Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba SD-3109 DVD Player

I bought this player 4 months ago when it was first released from Japan while on a trip to Asia. I did extensive researches prior to buying this player and I bought it for its value for money, performance, picture/sound quality and ease of use.

Now, I'm not a serious audiophille or do I intend to spend huge amount of dollars to get those top of the range DVD player (ie. Onkyo, Yamaha, etc). I want something practical, which I believe most of you do as well. And guess what? Surprise, surprise -- I've got so much more than what I bargained for.

The picture is superb, sharp and crisp on my 30 inch Loewe TV. Colour is bright and does not "bleed". Sound is excellent when connected to my Yamaha 795a and no audio-sync problems. In addition, the zoom function, built-in DD5.1, DTS(sounds better than DD!) and HDCD(remarkable audio quality) encoders, component-colourstream and S-video output, dual disc trays and virtual N2-2 surround sound for those with a 2 speaker setup system made this unit complete with features. Mine has got two additional mic inputs for Karaoke and it's gold in colour but are of the same parts and build. It's easy to setup and use as well. Having said this, find me a DVD player that is close in comparison in regards to price, performance and function.

About compability issues -- ZIPPO! Now, do bear in mind that my DVD is Region 5, and although it has been multi-zoned, it played Saving Private Ryan (DTS -- Region 1), Haunting, US Marshalls, Deep Blue Sea (all DD -- Reg 1),Matrix, Mummy, Fifth Element, Tomorrow Never Dies(DD -- Reg 4), T2, True Lies (DD -- Reg 5) flawlessly without any lock-ups, freezes, pauses (except for changing layers for dual-layered discs) or audio-sync problems.

I guess it is unfortunate that some reviewers have problems with this player. Maybe you should examine your connections properly and call up Toshiba for assistance before jumping the gun about this unit? I have 2 other relatives who bought this unit from here (Reg 4) upon my recommedation and they too did not have any problems with it.

Maybe I do agree with some reviewers that the remote is chunky but it serves its purpose very well. Besides, who buys a unit (VCR, amp, tv for that matter) for it's remote anyway? Get a Universal remote and that should solve the problem.

In conclusion, I would say this is an awesome purchase. It's definitely worth every dollar spent on it. Have a read in those DVD magazines and you'll find the SD-3109 unit get very good ratings and reviews from professional audiophilles. I would suggest you visit your local electrical outlet to see it for yourself. Get it, you won't regret it!

Hope my contribution helps.

I purchased the Toshiba 3109 DVD player about one month ago and it was easy to install and everything works fine. The 3109 only comes with the basic 2 channel audio and video RCA style cables so you will probably have to run to the store and get S-video or composite video cables as well as a digital audio cable for a proper installation. These cables are not cheap and will cost at least $15 each for cheap off-brand stuff.

The Matrix played without any problems. Saving Private Ryan played fine except for about a one second pause near the end of the movie. Everything else I have put in it has played ok so far.

The forward and reverse scan modes on this player are not as smooth as even the low cost Sony players. My father-in-law received a very low price ($US) Sony DVD player for xmas and I was impressed with the much smoother scanning of the Sony. The Toshiba 3109 scanning is much more jerky. The Sony also included a S-video cable which was a nice touch.

The Sony remote was also better and allowed you perform basic TV operations such as volume and channel changing (although the video input selection required the original TV remote). The Toshiba remote only operates the DVD player. I don't even use it anymore since I have a Sony receiver and I can control the DVD player with it.

My last gripe is the 2 disc capability of the unit. There is only one disc door and behind that door is some sort of disc swapping mechanism that operates pretty slowly. I think this extra mechanical complexity will only lower the long-term reliability of the unit and that Toshiba should have put 2 disc doors with dedicated trays on this unit.

The zoom feature is nice (this is about the only reason I have to dig out the Toshiba remote) and the setup menus are decent - better than the Sony in my opinion. Overall the Toshiba is a decent unit but if you don't need the on-board 5.1 decoding I would consider saving $ and buying a low end Sony.

I've searched high and low, every site on the net that I couldfind, trying to get the most bang for the buck, with all of thefeatures that I wanted of course. All of my research led to this beautiful piece of electronics, the Toshiba SD-3109. This player has great picture quality w/ the 3 optional hook-ups (component being the best), and perfect dolby digital sound, with decoder built in (optical out being the best way to take advantage of it). The hardware has been absolutely flawless, after 2 months of use so far. It is very easy to use and control too! It plays VCD's and CD's wonderfully, and is the only DVD player under $2000, at the time of this review, to play HDCD's. Now ask yourself, what more could you ask for in a DVD payer.

In december I purchased this (Region 1 player) for a reallygood deal and I didn't go wrong. I'm only 16, so this was no smallpurchase for me; and I learned it was well worth the money! I'm not just saying this because I'm blown away by DVD in general, but because I've seen other players, and this one holds strong against others. I use the built in DD (Dolby Digital) decoder because I have no DD decoder in our amp (just 6 channel discrete input). I've heard it when hooked up to a DD amp with a optical digital cable, and it seems better, but mine was still a lot better than VHS, and I also don't have really high end speakers, but still have low-end Infinty. The picture looks great on the 35" JVC TV, but I can't use component video on it, just S-Video, still looks fine though. I've tried 3 CDs with HDCD encoding, but the player didin't realize that they were HDCD compatible, i don't know why, maybe 'cause I've got it hooked up with anolog cables with the 6 CH Discrete. The zooming isn't really necessary, but that doesn't mean this player is a waste of money! The dual disc system is an added bonus, not really an extra cost, so hey why not? All the outputs are gold plated too. I've played at least 25-30 discs, and haven't noticed a flaw in playback at all. The only (MINOR) "hickup" was during "The Bone Collector" where for about 1 or 2 seconds, the picture sort of froze and sound was lost, then it came back, the disc may have been dirty though - rented. As for the remote, i don't know how much better other players' remotes are, but this one is fine, a lot better than the Panasonic A-120s is, easier to use in terms of setting up anyway. The shape is kinda weird of the remote though. One thing that was a real bonus, like mentioned below, is how easy it was to set up. Once hooked up (I don't know what the heck people are talking about when they say they couldn't even get it hooked up) you do about 2 minutes of set up with the easy on screen menu of stting up sound, tv screen size (4:3, 16X9) and a bit others, and then your ready! It would be nice to get a widescreen HDTV though, they say the Widescreen DVDs especially, look better on these TVs, the "compressed" image is supposed (and does!) look even better. The only annoying thing is, is that I haven't gotten my 5 free movies yet, maybe the mail is extremely slow and it didn't get there in time. You can't go wrong, honestly!

I bought this DVD player after searching for what seemed like months for the best price-to-features deal. This player has everything I needed to augment my current system including on-board digital processing that my tuner doesn't. And although you can go straight to your TV via composite or S-Video just like a VCR, DVD really shines as a component in an A/V setup. This player supports running 6 audio channels out to an A/V tuner. In this configuration you really appreciate the benefit of DVD. You just have to see the clarity and crispness of the static free picture coupled with super sound quality to believe it. Another cool thing about this one, which is not something that I was shopping for, is the 2-disc loader. This feature doesn't come in handy that much actually but when you want to have a movie marathon it's there. And you can use it as a CD player as well. Best of all, you don't even need the guide to set it up. Just plug it in, connect the cables (all connectors are clearly labled) and away you go. I'm not an audiofile but I cannot think of a feature that I'm missing out on nor have I yet seen another player on the market that I would buy instead.