Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba SD330E Multi-region DVD Player

Let's assume the great picture and sound and the other things the 5 star reviews give it are a done deal - they are.

What about the issues...

1) Manual in French / German ?

Mine was a pukka printed manual entirely in ENGLISH

2) R1 discs play in Black and White?

My R1 Quadrophenia played straight away, in colour, with no problems (what a scandal that one of the finest independent cult British films is crap on R2 at 4:3 with the same print used for the tired VHS release and no extras whereas the Yanks get a remastered print with a host of quality extras, anamorphic widescreen - and cheaper!!!)

I digress

3) No Scarts.

Big Deal - It's a 70 quid machine FFS! If you play a DVD with cheap scarts, you might as well stick to a 70s VHS player. I'd never use cheapo supplied scarts anyway. Buy some good 'uns and see the difference. Then you have 'em for life every time you upgrade your machines! Mega quality Thor scarts are just 18 quid at Play.com

4) No VCD Playback.

My home produced VCD played first time no problems

And audio cd's play superbly as well, so much crisper than my muffly old Phillips.

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For crying out loud, top quality sound and picture with DTS & Dolby, multi region, and zillions of disc media supported for 70 nicker - delivered! ?

What are you waiting for!

If you get a wrong 'un..... swap it for another!! This is Amazon, not shadydealer.com

This is how DVD players should be, all the features, brill pics and sound, and some nifty add-ons to keep the techies happy as well. This machine will play anything I throw into it, and I have a collection of DVDs from around the world that will only play in THIS machine.

The price I paid was £79.99 for the multi-region version(delivered on time) from Amazon, but now it is £69.99 and a STEAL! Those of you who moan about no SCART lead in the box can look at paying £130+ from your local dealer, who will also charge you £20 to unlock the unit for multi region. At the Amazon price I can save money and get my own SCART lead thanks!!

The instructions were in Eng, but how many pages have I read of it, none! All the icons are on-screen anyway. I expect that one rainy day I might work out some of the miriad of features by reading it though, but life is short.

Thinking of a DVD player, don't look any further, this is the one you need, at a price that makes it unmissable! Don't even think of getting a cheapo brand from your local supermarket. At this price it won't be around for long.

All I need now is the Toshiba RD XS 30 DVD Hard Drive Recorder to drop below £500 and I will be into Amazon again!

...what happened to the English manual? German and French is no use and considering the machine is feature full, I would expect the manual to be in English to get the best out of it. I contacted Amazon and got a bog standard reply giving me Toshiba's telephone number. I called that and was given another number. Toshiba were very helpful, took the serial no. and said that when the manuals come back into stock, they will send me one. They also said that many people who had bought from Amazon had called with the same problem. They are looking into this and it could be a mistake in packing at their factory or just that Amazon get the machines from a foreign supplier. Either way, it should not be down to the consumer to have to chase up an English manual especially as there is no reference on the product description page to the fact that it comes with a foreign manual

Other than this, the SD330E is a great looking player with superb picture quality.

After playing DVDs on my Playstation, for ages, i finally decided it was time for a DVD player. After looking at all the reviews for DVD players under £100, the Toshiba came out best. It took me 5 mins to setup and it even plays DVDs bought back from China! Its fabulous quality and far superior to that of the PS2. Definitely worth the money.

I bought the Toshiba SD330E for my parents after being very impressed with Toshiba's previous model, the SD220E. The picture quality is superb, even when only connected with a dirt cheap SCART lead. It's mainly used for region 2 DVDs, but has had no problems with other regions or with various other formats such as VCD. It supports disc resume (an essential feature in my book)and has a great remote from which it is possible to carry out all functions. As a bonus, if you lose the remote, it functions fully from the buttons on the front of the machine. It's small and looks very sleek, and the cherry on the cake is the fantastic price. Buy it now!