Toshiba SD-3750 prog scan DVD player review (1 Viewer)

[Kwang Suh]

Can you change aspect ratio with the PLAYER while in progressive out (a la the Panny RP91)?

Yup. You use the remote and go into the menu system and change it on the fly.

 

[Marc Alexander]

quote:
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Can you change aspect ratio with the PLAYER while in progressive out (a la the Panny RP91)?
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Yup. You use the remote and go into the menu system and change it on the fly.

I believe you can add side bars to 4x3 material but not zoom non-anamorphic letterbox a la RP91. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Kwang Suh]

I believe you can add side bars to 4x3 material but not zoom non-anamorphic letterbox a la RP91. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Yup, you can also zoom as well.

 

[derekyeu]

Picked up mind at BestBuy at $189 last night. First impression, I think I like the RP56's image a little bit more. But the Toshiba has aspect ration control and much better OSD. It's just a lot more user friendly. I will have to calibrate my set to this new player to make my finally decision. I'm actually more interested on the up coming SD4700. I would like to put a little bit more money to get DVD-Audio support. I think they have the same Mpeg decoder IC, so the picture quality should be similar.
Things I like on the 3750 over the RP56
1) Aspect Ration Control
2) Zooming on non widescreen enhanced material
3) Much better OSD manu
4) Progressive/Interface button on remote
5) Time search function on VCD playback (who cares?)
6) Contrast/Brightness/Color adjustment on player (3 memory settings)
Derek
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[Jeff D.]

The chroma bug only manifests itself when the player is in progressive mode.

Actually, this is incorrect. The chroma bug is a problem inherent in the MPEG decoder of a DVD player - which is why references to the MPEG decoders are made when discussing the bug. Progressive capability comes courtesy of the deinterlacer.
For example, Toshiba players exhibit the bug, and they use the Genesis deinterlacer. The Panasonic RP-91 also uses the Genesis chipset, but does not suffer from the bug - this is because the two players use different MPEG decoders.
Also note that the Sony 7000 DVD player is highly regarded as an interlaced player because of absence of the bug - but the 7700 _does_ have the bug.
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Jeff
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"They're coming to get you Barbara..."

 

[Neil Weinstock]

Do we know which de-interlacing chip is in the new Toshibas? If it's still the Genesis, that seems like a big minus relative to the RP-56.
On the other hand, hearing that they finally fixed the downconversion is destined to make my choice of new DVD player more complicated (yet) again...

 

[JohnnyG]

I finally got my hands on one of these yesterday. It incorporates the Zoran Vaddis V chip (Link Removed), but I'm not sure if that chip also does the deinterlacing (I don't think it does). If it doesn't, I'm not sure what does. The only other fair-sized IC on the processing board is marked 'Toshiba'. Could they have designed their own deinterlacer? There is no Genesis/Sage/etc chip that I can see.
What I find interesting is that, according to the specs on the Vaddis V, this chip is fully capable of DVD-Audio playback, leading me to believe that it's exclusion from this product is mostly due to licensing fees. Will the SD4700 be identical inside, except that it they've paid the licensing, added the RCA jacks on the back and enabled DVD-Audio playback on the Vaddis?

 

[derekyeu]

I just checked the spec on Zoran Vaddis V DVD decoder. It does de-interlacing too. Here's the some video spec I copied form their website.
Video
- Single Chip Solution for DVD Playback and Web Browsing
- Full Standard Support: DVD-Video, DVD-Audio,CVD, SVCD,VCD,DVCD
- Integrated 135 MHz 32-bit RISC Processor
- Slave 135 MHz 32-bit Audio DSP
- Motion-Adaptive Field-Based De-interlacing for Progressive
Scan Video Output
- On-chip Graphics Engine with three Display Planes
- Anti-flicker video filtering for high-quality Web display
- Embedded NTSC/PAL/480P Encoder w/ 10-bit Video DACs
- MLPTM Decoding, Linear PCM, and Watermarking for DVD-Audio Applications
- Advanced Trick Play Features including Smooth Scan, ZoranZoomTM, and Smooth Reverse Playback
-Derek

 

[JohnnyG]

I guess I didn't read the specs all that well!

 

[derekyeu]

One more thing I noticed on the audio spec. is support for Dolby headphone. Too bad Toshiba chose not to use it. I use headphone to watch movie late at night very often. I guess this player is too cheap that Toshiba can't afford to pay the licensing to Dolby.
-Derek

 

[PaulKH]

Derek - very interesting feedback on the 3750, thanks.
You said "I think I like the RP56's image a little bit more". Can you be more specific? I found the RP56's image (on progressive out) to have too high a contrast (darks too dark, lights too light) with the color kind of weak.
As far as deinterlacing the image though, it did a spectacular job.

 

[Kwang Suh]

The RP56 has a bit of rolloff in the high end, which I thought gave a smoother picture. However, I do think the Toshiba has a more accurate picture.

 

[derekyeu]

I think Kwang Suh is right on the money about why I liked the RP56 more at first. However, after a few days with the Toshiba, I think it produces a great picture too. I'm no expert anyway. For a $189 player, it's a great value. I may return it though, because for a little bit more $$$, I can get the SD4700 with DVD-Audio.
-Derek

 

[JohnnyG]

I took a 3750 home on the weekend and re-calibrated my user settings with a Sencore pattern generator. The Sencore automatically uses a 0 IRE black when using the component video. So where's the 'Enhanced Blacks' setting on the SD3750? I quickly skimmed the manual, but didn't find mention of this, nor can I find it anywhere in the menus.
[Edited last by JohnnyG on October 22, 2001 at 03:18 PM]

 

[BrianSC]

I have the same question. How do you know if it is passing blacker than black?
Otherwise, I have to say I got one of these for my birthday and DVDs look incredible! I do think think that it has the chroma bug. I watched Toy Story 2 last night and the red part of the logo looked almost like it was slightly interlaced (very minor.) But that was it for the whole movie. Didn't see any other problems.
I love the sharpness of the picture.
Brian

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I picked up a Toshiba SD-K700 from Costco last night ($189). It's intended for a present for my sister who doesn't have a progressive scan set, but the unit has the 54MHz video DACs like my SD-6200. These overscanning DACs seemed to be part of the excellent picture coming from my '6200 so I'm hoping for the best, even through S-video.
Does anyone know if this is the same as the SD-3750 but relabeled for sale in "discount stores"? IIRC Toshiba has done this before for items sold via Costco et al..... A search here turns up nothing on SD-K700.
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Feline audience members Katie, Susie, and the one and only Fluffy Pumpkin

 

[Page]

Yes. The 3750 and the K-700 are the same player. You are right in your assumptions.

 

[StaceyS]

I have the same question. How do you know if it is passing blacker than black?

You would need to look at a PLUGE test pattern. VE has one as do the Optimode tests from THX.
If a player can't pass BTB, then you will see black clipping (similar to white clipping) on DVDs that contain BTB info. (Paramount DVDs tend to pass BTB.)

 

[Antoine Peltier]

What does a TV require to take advantage of Progressive Scan DVD?
And if the SD3750 isn't the best Progressice Scan DVD in it's price rangem which one is better and why?

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

An possible explanation about the 3750 not passing blacker- than-black. It uses the same chips apparently as the 6200. The 6200 had a known "feature" (i.e. bug) that would cause "tearing" distortion if the blacker-than-black was selected EXCEPT when using a setup disk. This was discussed here in great detail about 8 months ago. Folks here were delving into the menu and selecting blacker-than-black but just leaving it on all the time. Perhaps Toshiba permanently disabled it in the 3750 to avoid customer complaints.....