AOD

I was thinking of picking this portable up for a long trip I was going on. The latest DVDEtc. issue has a full spread on it (to which they said it was the best portable they ever tested) and I was wondering if any of my fellow members had this player and could give me their point of view. It looks like a great player, but I want to weigh my options. Another route would be to get a full blown laptop for some more money. Thanks in advance.



SD-P1200 specs

cybotron6000

I just bought this player like a month ago and it is awesome..Showed it to a couple of my friends and they want to get one also..The price is kinda high..At Best Buy it is $475.00 but I too had read reviews on it and they said it was one of the best out there..My advice to you is that it is really good if you don't mind paying that price..Pick it up then..Toshiba make great products..

AGuyNamedMike

Looks great but the SD-P2000 makes me .

unclehulot

Anyone tried DVD+R or DVD+RWs on this unit? Best Buy won't let me put any of my own discs in the thing because they can't undo the anti-theft cage!

AOD

One more question. Is there a way to control the brightness, color, etc... The display unit didn't have the remote with it and I tried messing around with the unit itself but didn't see any of the brightness, color, etc.. controls anywhere. Thanks.

tjr2mental

Just have the sales person got to the LP desk and get the key to unlock it. We do it all the time for customers at our store, so I do not see why the one that you are going to would have a problem with it.

unclehulot

Because they are lazy bastards who can't be bothered to help customers (Houston Galleria area store), and wouldn't help me even when I said this would send me directly to Fry's. I asked (politely) for a manager and they said he couldn't do it either!

I have an SDP 1000 which is starting to ail, and doesn't deal to happily with DVD+Rs, but several people with that machine compare the SDP 1200 unfavorably to it. Others seem pretty happy with it, and based on my viewing of the lousy demo disc it certainly seems to best much of the competition.

unclehulot

Well, finally got to try out one of these today, and I must say I'm not overwhelmed. I own an SDP 1000, and even though the screen is smaller on that the picture is quite a bit more detailed and film-like. The SDP 1200 has poor sharpness and has trouble with darker areas of the picture, which tend to disappear. Text tends to have a fuzzy look to it.
Brightness and color are adjustable via a remote option only, and the range of these controls seemed ineffective.
The design is very attractive, but it's a shame that Toshiba didn't put more attention toward how the thing actually displays video!
For the record, it plays DVD+R and +RW well, MP3, and apparently JPEG files.
OK, now where to go? Any recommendations for a decent 7" in the $500 or less price range?

AOD

UPDATE*

Ended up getting the SD-P1200 and it arrived DOA. I didn't get another one cuz didn't want to deal with it. After that I got the SD-P 2500 and it is friggin awesome. The picture is leaps and bounds above the 1200 (from what I saw in the store) and pretty much everything else I saw for that matter. Highly, HIGHLY, recommended if you are going to get a portable, Plus it's progressive. VERY good product!

Blade

Sounds really sweet, and it looks great.

Where does the battery go? And how does it handle non-anamorphic content?

AOD

The battery goes on the bottom of the unit. It doesn't go along the entire bottom, but rather goes about halfway. Kinda lifts it up a tad in the back, but it's tapered for a nice smooth look (looks pretty slick in person). Non-anamorphic dvd's look extremely nice also, with excellent detail. I just can't put into words how good dvd's look on this machine. 1024x600 pixel resolution = 614,000 pixels. All of that packed in 8.9 inches of Poly-silicon TFT active matrix 16X9 widescreen goodness. That should speak for itself. Compared to the SD-P1200's 480x234 (112,320) pixels, it was a no brainer for me. Not to say anything bad or terrible about the SD-P1200, it just ended up not doing it for me. I would have gotten the SD-P2500 in the first place but they weren't available when I went to buy. Oh, it's also got 2 headphone inputs (for a friend), and a SD/SM/MMC card slot on the front. It can also play JPEG's and WMA files, along with the usual DVD video, DVD audio (yes DVD-A output), CD, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, MP3, Photo CD, DVD-R, etc.. and TONS of other features. I just can't put into words how good the picture looks an this fantastic machine. It also has the most usable internal speakers i've heard yet (side firing type).Just go try one out yourself and you will see (just don't use those terrible demo disc's they always throw into the players). Best of luck. One more thing, it comes with a component cable and composite cables (it also has a direct S-video output as seen in the pics below, but doesn't include an S-video cable which are cheap enough if you really want one). YES. Toshiba really put some thought into this player and it shows. 10 on a scale of 10!

Rear view W/battery

Profile view with battery

Remote

Blade

Thanks for the info. That is impressive! DVD-A and component out, and usable speakers! I'll have to take a look myself someday.
Does it stretch out 4:3 material, or can you watch TV shows and old movies in their proper aspect ratios?

AOD

The player does 4:3, 16x9, and zooming (with picture shifting). It can show 4:3 in the proper aspect ratio. If you wanted to, it could stretch it.

boston george

How much is the 2500? It looks awesome.

Gabro Jay

Have you actually played a DVD-R on the 2500?

At the end of the description on bestbuy.com it says "DVD-R Playback — Note: Not all DVD-R discs are compatible with all DVD-R players. Contact the manufacturer for further compatibility information."

Plus, a guy who has one on ebay has this at the end of his extensive write-up: "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."

I don't know how to read that. It has me spooked a little bit, because DVD-R playback is the main reason I want to upgrade from my 2-year-old portable Audiovox.

Also, what about DVD+R/RW? And hey, if you don't have any DVD-Rs or DVD+Rs to try, I'd be happy to send you something. (I'm really dying to have this info. )

Edited to add: Aw, hell, I can't wait. I ordered one. Hope I don't regret it. (Don't think I will.)

AOD

Retail is $699, but I am SURE you can find a better price online. Try using Froogle , Yahoo shopping , or any other shopping type search engines. There are many deals out there even for being such a new product. But I'll tell ya, these things are selling like hotcakes at the B&M's (from what i've seen). Our local BB got 7 in on the truck last Friday and they were sold before they could even put them on the floor. Again, this is just from what I have seen and in no way represents how fast they are actually selling.

As far as the DVD-R question goes, I'm not sure as I don't have any DVD-R's to test it with. It says it does play it so I would test different manufacturer's media (just as not all CD-R's are made the equally. Sometimes the cheapies work better on my player than the big name brands for VCDs). dvdrhelp.com may offer some info to your question as to what DVD-R's may work best. In any way, you said you ordered it and I believe you will be very satisfied with it and won't regret it (picture quality alone is worth the price of admission IMHO. Let us know what you think when you get it.

Blade

You know, that's the thing about technology. Something better is always coming out. Sigh.

At least my Samsung still has the biggest portable player screen out there!

Thanks for the info!

Mowork

I finally saw the SDP-2500 playing the demo disk and it absolutely blew me away !!!! The display is simply stunning. I want one ------- NOW !!!!

unclehulot

I was thinking of the SDP 2500 myself after a brief stint with the SDP1200 (just not enough detail and crappy delineation of darker areas of pic).
I'll have to try the 2500. One thing that bothers me is that too many portables have a zoom function, but nothing that enables NON-anamorphic widescreen discs to fill full width of the screen (unless in the mode that distorts a 4:3 pic to fill it up -- all 16:9 tvs have a mode like this -- that cuts off the top and bottom but zooms in).
Any word on whether the SDP 2500 has such a mode?

unclehulot

Couldn't resist and got one! Amazing player! Finally something worthy to retire my SDP 1000!
DVD+R plays fine. DVD+RW seems to need the compatability bitsetting (set to "2" on my Philips 985), which is too bad (the newer Tosh decks don't need this), but they do all seem to work after doing this.

AOD

Glad to see you enjoy and think so highly of this player as I do (as do the rest of you). Like I said before, I think Toshiba actually put some thought into making this amazing player and it show. I have recommended this player to everyone who is looking for a portable and wants to get a quality one with all the features one would expect.

Mowork

How does the SDP2500 compares to the 1000 picture wise ? In its heyday, many considered the 1000 to have the absolute best picture of any portable. I never had a chance to see one in operation, though...

unclehulot

It's the first portable with a larger screen (than the SDP 1000) that (to my eyes) has the same level of detail and filmlike quality to justify the larger size. Ditto for black level range and resolution. I haven't seen everything else out there, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of Toshiba's other models since the SDP 1000. Previously, the larger models seemed washed out or lacked a high enough pixel count to fill the larger screen with sufficient detail.

Since this thread started with the SDP 1200 I must bash that unit once more, it's really an embarassment to put out a machine that can't even resolve detail on dvd menus (the text looks fuzzy!). Spend the extra 200 clams for the SDP 2500!

broadwayblue

looks nice...my only concern is if i'm gonna spend nearly $700 for a 9" screen/dvd player maybe i should just get a laptop? is the picture that much better on the dvd player than it is on a tft notebook?

AOD

If you are looking to buy online, there are many places that are well below retail price. I provided a few links below if you are inerested.

Froogle.com prices
ask.com prices
epinions.com prices

These are but a few of the search engine prices. I compared the SD-P2500 to a few laptops because that was the route I was going to go like you (check my first post question about the SD-P1200) and thought the 2500 gave a better picture and direct access to all of the functions I wanted, plus if needed could easily do double duty as a stand alone. All of the specs that are specific to the 2500 justified to me to buy this great machine (plus picture CAN'T be beat by any other portable out there right now).

Also, for those of you who already bought the 2500 I have found that the Targus OCN1 notepac carrying case works perfect as a carrying case for the 2500. I will post pics as soon as I can, but trust me, I spent 2 hours in BB with the demo putting it in and out of different cases and found this one to fit it perfectly.

Targus website
You can find this case just about any computer or electronics store (i.e. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc...). Best of luck.