shopping for a primary player and you're lured by the price... you might consider dropping a few more bucks on one with a little more ability.

Reading the other reviews I decided to write in toshibas defense! The DVD SD-3960 is not all that bad...I mean come on its only 69.99, what do you expect it to do? Make you coffee in the morning? It just does what it says, Progressive Scan!!! I have not expirenced any problems with the player getting hot, or a flickering saturated picture. I switched from the Samsung N-501 Nuon player. And I noticed a huge difference. The Picture is brighter the sound has better range and the progerssive scan worked like i expected it to. The remote however is a POS BUT if your like me you have 50 remotes and one master universal remote to control everything, so no big deal. I hope this helps.

There's really not much else to say -- I bought this to replace a non-progressive DVD player, and at first I thought I was seeing things... the colors were washed out and unsaturated, and there was a grainy texture to everything. I tried several DVD's, and they're all the same. I also tried going from component video to S-video, but that didn't fix the problem. Maybe it's just the one I got, but I'm just going to get something else.

I purchased the Toshiba SD3960 after returning a previously purchased Toshiba Sd3950. I bought the SD3960 because the SD3950 audio was distorted while playing Mp3's and it was very hard to hear some dialogue from DVD's. The SD3950 tray also locked up occasionally. I bought and returned 3 different SD3950 players!!!
The SD3960 has much better audio, but consistantly gets very hot (2 players bought and returned). The smell shows up shortly after turning on the player. The heat and smell doesn't dissipate, even after three weeks of use.
Both of these players could be a near perfect player with all the options and ease of use. The SD3950 has a GREAT remote which was changed for the worse on the SD3960. The LCD display was also changed from a full function display on the SD3950 to a 4 digit antiquated setup on the SD3960. I will be returning my latest Toshiba SD3960 NEVER to buy another TOSHIBA DVD player again.