single-disc dvd players

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~

The feature list of this player would indicate it to be very high end, but it's incredibly low-priced. I bought one and so did a friend (on my advice). The one I bought was defective (drawer did not open), but the replacement was fine.

The other DVD players I've used are 2+ years older, so either the state of the art has improved tremendously or this model just has an unusually good menu system and great handling of MP3s. Earlier models were clumsy at best in many areas, but this one is quite excellent. The menu system is clear and logical, and the MP3 handling is very, very good (support for long filenames, subdirectories, browsing titles while playing a song, instantaneous starting of a song, and decoding a wide range of bit rates). I can also vouch that it "plays" JPEG files, letting you rotate then and zoom in & out & do a slide-show. And folks, it decodes Dolby Digital and DTS into 5.1 analog outputs, does progressive scan, and has all the expected types of connections! (I wish it came in black, but that's minor.)

Really, the number and strength of features makes this a no-brainer .... (2 of these is still less money than people spent on a decent DVD player a couple years ago or a decent CD player 15 years ago or a high-end MP3 player even today.)

Oh, and by the way, they have a great web site ... and you can download and install (via CD-R/RW) the latest firmware into the machine, which I did successfully. The company even lists what they fixed/improved in each update. Refreshing for a audio/video product!

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!