Toshiba SD-1200 DVD Player

Many of my friends have purchased DVD players over the past year. I've noticed though the prices have dropped the average cost of the most popular players ranged from $199.00 to $250.00. The more expensive units generally circled within the audio/videofile crowds.

Everyone's looking for a deal, One friend bought the RCA RC 5220P DVD player for $179.99. Thought it was O.k at first, but before the week was up, he noticed that it would just "freeze" for no apparent reason. It happened several times before he ended up replacing it, another inexpensive DVD that had problems was the Sharp DV-710U. Even for such a cheap price of $170.00, the navigation features were so sluggish, you were too frustrated to watch the DVD by the time it started playing. Imagine going online with a 14.4 modem on a 100mhg computer, plus the remote was not navigation friendly as the "Enter" button was not centrally located.

It turns out to be much more worthwhile to spend just a little bit more for your convenience. Both of my friends returned their DVD players and exchanged them for the Toshiba SD-1200, valued at approximately $199.00 upon my brand name suggestion. I own the same one as well. I've always stood behind Toshiba products.

Owned for about 6 months now, I've experienced no problems. All my DVD's play uninterrupted, and those DVD's that I either own or rent with special features, SD-1200, has interactive buttons such as (3D, Zoom & angle) Playing in slow motion is nice and jitter free, as is playing in reverse. Navigation is relatively quick and easy. The remote control is small in comparison to others, does not glow in the dark, but is color coated for ease of operation.

Setup took mere minutes, the manual is very clearly written, and I'm not very good with instruction booklets, but this one is easy to read and comprehend. It explains the features and how to apply them step-by-step, and you can do it just as it says, no run around which is nice. The player even has a built in screen saver that you can turn on by the push of a button. When you pause the DVD, after a few minutes the screen saver will automatically turn on. On a similar note, when the screen saver has been on for 20 minutes, the player will shut itself off.

An interesting feature, the player will not play subtitles or sound during reverse & forward scan of DVD's, but it will play sound during fast-forward & reverse on audio cd's. Pretty cool.

I don't feel that I need to explain every mundane detail, just enough to get you interested. Rewriting the owners manual isn't as fun as you going down to your favorite electronics store and checking them out for yourself, after all, it's your purchase.

I do recommend Toshiba products. The SD-1200 has been a great addition to my home theater, and I didn't go broke in the purchase. It's a great player for under $200.00, and every so often you can catch the deals when they offer a free DVD or two when you buy.