Jeff W.

I recently picked up a cheap Toshiba DVD player (SD-3950) for $65 AR. Now I see why it's so cheap...

Take a look at this sequence from Toy Story 2. It's from about 1:05:28, as Buzz Lightyear says "he's not coming with us". These pictures were taken off my 27" Sony WEGA tube tv (480i) using component output. Look at the red boxes/drawers in the background - as Buzz Lightyear walks off the frame to the left, they change color from red to darker/greenish hue.



For grins I hooked up my old DVD player, also a Toshiba, SD-2109 circa 1999 or so. Same TV, same disc, same component cable, no color problems! Also tried it on my PS2 and computer DVD player.

Do all cheap players have problems like this? Is this disc particularly hard on players?

I'm going to return this unit as defective, but I'm wondering if I should get a replacement or take cash and save up for something in the $200-300 range like a Denon 910. Picture quality is very important to me, but I don't have a fortune to spend on my HT either...

Jeff W.

ken-m

JEFF,

I WOULD RETURN IT AS DEFECTIVE AND PURCHASE A DIFFERENT PLAYER. I HAVE AN ONKYO FIVE DISC CHANGER AND ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. THE NEWER MODEL IS A DV-CP701, AND IT IS A SIX DISC CHANGER. I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH MY PLAYER, AND THE SOUND IS AWESOME THANKS TO ONKYO'S DIRECT DIGITAL PATH. THIS PLAYER CAN BE FOUND FOR AROUND $300.

KEN.

Jeff W.

Thanks but have you viewed the sequence in question on your player? Anyone else?

I've watched about a dozen movies on it so far and honestly I can't say I noticed problems with any of them besides Toy Story 2 - but that's one of my favorite discs, and I figure any new player I buy should be able to handle it at least as well if not better than my ~5yr old model!

Don_Berg

Many cheap players even Sony and Toshiba's have the chroma bug in such movies. Get a Denon.

Jeff W.

Is this "the chroma bug" though? It doesn't look like the examples I've seen. Those look like interlace errors or fields out of order. This is a whole huge area of the screen that loses color..

When did "the chroma bug" start happening and why doesn't my 5yr old player have it?

Don_Berg

It happens on some model players with inferior MPEG decoders, old and new. Get a Denon.