DVD players are getting cheaper by the day and you can now find big name brands stacked on supermarket shelves alongside more obscure names, often with little noticeable difference in price.

But even at bargain basement prices it’s better to go for a trusted name, and in the budget DVD player realm they don’t come more trustworthy than Toshiba.

Basic DVD player

Taking a look at the spec, the SD-280E is best suited to the bedroom or kitchen, as it lacks many of the latest features you’d look for in a main DVD player.

But despite its ultra low price, there are actually two players below it in the range hierarchy (the SD-180E and SD-185E), which offer an even more stripped-down feature list.

Thankfully, the SD-280E manages to disguise its budget genesis with a firmly constructed chassis, slimline dimensions and a sleek black finish that matches Toshiba’s LCD TVs and HD DVD players, while the minimal button arrangement and basic display panel on the fascia keep things nice and discreet.

Watch DiVX movies

The SD-280E isn’t exactly packed with features, which is perhaps inevitable for such an inexpensive deck.

In terms of connections, it lacks HDMI output and therefore lacks hi-def video upscaling, but progressive scan images are still available from the component video outputs and there’s a Scart output to get your RGB fix. Audio outputs include an electrical digital output and stereo audio output, but there’s no optical digital output for those that need it.

It is, however, pleasing to find DiVX playback at this price, which means internet downloaders can watch their content without a PC in sight. The deck will read DiVX files from recordable CDs or DVDs and it supports all versions up to and including 6.0 and Video-on- Demand.

It also decodes JPEG and MP3 files, but not WMA or WMV files, and the lack of a USB port means you can’t plug in MP3 players or flash drives. For this, you’ll need to stump up a little extra for the SD-580E.

Extensive disc support

As for disc support, the list isn’t exactly extensive but covers most bases. It’ll play DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD+R, but there’s no mention of dual-layer discs and you certainly won’t be able to play recordings made on DVD-RAM discs. What’s more, it will happily play your stash of old-school Video CD and SVCD discs.

Elsewhere there’s an unexpected range of tweaks, including a choice of picture presets (Vivid or Cool) and a selection of different view modes that make the picture fit your screen in various ways depending on its original aspect ratio.

Those of you wanting to watch action flicks at night without waking up the family might find the Night mode useful, as it trims the loud bits and boosts the quiet parts, and there’s a 3D Effect that’s designed to make stereo material sound like surround sound, but it doesn’t work very well.

Finally, there’s a decent range of playback tricks, including a threestage zoom, 16x search and three slow motion settings.

User-friendly deck

Technophiles and ’phobes alike will find this deck extremely easy to set up and use, thanks to the simple main menu and clearly legible onscreen displays.