slackerace

I want to get my mom and step dad a DVD player for Christmas. I have a $5 off coupon for Best Buy and was thinking about getting the Mintek DVD-1600 for them (BB sells it for $59.99). Originally I was considering the Toshiba carousel changer that Amazon has for $99, but they really don't need that. They are not "hard core" techno people and would only use the player to watch DVDs.

My question is this: Should I pay the extra $40 and get the Toshiba, or is the Mintek sufficient? I know nothing about the Mintek name. I am not interested in progressive scan, zoom, surround sound, THX, etc. I have all of that, but they do not need it. I doubt if their TV is even a stereo TV. The main reason for getting the DVD player would be to keep up with technology, since most video stores are beginning to carry a larger stock of DVDs than videos. BUT I DO NOT WANT TO PURCHASE A PIECE OF JUNK THAT WILL FALL APART IN 6 MONTHS!!

Thanks for your input!

wmunn

well, I can understand your fear of ending up with a piece of junk, but let me share my experience with a mintek dvd player. I purchased a mintek dvd player as a christmas gift for my parents last year. I purchased it from best buy on black friday last year. It hooked up great for them over the thanksgiving weekend, and it seemed to work great. I was visiting them this past fourth of july weekend and it crapped out on them. I wouldnt consider a 8 month lifespan anything to be pleased with. the cost to ship it in and have it repaired at that point was not worth the time or effort. She replaced it with a better quality product and all is well now. I dont know if this was an isolated incident or not. I know I would not be happy with that short a lifespan. My RCA player is 3 years old and still works great. I have played probably 3,000 movies in it over that 3 years without serious problems. Yes, a couple of discs I have purchased dont get along with it, but I am holding out to pick up a nice progressive scan region free model. I would recommend going with a quality brand of player just to have peace of mind.

JBabbitt

For about the same money, you can get the cheap one at CC, that got really good reviews in some of the magazines. It is not high end by any means, but picture and sound scored very well. It is advertised every week at CC for about $60.

Johnny Zhivago

All I can say really is that in the world of DVD players, you get what you pay for... Spend the extra money and get them a "name brand" player... All a cheap player is going to do is frustrate them when it a) breaks or b) won't play certain discs.

Personally, I would only recommend Panasonic, Sony or Toshiba brands... YMMV of course but these are generally the brands that seem to rate the best for entry to mid level players.