Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player

Manufacturer:	Toshiba
List price:	~~$89.99~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!

Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player

Average rating: Stars

Acceptable, but not great

When I bought this I wanted a simple, no frills DVD player. The store I bought it from had the unit on display, but not the remote.

There are two things about this player that I'm not thrilled with. The first is the remote. The arrow keys are in the middle of the remote -- which is fine. But the play and pause buttons are tiny and hard to find. The remote itself is pretty small, so the fact that the buttons are small isn't surprising. But I would have preferred a larger remote. Or one with a slight redesign to make it easier to use the most common buttons.

The other issue I have with this player is that it freezes. On perfect, brand new discs with no defects. It doesn't happen too frequently, but enough to be annoying. A "fast forward" followed by a "play" almost always fixes the freeze. Or a "rewind" then play. And it rarely if ever freezes again in the same spot. The exact same disc plays perfectly in my computer's DVD drive, so I have to blame the Toshiba player.

For the money, though, this is a decent player. Aside from the above mentioned quirks, it's been fairly reliable. I have had the player for a few months, and it has played some discs that I was sure were beyond hope (video rental places don't always have the highest quality discs). It does take a long time to open the tray after watching a movie (as mentioned in another review) but I've experienced plenty of worse treatment from electronic devices.

Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player - Toshiba

DVD players, in general.

Well, in the last 2.5 years I have owned 3 DVD players: Panasonic, Sony, and now the subject Toshiba. Can't compute the fortune I've spent on DVDs, but what's the point if the players always conk out after only a few months???

In 1997 I purchased an RCA VHS player, and you know what? It's still going strong. Talk about getting my money's worth. Granted, the resolution on tapes is obviously not as sharp as the DVDs, but who cares anymore? What's the point in spending a ton of money on DVDs and then having to replace the players every 6 or 8 months? How distressing it is to be trying to watch a film on DVD and wondering when the image is going to either pixel or skip or freeze-frame or just stop altogether.

I'm thinking that these manufacturers are low-pricing the units to where the consumer says, "Well, it's not expensive." But we get what we pay for: a cheaply made, unsound and unreliable piece of equipment that gets trashed sooner than should be. And the manufacturers reap the benefits of re-purchases on players that probably only cost them $3.50 to build and ship.

My romance and fascination with DVDs and DVD players is O-V-E-R.

Toshiba - Toshiba SD-3960 DVD Player

Bought as a gift and was delivered broken...

I was very disappointed to learn that I'd purchased this as a gift and when the person received it, it only worked for 2 days then quit.

I was however, very pleased that Toshiba responded to the broken item without question an replaced it (and upgraded it) free of charge. I would recommend doing business with Toshiba because their customer service is great. But unfortunately I cannot recommend this DVD player.

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