Basic DVD player that is not completely disposable?

[WhiskeyRebel]

My first DVD player was a Sony that was a prize (ha!) in a company Christmas party drawing.

It never read burned DVDs and was inconsistent in reading factory-pressed discs. I was ready to smash it if I saw "C1300" one more time but it saved me the trouble by dropping dead on its own (spindle motor).

The next one was a basic RCA player that sold for about 35 bucks. That lived about half a year, then stopped responding to the remote and to its buttons. After unplugging it, it decided not to power up.

I popped it open and checked the fuse and the voltage coming off its power supply. The problem was not there so I scavenged the power supply and canned the player.

It now looks like if i want just a plain-jane DVD player, the only ones still available are off-brands or else very flimsy looking.

The market has seemed to move up to where the range of choices among established name brands only includes DVD recorders or models with high-def upconversion, and honesttly I don't know how to tell if they are made any more ruggedly than the no-name basic models.

Needless to say we won't touch Sony or RCA and IIRC the RCA was actually made by Phillips so that's off the menu too.

We don't have a high-definition TV so up-conversion isn't important. A burner would be nice as long as it doesn't take a small fortune to get one that is not disposable.

Are well-known brands actually any better constructed than the oddball store-only brands? Or has this essentiall become a disposable item regardless of whose product I buy?

[Yamaha1]

One word, Pioneer, they build good long lasting DVD players that play every format and all kinds of discs.

[Dusty Chalk]

Actually, most Phillips are fine, especially the DVD963SA, but yeah, I dig Pioneers.

[2DualsNotEnough]

Can I recommend Oppo once again?Mine play all formats and I know several models have one awards for their audio and video performance,especially at their price.
Jimmy

[Celt]

I've had horrible luck with any player (CD or DVD) that used Philips or Sony transports, but excellent luck with the Pioneer players (CD, LD, DVD). Have owned a Pioneer DVD-V5000 for several years now that's no longer SOTA, but still an excellent player.

[Chipp]

Can I recommend Oppo once again?Mine play all formats and I know several models have one awards for their audio and video performance,especially at their price.
Jimmy

I agree with that recommendation, Oppo is a great brand. Some of their units could sell for double the price and still be a good buy.

[arrow 68]

Denon. Have a Pioneer Elite PD-M95 that I loved at first until I got the DCM 777. By the way out of all the stuff I have thrifted, or bought on Craigslist, Pioneer was the only stuff that did not work, or work properly after some use. PIONEER WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT NONE OF IT WORKED PROPERLY!!! But they do make pretty gear. ;) And I like the HPM 100's. But I would not pay the kind of money that people are paying for nice ones.

[WhiskeyRebel]

My mistake - the RCA is by Thomson so blaming Phillips was inaccurate.

[dr.ido]

I've found most of the Philips and Pioneer players that come through here are quite fussy about the discs they will read. My Pioneer DVL-9 is a great Laserdisc player, but useless for DVDs. Even when working the Philips players seem quite slow to respond to commands and are useless without the remote control.

I've had better luck with no brand Chinese DVD players. Most of them play pretty much anything, are multi-region and macrovision can be disabled. Some of them use IDE transports, so once you've found one you like you can always replace the transport with a PC drive if it fails.

[Yamaha1]

Absolutely right about Chinese players, players from Liteon and Apex are indeed very good, Oppo which is quite recommended is also Chinese brand, most Phillips, SONY, Pioneer and Yamaha are made in China as well. The PC-CDROM drives used in Chinese players are a very good idea as they are quite durable, play almost everything and can be easily replaced.

[westcott]

The best player for the money that I have seen reviewed in detail is the Sylvania DLV1000F. The Oppo Digitals are slightly better but cost twice as much. With all do respect, Pioneer and Phillips have not been known for sinking much R&D into video processing on their DVD players, nor has Yamaha. There is a lot more to good DVD audio then hardware. Tweaking the video processors like the Faroudjia is the key to quality video.

See for yourself.

DVD Player Shootout Secrets of Home Theater (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all)

[Yamaha1]

The SACD Yamaha DVD-S2300's video section got accolades in many magazines, so did the cheaper S-510, Yamaha improved the original Panasonic's vid section to a great extent to win such a praise.

[gladiator335]

It sounds funny, but one of the best DVD players I had is CyberHome. Paid $15 and this little guy plays everything!
And you can't kill it. By the way you might want to check out www.videohelp.com. There are a bunch of useful stuff. And if your player doesn't play say DVD-Rs it is still a chance you can find a fix there.

[westcott]

The SACD Yamaha DVD-S2300's video section got accolades in many magazines, so did the cheaper S-510, Yamaha improved the original Panasonic's vid section to a great extent to win such a praise.

I would be more than happy to recant my statements if you can show me an objective review that is as thorough as the site I linked. I realize you are a Yamaha fan and have some brand loyalty but some manufacturers commit more resources and others and Yamaha just has not consistently been one of them when it comes to DVD performance.

[WhiskeyRebel]

I've checked around for online reviews (customer and editorial) of the different recommendations (thanks guys BTW) and man, it's all over the map. That plus there seem to be differences between the experiences just mentioned here in this thread.

There sure is a lot of inconsistency between different people's experiences with...apparently with every brand.

Is this a type of product where you could infer anything from a positive experience with a different type product from the same manufacturer? My Panasonic TVs and HK receiver so far have been trouble free and function really nicely. Do either make a good DVD?

[westcott]

I've checked around for online reviews (customer and editorial) of the different recommendations (thanks guys BTW) and man, it's all over the map. That plus there seem to be differences between the experiences just mentioned here in this thread.

There sure is a lot of inconsistency between different people's experiences with...apparently with every brand.

Is this a type of product where you could infer anything from a positive experience with a different type product from the same manufacturer? My Panasonic TVs and HK receiver so far have been trouble free and function really nicely. Do either make a good DVD?

If you go to the link I provided, you will find that Panasonic is consistently providing DVD players with great video quality for a fair price. This is also reflected in their plasma tv's which are also at the top of the heap. Denon is another manufactuer of DVD players that consistently provides top image quality, although their prices vary across the board, based on audio performance provided. Oppo Digital is really the only manufacturer that seems to specialize in DVDs and do a great job of it for a very fair price. Harman Kardon isn't really known for their DVD performance but their AV receivers used to be among the best in their price range. HK's seem to be suffering from heat related failure issues on their lower end models lately. So if you have one, give it PLENTY of breathing space or add a cooling fan in the rack. My buddy went through three of them is just as many months. I forget the model numbers but if you really want to know, I can dig them up for you.

[WhiskeyRebel]

That's the receivers or DVDs that have heat problems? My receiver is 9 year old model AVR40 that has had not a glitch in those 9 years.

[westcott]

That's the receivers or DVDs that have heat problems? My receiver is 9 year old model AVR40 that has had not a glitch in those 9 years.

It is the newer AV receivers, not the older models. I had a HK for 25 years and loved it. I am really troubled to hear that the newer models are not what they used to be.

[ampegdan]

Don't laugh, but I have a Samsung DVD-M101 that's gotta be pushing ten years old;it's about as basic as it gets and I've never had any trouble with it.
Only ever played factory recorded DVD's with it but it played 'em all-even
f%#$ed up ones from Blockbuster.
Dan