Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba SD220 DVD Player

One word can describe this player and that word is EXCELLENT! The picture and sound quality are both superb and both can be enhanced by the using the players Enhanced Picture Mode or Enhanced Audio Mode respectively. Have you ever come accross the problem of having to knock up the volume on your TV to hear what is being said on your DVD, well you'll not need to do that anymore with the Enhanced Audio Mode on this player - it has a specific mode for enhancing dialogue so you can hear every word with crystal clear precision. It's a very user friendly player and you can access quite a lot of the functions directly using the player as well as the remote control which is a nice plus as well.

Oh and did I mention that it also plays RCE discs? So those Region 1 fans out there who have had to stop buying their favourite movies because of RCE can now stop panicking and buy away - I purchased Resident Evil Region 1 RCE and it played straight away, no tweaks/workarounds needed...

So if you want a decent DVD player that plays everything, MP3's, VCD's, CDR-RW and RCE then this really is the player for you, at an unbelieveable price. Highly recommended.

When my second generation DVD player started acting up, I thought it was time for a change, but what to buy. Should I spend a fortune on a really high spec player or get hold of a good budget player?

Another consideration that I had was that I wanted to be able to play DVD and VCD's that I create from my DV-Cam on my PC.

Firstly let me say that Amazon were excellent to deal with, keeping me informed every step of the way via email.
The player arrived within 12 hours of the email to say it had been despatched, givin my location in Scotland that's impressive.

Just as a test I lined up a few Discs as well as a DVD I created with Some shots from my Recent motorcycle tour.

If first impressions are what count, then the Toshiba hit it off right from the start.
This is a very compact unit, half the depth of the my older player, if you stack your components one on the other this one will have to go on top.

Connections on the rear are scart with switchable svideo or RGB or composite. there are also seperate rgb phonos. on the audio side there are fibre and phono connectors.

The menu systems are a breaze to use.

I decided to leave the old player connected to do a direct comparison.
First up was Attack of the Clones, the lightspeeder chase scene.
There was no comparison with my older player. The colours were VIVID. the whole picture appeared to come alive (i had thought this was a good dark scene) The DTS sound track had me weaving around as I stood there in awe at the the picture quallity.

next up was Lord of the Rings. I couldn't shut up about the colours on display. the sound and the base from my active sub Is so much more articulate.

Also I found that my DVD (created with Adobe Premier and Nerovision Express) worked flawlessly. both DVD+R and DVD+RW disks were fine. also older VCD and SVCD disks played fine.

Altogether this is an excellent product for the money. I have no problem recommending this to anyone looking for a low cost, brand name which delivers. Toshiba's pedigree shines through on the toshiba 220.

and at the price I saved a bit for that Projector I'm after .. :)

I purchased this dvd just under 8 months ago and up until this point have been very happy with all aspects of the player's performance. Unfortunately, without warning, it has suddenly reset from multi-region playback to its original factory setting of just region 2! Be warned, investigation on the net seems to indicate that this is not a one-off incident, but in fact may be common to the model????

Having owned a Sony Multiregion player which I was extremely happy with on the DVD front, I was a little disappointed to find that it did not play VCD's, SVCD's, CD-R's, CD-RW's, or MP3. This was only a recent requirement since I have been making my own Home movies in VCD and SVCD format. With the Sony having such a good DVD picture and sound I was a little reluctant to purchase a new player without checking every review of every player that I could come across. I did not want a player that did play all disks but played them badly. I decided after reading the reviews here to purchase the Toshiba SD220 Multiregion player. I must say I'm delighted. Not only does it play everything I've thrown at it (DVD-R, RCE, VCD, SVD, CD-R, CD-RW and MP3) but it plays them all impeccably. The picture is better than my Sony player and the sound is miles better. Music Playback (CD & MP3) is fantastic. Sounds are rich and full. Picture quality is sharp without being forced, the colours are vibrant with no signs of smudging. A nice touch is the ability to change the picture to suit your own needs (darker, lighter etc) and the sound system has four options to choose from; the best in my opinion is the dialogue enhancer which reduces all sound except dialogue to allow you to clearly hear what is being said (no more volume adjustments on the TV set when action scenes are being played out and it's past midnight...). The only disappointment for some would be the lack of 5.1 sockets on the back. But for me that is not a major factor. I would heartily recommend this player to anybody. The price is misleading as you would not expect a player this good to be this cheap (I paid £200+ for the Sony and thought it was great but it doesn't compare to the Toshiba). Times are changing and there are some excellent players in this price range but all the reviews on the internet point to this one being by far the best...and I would definitely agree. Trust me folks, it's a cracking player!

I'd already bought the previous model of the Toshiba DVD (the 210 SD 110E) so I was confident that this player wouldn't disappoint. And it doesn't. I have it wired into a new Toshiba TV and therefore it was simplicity to set up via a Scart lead, although subsequently I connected it via a coaxial cable and the component video jacks to improve the quality of the sound and vision. To be honest, however, I think most people would be pushed to tell if there was a discernable improvement between these types of connection as the quality of the picture is so high anyway. I haven't got around to seeing if it will play my CDR's yet, but I've no doubt it will if I want it to......but I bought it to watch movies really. The pictures and sound are awesome compared to video or broadcast films and I wouldn't contemplate paying out more money to improve on this player. People prepared to spend north of two hundred pounds on a DVD to improve quality probably need to get out more. I have the multi-region version of the Toshiba, although I'm not sure what this adds. I didn't have it on the other player, and didn't miss it. Yes, I can probably now buy discs from the States or cheaply via auction sites but it's not a vital function in my opinion. Perhaps I'll change my mind if I ever find enough time to scour the internet for DVD bargains.
In summary, if you're looking for a quality DVD player that won't break the bank and won't leave you wondering if maybe you should have spent that extra fifty quid to make the picture a wee bit better, you can't do better than this.