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

[Alan_Horner]

It's Wednesday, October 1, and OneCall.com does indeed have the Toshiba 4700 in stock. In fact, the sales rep told me that they got an extra 20 units over their initial order (which was apparently spoken for by pre-orders). Lucky for me, since I had neglected to put my name on the waiting list.
I took advantage of their 10% savings offer and upgraded to Fed Ex next day shipping, so I should be in DVD/DVD-Audio heaven tomorrow!

 

[Ron Reda]

Charles,
I agree with you whole-heartedly on both points...
Instead of informing the consumer, it seems as though Toshiba leaves the guesswork up to you. I find it very frustrating when I have money to spend on a product but am unable to do so because I cannot find the information needed to compare one manufacturer's product to another's in order to make a decision.
As for your second point, I experienced it today. I was in HiFi Buys checking on an order I placed so I decided to take a look at the 3750. The salesman remarked at how good of a player it was. I said that, although it may very well be, I was waiting for the 4700/5700 and asked him when he thought he would have it in stock (as it is in their most recent catalog). He said he wasn't sure and then proceeded to ask me why I wanted the 4700/5700, as in what features was I looking for in a player. I told him and he then pointed me to another Toshiba player which was on a "sale" display. Being the somewhat informed consumer I feel I am, I dissected the player's features and then explained why I thought it wouldn't measure up to the 4700/5700's feature set. After that, he seemed pretty uninterested in talking to me.
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Dan,
It is strange about the player not having a built-in DTS decoder. Why bother with the DD decoder anyway...pretty much everyone has a DD receiver thesedays!

 

[Dan Driscoll]

Dan,
It is strange about the player not having a built-in DTS decoder. Why bother with the DD decoder anyway...pretty much everyone has a DD receiver these days!

Ron,
It just seems weird to me. If you check around you will see that most players either have both the DD/DTS decoders or they don't have any decoders at all. Other than some 1st generation players, I'm not aware of any that have only the DD decoder.
Most receivers have DD and DTS these days, even entry level units. My Yamaha RX-V596 is certainly not high end and it is 2 years old, but it has both DD and DTS decoders. Unfortunately it also has 96kHz DACs, not 192kHz. Otherwise I would have gone ahead with the SD-5700. It's a shame, because even though I got a great price on both units, the RP-91 is still going to run almost double the price I was offered on the SD-5700. But the RP-91 does have more pictue control features than the SD-5700, so it may well be worth it in the long run.
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Dan

 

[PaulKH]

Just looked at OneCall's web site. Hopefully it's accurate. Certainly much more helpful than Toshiba's. It says HDCD CDs are encoded with 20 bit audio (although backward compatible for regular 16 bit output) and it says there's 4000 titles out there. I've never seen one though!
As far as someone's comment that the 4700 doesn't have DVD-audio, Toshiba's and Onecall's web sites say it does.
And about them having DD and not DTS... the Zoran chip can do DTS so I think these players may do DTS anyway... I need to see one!
Good job I'm not in a hurry to get a new DVD player! Still busy with my latest toy... my Samsung over the air HDTV tuner/decoder (awesome).
[Edited last by Paul Higginbottom on October 31, 2001 at 07:39 PM]

 

[Page]

I picked up a 4700 tonight. I'll take a look at it after the full moon rises.

 

[Charles M]

Ron,
I'm glad someone see the light also. That's the big reason I haven't brought anything yet. I have the money, but disappointed with the lack of information you to help you decide what you might what to get. And those salesmen.......
Dan,
You bring up a excellent point. If your DAC's in you DVD are higher than your receivers, it makes a whole lot sense to include both decoders w/ the player. Having only one defeats the purpose. Not including the DTS decoding just takes away from the reason why they would include any of the decoders. Still sounds like a good player, but bad move on the part of Toshiba though.
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The only dumb question is the one you never ask....

 

[Ron Reda]

Dan,
I'm in the same position you are with the DACs...my receiver has 96khz DACs, so I guess I'm outta luck.
I too was looking at thr RP-91, but was discouraged by two things; For one, it's a bit too expensive for me. I know it's come down a bunch in price, but even $600 is out of my budget for a DVDP. Secondly, it seems it a bit quirky. Some of these things may have been worked out on the newer models, but I was a bit turned off by the initial reports.
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Alan,
When you get your 4700, let us know what you think!
Ron

 

[Art Miller]

Here's another option that is also appearing in other threads: Skip the Toshibas and wait for a Panasonic RA60. It's seems like it is to be the Non-progressive version of the RP61 that never quite made it to market. How it will compare to the RP91 I'm not exactly sure although it appears to have the same DACS and DD/DTS decoding that the 91 has. Certainly cheaper though--like $300 max, likely a lot less.
Can anyone comment on the 91 as a cd player?