Page 1 of Pioneer or Toshiba

Friends are sticking the first tentative toe in the waters of DVD
Absolutely stuck between Toshiba SD220 and Pioneer DV454.
On paper they appear to be of very similar performance and looks
The Tosh @ 120.00 is £ 10.00 cheaper at Amazon.
Your learned imput would be much appreciated as I can`t call it
Thanks P.

From the reviews I`ve seen and having spoken to people who have had both the toshiba is suposed to be better in the performance stakes although the pioneer is better with cd playback!
I`d go for the tosh although the pionneer looks better.

i had a tosh 220 which i sent back `cos i thought that it was just as noisy as hell when playing cd`s. instead i got a pioneer 350 (this was a month or so before the 454 went down in price *grrr*) and i really didnt think that there was a lot to choose from in performance.

from other comments loads of people are happy with the tosh although there has been a few people who have also mentioned that it has a noisy drive unit.

go to richer sounds and ask to see them in use is my best advice

Your friend is not alone in having difficulty making his mind up :-)
We have the Toshiba SD220E and are extremely pleased with its perfomance in both audio and video departments plus it plays DVD+R/ DVD-R/ SVCD/ VCD/.
Regarding the Pioneer, my brother in law got the 454 a few weeks back and while he is reasonably happy with it he wishes he had went for one with 5.1/DTS decoders in-built.
If your friend does decide on the 454 make sure he gets the Multi-region one. It is a bit dearer but better to have the option now than to regret not being able to buy some discs that may be cheaper in other regions.
Get him to try www.QED-uk.com amongst others as they offer the multi-region one .
The Toshiba`s firmware can be updated to multi-region , I did ours a couple of weeks back. I held my breath while doing so and tried it with a R1 disc before and after update. Did not work before update but worked straight away afterwards.
If he gets the Toshiba SD220E point him to www.vcdhelp.com and he will find a link to download the firmware update and posts from others who will tell him exactly what to do to burn the CD etc.
HTh Choagy :-)

Both are great, but I chose a multiregion 454 the other week, purely because it looks so much better ( IMHO ) than the 220.
It`s superb.I`m chuffed.
I had a region 2 444 before that and it was superb too.
Some things to watch out for on either machine.
1/ The tosh has a very noisy drive, which can be quite distracting as it whirrs away.Depends how close you sit to your machine as to how noticeable it will be.
2/ I`ve heard the 454 can sometimes `flicker` when playing R1 discs on RGB mode.Mine hasn`t done it so far on R1 discs, and R2 and R3 play faultlessly.
Here`s a thought. Try one. If you don`t like it, send it back for having one of the faults I`ve mentioned above and get the other one !

TBH the only time I have ever heard any noise from our Toshiba SD220E was when playing a VCD on it.The noise sounded more like a quiet ticking. Never heard any noise at all when playing a DVD or Audio CD. Maybe I am just lucky which would make a pleasant change being 47, balding, fat and mortgaged up to my scrote. :-)

Thank you all for your imput, after reading your posts and discussing it with the actual buyers, the vote goes to the Toshiba.
Based purely on the fact that Amazon sell the sd220 £10.00 cheaper and since they have never used Amazon before I`ll send them a £5.00 refer a friend voucher, so £15.00 saved between two machines that appear to be impossible to separate.

Thanks again P.
( also with a £5.00 voucher ;-)) )

I was looking at the Toshiba & Pioneer, but I was advised that the drive on the Toshiba can be a little noisy. Decided to purchase the Pioneer from Richersounds £139, so far I`m very happy with the performance.

Another of the reasons why the Pioneer was eventually dropped was that Amazon were quoting 6 weeks delivery for the black version.
Would you believe that as they went to order the Toshiba the black Pioneer delivery now showed 24 hours turnround, and thats what they did,
changed their minds again.
So order now placed for the Pioneer 454.I`ll post back in a bit and give you my humble opinion
Cheers Guys P.

Hi
Just got the Pioneer 656 multiregion DVD player and it some bit of kit.
It cost`s a bit more but its good, all singing & dancing.Have a look on line to see the full speck.

Alona