Toshiba SD-4980 DVD Player

I went into Best Buy looking for a DVD player for less than $100 with DTS capabilities and an optical output for audio and I found this player. There was also a Philips but it did not have an HDMI connection. After taking this little guy home I could only hook it up via component cables, which was fine with me. The picture looked good and there was no pausing. Sounds was great as well through the optical output..
Now, after I finally landed myself an HDMI cable I was finally able to test it's upconversion skills. I read that this player had a tendency to pause during movies when upconverting but I did not experience any such thing when I had the player hooked up through my component cables. Now, we all know that these upconversion players do not display true high-def but they do a good job trying to replicate it. You can call it 480p dresses up in a nice suit; I heard that somewhere. As for the pausing problem I did experience this about three times during iRobot. Now, this happens to tick alot of people off but it doesn't for me. Sure it's a little bothersome but in all truth you get what you payed for and this is basically the bottom of the barrell for upconversion DVD players.
The Toshiba's aesthetics are very nice. It is very slim and lightweight. There is a button on the front of the player that allows you to change the setting from 480p, 720p, or 1080i. This can also be controlled from the remote. Now, Toshiba decided to throw in a rediculously bright blue light on the front of the disk tray. Maybe to confuse buyers into thinking it's a BluRay? This can be very annoying for viewers in dark rooms and can even be blinding for the unfortunate that must sit near the player. Now, there is a setting to where you can completely shut the light off but this also dims the player's DVD clock and to tell you the truth I wish Toshiba had given us an extra option to dim the blue light because I think it's pretty neat if it could be dimmed to a tolerable level.
The remote is small and black with white lettering. It runs off of two AAA batteries. Unfortunatly, it doesn't have ANY backlit buttons so viewers in dark rooms must find some way of reading the buttons. The remote only controls the player and nothing else.
Overall, if you're trying to save money and want a player with all the amenities I would recommend this player to you. If you are a very intense viewer who wants the best for the money I would tell you to keep looking and spend the extra $20 on something like a Samsung. This player does have a pausing problems when upconverting and if you aren't able to tolerate that then either spend your money on a progressive DVD player or spend more money, simple as that.