Toshiba SD-1700 DVD Player

Toshiba's new SD1700 DVD players offers users solid quality and NTSC-standard (non-progressive-scan) performance for a street price of $180. If you want a machine for audio playback of CD-R's and CD-RW's, you'll need to look elsewhere. This player only handles the standard DVD-Video, CD, and Video-CD discs. About the only other drawback of this player is that it doesn't have an optical digital-audio output. However, it does have a coaxial digital-audio output, which provides identical audio quality, as explained below.

Operational features of the player include slow- and fast-motion forward and reverse scan (you see the picture on the TV as you're moving through the disc) 100x, 30x, 8x, 2x, ?, 1/4, and 1/8-speed. You can select camera angles, but only on discs encoded with this. The majority of movie DVD's don't yet have multiple camera angles.

Users will also benefit from the player's time search, subtitle select, multi-language select, CD text compatibility, setup menu, and picture zoom. Parents who wish to limit their children's viewing activities may want to employ the unit's parental control (let's you adjust salaciousness on a scale of 1 to 8).

The player's 10-bit/27-Mhz digital-to-analog video conversion circuitry guarantees picture quality with its "high resolution filter." The SD1700 sports "enhanced picture modes" and Toshiba claims a horizontal resolution capability of 500 lines (most DVD's only output 480 lines, so this figure is somewhat moot). Image quality is further enhanced by video black level expansion and PLUGE.

There's a single coaxial digital-audio output which will feed the Dolby Digital (DD) or Digital Theater Sound (DTS) datastream to an A/V receiver or amplifier equipped with a DD or DTS decoder (most new ones over $200 have these). There's an alternate type of digital-audio connection, which is an optical (fiber-optic) output jack. This player doesn't have an optical output jack.

Although one or two people have demonstrated complete ignorance of digital audio technology by revealing their belief that there's a qualitative difference between coaxial and optical digital audio connections, there is a practical issue with a player only having either a single coaxial jack or a single optical jack. The least-expensive A/V receivers usually have one coaxial digital-audio input jack and one optical digital-audio jack. Thus, you'd have no problem connecting the SD1700 to one of these receivers.

However, a problem is likely to arise with DVD players such as the Panasonic DVD-RV30/31 (31 is the Year-2001 entry-level model) which have only an optical output. When using the RV30/31 with a receiver like the one mentioned above, you'll have filled its single optical input. If all other pieces of video gear had a coaxial digital-audio output, you could just use that other jack on the receiver. Unfortunately, many satellite TV receivers only have an optical output for their 5.1-channel Dolby Digital datastream. You might succeed in digging up an optical-line switcher, but there's no telling what that would cost, and it would tend to obviate the advantages of purchasing a relatively-inexpensive A/V receiver in the first place.

The SD1700's possession of only the coaxial-type digital-audio output jack is an inheritance from the model it replaces, Toshiba's Year-2000 SD1600 model. At the time the SD1600 came out, it was pretty common for models in its price range ($200-$300 -- not the cheapest, but close to it) to have some minor compromises, such as only having one, rather than both, of the digital-audio output types. As the SD1700, ostensibly, is a third-generation player, you would expect it to at least brush up on the minor details like that and add the optical output, making it compatible with any receiver's digital-audio inputs. Since Toshiba has not done this, and since the features, specs, and even physical appearance of the SD1700 and SD1600 are virtually identical, it seems that the company hasn't done more than paste a new name-plate on the "new" player. Of course, the list price has dropped from $280 to $230, but that's a competitive necessity in this market where street prices of entry-level players are flirting with the $100 mark.

In addition to the capability of feeding out a DD, DTS, or PCM (for CD audio) datastream, the SD1700 has regular L/R analog RCA-jack outputs. Almost all A/V receivers have the capability of decoding the Dolby Pro Logic inherent in the analog stereo output of all DVD. For regular analog stereo output, the Spatializer N22 feature is supposed to increase the sense of 3D space with stereo speakers. If you're just running the audio into the speakers in your TV set, you probably won't even be able to hear any difference with this feature turned on. Finally, the dynamic range control feature moderates the output volume, boosting quieter scenes and limiting louder ones.

Video outputs, in order of ascending quality, include composite, S-Video, and component. You should use whichever one goes with the highest-quality jack available for input on your TV. There are actually two each of the composite and S-Video jacks, allowing the player to feed two monitors at once, should anybody want to do this.

It's hard to find a DVD player selling for much less than the SD1700 and almost impossible if you want to go with a major, reputable manufacturer like Toshiba. As long as you don't need a unit which plays CD-R's or CD-RW's and the lack of an optical audio output isn't a problem, this would be a good choice for a basic, non-progressive-scan DVD player.