Toshiba SD2715, just got it, now should I keep it?

[Polamnus]

I just got the Toshiba SD-2715 from Amazon.com($229 delivered). It's a terriffic player so far, excellent picture, full featured, etc. I have no complaints about the sound or video. However, I'm a little dissapointed to discover that it seems to not be able to play SVCDs. I've gotten great results with countless CD-R VCDs, all 80 minutes. However, none of my CD-R SVCDs are recognized. The player starts to read them as VCD, then says "check disc" and stops. The MP3 playback is good, but limited to 8.3 file names. The manual specifies that all CD-R and CD-RW should be 74 minutes or will not be recognized. As I said, the 80 min. CD-Rs are working fine as VCDs, but I'm wondering if it really wants 74 minute SVCDs to play. I will try that later.
The question is then, should I keep this player or exchange it for something else, and if so, what? I really want to play CD-R VCDs and CD-R SVCDs, that's the driving factor in purchasing this model. The other dissapointment, the Amazon.com page states that it can play DVD-R but the manual explicity says it will not play any DVD-R formats. All in all, I'd like to keep this player. The playback quality is great, but the compatability thing is my problem. Is there any "All in One" player that will give me the ability to playback VCD and SVCD as well as DVD-R/DVD-RAM? The Mp3 capability is a nice extra, but I don't need it. It would have to be fairly well featured and support component video outs.

Much thanks in advance for any info,
Polamnus

[hitechjunkie]

my experience with toshiba's, (i own two of the older models) and based on the posts i've seen, is that they are extremely picky about media type and VCD compliancy. i luv the audio/video quality of DVD playback, but for home brewed stuff, i'd go with a pioneer.

[Polamnus]

So far, my home-brewed VCDs are playing fine. Actually, from everythign I've read before I got the player, I was pleasantly suprised to see how well a good VCD can look. Most people I show the VCDs to can't tell that it's not a DVD(admittedly, non-techies).
My big dissapointment was that it seems the 2715 can not play SVCDs of any kind. AFAIK, it would have to have both Mpeg-1 and Mpeg-2 decoders in the hardware, so it's likely that it will never play SVCDs. But, like I said, I've been very happy about the VCDs I've made, so maybe the loss of SVCD ability doesn't matter. I've never seen an SVCD played, so I'm not sure how much better it can be. I suppose it all comes down to the question, is it worth going through the hassle of exchanging a perfectly fine DVD player in order to get one that does play SVCDs?
To throw yet another monkey wrench into the gears, I emailed Toshiba tech support yesterday asking about SVCD and DVD-R compatability. The manual specifically says it will not play DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, yet the write-up on Amamzon from Toshiba says it will play DVD-R(no mention of SVCD). The response email I got from Toshiba said:

The model will play most formats of the following disk: DVD, CD, DVD-r, CD-r, CD-rw, and VCD's. We are not familiar with other formats.

So, again, I pose the question, in your opinions, is the ability to play SVCDs worth exchanging the unit?

Thanks much,
Pol

[Greg12]

if a pioneer player did not play dvd-r, i would laugh.

they make dvd-r


this excludes pre-dvd-r models.

[Iview]

Off the top of my head, only one standalone DVD player will play DVD-RAM, that is the Panasonic RP-91 a very good progressive scan DVD player, but at $450 to $500. It will play DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RAM/CD-R/CD-RW/CD/VCD/MP3 and SVCD (low bitrate similar to Pioneer).
And if you are willing to forego the DVD-RAM reading feature, may I suggest Hitachi 415U, it will have no problems with SVCD and it will handle high bitrate xSVCD ( tested it up to 3800kb, may go higher yet)