Toshiba SD-520E Review

Overall Rating

Picture quality, menu system, supported disc formats, features.

Minor: only short filenames for MP3.

After deliberating over several players around the £200 mark, I finally decided on this Toshiba SD-520E unit, and have been mightily pleased with it.
<>
The picture quality is crisp on my Sony TV (via Scart-RGB), with vibrant colours and no perceptible MPEG decoding "edges". The 54MHz/10-bit video DAC clearly doing an excellent job.
<>
The sound quality is good, although I've only tested the analogue stereo output (via Scart), but it's clear enough with good range from the ProLogic decoder in my TV.
I haven't tested the built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder, via the six analogue phono sockets on the back, but I can't see any great plus point for those, since most AV units have a built in DD decoder anyway, and would probably achieve better results from the digital audio out (coaxial and optical available).
<>
The unit has a 192MHz/24-bit audio DAC as opposed to the standard 96MHz; probably required because it will play DVD-Audio discs, but I can't comment on that because I don't have any. I bought the unit for video.
<>
I've tested the unit with several Video-CD variations, and the unit has played them with no problems at all. Both VCDs and SVCDs played correctly and both displayed and supported a menu system created with Ahead-Nero (incidentally, the similarly priced Sony DVP-NS705 did not show these menus, but did play the discs).
CD-RW discs work fine; I even tried an 8cm CD-RW with a tiny SVCD menu/movie and the unit played it perfectly; it actually shows up DVD/VCD/SVCD on the front panel display, so support has clearly been built in.
<>
CDs with mp3s play successfully and sound good, but unfortunately there is no ID3 tag parsing and only short filenames are displayed. The disc I tried had a one-level directory structure and these were displayed under different headings, but still only 8-letter directory names. CDs with JPGs can also be viewed.
<>
The unit has a very good menu system which shrinks the picture into the centre, and displays tiled icons on the left and right, with all the options clearly displayed. The on-screen menu items can be accessed using both the remote or the front panel. A minor niggle is that although the front panel has a dim function, it does not remember the state when you switch off.
<>
The remote isn't exactly a pretty thing, but does everything you'd expect. It can be programmed with a manufacturer code so that the volume, channel and video-input-source buttons can operate your TV's respective functions. A "virtual" control can also be displayed on the TV that allows just the direction and select buttons to be used to access the DVDs functions.
<>
Amongst its features, the unit has a particularly nice zoom feature and various picture modes, and the rear panel has the usual set of output connectors, including component video out.
<>
All-in-all a thoroughly recommended player, with an excellent picture, good sound and many features.