Page 1 of Toshiba SD220 for £10 or Sony DVPNS700 for £65...YOU DECIDE!

I have a dilema, I am trading in my SD2109 at Richer Sounds and will get £135 for it (took out their outstanding extended warranty that guarantees half original price trade in value), thing is I can get a Toshiba SD220 (Multi-region) for £144.95 (i.e I pay a tenner), or a Sony DVPNS700 (Multi-region) for £199.95 (i.e. I pay £65).

So which one should I splash out for? (although not too bothered about internal decoding).

SD220 and spend the other £55 at CD Wow or DVD Soon :-)

....The Sony is an SACD player too, should that interest you.

Yeah, but which one is the better machine?...smoothest operator, best picture, best layer transition, best sound, etc, etc.

Hi Greg WW,

As you might have surmised from other posts on this forum, I recently spent a great deal of time comparing contenders in the £2-300 area and soon whittled choices down to the Toshiba and Sony.

To answer your question directly;

Best Picture: A win for the Toshiba. It`s picture has a superb 3D feel to it with little grain or noise. It can be a little dark at times but overall I`d rate it about as good as you can get before spending big bucks. Against any other sub £1000 player, the Sony would rate as superb but is pipped here by the Tosh.

Best Sound: A win for the Sony. CD replay is excellent for a DVD player, if not up to the standard of a similar priced CD player. SACD replay is simply awesome and movie replay is also of a high order from the internal DD & DTS decoders (The Sony internal decoders are some of the best around and compare to those in some AV amps if lacking the last word in setup flexibility). The Tosh is OK on CD replay but you`d be better off getting a decent dedicated unit.

Best layer transition: A win for the Sony. I`ve gone over this on another recent thread. A convincing win.

Smoothest operator: A win for the Sony - but it was close. Both are smooth and trouble-free to operate and are reasonably quiet. The Sony wins due to a much better look and finish - it looks by far the more serious piece of kit - while the Tosh looked as though the spray-paint department were under rather too heavy scrutiny by the accountants. Oh, I also hate patronising "Hello" displays.... The Sony remote control seals the win by being a model of it`s kind and worth at least £50 of the asking price alone.

Overall, you can guess that the Sony got my vote. It all depends on whether you really, really must have the last n`th degree of picture performance, the Sony by any other measure being tops in this department too. At £400 the Sony is under heavy pressure not only by it`s more substantial sibling, the NS-900V, but also by the latest SACD/DVD-A player from Pioneer. However, at under £200, I can`t think of a better all-round player.

This item was edited on Friday, 16th August 2002, 15:50