Toshiba SD-3990

[gotflava1]

Hello All,
I saw this DivX DVD player in a Sunday ad for Best Buy. I'm wondering if anyone else has this player and is it worth buying. Its listed as $59.99(USD). What chipset does it use and does it support subtitles? What kind of reliability does it have? Its between this one and the Phillips DVP 642. I'm considering the DVP 642 because there are alot of people on this board as well as others with knowledge and support of this player. Plus there is only slim pickings when it comes to buy DivX players at stores. All comments are welcome.

[SeeMoreDigital]

The Toshiba seems to be able to handle Qpel and "aspect ratio signalling" so in my opinion this places it way ahead of the Philips DVP6xx range of players ;)


Cheers

[Video Dude]

Does anyone know if the Toshiba SD-3990 can play region 0 PAL DVDs like the Philips can?

[weaver4]

Anyone (SMD) know which chipset it uses?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Anyone (SMD) know which chipset it uses?Sorry no....

But it can handle Qpel, it wont be the ESS Vibratto II ;)

[kosmonaut]

I believe that is a Zoran chipset.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I believe that is a Zoran chipset.How come?

[kosmonaut]

Sorry I took a while to get back to this, but it is a Zoran, the actual number is: ZR-36882

Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

[CruNcher]

So Zoran firmware now also supports "aspect ratio signaling" via .avi ?

[SeeMoreDigital]

So Zoran firmware now also supports "aspect ratio signaling" via .avi ?Over on VideoHelp.com there was a comment from a guy called Mike M (from United States) reported March 11, 2006 (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=6716&Search=Search&#comments). Where he says: -It seems to have no problem at all with QPEL and GMC, and I love the automatic aspect ratio. It handles wide-screen perfectly...

Since then, another guy called Bobbo (also from United States) reported March 26, 2006, that the Toshiba is fitted with a Zoran Vaddis 882 chip-set


Cheers mate

[Video Dude]

I bought the Toshiba SD-3990 today and I'm very impressed.

It plays back Xvid files with GMC and Qpel with no problem. It even works with ADPCM audio.

The player does PAL (region 0) --> NTSC conversion, but I noticed a frame stutter for PAL interlaced dvds during panning scenes. My CyberHome player does not exibit this stutter during PAL -> NTSC conversion.

It does play DVD+R discs. I noticed the manual only says DVD-R.

There is a 16 character limit for divx file names, but 16 is a lot better than 8.

Thank you gotflava1 for starting this thread. I didn't know about this player and I was about to buy the Philips 642.

[SeeMoreDigital]

....Thank you gotflava1 for starting this thread. I didn't know about this player and I was about to buy the Philips 642.I'm constantly stunned as to why people still want to buy this make/model of player....

The Vibratto II chip-set is not strong enough for MPEG-4 ASP playback....


Cheers

[Joel.W]

I've used the Toshiba for several months and only have two complaints.
It is picky about audio. Some AVIs have NO sound.
These same AVIs will play ok on the computer and the Phillips.
I've used GSpot, AVIcodec, and MPEG4Modifier to try and determine what makes the difference.
MP3 or ac3 encoding doesn't matter.
It seems to be the muxing program used to create the AVIs.
If I remux them with VirtualDub, Nandub, or avidemux then they play ok on the Toshiba.

The other complaint is rare and frustrating.
If MPEG4Modifier reports the AVI has a packed bitstream and more than 1 consecutive B-VOP the video may stutter occasionally or not at all.
If I use MPEG4Modifier to unpack the bitstream then they play smoothly.
My guess is the chipset doesn't have the power to handle unpacking the bitstream and deal with 2 consecutive B-VOP decoding at the same time. Throw in a difficult scene as the variable and that probably accounts for it's intermiitent nature.

In spite of these shortcomings I still think it's a good buy, epecially if you have a wide screen TV!
If you make your own AVIs and make them with AutoGK or avi.NET (not a plug) you won't have either of these problems.
They both use profiles designed for standalone compatibilty.

Actually there is a 3rd issue. It doesn't handle MPEGs very well. Some play ok, but a lot of them have a problem with fast forwarding. They fast forward, but when you press play it doesn't resume at that point, it goes back to the point you started from!
I got around this by converting them to xvid/avi using AutoGK, but if you have a huge library of mpegs you may want try before you buy or be prepared to live with the limitation.

Joel.W

[SeeMoreDigital]

The other complaint is rare and frustrating.
If MPEG4Modifier reports the AVI has a packed bitstream and more than 1 consecutive B-VOP the video may stutter occasionally or not at all.
If I use MPEG4Modifier to unpack the bitstream then they play smoothly.
My guess is the chipset doesn't have the power to handle unpacking the bitstream and deal with 2 consecutive B-VOP decoding at the same time. This player is DivX Certified and one element of DivX certification calls for encodes to be generated with no more 1B-VOP with packed bit-stream. Meaning if you decide to generate encodes with 2 or more B-VOP's you'll have to remove packed bit-stream (as you've found out).

Don't blame the player... blame DivX's limited certification ;)

[Bosko]

I'm having a number of issues with my 3990:

First -- it seems that you aren't able to resume play after turning off the player. On my old Toshiba (and every other DVD player I've ever seen in the past five years), you were able to either turn the player off while your disc was playing, or hit stop once and then turn off your player, then be able to still resume playing the disc when you turn the player back on (either by just pressing play when it's off, or turning on the power then hitting play while the disc is loading). But I can't seem to get the 3990 to do this... Why on earth would they eliminate such a standard (and useful) feature...?!

And then it goes up from there:

I just got a Toshiba 3990 as a replacement for my old 2180 (I think that was the model number) from years back as part of some class-action suit thing and I hooked it up today and was disappointed to see that on animation dvds (like Justice League Season 2 and Teen Titans) the picture (in spots, I don't think it's always the whole picture, but it might be) will actually go from being sharp to being slightly blurry at times (it seems to be mostly happening when the image/figures on the screen aren't moving, or, at least, most noticeably at those times, but not necessarily only at those times). It's a subtle thing, but it messes with my eyes and there's no way I could anything with that going on. I couldn't get it to do this with a regular movie, but I'm guessing that's because stuff is always moving in regular movies (as compared to things "standing still" in animation).

I don't see the problem on the Looney Tunes Golden Collections or even JL Season 1 (that I noticed). But I do see it on Teen Titans and JL Season 2 -- but I only see it on the Toshiba 3990. When I play those same discs on the Philips 642, I don't see it. However, on the flip side, JL Season 1 looks better (less digitize-y) on the Toshiba than the Philips. (???)

I tried it with componant, composite, and S-video and it's the same thing all around. I'm only using a 27" Toshiba TV (flat tube screen).

Could it have something to do with the Toshiba having Video D/A of 14bit/108MHz and the Philips having 10bit/54MHz (I think my old 2180 had 12bit, and I never saw the problem on that). And maybe something to do with interlacing on certain discs? I don't know... I guess the picture is more clear with the Toshiba and the 14bit/108MHz... but maybe in some cases it's TOO clear? So maybe since the 10bit/54MHz on the Philips isn't as "good", it actually keeps the sharp/blurry thing from being noticeable? But, again, not all the animation DVDs have that problem, even on the Toshiba (as far as I can tell).

So what is the deal with Video D/A? What is that? And could that be the issue, perhaps combined with some interlacing thing? It's weird that the 3990 has 14bit, and then the "higher" models from Toshiba, that actually list the Video D/A as a selling feature, only have 10bit, yet say that the 10bit provides excellent picture quality (and the 3990 doesn't really list the 14bit as a selling point!). ???

On a side note, I noticed that with componant, the picture is very greenish and the color is greatly reduced (this was not the case with my old Toshiba 2180 that I sent back).

Any help is apprecaited -- thanks!

[Video Dude]

On a side note, I noticed that with componant, the picture is very greenish
I have that same problem with my 3990. I thought it was my SD TV's component inputs because my Panasonic is also greenish.


For the picture quailty, press the progressive button on the remote and make sure the progressive scan is disabled.

[Bosko]

For the picture quailty, press the progressive button on the remote and make sure the progressive scan is disabled.

It's definitely disabled... if it's enabled, the picture flips out, etc.

So... on yours, are you also not able to turn your player off while watching a movie (or after pressing stop only once) and then hit play to turn it back on and resume where you left off? On my old Toshiba, I could do this (and on every other DVD player I've ever seen). Am I missing something here...?

[Video Dude]

I just tried it. Everytime I turn off the 3990, the disc will reload when it is turned back on. It does not resume. I even pressed the play button with the unit off and it reloaded and went to the main menu.

[Bosko]

I just tried it. Everytime I turn off the 3990, the disc will reload when it is turned back on. It does not resume. I even pressed the play button with the unit off and it reloaded and went to the main menu.

Well, that's INCREDIBLY LAME then, that they took of a standard feature that just about every dvd player has (including their own past models). :confused: