REVIEW: Toshiba SD-P1200 Portable DVD/CD Player

[JMedeiros]

REVIEW: Toshiba SD-P1200 Portable DVD/CD Player

Equipment:

Toshiba SD-P1200 Portable DVD player
Koss Porta Pro headphones
Sony MDR CD3000 headphones
Pioneer SE-DIR1000 Dolby Headphone processor

Software:

LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring (Extended DVD Version)
The Simpsons Season 2 DVD
South Park Bigger Longer & Uncut DVD
The Bourne Identity DVD
Band of Brothers DVD
X-Men 1.5 DVD
Three Kings DVD
Swordfish DVD
Trevor Nunn’s Porgy & Bess DVD
Bruce Springsteen Live in NYC DVD
The Outer Limits-The Original Series DVD

Nils Lofgren-Break Away Angel CD
Basia-Time & Tide CD
Sweet Honey in the Rock-25 CD



This one is for all you headphone-lovin' movie fans. I have just spent two days putting this new portable DVD/CD player from Toshiba through its paces and thought you guys might be interested in hearing about this cool new toy.

Most of the portable DVD players released over the past few years have been sleek and shiny silver gems. I have owned two from Panasonic and loved them. In a radical departure in style, Toshiba has designed an eye-catching & rugged little unit much more conducive to travel and hand-held movie viewing...









The sharp looking red and black outer case is made of a rubberized plastic. The over-all feel of the unit is very solid…the soft rubber-like texture is also pleasing to the touch. Remember the early desert sand colored Outdoor Walkmans? …it has that feel. It is very much the opposite of the feel of the metallic and fragile units I have owned in the past. This little guy is meant for travel and feels much more solid.

The player weighs 1.8 lbs. without the battery pack. The attached battery adds a bit more weight, but it’s not bad. Dimensions are 7.88” x 6.27” x 1.6”






Besides the player itself, accessories included are a “credit card” style remote w/battery, AC adaptor, rechargeable battery (more on this little powerhouse later), A/V cable and S-Video cable. The thin remote is a bit longer than most I have seen and as a result…it has easier to locate and use buttons. All the player’s functions and settings can be controlled from the remote except volume. The black and red colors of the remote coordinate with the main unit. The rechargeable battery attaches to the bottom of the player and is made of the same red rubberized plastic. The AC adaptor is smaller than most I am used to and also includes a Velcro tie which is a nice touch. The included cables are the usual stock type.




After charging the battery for about 4 & ½ hours I was ready to roll. The specs for the unit say that the battery should last up to 3 & ½ hours depending on operational status. I am very happy to tell you that this power-puppy lasted over 4 hours and 45 minutes on one charge. This was on the lowest brightness setting for the monitor and using headphones. Brighter settings as well as using the machine’s internal speakers will eat up power quicker. I was able to get through the entire 208 minutes of the Lord of the Rings Extended DVD Version and two Simpsons episodes before I got the low battery signal.

The 7” widescreen monitor is only about an inch and a half larger than my two Panasonics were, but it makes a huge difference to me. Also, unlike the Pannys I have used, the Toshiba has monitor controls for brightness and color saturation. I prefer the lowest brightness setting and very low color saturation as this looks more like my large sized AVIA calibrated home monitors. This is a real plus since it really helps extend battery life. Some may find these settings too dark…but the screen can be made quite bright if desired. The only downside is that these picture adjustments must be made using the remote. However, once you find the settings you like, you may not need to change them very often.

The picture quality is crisp and clear. Fantastic contrast. The little monitor seems capable of rendering actual blacks…something that even my Sony Vaio laptop LCD has trouble doing. The contrast was very surprising to me, especially on the low brightness setting. Like on a larger television, the lower setting brings out more detail after one gets used to it. Surprising considering this is only a 7” screen. I need to wear reading glasses and also needed to use them with my 5.8” Panasonic players….not so with this one. It does have a tendency to get “shimmer” artifacts when rendering bright light reflections...like sweat on a singer’s forehead as I noticed in the Bruce Springsteen concert DVD. I think this is a symptom of many of the portable DVD players as my two former players also exhibited this.

Colors are rich and on the lower setting look true to the films. There does seem to be a slight red push that is hard to defeat on more color saturated films.

Like most portables, the Toshiba uses edge enhancement to help the small picture. It is not defeat able, but I got used to it long ago on portable DVD.

The zoom and stretch modes are also digitally controlled so there is not a noticeable loss of picture quality when they are engaged. Zoom and stretch can be very useful when watching a film on such a small screen.

For those who would use this with a home TV...be aware that it does not support progressive scan.

Screenshots:











So, how does it sound? Through the built-in stereo speakers…absolutely wretched, ka-ka, pooh-pooh. But I have yet to hear one with speakers I could listen to for more than 15 seconds. I use this with headphones anyway…so it’s the headphone out I am concerned with. By the way, the Toshiba comes with two headphone outs so you don’t need a splitter if watching with a friend.



I primarily listened via the headphone jack with my Koss Porta Pros since those are my portable cans of choice. They sound great. The unit pumps out movie soundtracks with gusto and lots of detail. There are several audio settings. Normal…3D…3D Headphone and Dialog. The 3D Headphone setting adds a larger soundstage and simulates a surround effect while the Dialog setting emphasizes the movie’s center channel and dialog. I liked both a lot. The Dialog setting would be especially useful if you are traveling in a noisy plane or bus. The 3D Headphone processing is not as refined as Dolby Headphone, but it does produce a movie house-like effect.

The headphone out did quite nicely with music CDs as well. No problems in that department. There are seven Equalizer settings for those who like the DSP type of thing. Rock, Pop, Live, Dance, Techno, Classic or Soft can all be selected from the Setup Audio menus. I prefer the “None” setting.

I also listened to some DVDs and CDs with my Sony CD3000s. The results were superb as expected. I wish these big boys folded up for travel.

The SD-P1200 comes equipped with an analog as well as digital “line outs”. I hooked the digital out to my Pioneer Dolby Headphone processor via an optical cable (coax can also be output) and listened to several films. Wow! I have to say it sounds as good as my main home theatre system hooked up to the Pioneer. The analog outs also played beautifully on the two monitors I tried them on as well as hooking them up to my Kenwood receiver.

My one gripe about the player is the noisy transport. In a quiet room, I can hear the whirring of the disc and occasional chirping sounds. In a travel situation and with headphones, this may obviously be rendered mute.

As a side note, I purchased an Eveready Portable DVD Battery to use as a backup. This thing is amazing…it does not replace the Toshiba battery…it plugs into the AC outlet when your included battery is running low. After charging it, I started using it 3 and a half hours ago and the thing is still ¼ charged.

Why would one want to buy an expensive portable DVD player? Aside from the super-cool new toy reasons, they are great for long trips. I do not fly all that much, but I make regular 10 hour family-related bus trips and I have found having movies with me makes a long trip a lot more pleasurable. I also travel into the city at least once a week and it is nice to have an option to watch a DVD over the two-hour roundtrip commute. The price is also coming down on them. The list price on this Toshiba unit is about $600. It was released a week ago and I was able to get it at J&R for $475. I have seen it as low as $444 on the Internet already. That is still a pricy portable…but for me, it’s worth it. There are also other brands and sizes available. Some generic brands are going for less than $300.

Why a dedicated DVD player when I already have a DVD enabled laptop? As nice as DVDs look on my Sony Vaio, the battery cannot make it past an hour and forty-five minutes....too short for many feature films. The additional batteries (if you can find them) are priced at $299 and $499. The Eveready DVD battery I bought for backup for the Toshiba cost $99. Also, the docking station must be attached to my laptop in order to use the DVD drive. This makes it at least twice as large and heavy as the Toshiba.

UPDATE 5/12/03:

I have just returned from a four day trip that I used the Toshiba on for over 25 hours of viewing. The bus trip at each end of the stay was 10 hours...plus I watched it at bedtime for three nights.

I have to tell you that I am not as enthusiastic about this player as I was in my initial viewings. Several of the problems I had with it have proved to be hard to overlook.

1. The noisy transport is definately a problem. It is not audible when using headphones, but it is quite loud when using the less-than adequate built-in speakers. Also, when holding the player while viewing, one can feel the transport working....a bit of a distraction.

2. The black level of the display seems to be non-adjustable. In was originally impressed with the LCD's ability to render seemingly true black, but upon lenghty viewing, I do not care for it. Even at the the brightest settings, darker objects and shadowed faces look like black blobs devoid of any detail. The "red push" I noted is also alot more annoying to me over time.

3. There seems to be very little (if any) shock protection. I had to restart my movie three times because the bus went over a mild bump once and I lightly jerked the player twice. Very frustrating to have to reboot the unit and then search for where you left off.

4. The A/V out jack seems to be loose. While hooking the player up to a TV for the second time, there seemed to be a short that caused distortion in the audio channels with the slightest moving of the plug in the jack.

So...the Toshiba went back to J&R today and I ponied up another $60 to get myself another Panasonic. I got the DVD LA95. It has a 9" screen and plays DVD-A...so it was worth the bit of extra on the exchange.

So far, the Panny is performing great....much better picture and low transport noise. I will do a bit of a review on it after I have spent more time with it. I know it is not as efficient in the battery comsumption department, but I will give it a full test.

To sum it up…here are some Pros & Cons on the Toshiba:

PROS:

Cool Design
Sturdy and solid build quality
Great sound via headphone jacks
Multitude of connection options
Long Battery life

CONS:

Noisy transport
Lousy onboard speakers
No progressive scan
Dark display
No shock protection