DVD-Player Reviews

I bought it couple of days back for just $69 frm Amazon and tested almost all the features.
1. Plays all the formats specified in the manual
2. NTSC/PAL color decoding is perfect without distortions
3. Caption feature works fine.So even if your TV cant recognise captions no probs.This player will encode and send with Video signal.
4.Region free hack is simple Just open the tray , press 9999 and 0 frm remote with pauses between every digit.You'll see Region 0 on the screen and you are all set to play any DVD frm any reqion!!!
5.Picture quality is excellent (Its Phillips ofcourse!!!)
6.Remote is lousy(look wise) and hence it looses one star in my rating!!!
Final Note : Great buy for the price....

It works! I got the cart before the horse, & had several UK PAL Reg. 2 DVD's delivered, with no DVD player to my name. I'd decided on a Philips DVD727, but they had disappeared from the only local source(Target) *and* from Amazon. :^P
The Philips DVD 727 finally appeared on Amazon again for a few days, US$70 delivered. Placed the order, it arrived days(4/8 instead of 4/13- kudos to Amazon) before the original delivery estimate. Finally hooked it up today, applied the "hack", put in Britcom disc,AND: got rolling picture. :^P

Oh, yeah, I remembered. Went to System Menu, set TV output to NTSC. Bingo, all is well! 8^D

For my purposes, these old UK programs that were originally stored on tape, the picture & sound is perfect. True DVD-o-philes may disagree, but I'm very happy with the player. It does exactly what I wanted it to do- plays the UK version of the Britcom DVD's('Allo 'Allo- my favorite), & I'm sure it'll play good ole NTSC Reg.1 discs just fine- as well as JPEG discs for Grandma! If you can't find one locally, check Amazon every few days- they get 'em but seem to sell out fast.

Don't be fooled by I-net sellers selling "multi-region" DVD players with *claimed* hardware modifications. I almost went for that, but did a little more research before spending *lots* more $$. Want to play overseas DVD's? Get a Philips DVD727. Bang for the buck, ya can't beat it with a stick. You need one of these!

I'll post an update in a few months.

Will play anything you throw at it. Has played all my DVDs - PAL and NTSC/Commercial and personal. Also, works great with VCD and SVCD although did run it some problems with a couple of VCDs I made using VCDEasy. I called Phillips and their answer was to try re-encoding with Nero.

Althought this DVD player doesn't have the progressive scan feature, the picture looks better than one that does. When compare to a new Panasonic, the image quality of Panasonic looks artificial and "digital". The Pioneer's picture is a lot warmer and realistic.

This player is a bit picky about screatches on the media.

I've owned the Pioneer dv-333 for about a month now and I researched it for months prior to that; basically I came down to it and the Toshiba 1600 which is $25-30 cheaper. Both have excellent reviews and there are only a few differences worth noting in making a decision between the two.

Most people agree that the remote for both the pioneer and the toshiba 'sucks' and having used many remotes in-store demonstrations I can say they arent that bad. My friends Rca dvd player remote was universal but the remote stank. I actually prefer the pioneer remote and even if you hit the wrong button, which will happen on badly spaced remotes, its unlikely to eject the disc or stop it as those buttons arent in confusing areas. You can buy a nice universal rem0te at radio shack but I prefer to use the original because of its simplicity.

I decided to go with the pioneer because of the optical and coaxial digital outputs(toshiba 1600 has only coaxial). I already had an optical cable (go with accoustics research, excellent and not as expensive as monster) and I used it many times when I borrowed my friends Rca dvd player. I went out and bought a coaxial cable anyway to compare the difference in sound. Though you may not have a digital reciever yet or do and dont care which output you use I think it is best to be able to chose which one you want to use instead of being forced to use the coaxial. Its all about personal preference.

A couple of other differences worth noting are the 'zoom' feature in the toshiba and the ability to play CD-R and CD-RW on the pioneer. I havent seen the zoom feature and even on my 32 inch tv it is annoying to watch movies in widescreen. My understanding is that the zoom feature, while cool enough, is more of a gimick and it is unlikely you will reguarly use it. It reminds me of my old zenith tv which has a zoom feature(that tv is older than I am).

The CD-r and RW playback wasnt a must for me even though I regularly burn cds and now love playing them on the pioneer. I found that the cd-r brand 'Cursor" worked on many dvd players that did not support cd-r playback so it is possible this could work on the toshiba, this is common so check it out before hand by testing it out at the stores if possible.

This player is definately quieter than people give it credit for. Although in a wall unit (glass encased) even with the glass door open the player is relatively quiet. I have a small room so I sit less than 6 feet away and I simply cant notice any noise even during lower volume scenes during a film. Also the advertised feature of faster loading and resume is very much true. A few seconds doesnt matter much to me but it is convenient none the less. I used to like it when I would put the disc in on the rca and be able to sit down and get comfortable before it loaded but now on the pioneer it loads so fast I have to press stop so I can go sit down first.

Dv-333 also plays Vcd's (whatever they are!) but really I think most people care about dvd and cd playback and this player delivers. The only difference between this and say a high end model would be progressive scan ,which, if you dont know what it is you likely cant take advantage of it (ie you need a High definition tv). I have a decent home theatre with a subwoofer and I cant complain about this players compatibility with my setup. I even like how you can hookup the analog stereo jacks to your tv while still getting Dolby digital/dts out of your reciever. This is nice if your center speaker sounds bad or if you dont have one and are watching dvds with just two speakers.

Really, I dont think you can go wrong with either the toshiba 1600 or the Pioneer dv-333 so I wouldnt feel any apprehension about your purchase afterwards no matter what you go with. This player simply has more useful extras that you may need soon enough and I believe its best to have that option.

Also I recommend you buy a good s-video cable and even if your tv is 7-8 years old it should have the input for this. I recommend Accoustics Research but they were sold out here and I had to go with a higher end Rca because Monster was simply way overpriced for what it delivers.

Also when you first use this player there is a switch on the back to select either s-video or the regular analog (yellow color coded cable) and I know of a few people who were frustrated because they didnt read the manual (like me) and thought there was a problem with the player when they could not get any picture.

Have fun with whatever you decide to purchase!

I have the Pioneer DV-333 connected to my modest Sony 27" TV via s-video cable. I bought it to replace the Pioneer DV-505 which recently died after 3 years. The picture is very clear and clean without digital noise/artifacts on my TV. In fact, I tried two other players before this, the Toshiba 2700 (briefly) and the Sony Vega DVS-570D. The picture on the Toshiba was the worst of the 3 -- not bad mind you (better than the average VHS), but it wasn't able to resolve fine details without "noise". Also the picture seemed to have more jitter than the others. The Toshiba does have a zoom feature, but I don't find it very useful for me. I'd rather have a larger TV! The Sony produced a smooth rock solid picture, but the colors were way too strong. I had to adjust the color/tint controls on my TV and on the player itself (to it's credit - the player does have these controls) and still couldn't get it quite right. Also it seemed to add noise to softly focused objects and scenes with dimly lit details - noticeable to me! Maybe the Sony player would work better with a Vega TV. The Pioneer worked great right out of the box. Feature wise, it doesn't have picture zoom or the HDCD decoding like the Toshiba. It doesn't have all the nice GUI menus or the Dolby Digital Decoder (which I don't want anyway) or the large amount of disc memory capabilty of the Sony. But I thought it had the best picture of the 3 players - and with a good DVD the movies looked most like the original film. Compare for yourself! I just hope it lasts a bit longer then my last unit.

I purchased a sony DVD player (DVP) one year and two months ago. This week it just stopped playing (would not recognize the disk) After doing the standard cleaning, air blowing,powerdowns and etc., recommended by Sony. It still would not work. I payed $129 for this player and Sony wants $132 plus postage to fix it after one year and two months. Go to their service web site and put in the information pertaining to the DVD unit you are looking at. Then tell them you have owned it for one year and one day and see what repair is. Last Sony product I purchase. Buyer beware.

I replaced the CD Drive on my old pc with a DVD Drive, and played a DVD. Works fine. Then I put the DVD in my Sony DVD player and it skips every other minute.

All these days (3 years), I thought it was problem with the DVDs, but I just realised it is the Sony problem. I've had this problem after since 6 months of purchase.

I stopped Netflix stating that their DVD's skipped a lot. Sorry Netflix, it is my piece of junk called Sony.

Sony, I feel cheated, I am never going to buy any thing Sony again.

Is there a 0 star rating ??

OK this particular model is defective and there is a pending class action suit against Sony. It can rarely get through a DVD without having some sort of audio or video problem. I would not reccomend this player to anyone.

I ordered this DVD player in the beginning of June. At that time, it had pretty good reviews. It seemed a value for it's price. Well...
1) It took four weeks to arrive (The estimate said 1-3).
2) The battery pack was defective. The customer service at Mintek (very personable...NOT!) said to mail it back. I wasn't in the mood to pay shipping on something that was defective out of the box. And God knows when they would actually send me a replacement.
3) I went back to read the reviews since I ordered it, and it was obvious that this is not a quality product. I didn't want to keep it and wait for when the display would go (like everyone elses).
**I would not recommend this product, but if you purchased it and it is still within 30 days, Amazon will take the return. You'll have much more luck with Amazon, than with customer service at Mintek**
By the way, I just ordered the Panasonic LS50.

My kids have been using this player for 2 months, including one very long road trip, and so far no problems. I am a bit nervous given the number of very negative reviews here at Amazon (most of which were done after I bought mine), and the fact that the manufacturer is a small company (that's the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars). (...) and the set includes a decent case, car power adapter, and 2 headphones with an audio signal splitter, not to mention the tremendous functionality, it's such a good deal that it may just be worth taking a chance on. Amazon is always so great about quickly replacing or refunding defective products within 30 days, that at least takes away some of the worry. As for battery life, I let Return Of The King run on it and the battery died at just over 2 1/2 hours (not great, but Amazon sells extra batteries for this unit, and for the price, it's hard to complain). One great feature that the product description doesn't include is the A/V input. You can play video games on this, or view your digital photos straight from the camera, etc, since you can plug an audio and video source in. Depending on the type of game console you have, you may need to get an adapter to convert the RCA output from your game unit to 1/8 inch miniplug format to plug into the DVD player, but these are easily bought on Amazon or other electronics stores (ie, Radio Shack) for less than $10. If your game unit or other outside video source has RCA jacks, then you're all set because this DVD player comes with a cable that has RCA plugs at one end and miniplugs at the other. But if you have a GameCube (no RCA jacks, just RCA cables), or a digital camera with a USB-RCA cable, then you'll need to get the RCA-miniplug adapter (again, it's cheap). Here's how you can input video to the screen on this DVD player. There is a switch on the side of this DVD player that toggles the A/V jacks from output to input, thereby telling the screen to display the DVD or an outside video source. Just make sure you switch the A/V back to output before you try to watch a DVD again. If the switch is on input and you try to watch a DVD, all you get is a black screen. I thought mine was broken until I toggled the switch back to output, then the DVD displayed fine. I wonder if any of the other people who said their screen stopped working accidentally toggled this switch to input? Anyway, I won't buy a second one until this first one proves its durability a bit longer, but at two months old, it's working fine and is definitely the most loaded player around for under $500 (...)

After weeks of research and after by chance finding this little player in a local store (FutureShop Canada), I finally had myself a portable DVD player. This review is based on short term ownership so I can not speak about reliability, durability etc.
To start with, the player is REGION FREE which was a must for me as I travel between Europe (Code 2) and America (Code 1) a lot. You simple select the country in the preferences and voila, its play time!
It comes with remote which is handy although I do not expect to use it much (will have the player in my lap!) but its nice to have though. The power-supply is a non-switching 110v one which will not work in Europe (230v), but as the player uses 12 volts DC it is not a problem to find general-purpose power-supply and run it from this instead. A car adapter is included as well which is great for recharging the unit (or view DVD's).
It's size is what I like the most, only slightly larger than a portable CD player and a snap-on battery which unlike other models, do not double its size! I've seen many similar models which looks much more bulky and with smaller screens.
The display itself is very nice, bright and not too narrow-angled - 2 people sitting next to eachother will have no problem what-so-ever with visibility! In moving sequences, it is possible to detect the interlaced drawing of the image but this is really only noticable when you look for it and can hardly expect more for such a cheap (non-progressive scan) unit. Naturally due to the 16:9 scale, widescreen DVD's looks the best (uses all the screen). Another note about the screen is that you can spot slightly more brightness on the edges of the screen (probably due to a mirror-effect on the alu sides) but again this is really only noticable in black sequences and when you look for it. If you want the purest and best in image quality, get a Panasonic or Toshiba portable but expect to pay much much more! However, if you, like me, needed a cheap unit which was small, region-free, can be hooked up as a monitor (Composite video in!) and play MP3 as well then you really do not go wrong with this one! On a final note; the sound is as can be expected, no problem with that except naturally the units tiny speakers are not for plane travelling but who tries that anyway without a noise-cancelling headset?!? Finally, unlike other similar players, this unit HAS a recharge indicator so you can see when its done!

The Konka player manufanctured by one of china's major TVmakers, boasts notable quality for the price. Aside from the slick silver styling, the 1800U is a fairly typical bottom-end DVD player. One major bonus not found on other inexpensive DVDs is both kinds of digital outputs, optical and coaxial. There's no DTS decoding, however.

Despite the low price this unit is equiped with features that you only see on the more expensive units (S-video, multi angle options, etc.). One of the player's great strengths is its ability to play CD/VCD/CD-R The DD 5.1 seems right on target, but it is not DTS compatiple.

BEWARE: After asking friends and people at work, I have come to question its initial performance. It seems some players have been equiped with a 300MA fuse which blows easily instead of a 350MA one.

I found that the first batch of units had a power supply problem where the player would suddenly stop working, usually with a DVD in it. Konka USA will replace those units free of charge, or you can fix it yourself by replacing and power supply fuse with correct type. Regardless of the fuse, the unit generates a lot of heat. But it seams like the units on sale by Amazon are new enough that the problem has been fixed. I price is an issue and you are not sure about buying a DVD player from an unknown manufacture, try some by Phillips or RCA. Otherwise, spend an extra [money] to get a reliable player.

Hope this helps.

i purchased my konka kd-1800u1 used from a pawn shop for 50 bucks and the only thing that i have ever had wrong with it was when i put in adaul layer disc alot of the times it wouldnt read and gave me a ivalid operation error but i didnt fret it to much because the reason i bought the thing in the first place was to play vcds and it did that well so one day i tried to play a dual layer disc and it worked fine with no errors and i figured out why it was giveing me errors when i put the disc in it was because when i put the disc in istead of pressing the open close button i was pressing the play button so now i just press the open close button and dont have any more problems its a great little dvd player and now insted of using my playstation 2 as my dvd player with an optical cable for dolby digital i use my konka with a coaxal witch i think sounds better as far as the remote go's i have know clue since i bought it from a pawn shop i didnt come with a remote so i just use my universal remote witch is a rca lcd touch screen remote witch is another fine product and i have know delays or slowness in responces

I stand by Amazon.com's review of Konka's 1800U. This is an excellent DVD player -- at any price. Build quality is superb.

I've lived with the 1800U in my system for a couple of months now, playing music CDs and movies nighlty, without any problems whatsoever.

I have reviewed dozens of DVD players, beginning with the format's public debut in 1997, when I was executive editor of Home Theater magazine. If the 1800U had been introduced three years ago, it would have been considered a bargain at $499.

As for alleged problems, unless a pattern emerges, be cautious when reading comments about isolated incidents. Does the "customer" actually own the product in question, or are they merely speculating? Do they have an axe to grind? Do they have ulterior motives (e.g. store owners or sales reps who don't sell that particular brand)?

Consumer electronics is a highly competitive business. Konka poses a threat, not merely because their products are affordable, but because they are extremely well-built.

After using Panasonic products for years, I finally feel like I've been ripped off. I experienced the exact same problem the user from Austin, TX did. I was trying to access a script on one of my Buffy DVD's when the player died on me for no apparent reason. I simply hit the "enter" button on the remote to read a script on one of the discs and nothing happened. It sounded like the laser was trying to read the disc for about 10 seconds and then player just suddenly died on me. When I tried to load the disc back up, it died(shut off) again after a few seconds. Now it refuses to play anything. I've tried CD's, CD-R's and several other DVD's. Nothing is wrong with any of these discs; they're all in perfect condition. The weird thing is the unit still powers up fine and all the menus and other functions still work. It just refuses to play any discs anymore! As soon as I stick a disc in, the power shuts off after a few seconds of trying to load the disc up. The motor still appears to work as I can hear it when I stick a disc in, but something has gone seriously wrong with the laser and/or motor. Admittedly I used the player a lot, but it wasn't even a year old yet and I cared for it very well. It was a good player up until this. It played even the most severly scratched rental discs I threw at it without any errors and had great picture and sound. But when the player breaks down completely in under a year, what does it even matter? Panasonic said they would repair the unit for me, but it would cost nearly as much as a brand new player would cost me, so it's pretty much pointless. Now I'm not so sure if I wan't to continue using Panasonic products. Keep in mind though, this problem doesn't necessarily apply to all of Panasonic's DVD players. As far as I know, this hasn't happened to anybody with the more expensive S47S model. But now I understand why this player is so cheap and is no longer in production. I'm not saying turn anti-Panasonic, but avoid this player no matter how cheap you may find it. Their DVD players really are excellent assuming they keep working more than just a year...

Buying an electronic product which isn't made by Sony is a first for me. As I have already invested a lot of money in 2 32" 4:3 Sony tvs 3 years ago I have been quite unhappy with the fact that now most of DVD movies are been made only in the widescreen aspect; this translate into having my 32" screens been cut in half (even though if some DVD offer the option between 4:3 or widescreen I just don't understand why they don't all offer this convenience unless they are set on creating a need to switch to a widescreen tv sooner than later but that's another story! ).

That been said, I have no intention to replace my 3 year old tvs and therefore have been looking at restoring the size of their screen (when viewing a widescreen dvd) so when I heard of the zoom option on some DVD player that could do just that I went out to find out more. But if this option seems simple enough you really need to research what this feature means not only for each manufacturer but for each model.

For example Sony has this option on some of its higher end models but it's really not related to getting rid of those black lines since at a minimum the picture size is doubled ( too much of the image would be lost). I also tried out a samsung which makes getting rid of the letterbox black lines part of its advertizing but if when used it works the picture seemed really streched. Panasonic or at least this model (since its version of combo DVD/VCR has a zoom feature similar to Sony) has 6 preset zoomed aspects on top of possible additional fine adjustments which not only makes it easy to get rid of these black lines but makes it possible to find just the right balance so that the picture maintains its quality while losing as little screen size as possible, in comparison with Samsung the picture on this model can be made bigger while maintaining its quality. If you own a widescreen tv or simply these black lines don't bother you then maybe there is a better option for a similar investment but you really want a full picture on your 4:3 tv when viewing a widescreen dvd and still maintain a quality picture than this model is a great buy!

This is as far as you can go with a single-disc DVD player.
You can expect all of the top of the line features, such as Component Video, optical out for surround sound, progressive scan, DTS and Dolby Audio. etc. There is a unique Zoom feature which I liked the most. On the turn of a nob you can turn to manual zoom and "zoom in" on a picture frame. This feature is great when zooming in on "widescreen format" movies, formating them "virtually" to fit the full screen.

+ It's Thin.
+ Zoom in on picture frame on the turn of a knob to custom fit.
+ Plays a wide variety of formats(MP3's,WMA,CD,DVD,), plus you
can even put your JPEG pictures on the screen.
+ Hefty construction (hard plastic remote) adds durability.

This purchase was actually an upgrade for me, some old DVDs that I had purchased used got stuck in my old equipment. I soon noticed how this DVD player worked around the trouble spots - I love that.

After using Panasonic products for years, I finally feel like I've been ripped off. I experienced the exact same problem the user from Austin, TX did. I was trying to access a script on one of my Buffy DVD's when the player died on me for no apparent reason. I simply hit the "enter" button on the remote to read a script on one of the discs and nothing happened. It sounded like the laser was trying to read the disc for about 10 seconds and then player just suddenly died on me. When I tried to load the disc back up, it died(shut off) again after a few seconds. Now it refuses to play anything. I've tried CD's, CD-R's and several other DVD's. Nothing is wrong with any of these discs; they're all in perfect condition. The weird thing is the unit still powers up fine and all the menus and other functions still work. It just refuses to play any discs anymore! As soon as I stick a disc in, the power shuts off after a few seconds of trying to load the disc up. The motor still appears to work as I can hear it when I stick a disc in, but something has gone seriously wrong with the laser and/or motor. Admittedly I used the player a lot, but it wasn't even a year old yet and I cared for it very well. It was a good player up until this. It played even the most severly scratched rental discs I threw at it without any errors and had great picture and sound. But when the player breaks down completely in under a year, what does it even matter? Panasonic said they would repair the unit for me, but it would cost nearly as much as a brand new player would cost me, so it's pretty much pointless. Now I'm not so sure if I wan't to continue using Panasonic products. Keep in mind though, this problem doesn't necessarily apply to all of Panasonic's DVD players. As far as I know, this hasn't happened to anybody with the more expensive S47S model. But now I understand why this player is so cheap and is no longer in production. I'm not saying turn anti-Panasonic, but avoid this player no matter how cheap you may find it. Their DVD players really are excellent assuming they keep working more than just a year...

Buying an electronic product which isn't made by Sony is a first for me. As I have already invested a lot of money in 2 32" 4:3 Sony tvs 3 years ago I have been quite unhappy with the fact that now most of DVD movies are been made only in the widescreen aspect; this translate into having my 32" screens been cut in half (even though if some DVD offer the option between 4:3 or widescreen I just don't understand why they don't all offer this convenience unless they are set on creating a need to switch to a widescreen tv sooner than later but that's another story! ).

That been said, I have no intention to replace my 3 year old tvs and therefore have been looking at restoring the size of their screen (when viewing a widescreen dvd) so when I heard of the zoom option on some DVD player that could do just that I went out to find out more. But if this option seems simple enough you really need to research what this feature means not only for each manufacturer but for each model.

For example Sony has this option on some of its higher end models but it's really not related to getting rid of those black lines since at a minimum the picture size is doubled ( too much of the image would be lost). I also tried out a samsung which makes getting rid of the letterbox black lines part of its advertizing but if when used it works the picture seemed really streched. Panasonic or at least this model (since its version of combo DVD/VCR has a zoom feature similar to Sony) has 6 preset zoomed aspects on top of possible additional fine adjustments which not only makes it easy to get rid of these black lines but makes it possible to find just the right balance so that the picture maintains its quality while losing as little screen size as possible, in comparison with Samsung the picture on this model can be made bigger while maintaining its quality. If you own a widescreen tv or simply these black lines don't bother you then maybe there is a better option for a similar investment but you really want a full picture on your 4:3 tv when viewing a widescreen dvd and still maintain a quality picture than this model is a great buy!

This is as far as you can go with a single-disc DVD player.
You can expect all of the top of the line features, such as Component Video, optical out for surround sound, progressive scan, DTS and Dolby Audio. etc. There is a unique Zoom feature which I liked the most. On the turn of a nob you can turn to manual zoom and "zoom in" on a picture frame. This feature is great when zooming in on "widescreen format" movies, formating them "virtually" to fit the full screen.

+ It's Thin.
+ Zoom in on picture frame on the turn of a knob to custom fit.
+ Plays a wide variety of formats(MP3's,WMA,CD,DVD,), plus you
can even put your JPEG pictures on the screen.
+ Hefty construction (hard plastic remote) adds durability.

This purchase was actually an upgrade for me, some old DVDs that I had purchased used got stuck in my old equipment. I soon noticed how this DVD player worked around the trouble spots - I love that.

We bought two of these DVD's from Sams Club because of the great price that they were. We loved them at first, and thought they were very user friendly compared to another higher priced DVD player we had in the past. The first one quit working after about 7 months, and the second one literally "BLEW UP" after 9 months! Sparks, popping and everything. I wish I had read these other reviews before buying. BUYER BEWARE!

This is THE best low cost DVD player on the market. I can't believe the specs on this thing. Not only did I buy one for myself, I bought one for my parents and my girlfriend. S-video/component/composite outputs, digital out, 5.1 channel analog outputs (with DTS/Dolby decoder inside the player!!!) and that's just the beginning. Here are the three best reasons to buy this thing:

1) It can handle both NTSC and PAL (European) DVDs. That means that this will play an imported anamorphic DVD from England or Asia on your American TV set. Normally, you have to pay big $$$ to get this option.

2.) By accessing the system menu with a few clicks of the remote, you can change the region restrictions on the player, allowing you to watch movies from anywhere on the planet. (Only to be used when moving to a new country, of course -- wouldn't want to get in trouble with the MPAA ;-] ).

3.) And third, well, I can't tell you what the third bonus is. It has to do with Macrovision. Go to Google to learn more.

Unfortunately, the player doesn't come in black, and the eject button has a slow response time (you have to hold it a beat longer than usual) but picture and sound quality are great. Would look even better if I had a progressive scan HDTV, but my old CRT suffices. Highly recommended.

OK... I admit that I bought this DVD because it was dirt cheap. But I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. I've been using Panasonic DVD-RV30 (Amazon rating=4.5 stars) for about two years and I can confidently say this DVD player is as good as Panasonic.

Pros)
1. It has component video, S-Video and RCA video output. Not many DVD players do. And if you have latest HD TV, this one is ready for it with Progressive scan and component video output. By the way, if you have regular tupe TV, you don't need component video but S-video does such a good job.
2. It also has optical audio and coaxial audio output. If you have a killer home theatre system, wouldn't you want to use it to the maximum capacity? By the way, this supports DTS, DOLBY 5.1.
3. It plays DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R,RW, MP3, VCD, and JPEG files on CD. I moved my mini audio system from the living room because this machine can play all kinds of medias. (I do have a Sony receiver for AM and FM)
4. Excellent support - I contacted them with a stupid question but they responded with excellent answers and reasonable delay. They promptly provide BIOS update on their website as well.

CONS)
1. Material is not as good as those expensive brands but the player itself looks quite nice with my other decor. I hope they have a black casing though.
2. Information on LCD panel can be better. It shows basic information.
3. Start-up is little bit on the slow side. It takes longer than other brands to read the content at the beginning.

Well... That's it... For $, you cannot get a better deal anywhere! I guarantee it. I've been thinking about APEX because it is hackable and cheap but for about the same price, they lack component output and other outputs. If you are going to use it with a TV only, you can go for it but if you have a theatre system this is much better deal. By the way, this one is also hackable. (whatever that means...)

Bye~

Polaroid's portable DVD player PDV-0700 is a sharp looking, lightweight answer for trips in the car or long waits in an office. It has a very crisp picture, even when the picture is very dark. Many players can't handle this and the screen blacks out, but this player still shows all details.

The machine comes with Dolby speakers which sound good, but a little weak. When you plug in a set of headphones, however, the sound in them is great. The player will handle just about any format, from DVD to VCD to MP3 to CD-RW. It comes with a rechargeable battery which connects to the bottom of the machine. This powers the player for about 4 hours of constant playing. Of course, this player can also be used as the main DVD player in a house, with inputs to a TV and sound system. The remote is small and thin, and handles most features, but you have to go through a few hoops to do some things, like choose a chapter in a movie.

As mentioned by other reviewers, it is relatively simple to convert this machine to one which plays DVDs from all regions. The directions can be found in the online manual. I have used it to play everything from German DVDs to photo CDs received from the photo lab.

The only minor complaints I have about this machine are that the picture is not as good as some of the better machines I have seen, and the speakers could be a little better. I also wish you could control the volume with the remote and not have to rotate the volume switch manually. However, these other machines also cost much more than the 200 dollars you would invest in this one. For the money, you won't do much better.

We have only used this on one trip so far, but it was very easy to hook up in the car and the picture was very crisp and clear-better than I expected. We immediately had to stop and buy a cassette adaptor because the sound was not loud enough to be heard over the road noise. We purchased a unit that had video games included, and my twelve year old son said they were not very good games, but they were good enough for a six year old. I purchased a warranty with this unit since no matter what reviews I read about any of the DVD players, people had problems with their durability. So far, so good for me.

WE PURCHASED THIS DVD PLAYER FOR MY 6 YEAR OLD SON AFTER BEING GREATLY DISSAPOINTED WITH A 7" INSIGNA BRAND WE GOT AT BESTBUY...ONE WEEK IN USE AND IT BROKE DOWN REFUSING TO PLAY DVD'S. SO WE DECIDED TO TRADE IN FOR THIS POLAROID INSTEAD....THE PRICE IS REASONABLE AND THE QUALITY IS GREAT! MY SON HAS HAD IT FOR 5 WEEKS ALREADY, HE TAKES IT EVERYWHERE (EXCEPT SCHOOL:O) HE HAS DROPPED IT, BANGED IT, SCRATCHED IT, ETC. AND IT STILL PLAYS LIKE NEW. SO FAR NO SKIPS AND NO PROBLEMS PLAYING ANY DVD OR VCD. CONTROLS ARE SO EASY TO USE MY SON LEARNED THEM QUICK. HAS CAR ADAPTER, BATTERY FULLY LOADED LASTS ABOUT 3 HOURS. PICTURE IS CLEAN AND CLEAR, SOUND IS GREAT, IT'S NOT MEGA-LOUD (BUT THEN AGAIN, WITH YOUR CHILD BEHIND THE REMOTE, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GIVE'EM THE BOOM-BOX-VOLUME OPTION!) BUT IT IS LOUD ENOUGH TO HEAR IT CLEARLY....OVER ALL FOR THE PRICE & QUALITY IT IS A BARGAIN! I'M BACK HERE TO SHOP FOR A SECOND ONE FOR MY 13YR. OLD SISTER....BY THE WAY...HIGHLY RECOMMEND AT LEAST 2-YR INSURANCE PLAN IF YOU BUY IT FOR A CHILD! :o)

(Corrected and updated) Like most here, I had no problems with my A-120 DVD player for the first 10 or 11 months of ownership. Then I started getting consistent "NO PLAY" messages at about the 1-year mark, with occasional errors in play plus minor pixellation or noticeable minor audio glitches. I thought at first it had to to with dust or disk errors (even though I am a light renter, and take great care of the ones I own). But the player soon had to be coaxed to play almost anything I owned -- only by repeatedly opening and shutting the front tray could I get it to sometimes play a disk in spite of this. Horribly frustrating, especially for an appliance that's in flawless condition, and seems way too new to me to simply conk out after light use.

But it's dead. Now it won't play anything at all, and I'm definitely an unhappy camper. Panasonic reps were rude and basically told me to "buy another one."

Um... no. Like I told Panasonic, I think I'll just try Sony next time instead... a really disappointing experience, from a company I used to trust. Stay away from Panasonic unless you can afford to replace what doesn't work the first time.

I know how many opposing reviews there are and I know this is just another one to take in but, what I speak about the DVD-A120U is the truth. The PANASONIC DVD-A120U is a very respectable DVD player for the money it is worth. It has a lot of the features more high priced DVD players have (ex. Virtual Suround Sound, CD/VCD capability, S-Video/Component Video, DTS outputs, and Angle Selections) and it has no problem playing DVD's with superior visual effects, such as the "Matrix" and "The Rock". Unfortunately, I don't know how well the player plays DVD movies longer than 2.5 hours (I have just purchased "Salem's Lot" which is 3 hours long so, I will soon find out) but I will say that if you are planning to purchase your first DVD player, I would HIGHLY recomend this one!

P.S. If you are also shopping for a TV with your DVD-player I would Highly Recomend NOT to get an RCA or a GE Brand due to faulty soldering in both brands' tuners which causes picture distortion and visual noise.

This was my first DVD player (received as a gift in Dec '99) and is still working ok. I have never received any error messages when playing scratched DVD's (mostly rentals) - but it does show some pixellation when it encounters this - or skips to the next chapter, which can be aggrevating...Never had a problem with new DVD's. I was disappointed that I could not play CD-R, CD-RW, etc a year after I got it, but at the time, I was just elated to get a DVD player! The optical audio output has been nice (to my Harman/Kardan AVR85). The remote is pretty easy and comfortable. I have since purchased the Sony 725 (for it's flexibility - I am making more and more home movies of the kids and I want to watch my DVD creation on the big tv.

All in all, in has been a faithful performer that has run its course - or is a good player to have in the kids room, bedroom, etc..