Page 1 of Toshiba SD210, Pioneer DV-444 or Sony DVP-NS400. Tough Choice!

I`m looking to buy my first dvd player and have short listed 3:
Toshiba SD210, Sony DVP-NS400 and the Pioneer DV-444.
I know the Toshiba is roundly praised, but I don`t know anything about the other 2.
Are there huge differences in the pause times between layer changes?
What am I looking for in terms of signal-out for the best quality, is it scart?
How good is the built in dolby decoder on the Sony and do I need an amp?
I have a surround sound tv and am not really interested in more speakers at the moment, so is the Sony`s strength in it`s perfomance or features?
I have found all 3 at roughly the same price, so this isn`t an issue.
My choice at the moment is probably between the Pioneer and the Toshiba, but the 2 scarts on the Sony are attractive!
Help!
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 27th November 2001, 12:14

Hi

Yeah I`m looking at the same 3 players, peoples views would be welcome

Ta

The Pioneer DV-444 is apparently the best machine for price/quality ratio - Home Entertainment magazine loved it and gave it 5/5

If you look at earlier, but recent, threads on this forum you`ll see that the 444 sometimes has layer change problems, where the picture freezes for a noticeable period and some text appears briefly on the screen. The Toshiba has no such problems.The Toshiba and Pioneer are both stylish. I`m delighted with my Toshiba, but if I were buying new again, the Pioneer would catch my eye as well. The threads about the 444`s layer change would probably swing me toward the Tosh again though. The only reported problem with the Tosh seems to be some folk think the drive is noisy, but this seems very subjective.
Sorry I haven`t mentioned the Sony but I don`t rate anything Sony do. I think they`re like BMW. Over-rated but the name everyone wants.

It was my thread that highlighted the freezeframe problem on the Pioneer 444. The guy that kindly helped me out said that his machine had a very, very slight pause - less than half-a-second - whilst my machine is pausing for approximately 1.7 seconds (yes I have timed it!) - which is obtrusive.

I am now in the process of trying to ascertain whether my machine is faulty as I have a suspicion that it might be. I have trawled through the internet trying to find someone mentioning layer change problems with the Pioneer and I have found none.

My point is, please don`t be put off the Pioneer. Its a lovely machine and I wouldn`t want anyone to miss out because of a potentially faulty machine (which happens).

I suggest you play-test the Pioneer with dual layer discs. I can provide the layer-change times for Gladiator and The Godfather Part II if you require them (they are in the Pioneer 444 Freeze Frame thread as well).

I read a DVD magerzine yeserday and read up on the Pioneer DV-444, it was brilliant in picture/sound under DVD, but failed with sub par Cd audio performance.

Still scored high, but from what I rememebr the Toshiba was just an amazing cd player as well:)

I own the pioneer which i would recommend. Before i bought this player i was looking at the tosh or possibly the sony 300/400. The tosh always got good or fairly good reviews, the sony i dont know much about but looks to be a fairly good player (and has the bonus of a built in decoder i think). What swayed me towards the pioneer though was that it wasn`t only a good player with good reviews but also looked so good. I have only seen a couple of threads about pausing one mentioned b4 regarding gladiator and one mentioning a faulty planet of apes disk. But like the other guy said get a demo if you are concerned.

This is the first time ive heard of a fairly good tosh 210 review:)

Every single DVD review ive read scored 5/5 or 10/10, and scooped at least 1 award.

im gonna wait for the toshiba next one up, since a loud dvd player isnt a DVD player at all!

When i say reviews i mean from magazines, online and ppl i know who own or have owned this player hence fairly good meaning they had nothing bad to say about it but then again they weren`t saying its the best thing since sliced bread.