Toshiba SD4990US DVD Player

After reading largely unfavourable reviews, I still went ahead and purchased this player, primarily because of it's inexpensive price. Well, as with lots of things, I got what I paid for. The build quality is definitely on the flimsy side, but normally that would not concern me if the performance was good. Sadly it is not. As mentioned by others the player randomly freezes on a number of discs; this is most disconcerting as who likes to get into a movie and then have it freeze unexpectedly and alarmingly frequently. Also I have a longish run for component and the output signal is not strong enough to avoid problems (or maybe my cables are crap). The menu interface for resolution switching is bothersome. From time to time it will not recognize discs and a power off is necessary. It has never not played a disc but consumers want a product that performs well all the time, not some of the time. The picture quality is reasonable, the upconversion seems good whether at 720p or 1080i but with all the aforementioned issues, it hardly seems that it is worth getting. Possibly I have a dud individual product, but given the number of other negative reviews, I will assume that it is the design/manufacture that is at fault. Yes, the price is super cheap but spend a touch more and get something much better....it's not like having to shell out thousands or even hundreds of dollars; another 50-60 bucks and you will have something like an Oppo 970HD or at the same price a Panasonic S52S.