Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba SD-V390 Progressive-Scan DVD-VCR Combo

Great price, great value, great quality, decent customer service. Toshiba is doing things right. The V390 has progressive scan which gives you clearer pictures than regular DVD players. The VCR has self-cleaning so you don't have to clean the heads often, maybe once every couple years should suffice. Everything works fine. Obviously, you can't copy most commercial DVD movies to VHS tape, due to Macrovision protection. Toshiba and Panasonic now also sell DVD burners for home use, and they are cool (but still expensive).

I found the response speed to the rewind/fast forward button rather slow. The VCR timer programming for recording is extremely awkward. For example, instead of pressing the numbers to set the start/end times, you have to hold down an arrow button for a long time to get to the hour/minute as there is no separate hour/minute/am-pm setting. When rewinding/fast forwarding while playing, the counter will not appear on the TV screen but only on the VCR.

The position of the buttons favor the DVD player even when the buttons are shared functions with the VCR. When using the VCR you have to hunt for certain buttons. Most of the important buttons are rather small. Certain functions which can be shared have separate buttons.

As you can see, I use the VCR a lot more. You do not have to turn off the unit to activate the timer like other VCRs, which allows you to watch DVDs while recording, but became a problem when it recorded over a tape I was watching.

Size of unit is deeper and wider than our old VCR and DVD players but still fits in our standard size wall unit.

Some good things are that the picture quality seems better than the other VCRs I have. Also has front and back inputs which allows us to hook up the cable (back) and camcorder (front).

I purchased one Toshiba DVD/VCR combo because this is the only DVD/VCR combo I can find that can support VCD and has progressive scan. My first choice was the Sylvania DVD/VCR, but for the same price except $10 less, it does not support VCD.

Setup was a breeze and I got it all hooked up in less than 5 minutes. I find the clock setup to be a hassle. Delivers good picture but my 14 year old SVHS VCR is even better. Reads DVD discs quick. So far no trouble.

The front-face design is designed by Toshiba but LG (Goldstar) Electronics make the Toshiba SD-V390. Other than that, I recommend this Toshiba SD-V390 to anyone else.

I am a fan of toshiba since I've owned several of their televisions and have admired their reliability and performance. I recently purchased the Toshiba SDV 390 dual vcr/cd unit to go with a new wide screen Toshiba television set. I am really disappointed in the remote control for this unit. It is almost impossible to figure out with dual function buttons everywhere, poorly placed, and hard to read lableing. Vcr and CD functions are intermixed and confusing. This is not what I would have ecpected from Toshiba engineering. The unit itself seems to perform well but this remote control stand between us.

WOW! At first glance, Toshiba's SV-390 seems to do it all: home theater quality audio/visual plus support for your digital camera, camcorder, DVD/CD burner, etc. []WRONG! As it turns out, the SD-390 may be incompatible with some of your favorite DVD's.

There are several types of DVD's in use today, and the SD-390 works well with most of them most of the time. But sometimes the player will choke attempting to load a disc that it does not recognize. You are less likely to see this problem with "DVD-R" discs mastered by major film studio. These almost always load on the 1st attempt, or on a 2nd attempt if necessary. The problem seems to be more common with "DVD+R" discs recorded on home DVD burners and produced cheaply by independent film studios. Many of these will never load or play in the SD-V390.

Unfortunately, neither Amazon nor Toshiba explicity mention a compatibility problem in the SV-390 marketing materials. Amazon's site specs include the "-" format and exclude the "+" format. Toshiba's site tapdances around conditional support for the "-" format while making no reference to the "+" format. You are expected to understand the subtleties and implications, "Buyer Beware"!

After enough irritating load failures, you will realize there is a problem, you may be surprised to learn that assistance is not readily available. Neither the SV-390 display panel nor the Owner's Manual do an adequate job of identifying what prevents a disc from loading. Toshiba Consumer Support will offer useless suggestions such as checking the disc, cleaning the lens, or taking an expensive trip to your authorized service center. It would cost more to diagnose and resolve the problem (if that is even possible) than to replace the unit.

Similar experiences from frustrated consumers can be found on the Internet, along with in-depth and limited-use advice from techy-guru's. Common suggestions are to download a firmware upgrade or to hack the existing firmware in your DVD device. This is better left to techy-guru's, as a firmware mishap can ruin your device.