Mutant DVD Player: Freak or New Species?

The Toshiba SD-P5000 LCD TV/DVD Combination offers a fresh look at a portable TV with DVD capability. The unit is an overgrown DVD player with screen featuring a built-in television receiver all configured in a laptop format. This evolution of the CD player is a logical mutation of the tiny video machines. It offers advantages in utility, portability, low power consumption and audio/video quality that have never been offered before.

I purchased the 5000 for use on my 26-foot cruiser. The boat is a little too small for a full-sized television. I didn’t even consider the possibility of getting a DVD player to go along with it. My choice had to be fully portable: I didn’t want to leave it exposed to the marine climate when not in use if it wasn’t marine-grade equipment. I wanted an LCD TV if I could find one: a 12-volt DC unit with low power draw for when I’m anchored out. I put together a state-of-the-art solar power charging system to replace 20-30 amp/hours electrical use per day. So, to keep from having to run my engine for an hour every day to charge batteries, it’s important to keep my electrical usage with the fairly generous 20-30 amp/hour daily budget and the reserve available from three battery banks. Additional loads for my electrical system have to be compatible with the power generation capability of the system.

Nothing found in the stores in my area really fit the bill. I looked around online and discovered the Toshiba SD-P5000. Now I had hooked into an innovative machine that was a fully portable 15-inch TV, DVD and CD player. I purchased a much smaller Toshiba DVD player with screen for my daughter a few months earlier. She was delighted with the unit. I was impressed with it too, especially the LCD picture quality. It worked flawlessly. So, I purchased the SD-P5000 online.

The Toshiba 5000 is a 12-volt DC device that comes standard with plug-in transformers for AC/DC operation. A rechargeable battery pack is available as an option (I didn’t buy it). An S-link video-in/component-in connector, useful instruction book, a full-sized remote and a nifty black dust cover for the LCD screen are also packed in the box.

The LCD picture quality is very impressive. The Toshiba LCD screen is 4x3 high resolution (1024 x 768 pixels) which I believe is unsurpassed in screens of this size range. Sharp as a tack and completely lacking the fast-action blurriness I have seen in other screens. The Toshiba screen is very bright. The only time that I’ll turn the brightness control up from the full dim position is when full sunlight is near the screen. Some light seepage can be seen on the top and bottom of the screen when viewing letterbox-formatted video, but that does not distract me from the razor-sharp video frame that I’m watching.

Standard TV picture quality is excellent and DVD video is outstanding. Television reception of VHF and UHF channels is not exceptional, but receiver sensitivity seems to be well in the average range. With a simple, non-amplified rabbit ears antenna I had no difficulty tuning in all of the local channels I expected to receive and got some of the channels from the next TV market (about 50 miles away).

A note on using rabbit ears with LCD televisions in general and the SD-P5000 in particular. This TV can be used with an external gain-type antenna, amplified antenna, video components, and cable and satellite services. The TV receiver will work perfectly well with a seven-dollar set of rabbit ears with two provisions: The rabbit ears must be of the current variety and wired with 75-ohm coax and F-connectors, and the antenna must be placed at least six feet away from the LCD screen. The fluorescent tubes found inside LCD screens produce RFI (radio frequency interference). If an antenna is positioned too close to the LCD screen, interference will seriously degrade the television signal. Many rabbit ears antennas come with less than 6-feet of connecting coaxial cable. So, you may find it necessary to purchase a few additional feet of inexpensive coax connector to get the antenna farther from the LCD TV. This problem is most troublesome with the lower VHF channels. When I was experimenting with this solution, I found that six feet of distance from the screen would solve problems with TV signals of average to strong signal strength, and even the weakest signals were free from interference at a distance of ten feet.

Now to the audio performance of the Toshiba 5000. The audio from this set is the outstanding feature. Sound levels from the built-in speakers are much louder than any I have heard from a portable DVD player. Within the confines of my boat, I find the most satisfying video experience when seated four to five feet from the fifteen-inch LCD screen. At that distance, I get full sound at one-half volume or less on stereo TV, and three-quarter volume with the 3D sound or Dolby sound on DVDs. Channel dispersion from the speakers is very good, and made me jump on several occasions while watching horror films from DVD. It’s a bit much to expect thundering bass response from speakers without sizable enclosures, but the lower audio frequencies are much stronger than I would have expected from such a portable unit. Two headphone jacks are provided for sharing the SD-P5000 with a friend. The sound available from using a good set of headphones (I used Sennheiser HD-280 Pro) is breathtakingly good. Sounds corny, but it’s just like being at the movies. Now, if only you could feel the bass with you skin… Another nice feature is that speaker sound may be left on or turned off while using headphones.

The Toshiba SD-P5000 is best targeted for a niche market. The happiest users will be people who want the best available TV, DVD and CD performance from a power-conserving AC/DC machine that is truly portable. The fifteen-inch screen is about as large a screen as you can get and still be portable. The laptop format gives it a low center of gravity, so the 5000 will stay stable and reasonably put on the tabletops of boats and RVs. It can also be mounted on a wall. The 5000 fits very well into a soft case for larger laptop computers. It’s easy to pack it from home to the boat and it takes me only a couple of minutes for full set-up (including antenna) or take-down. I found a nice, well-padded case at an office supply store for under $40. It holds my accessories (sans rabbit ears), too.

The Toshiba SD-P5000 is the first of an exciting new species. Automotive, RV and marine users will love this little creature. It has worked flawlessly for me for three months and I’ve got maritime video joy.

Installation notes: If you don't have a 12-volt socket that is conveniently located for operation of the SD-P5000 on your boat, RV or car; it's pretty easy to install one. For boat installations, use only marine-grade wire, sockets and connectors available from a marine supply store. For use with automotive antennas: Check with an installer or supplier first, but the steel rooftop of a car or RV may shield rooftop antennas from stray, weak RF originating from inside the vehicle. It may be possible to mount a rooftop antenna much closer to the SD-P5000 than six feet.