Toshiba 4700 or 5700 DVD players available yet? (1 Viewer)

[PaulKH]

Has anyone seen or bought and used one of these units yet? What do you think?
I called Toshiba who said the 4700 was shipping, but I can't find a store anywhere that has one.

 

[Ron Reda]

Paul,
I too have been keeping a close watch of these players, but still haven't seen them available anywhere online or at a B&M.
I'm just hoping that they do not encounter the same problems in their debut that the 3750/3755 has. According to some owners at Home Theater Spot, the 3750/3755 has a "subtitle" glitch which causes the subtitles to turn on during some movies and be absent where there should be subtitles (The Phantom Menace; when Watto speaks). Here's the HTS link for that thread...
http://www.hometheaterspot.com/cgi-b...&f=21&t=002391
Regards,
Ron
[Edited last by Ron Reda on October 28, 2001 at 07:53 PM]

 

[Alan_Horner]

I asked a representative at OneCall.com today (10/29/01) when the 4700 might be in stock. I was told that the 4700 was "expected" to be in stock tomorrow (10/30/01). No guarantees, of course. And I think it was a pretty honest response, not the type you get from the "bait & switch" phonies.
I'll know in less than a day...
As for the 5700, it's my understanding that it will be available only through direct retail stores.

 

[PaulKH]

5700 only seems to add higher quality DACs for ANALOG CD output (of no interest to me).

 

[Page]

I was at my local Good Guys in Southern California tonight and I was told that they were in the warehouse and should be in the stores by Wednesday (10/31).

 

[Art Miller]

Paul,
Where do you get your information about higher quality DACs in the 5700? The only difference listed on the web site is that the 5700 can decode HDCD CDs.
For $100 more list price, I too would expect something more.

 

[Ron Reda]

Also, the 5700 belongs to the "Cinema Series"...does that mean anything???

 

[Neil Weinstock]

Do we yet know what de-interlacing chip they're using in these players? Is it still the same Genesis implementation, or have they improved it?

 

[Dan Driscoll]

Do we yet know what de-interlacing chip they're using in these players? Is it still the same Genesis implementation, or have they improved it?

The new Toshibas use a Zoran de-interlacing chip. It is supposed to be better than the Genesis solution, but not quite as good as the Faroudja chip.
FWIW, I ordered the SD-5700 from OneCall last night. They said it was supposed to be in stock by Friday (11/1) and it would ship to me next week.
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Dan

 

[Ron Reda]

"I ordered the SD-5700 from OneCall last night."
That's weird...I thought that this model was only selling through retail outlets (B&Ms)??? Or was that the
(mis)information provided by Toshiba?
Ron

 

[Art Miller]

Can anyone confirm if this decodes dts? Looks like it decodes DD but ouputs DTS as unencoded. too bad.
I see that onecall lists the 5700 for "retail sales only" but lists it at $299. I'd still like to know what makes the 5700 $100 more than the 4700. HDCD? Nahh, can't be..

 

[Ron Reda]

Art,
It doesn't have a built-in DTS decoder, just a DD decoder:
http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/dvd/2001/SD5700.html
Ron

 

[JohnnyG]

Word I got yesterday was that they are expected into Canada some time this week, so they should be hitting store shelves in the US any minute now. The bad news, in Canada at least, is that quantities are going to be severly limited. I'm only being allocated 2 4700's and 1 5700!
The 5700 is silver colored and adds HDCD decoding. The list price difference is probably going to be nowhere near the retail price difference. My store has them $20CDN apart.

 

[Ron Reda]

I agree with Art...until someone can justify the extra $100 as they apply to some relevant features (HDCD decoding and a silver finish don't count), I'll most likely be sticking with the 4700.
Ron

 

[PaulKH]

Some people here are saying HDCD 'decoding' yet Toshiba just says HDCD 'precision filtering' I think. I didn't think HDCD was any kind of new CD format (like SACD). My understanding is that the 5700 has a higher quality ANALOG output by this 'high precision filtering' - perhaps it eliminates some aliasing.
Weird that the players have DD decoding but not DTS - I guess Zoran couldn't stuff all that in the chip and felt for the consumer market that DTS didn't matter (they're right basically). Plus, my receiver can't decode DTS and since it also doesn't have 5.1 ANALOG inputs (required for DVD-A or utilizing a decoder on a component like a DVD player) it's all a bit moot.

 

[Ron Reda]

Paul,
My bad on calling the HDCD filtering "decoding!"
There's a rumor going around (and I guess I'm not helping the matter) that the 5700 has higher quality DACs. This may be the reason for the price difference between the 4700 and the 5700.
I don't know why they even bother having DD decoding. I mean what receiver doesn't have DD these days???
As far as availability, someone over at HT Spot placed an order with Onecall.com the other day...apparently, Onecall said that they'd have the unit in stock by 11/1. Here's the link:
http://www.hometheaterspot.com/cgi-b...&f=21&t=002545

 

[Art Miller]

Here is a link to HDCD info: Link Removed
And a blurb for the site:
These new chips will be used in a wide range of playback products such as DVD players, A/V
receivers, mini-component systems, MiniDisc (MD) players, and CD players, changers, and
portables. The HDCD decoder chip used in these consumer products contains the HDCD
high-precision digital filter, which improves the sound quality of all types of digital audio
recordings. This means that any A/V receiver, CD player, DVD player, and MiniDisc player equipped with
HDCD will produce significantly better sound from your entire collection of CDs, DVDs, and MDs.
Apparently, the HDCD decoder is also a filter, and might be superior to the filter used in the 4700. This is a pretty hazy area, as I was just reading a review in Sterophile of a $12,000 Classe Omega SACD player, and although included in the circuit mix, the HDCD filter is NOT used for other than HDCD decoding of those CD's so encoded. It's claimed in this application to be inferior to other filtering etc, in the player. Of course it is a $12,000 unit, so this may not be exactly pertinent to this discussion. The web site above claims that some 5000 CD's are encoded with HDCD.

 

[Art Miller]

HDCD is a type of encoding as stated in the link that I just posted:
"HDCD-encoded CDs" is in the description of how HDCD functions. So, it is a decoder, but also may function as an alternate filter to what is normally included in te 4700.
And as far as the comment on DD and dts decoding, I wish that the 4700/5700 had both, as I'm currently using only a Dolby prologic decoder. I don't own a modern processor with either DD/dts or 6 channel analog inputs, so I'll be sending all the analog cables to my various patchwork of amps and preamps selecting either the input from the prologics decoded output, or the output of the decoded DVD-A or DD from the DVD player. At the moment I see no point in having a processor that does the same thing as the only source (DVD) that can utilize those functions. But I suppose that is the stuff of another thread.
Anyway, I'll be quite anxious to find out if the 5700 offers any better analog audio performance than the 4700. Unless someone shows me in black and white I am quite skeptical as to the units using different DACs. Probably the only difference is the HDCD--and weather that is a real feature remains to be heard..

 

[Charles M]

Also, their website doesn't really explain much. Everything seems to be the same. The weight, features, description, everything. I believe the only difference is DVD AUDIO for the 5700, but not for the 4700. Most sites aren't good on giving detailed info on products or even new ones. I just think that consumers would like to know what's so new about it. Just my opinion. Yamaha seems to provide good info in those respects, not just a few lines and you figure out the rest. Then we won't be doing what we are doing now, asking each other information about THEIR own products.
They want to drag us into the stores to pitch a sell. I just laugh at salesmen who make a fool out of themselves. Trying to talk about a product they have no clue about. Because the manufactures has giving them anything to go with.
Charles
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The only dumb question is the one you never ask....

 

[Dan Driscoll]

OK, major change in my position. I had not realized that the SD-4700/5700 did not have a built-in DTS decoder. One of the major reasons I liked this player was the 24bit/192kHz DACs, my receiver only has 96kHz DACs. I really wanted a progressive player that not only had good video, but that would also provide the maximum benefit for listening to DVD-A and Superbit DTS discs. But without a DTS decoder built-in, my receiver and its 96kHz DACs would be the audio outputs, completely bypassing the player's higher sampling rate DACs.
It seems really strange that a newly released player would only have a DD decoder and not a DTS decoder. Anyway, I changed the order to a Panasonic RP-91, which does have the 192kHz DACs and built-in DTS decoder. Too bad about the Tosh, but not having the DTS decoder is a killer for me.
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Dan