Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba SD-43HT Progressive-Scan DVD Home Theater System

After doing a considerable amount of research on 'home theatre in a box' systems, I decided to pick the Toshiba SD-43HT system. My budget was between $250-$300. This was actually priced lower than that, so that was a bonus. More money to spend on DVDs!

First - the DVD playback. This is progresive scan, and I have an HDTV. My old DVD player which I've had for a couple of years was not progressive scan, so I was really looking forward to seeing what the big deal was with progressive scan.

Wow!

After I got the systen set up I popped in "The Fast and the Furious" and cued up the first race scene. The picture was amazing! It is worth noting that I also picked up some Monster Component cables which should also be helping in giving a great picture. The picture was razor sharp and the color was very vivd and true to life. Remember when you first switched over from VHS to DVD? That is what it is like jumping from "regular DVD" to progressive scan on this system. Wow.

Next - the sound. This system comes with 5 satellite speakers plus a subwoofer. The sub is not powered, it is passive and gets 70 watts. The satellites are 50 watts/channel. So the sound system comes in at under 400 watts. Most systems in this price range come in around 500, so it isn't as powerful. However, this sytem has excellent sound. Again, the race scene in TF&F looked excellent, and the surround sound was awesome. Very clean, pure digital sound. The subwoofer boomed, and the satellites held there own. It is plenty of power for me. You probably aren't going to "feel" the sub like you would on a high-end system, but thats ok. This system pumps out the sound very well.

I plugged my digital cable box into the DVD player/reciever and was plesantly suprised to hear very clean, clear 5.1 surround sound coming out of it. So now recgular televsion can be enjoyed in surround sound! Also, CDs sound great. It even read my MP3 Cd with no problem!

Overall I am very happy. I got what I paid for. This is not a $3,000 home theatre system. But it packs a punch for the price for sure. Definitly worth checking out.

The Toshiba SD-43HTSU and at least one other Toshiba system has a high failure rate. The unit comes on, displays "Hello...Protection...Goodbye" and shuts off.

Search of the web and a call to Toshiba both blame the problem on C27. For those not electronically minded, that is a Capacitor number 27.

This particular capacitor is a 100uF (microfarad) with a voltage rating of 16V. I have replaced C27 with a 100uF rated at 25V on the theory that excess voltage was the problem. So far so good. The unit works again!

To replace this capacitor (which costs less than a dollar at an electronics supply store), first remove the top cover. C27 is labeled in small print on the main board (biggest and below all other boards) near the center of the instrument. You will have to remove the bottom board entirely, which looks complicated but is not really too bad. To get at the main board, and unsolder C27, you have to remove the main board.

Do not worry about getting the connectors back where they came from. They are all keyed so that they go in only one way and the semi-permanent bend in the wires makes it pretty obvious where all the connectors go and which way.

In the way is a vertical board which runs from front to back. This vertical board is also attached permanently to a 3" X 5" board attached to the rear panel via the video input and output connectors. Both boards come out together if you unfasten the 3" X 4" board from the rear panel. The vertical board makes connection to the main board in two places with edge connectors on the vertical board. Note how they fit into the main board.

Remove every screw from the rear panel except those holding the fan and those holding the antenna connectors to the rear panel.

Carefully pull out the two flat cables from the center vertical board and one between the AM/FM tuner (small board in the left rear corner of instrument) to the 3" X 5" board. One connector with individual wires connects to the DVD assembly. It is soldered to the main board, but the connector comes out easily at the DVD assembly end.

Pull the sides of the instrument apart very slightly to unsnap the rear panel from the instrument. One connector below the 3" X 5" board connects to the power supply board directly beneath the 3" X 5" board. My instrument has a toroid around that cable...yours may not.

Pull out all the connectors to the main board and remove the 6 screws holding it to the bottom of the chassis. Remove the one screw toward the front of the instrument holding the vertical board in place.

Now you can tip the main board up and get to the back. Note that the capacitor has a minus sign on it. You must replace the old capacitor in the same orientation. The minus sign points to the left of the instrument. Unsolder C27 and replace with 100uF/25V.

Be sure you have connected all the cables up again when you reassemble the unit.

The whole job should take less than an hour and it sure beats the price of the repair or shipment to Toshiba.

I am visiting in Panama at the moment and Toshiba has no repair and no warranty here.

Earlier this year I was shopping around for a good surround sound system and all I could find were $800 - $1000 Sony or JVC systems at my local retailers Best Buy and Circuit City. I shopped around amazon once and found this great system for only $250! So I snagged it up fearing that it would be gone soon and it has been great. It works perfectly and sounds 10 times better than my parents JVC $1000 surround sound system. It's extremely powerful sound wise, and visually. Also music sounds great on it for parties. Also it plays every kind of cd you could ever think of: VCD, SVCD, DVD-R, MP3 etc. I suggest snagging this great deal immediatly before to many people find out about it and it's sold out. I love mine! No complaints.

PROS: easy to set up; solid video and sound; handles layer changes well; region-free
CONS: limited A/V in/out; slow to open DVD tray; clunky 'time remaining/elapsed' displays

I am satisfied Toshiba customer. I bought my first DVD player (a Toshiba SD-1200) in March 2000, and it's worked perfectly to this day. So when I felt it was time to upgrade to surround sound, it's no surprise that, after comparing prices and features of competing brands, I decided on the Toshiba SD-43HT. If you're like me, and you want to take advantage of Dolby 5.1 and DTS tracks on DVDs without spending thousands of dollars on equipment, this entry-level system is a great value at under $300.

The color coded wires make it easy to set up right out of the box. The wires are 18 gauge and 50' in length for the rear speakers, 25' (I think) for the front. You may want to upgrade to a lower gauge and replace these generic wires when you can. However, the wire connecting the subwoofer is permanently soldered on--and is extremely difficult to untie when first setting up the system. Toshiba should have really used twist-ties when packaging this system!

Some home theaters offer 60 or even 70 watts/speaker of power, but I think these 50 watts speakers provide plenty of volume for even a larger sized room. The experienced audiophile may balk at the quality of the sound, but for the typical listener, this system is more than sufficient. Listening to the DTS mix on my Hero DVD is an amazing experience. You'll never be able to watch a movie without surround again. Advanced users may also like to tweak controls like the midi/bass/treble controls, but there are none to be found on this system, only levels and delays. (I haven't played any CDs, but I would suggest the user who finds the subwoofer dominating his music to turn down the s/w level.)

The Toshiba SD-43HT offers stunning video quality. I have an older television, so I can't comment on the SD-43HT's progressive scan, but I'm sure it's even *more* stunning. The unit has composite video, s-video, and component outs. I've never encountered layer changes on DVDs where I know layer changes to occur, such as in the LOTR Two Towers extended edition. As for features, the player fast forwards in 2x, 4x, 8x and 32x. It has a zoom capability of 1.5x, 2x and 3x. There's JPEG slideshow and mp3 playback, and AM/FM radio. VCDs burned onto CD-R and CD-RW discs play fine.

Finally, if appearances are important, this unit is pretty stylish looking. The player/receiver is slim, and the speakers and subwoofer don't look cheap and bulky like some brands. It's silver and gray so it looks nice against white and black surroundings.

Now, for some negatives: There is no audio out, which makes dubbing DVDs impossible. But more importantly, you can't take the player to a friend's house, connecting with a regular composite A/V cable, and leave the speakers at home. Also, the system offers only a digital optical input. This is compatible with the Playstation 2 and XBox, but a lot of digital cable boxes are coaxial digital (they have orange plugs that say SPDIF) and if your cable box is like mine, you'll need to be buy a digital optical cable, a coaxial digital cable, and a coaxial digital to digital optical converter to enjoy 5.1 sound from TV broadcasts.

It takes almost ten seconds for the DVD tray to open. My old Toshiba SD-1200 opened in two seconds. You will be standing in front of your player, holding a DVD, tapping your foot, and saying 'Open, already!' Another minor problem: the SD-1200 would give the title elapsed, title remaining, chapter elapsed and chapter remaining all with one press of the DISPLAY button. The Toshiba people were clearly trying to minimize the text on screen, but it's annoying to have to click the REMAIN button and cycle through all the time options. It also 'pops' the audio when it goes from one option to the next.

Most surprisingly, this system can be made region-free with a simple hack. Turn the player on without a disc. Press 'Enter' on the remote, then '8-4-2-6-9,' 'Enter' again, and the player should turn off automatically. (If for some reason it doesn't, try turning it off yourself.) The next time you turn the player on, it should be region free. If doesn't, your player was manufactured differently. I tested using region 0, 1, 2 and 4 DVDs, interchanging them, and they all work perfectly -- no hiccups. The PAL colors look fine on my NTSC set. However, the internal conversion doesn't work correctly with PAL widescreen. (It takes a 16:9 image and makes it 4:3.) No problems with PAL full screen, obviously.

The Toshiba SD-43HT is terrific. Easy to set up. The quality of sound and video is the best for the price. The features match anything else on the market. It just looks great in your living room. And it's region-free. (I really just wished the player had a composite audio out, the tray opened faster, and that it could handle PAL widescreen.) I recommend this system to anyone who's looking for a home theater experience on a budget!

UPDATE: Ten months later and I'm still loving my Toshiba SD43HT. No problems whatsoever.

I've been around audio/video equipment for a couple of decades, and I've seen $15,000 components (Farouja line doubler) or their equivalent go down to a small fraction of their price over the years. This is a fabulous example of how economic forces have forced prices down. I set mine up today and I can hardly believe the quality of the picture and sound (for picture quality, of course, you need a monitor capable of 720 or whatever the number of lines progressive scan DVD players put out). Now for sound, I've been around high-fi nuts since the early '50's, when some of the stuff was hardly in enclosed cabinets. You might not get better sound quality than this item puts out until you get into thousands of dollars, plus an acoustically correct room. Go for this, and spend the savings on DVD's.