Toshiba SDV393 Progressive DVD/VCR Combination

Product Review

Description: This SDV393 DVD/VCR combination unit was engineered with all the advanced features and cosmetic appeal you've come to expect from Toshiba. Housed within a sleek, silver chassis that adds a stylish exclamation point to the look of most entertainment systems, it provides a full array of home theater-ready connections, including component, S-Video, and composite outputs. A coaxial audio output provides full compatibility with Dolby Digital and DTS digital systems. Readily accessible front-panel audio/video inputs permit easy connection of a camcorder for simple dubbing of home movies to the VCR. Enjoy a wide variety of discs with this player including DVD-Video, DVD-R/-RW, Video-CD, Audio-CD, CD-R/-RW, and WMA/MP3 files. You can even watch a DVD while simultaneously recording a program on the VCR.

Amazon.com Product Review

Minimize component clutter while stepping into high-resolution audio/video entertainment with Toshiba's SD-V393 DVD/VCR combo. The DVD deck plays a variety of optical content, including DVD-Video, DVD-R, audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and video CD, as well as MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) music files recorded on CD-R and CD-RW discs. A 4-head, hi-fi VCR gives you exciting stereo playback for your entire library of VHS tapes; it'll even play S-VHS tapes (at regular VHS quality). You can also copy non-Macrovision-protected DVDs to videotape--just the thing for sharing your computer-edited, DVD-based home movies with loved ones.

Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. The SD-V393 also performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal (Toshiba's Digital Cinema Progressive). DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown reversal digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

The DVD deck's JPEG viewer makes it easy to watch custom slide shows from digital photos burned to recordable CDs. The unit's array of home-theater-ready video connections includes composite-, S-video, and ColorStream Pro component-video outputs, with the VCR and DVD components sharing the composite-video and RF video outputs--especially convenient if you'll be using this device with a TV that only has RF or composite-video inputs. The DVD player's internal digital-to-analog audio converter (DAC) works at 24-bit, 192 kHz resolution to ensure optimum sonic quality from a range of digital program material; the video DAC operates at 10-bit/54 MHz resolution.

A set of left/right analog-audio outputs (DVD/VCR) channels audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals from DVDs can be routed through the player's coaxial digital-audio output for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver. In addition, readily accessible front-panel AV inputs permit easy connection for a game console or a camcorder for simple dubbing of home movies to the VHS deck.

For enhanced picture quality during VHS playback, the 4-head hi-fi VCR uses a pair of 19-micron video heads, which deliver exceptional (near SP) picture quality of content recorded and played back in the extended play (EP) mode. Commercial skip lets you pass over commercials during playback. Other features include 1-year, 8-event programming, high-speed (200x) rewind and fast-forward, index skip, auto head cleaner, and auto clock set--no more flashing "12:00".

What's in the Box
DVD player/VCR, remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, and a coaxial video cable.

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