Toshiba SD340E

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Good
Sound Level	Excellent
Range of Features	Above Average
Durability	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Multi Region, Good picture, slim, durable
Disadvantages:	No Scart, not a recorder

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

DVD was launched commercial over 10 years ago. The major manufacturers made the mistake of not licensing the technology appropriately and subsequently the cost of DVD players has fallen dramatically within the past 5 years. Some people may find it hard to justify the cost of a DVD player when they can picked up for £30, but I am going to write this review to communicate the advantages of having a medium range quality DVD player.

So firstly, why Toshiba? Toshiba have an excellant reputation for producing quality products for a great price. There are some manufacturers such as Sony, that in my opinion rely too much on their brand image to sell the good. Toshiba both provide an excellant product, more importantly quality and value. 'What hifi' have for many years ranked Toshiba as the best budget DVD player, and the Toshiba SD340E itself has been awarded five stars from the magazine itself.

I'd initially like to focus on the build of the Toshiba SD340E. The Toshiba SD340E is well packaged and in the box, enclosed is the DVD player itself, manual, remote and power lead. There is one fundamental piece missing from the box, a scart lead. The scart lead is the wire that connects the DVD player to the television for optimum performance. It is widely accepted that most DVD players do not contain a scart lead, so while this is a criticism of the Toshiba SD340E, competitors suffer from the same criticism. The design and build of the Toshiba is fantastic. The Toshiba SD340E is a product offered at a good price, but at the same time it is built to last. The product feels very strong and will be durable. One of the main attractions for me of the Toshiba SD340E. Although Im sure you could find slimmer DVD players, many will comprimise on picture and sound quality. The Toshiba SD340E is a DVD player that will look asethically pleasing under a TV.

I already antiscipated that the Toshiba SD340E would not contain a scart lead and bought a fairly decent £20 one myself. You can pick them up much cheaper, but I would recommend that when using a DVD player the quality of the Toshiba SD340E , I'd suggest spending about the same as me, the difference is apparent. So how does the Toshiba SD340E perform? Very well is the answer, and considerably better than cheaper DVD players. 'What hifi' even suggest that the Toshiba SD340E performs aswell as £200 DVD players, so the quality is assured. The colour is natural, and provides a picture with deep darks and much clarity. Audio wise, the Toshiba SD340E performs just aswell. I have the DVD player connected to my hifi, so the sound is just amazing, sometimes better than the cinema. One of the connection options is audio out.

In terms of general features, the Toshiba SD340E has them all. Ciao claims that the player features no DIVX, however I can claim that to be incorrect, since the version I have does. A very useful feature of the Toshiba SD340E is that it can be modified to give multi-region playback. In case you are not aware, the players are locked to region two (UK) and selected models can be modified so that region one etc (USA) DVDs can be played on them. I'd recommend when purchasing the Toshiba SD340E, that you enquire as to whether it has been modified to play DVDs from all regions. Mine is as i said, and the advantages are that I can buy cheaper DVDs from UK online shops, months before they get a UK release. Fantastic.

The Toshiba SD340E also has another useful feature that I use frequently, the ability to show pictures. The digital camera has become the number one, over 35mm and most of the time, people do not print the pictures out, but instead show them to eachother on the camera itself or the computer. This is not brilliant and the Toshiba SD340E offers the ability to play pictures, providing they are burnt to a disc. This is a superb feature since you can show friends and family pictures in the comfort of your own home.

Most DVD players have the ability to play CDs, but the quality is poor. Although not as good as a dedicated CD player, the Toshiba SD340E does offer good audio performance. Probably the fundamental factor that will determine the full performance will be that of your television. Since the sound comes from the television, the better the quality television the better the sound. As previously covered, the Toshiba SD340E does feature audio out, so CDs can be played of a good quality through my hifi. Although I do not use this feature since I have a good CD player, this is an option to some consumers.

While I do have much praise for this product, I think it is important to establish the one or two criticisms I have of this product, and the general limitations. One criticism aired by others reviewing this DVD player, and a feature that I have testing and proved to be true is that when you turn the DVD player off, or put it on standby, the place on the film you are watching is lost. In some DVD players, should you decided to split up the viewing of a film, you may turn it off, and then when you turn it back on, the player continues to show the film where you turned it off. This doesn't happen on the Toshiba SD340 but does not concern me at all. The Toshiba SD340 is not a DVD recorder, so you will not be able to record off the television but you can view DVD-R recordings on this. This means that if you have a DVD recorder downstairs or in another room, you can make the recording and then view it on this DVD player. This is a feature that some cheaper DVD players don't have.

In the first paragraph of this review I have stated how the major manufacturers have lost out as a result of cheaper players. Subsequently, they have developed new DVD technology (blu ray for example) which offers superior picture technology. The Toshiba SD340E will not be able to play these DVDs, however I feel this is a tough criticism since little or no commercial DVD players do so. The DVDs aren't even available in these formats anyway yet. A final criticism of the DVD player, already discussed is that it does not contain a scart lead.

So in conclusion, why should you choose the Toshiba SD340E? Firstly Toshiba have a good reputation of producing quality DVD players and the trusted magazine 'What hifi' itself has already awarded this DVD player five stars (out of five) and given it awards. So it has already been established that Toshiba SD340E provides fantastic quality image and sound. The range of features on the player is awesome, (some more technical ones I haven't covered for instance progressive scan). The player has the potential to play movies from American and show digital camera pictures on your television. It is regarded by 'what hifi' that this player performs aswell, or even better than some DVD players that cost as much as £200.

The Toshiba SD340E is available for as little as £60, so I'd recommend you research into buying it, if you are looking for a new DVD player, or one for the bedroom. Please take a look at the enclosed photograph of the player.