Toshiba SD-380

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Excellent
Range of Features	Excellent
Durability	Satisfactory
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Very cheap way to semi - upgrade, great quality picture, easy setup, good options
Disadvantages:	Flimsy disc tray, slightly awkward dimensions may be a problem to some, not True HD

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

DVDs, High-Definition and the Quandary Therein

DVD is a marvellous format, and I fell in love with it when it came out. Recently my beloved Digital Versatile Discs have been upstaged somewhat by the new generation of High Definition content based on Blu-Ray discs (or the already-defunct HD-DVD). If you have the money, the opportunity to upgrade all your films to this new Fantastic-o-vision must be wonderful indeed, but for someone who's gathered nearly 400 DVDs over the last 7 or 8 years and has neither the compulsion nor financial means to upgrade all of those discs (nor buy the often £25 new releases) it's an unattainable ideal we can only aspire to.

However! All is not lost, as there is a far more financially-attractive midway point that should suit all but the most demanding of consumers. Enter the Wonderful World of Upscaling DVD players!

The Technobabble

The new Bluray discs are around 6 times the size of standard DVDs - about 30Gb compared to 4.7Gb - so the quantity of information they can squeeze on is much superior. This allows them to store much a higher quality picture, up to 1080 horizontal lines compared to 576 on a PAL DVD. Combined with High Definition TVs capable of displaying all this information the level of detail visible is a vast improvement. Beyond just the increase in detail, you will see sharper edges and better colours from a high definition source.

An upscaling DVD player cannot invent the information missing from a standard DVD compared to a Bluray disc, but it can "clean up" the data that is present to reproduce the colours and clarity, if not the fine detail. Whilst this sounds (and is) a mere second place to a true Bluray player, when you realise that this upscaling technology costs around £40 compared to a PlayStation 3 at about £300 (the cheapest quality BluRay player), and that it works with all your existing content, the advantage becomes clear!

The Product

The SD380 is a sleek, slim looking player that should fit in with most home setups nicely. Details are picked out in silver and the lights are the familiar LED green. It is, however, very wide - I was only just able to squeeze the player into the cabinet I have at home, so it's worth checking the dimensions before buying.

The remote is similarly light and slim, in a standard black, and performs its job satisfactorily. A DVD remote is a DVD remote, after all, and any new player leaves you hunting for the pause button when the phone starts to ring.

Setting up the player is straightforward - plug the player in, connect to your TV via HDMI cable (don't bother with an overpriced cable, anything for £10 will do) and you're set to go.

Using the Device

My upscaling DVD player is hooked up to a 42" LG Plasma TV, my review of which can be found elsewhere on this site, so I'm viewing it at a size large enough to see the difference in quality but not using a full 1080p set.

Opening the player to put the disc in, the tray is quite light and flimsy, so you have to be gentle with it. The DVD slots in easily though, and the player is responsive enough so that when you click the "Open/Close" button the machine doesn't think about it for 15 seconds before actually opening.

The player has an button on the front and on the remote that lets you switch the output to either 720p, 1080i or 1080p. If you care enough about your image quality to be buying HD TVs and upscaling DVD players then chances are you know what those terms mean. Small LEDs on the front of the player show you which resolution you are using. Due to my plasma set I'm running at 720p, because the progressive image deals with motion better than the interlaced 1080i - and, as mentioned before, there's no extra information in that 1080i anyway, as the upscaler is inventing it all.

The remote works fairly well with the player, you don't have to be particularly accurate with where you aim, always nice!

The Image

Obviously the point of buying an upscaler is to improve the look of your DVDs, and the device performs admirably here. Edges are sharp and crisp, even up close, colours are strong and impressive, and there is no noise readily visible in the image, even in dark patches. The player produces no motion blur on fast moving high contrast areas, although an LCD set may introduce this as an inevitable consequence of the technology it uses. The overall improvement with this upscaling HDMI player over a standard SCART-connected player is impressive; no muddy images or drab colours, or the annoying blocky (MPEG) noise you get from inferior DVD players.

Summary

I've had no problems with the device since buying it, so I have no real complaints to mention. I imagine that the device can be connected to a Toshiba LCD TV and use the technology they have to control the DVD through the TV remote, but as I've mentioned my TV is LG so I can't comment on how well this works.

If you want more functionality from your device there's a similar model (around £10 more) that plays MP3, JPG, DivX etc., but as I have my 360 I didn't feel the need to opt for this.

Whilst this isn't true HD - and you can tell - at most reasonable distances you'd have to be looking very hard indeed to notice the difference between this and Full HD content. If you care that much you're not likely to settle for upscaling anyway.

Overall, if you want to get more out of your HDTV but are reluctant to upgrade to an entirely new technology (that may well be defunct in a few more years anyway), this is a fantastically economical way of doing so. If you've spent the money to get a full 1080p set anyway you probably have the money to afford the Bluray player a set like that would deserve. For anyone slightly-less demanding of their equipment who already has a lot invested in standard DVD technology, you absolutely cannot go wrong for the £40 this player costs.