Purchased 2500 after significant diligence here and other sites. Really nice player, but would probably not purchase again due to deficient user interface for my primary needs.
Primary use: Airplane travel with homemade dvd-r
Primary complaint: Spend alot of time watching dvd's recorded off of TV in an airplane seat. The primary need for such use is easy access to fast forward to get through commercials without a remote. There is no FF button on the player, itself (there is one on remote). It is necessary to navigate through two screens and then scroll through an onscreen remote. This is VERY inconvenient. I have often clicked the wrong button (av chooser) which takes me out of the dvd that I am watching requiring me to restart from the beginning. Wrong player for this application.
An associated issue is that there is no easy way to save where you are at in a show if you power down the unit (e.g., change batteries, 10 minutes before landing). Need to restart next power up.
Postives: Great sound. If you read reviews about other players, sound level is a major shortcoming of competitive models (my Sony laptop, included). Sound here is tremendous.
Great picture. Able to play DVD-R's most of the time. (After about 6 hours of fairly consistent use, I had a problem that may have been related to overheating of the unit. It seems resolved, now.)
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The picture is extremely clear and can be viewed from any angle...really nice if you have someone else watching with you.
The sound quality is great and the 2 headphone jacks were a big selling point. Since I was travelling by plane, I purchased 2 sets of headphones so my boyfriend and I would both be able to watch at the same time. (Just a hint: find headphones that have personal volume control...I'd be deaf if I listened to action movies at his volume.)
The unit also seems to be very sturdy and well built. It has been banged around in the back of my car and dropped by airport security but still chugs on with no problems. (I keep it in a case, don't know if that makes a difference.)
Battery life is very good. I can usually watch 2 1/2 complete movies before it dies.
The only downside I've found is that once you turn the unit off, you lose your place in the movie. A minor inconvenience though. All in all this is a great product!
The quality of the product needs no futher explanation here, except to say that it is all great. We took the unit in a car on some relatively rough roads and it never skipped. This may be due to the fact that when you place a DVD in the unit, it locks in place.
The screen can be viewed from a number of angles and I never had trouble with finding the "right" angle.
We originally purchased the player for travel entertainment for the kids, which it performed perfectly! However, we have found it functions well in the home too.
I have been very happy with the performance of the SD-P2500. However, the motor burned out today after 5 months of ownership. I asked the technician how I could prevent it from happening again. According to him, portable dvd players just go out sometimes and that is a problem with all portable DVD players. Lucky we had bought a service agreement at a local store, because the warranty is 1 year parts and 90 days labor. I had previously given it 5 stars based on performance. However, when we spend this much money on something, we want to last for a long time.
The headphone sound (with enhancement turned on) is very enjoyable, akin to the Hughes SRS system's ability to produce a wide spatial aural image. I know audio purists eschew such frivolities, and complain about such spaciness with headphones, but I simply like it.
The speaker sound is as thin as one would expect, sounding comparable to any number of laptop PCs. Still enjoyable with the enhanced audio activated.
Out of the box, the screen had 3 dead pixels. Toshiba explained this was within tolerance for the panel yields they were getting (at the time) from manufacturing, and would not consider replacing the unit.
The picture is tremendous. What you would expect in terms of resolution, viewing angle, brightness, etc. Quite starting for DVDs.
We also like the snapshot feature that saves an image, to appear whenever the disc door is opened. In our case, we enjoy seeing the Marx Brothers each time.
My complaint is the price. I know the technology is new, but the panels have been around on laptops for 10+ years-and Toshiba's been there all along. These things are still too expensive.
