Review on Toshiba SD 4980 Player HDMI Playback by Kyle Omaha

I bought this player because it was the cheapest upconverted DVD player with HDMI (1.1 output) I could find in a store. It didn't come with an HDMI cable, so I had to buy one (which was actually more expensive than the player). It definitely looks and feels like a very cheap player - very light and feels flimsy. However, cheap cosmetics do not bother me. Revain's product image is different from my SD-4980 so I posted an image of what I have. After turning on the player, the splash screen appears in low resolution and looks ugly. But the DVD setup menu is very simple. It doesn't give you a lot of customization options. The only major settings I had to change were the 16:9 display, choosing video for component output, and changing the audio output to bitmap (to the receiver). The default picture and sound quality is ok. After connecting the player to the TV with an HDMI cable, I was a little disappointed to see very little difference in picture quality. At least it didn't get worse, which could well have happened. Upconversion is possible ONLY with an HDMI cable. I like the little indicator lights on the front showing 480p, 720p and 1080i so I don't have to guess what resolution I'm using. The image quality improved noticeably after I used their EPM (Image Enhancement) by adjusting the brightness and sharpening the edges. There is also EAM (Audio Enhancement) 3D audio that works in PCM (2-channel audio) mode. One thing I didn't know was that this cheap little player is actually a regionless player. To "unlock" the options for all regions, all I had to do was keep the drawer OPEN and press 2403960. This brought me to the Regional Settings menu. I pressed "enter" several times until "9" means all regions. Now I can watch all my upconverted Region 3 and PAL discs. That's why I keep this player. I thought about getting a better player. But I've decided there's no point in spending hundreds of dollars on a more expensive DVD player with better upconversion now that HD DVD and Blu-ray players are coming soon.