Should $29.95 DVD Players Be Banned?

[orangerunner]

It may sound outrageous but I've thought about it for a number of years.

I believe they should legislate the electronic companies to only make a higher-standard, quality product. There are too many shoddy-made DVD players(or any electronic device, for that matter), that are made in China and are only meant to last a year or two at best, before they become toxic landfill.

I understand there is some recycling of electronics, but most of them will wind up in the dump.

I don't think most people will balk if they have to pay $150.00 for a quality made player that will last them five or more years. Although when people are accustomed to paying $30, this can create a problem.

With technology evolving so quickly, do they have to last? That's another question.

I am still amazed at the VHS machine my parents bought back in 1984 for $500 at the time and it still works fine today! Okay, the cable for the remote control broke, but they were well built and are still working great today!

[pinata242]

I think they should make them out of flesh so they are biodegradable.

[gryffinmaster]

I know plenty of people who have been very satisfied with their region-free, PAL + NTSC Philips DVD players for years -- and those can be had for $40 or less. :up:

[starman9000]

I know plenty of people who have been very satisfied with their region-free, PAL + NTSC Philips DVD players for years -- and those can be had for $40 or less. :up:

I'm a very happy customer.

[RyoHazuki]

Lets ban capitalism in general.

[dr genessier]

it already appears to be dying of it's own excesses

[Larry C.]

Hell, Democrats need something to watch movies on.

[Lecithin]

I think they should make them out of flesh so they are biodegradable.
Wasnt' that sort of what happened in Videodrome?

[mcfly]

I'm a very happy customer.I'm in the market for an All-Region player. What cheap model Philips players are there that are All-Region and PAL >> NTSC capable?

[canaryfarmer]

I know plenty of people who have been very satisfied with their region-free, PAL + NTSC Philips DVD players for years -- and those can be had for $40 or less. :up:
Heck yeah! Love mine, and it's still going strong.

Price ≠ Quality.

[BuckNaked2k]

I need my $30 Sony DVD player for DVD-Rs, as my $1,300 Denon doesn't like 'em one bit, and I won't risk damaging her.

The Sony plays 'em fine, and if it croaks, oh well....next.

[orangerunner]

Lets ban capitalism in general.

Have a look at what unregulated capitalism did for "cheap" dairy products in China. Just a thought...

[RyoHazuki]

Just don't put that 30 dollar player anywhere near your mouth and you're golden.

[inri222]

I know plenty of people who have been very satisfied with their region-free, PAL + NTSC Philips DVD players for years -- and those can be had for $40 or less. :up:

Heck yeah! Love mine, and it's still going strong.

Price ≠ Quality.

Same here.
Region free for $40.
Love it so much that I got a second one for the bedroom.

[MrStayPuft]

I got my Magnavox dvd player from Walmart for $40. Have had it 3+ years, and love it

[speedy1961]

I'm a very happy customer.


Me three! :wave:

[Pizza]

Just because a player costs more than $30 doesn't guarantee that it's a quality machine.

[milo bloom]

We've had a $30 no-name in our bedroom for a while now, and that thing is a rock. It will play anything we throw at it, even DVD-Rs. If I had the time and patience I'd look to see if it was region hack-able, but we've got plenty of unwatched R1 stuff to go through in the meantime.

[edwardnortonfan]

I got my Magnavox dvd player from Walmart for $40. Have had it 3+ years, and love it
Same here. Mine plays my old VHS too and I've never had a problem. This thing wil last me over 5 years, so yes, I'd balk if I paid $150 for something and it only lasted me 5 years. For 5 times the price of my player, it had better last me at least 25 years.

[EdTheRipper]

Just because a player costs more than $30 doesn't guarantee that it's a quality machine.

Exactly. I'd rather buy an inexpensive player because it's not worth spending big bucks on, IMO.

[emoxley]

The $40 players play about anything you throw at them.
The expensive players are too picky. The more expensive they are, the pickier they are.
There's room for both..........

[orangerunner]

Maybe I just had a couple of oddball duds!

They were no-name machines where one would not power-up after about nine months and the other one kept skipping, even on pressed discs.

[movielib]

If you ban $29.95 players (which will never happen) why won't they just sell the same players for more?

Ridiculous question.

[Spiky]

I need my $30 Sony DVD player for DVD-Rs, as my $1,300 Denon doesn't like 'em one bit, and I won't risk damaging her.

The Sony plays 'em fine, and if it croaks, oh well....next.

Try better media. My Denon is just fine.

[Nick Martin]

Maybe I just had a couple of oddball duds!

They were no-name machines where one would not power-up after about nine months and the other one kept skipping, even on pressed discs.

Daytek, Diamond, Durabrand and the like?

Yeah, those WalMart/Best Buy/Future Shop cheapies aren't even worth the $30, although the fact that yours lasted nine months is impressive. You must have gotten a quality one compared to the one I got one time. :)

[SterlingBen]

I am still amazed at the VHS machine my parents bought back in 1984 for $500 at the time and it still works fine today! Okay, the cable for the remote control broke, but they were well built and are still working great today!

It was tethered?

[emoxley]

My friend's Denon 2200 wouldn't play a DVD-R, DVD+R, or DVD+DL. It would start to play them (sometimes), and then quit. These discs were Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim, which are the best blanks you can buy. They played fine on his Panasonic recorder, and my Pioneer 563a. The Denon was just too picky. It did great with everything else though.......... :)

[orangerunner]

If you ban $29.95 players (which will never happen) why won't they just sell the same players for more?

Ridiculous question.

I don't think it's a ridiculous statement to suggest there should be a mandatory quality standard in place when it comes to manufacturing these products.

If one can buy a Phillips or Magnavox player for $40 bucks and it is well built and durable under normal conditions, I'm all for it!

I do feel it's irresponsible to use precious resources and energy to build a piece of crap that doesn't work after a month or two and ends up in the dump.

[movielib]

I don't think it's a ridiculous statement to suggest there should be a mandatory quality standard in place when it comes to manufacturing these products.

If one can buy a Phillips or Magnavox player for $40 bucks and it is well built and durable under normal conditions, I'm all for it!

I do feel it's irresponsible to use precious resources and energy to build a piece of crap that doesn't work after a month or two and ends up in the dump.
And what government agency would oversee it? At what expense? Should it be applied to all products?

Companies offer products. People choose which to buy. There are private industry standards they can choose to meet or not and if they do they get such certification. There are reviews people can read. The better products for their money do well. A company that gets a shit reputation is in trouble. The market sorts it out.

What you want is expensive, inefficient and takes away freedom of choice for both companies and consumers. But you go for it!

[Rockmjd23]

This is what I want my legislators concentrating on!

[clckworang]

I think it's silly to say that $29.95 DVD players should be banned. The last DVD player I bought was around 4-5 years ago. My previous 2 DVD players, one a Sony and the other a JVC, were both pretty expensive players with high ratings on all the review sites I went to when I purchased them. Both of them barely lasted me a year. The first time I had one of those expensive players break, I didn't have the extended warranty. I would have certainly wished my 13-month-old paper weight had cost me $29.95 then! At least I had purchased the extended warranty the second time it happened.

[Pistol Pete]

The best way to accomplish your goal is not to mandate the price, but mandate the waranty period. If a company is on the hook for a 3 year manufacturer's waranty, they will build products that last longer. Either that or jack up the price so that you've already paid for the replacement unit.

I'm not saying I agree with you. I'm just pointing out a potentially better approach.

[orangerunner]

The best way to accomplish your goal is not to mandate the price, but mandate the waranty period. If a company is on the hook for a 3 year manufacturer's waranty, they will build products that last longer. Either that or jack up the price so that you've already paid for the replacement unit.

I'm not saying I agree with you. I'm just pointing out a potentially better approach.

I think that's a really good approach that doesn't require too much outside regulation. Make them liable for producing an inferior product. The consumer has some level of confidence in the purchase and there is less needless waste.

Who knows, many years down the road the price of raw materials used in electronics could hit the roof because we wasted a lot of our resources building junk for cheap.

[Sdallnct]

I don't think it's a ridiculous statement to suggest there should be a mandatory quality standard in place when it comes to manufacturing these products.

If one can buy a Phillips or Magnavox player for $40 bucks and it is well built and durable under normal conditions, I'm all for it!

I do feel it's irresponsible to use precious resources and energy to build a piece of crap that doesn't work after a month or two and ends up in the dump.

But using a $$ amount is silly. An expensive player that goes out in 11 months used just as many resources as a cheap player did. You simply cannot relate $$ to how long the unit will last. Often you can relate to picture quality, features and such, but not how long it will last.

[mzupeman2]

I'm not sure why there should be a ban on them. For example, my little brother in law had a standard def TV in his room, I mean he was 7. He needed a little DVD player for the bedroom so he didn't make his parents pull out their hair, and they got one of those things. It's all they needed for a situation like that.

[Spiky]

orange,
If it's any consolation, there's a ban on them at my house. Also on the Philips models.

[orangerunner]

But using a $$ amount is silly. An expensive player that goes out in 11 months used just as many resources as a cheap player did. You simply cannot relate $$ to how long the unit will last. Often you can relate to picture quality, features and such, but not how long it will last.


The more expensive models use better parts and components. One example is the laser guiding mechanism which carries to laser unit back and forth along the disc. On cheap machines this is usually made of plastic which has a shorter life span than the metal guides on the more expensive machines.

When a player is priced at $20-$30, I think one can safely assume it's not made with the finest materials and workmanship.

[Josh-da-man]

Anyone else think the OP is a Sony employee? ;)

[Spiky]

The more expensive models use better parts and components. One example is the laser guiding mechanism which carries to laser unit back and forth along the disc. On cheap machines this is usually made of plastic which has a shorter life span than the metal guides on the more expensive machines.

When a player is priced at $20-$30, I think one can safely assume it's not made with the finest materials and workmanship.

Power supply is another spot where it might be nice to spend a little.

[Alan Smithee]

Cheap DVD players should be banned just because they've given uneducated idiots access to the format. Those people should have stuck with VHS, and DVD should have been just for the quality-minded people like laserdisc was. Yes, I'm an elitist bastard. ;)

[Brian Shannon]

Maybe I just had a couple of oddball duds!

They were no-name machines where one would not power-up after about nine months and the other one kept skipping, even on pressed discs.

So you want someone to write a law and enforce a law that will prevent you from making a poor consumer decision?

I heard a saying once . . .

"You get what you pay for"

Always seems to work for me.

[clckworang]

Cheap DVD players should be banned just because they've given uneducated idiots access to the format. Those people should have stuck with VHS, and DVD should have been just for the quality-minded people like laserdisc was. Yes, I'm an elitist bastard. ;)

That's why they came out with Blu-ray! :)

[jdodd]

When a player is priced at $20-$30, I think one can safely assume it's not made with the finest materials and workmanship.
This is the most reasonable thing you've said in this thread. It makes me wonder: if you truly understand and believe what you've said in my quote above, why would you be surprised or angry when one of these cheap players doesn't last too terribly long?

[orangerunner]

This is the most reasonable thing you've said in this thread. It makes me wonder: if you truly understand and believe what you've said in my quote above, why would you be surprised or angry when one of these cheap players doesn't last too terribly long?


I'm not angry that cheap players don't last long. Of course, they're cheap, it is to be fully expected.

What bothers me is there is a huge market that are buying these machines and they don't mind the fact that they may have to throw them away after a year or less. If they did care, you wouldn't see such a proliferation of $20 Wal-Mart players. $20? Who cares? That's equivilant to four Starbuck's coffees!

My beef is based on all of the unnecessary waste which a $40 machine (Phillips and Magnovox as stated above) does not create as much of.

I still have my first middle-of-the-road Toshiba DVD player from 2003 that cost me $150. The equivilant machine from Toshiba probably costs $40 today. I feel I received good value for the money at the time. It still works, I'm happy.

Long thread short ... it's the disposable mindset of the consumers that is the key issue and the market for feeding it.

I guess this is just the way the current marketplace place is, right or wrong.

[kefrank]

to answer the original question: only if fast food gets banned too. i guarantee american consumption of fast food generates far more waste (and waist, for that matter) than $20 DVD players.

[clckworang]

I'm not angry that cheap players don't last long. Of course, they're cheap, it is to be fully expected.

What bothers me is there is a huge market that are buying these machines and they don't mind the fact that they may have to throw them away after a year or less. If they did care, you wouldn't see such a proliferation of $20 Wal-Mart players. $20? Who cares? That's equivilant to four Starbuck's coffees!

My beef is based on all of the unnecessary waste which a $40 machine (Phillips and Magnovox as stated above) does not create as much of.

I still have my first middle-of-the-road Toshiba DVD player from 2003 that cost me $150. The equivilant machine from Toshiba probably costs $40 today. I feel I received good value for the money at the time. It still works, I'm happy.

Long thread short ... it's the disposable mindset of the consumers that is the key issue and the market for feeding it.

I guess this is just the way the current marketplace place is, right or wrong.

You need to also look at usage as a factor. Around here, of course we're going to go through the $20 DVD players rather quickly, because all of us watch a considerable amount of DVDs. Many of the people purchasing these players are probably not watching a DVD a day, maybe not even a DVD a month. With light usage, I'm sure many of these players last far longer than you would think.

[mzupeman2]

I don't have a single friend that owns one of these cheaper player models. Even the regular joe six pack understands that to a degree, they get what they pay for when you see a DVD player at $30.

The only time I've seen these kinds of players personally, is in the bedroom of a kid, or the 'family room' where the kid uses the TV the most to watch their assortment of (usually) crap. The kid can use that DVD player, and if they break it, well, it's only $30 down the drain, and not $100, right? These players do have their usage. Banning them would be fairly inconsiderate for the people that use them for such reasons.

[DthRdrX]

29.95 players, no.
29.95 movies, yes.

[Sdallnct]

I'm not angry that cheap players don't last long. Of course, they're cheap, it is to be fully expected.

What bothers me is there is a huge market that are buying these machines and they don't mind the fact that they may have to throw them away after a year or less. If they did care, you wouldn't see such a proliferation of $20 Wal-Mart players. $20? Who cares? That's equivilant to four Starbuck's coffees!

My beef is based on all of the unnecessary waste which a $40 machine (Phillips and Magnovox as stated above) does not create as much of.

I still have my first middle-of-the-road Toshiba DVD player from 2003 that cost me $150. The equivilant machine from Toshiba probably costs $40 today. I feel I received good value for the money at the time. It still works, I'm happy.

Long thread short ... it's the disposable mindset of the consumers that is the key issue and the market for feeding it.

I guess this is just the way the current marketplace place is, right or wrong.


But your theory, if true, would apply to ANY cheap product. Are you even sure DVD's are what fill up land fills the most?

Should $12,000 cars be allowed to be sold?

In your Wally-world "bashing" you can find hundred's of examples:

Should there be .50 batteries for your camera (they won't last long and are disposable)
I regularly buy their $8.00 jeans for working in the yard, painting the house. They are not going to last like a pair of Levi's, should they be allowed?
What about all that $50 press board furniture they sell?
I once bought one of their $5.00 packages of t-shirts. After just a few washings I ended up cutting them up for rags. Should that be ok?

If your concern is to "save the planet" do you really think laws will do it? People will have to do it. IMO first and foremost there has to be education. People have to understand the issues. The real issues.

Second, rather then eliminate products make an incentive to properly dispose of. For example, when I had to buy a new battery for son's car I just went to Wally-World and bought it to install myself. Well after I purchased she explained to me I would get $10 to bring in my old battery so that they can can recycle it properly and it doesn't just end up in the trash. I liked that a lot. I had my son do it next time he was out and he could keep the $10.

[Spiky]

Recycling DVD players and other electronics is free here in Mpls. 365 days/year. People just have to do it, which I'm betting most don't. I believe I am running 100% on the people I've talked to about this that did NOT know it was easy and/or free.

Personally, I feel a $30 machine should still last for several years with a normal usage pattern. Like a couple movies/week. But I also feel it is up to you to research the shit and stay away from it.

[orangerunner]

But your theory, if true, would apply to ANY cheap product. Are you even sure DVD's are what fill up land fills the most?

Yeah, I know, there are thousands of more serious issues of waste throughout the world than DVD players or even cheap electronics. But this isn't www.worldwastetalk.com. I'm trying to narrow it down to suit this website.

People will always buy cheap stuff and then chuck it out. This is part of the vicious cycle we're in. We're addicted to cheap stuff that, in the big picture, uses up a lot of energy, resources and whole lot of landfill.

I'm no "save the planet", granola-cruncher but I like to try to do my little part. Hey, I'm guilty of shopping at the dollar store as well.

Will people do it themselves out of guilt for polluting the environment? No, not without some kind of government intervention or laws.

I don't know of any private recycling programs other than ones that are directly profitable such as scrap metal. Sure, a company like Best Buy will be a corporate leader and recycle your batteries, cell phones and printer cartridges as good PR, but they pass them off to a government funded/subsidized recycler.

[shinoff2183]

Ive got a cheap dvd player I have never had a problem with it. My first one was a $30.00 magnavox its about 4 years old(still works). Ive got a $40.00 phillips now and its kicking pretty good.

Maybe in some cases with these its the user.

[milo bloom]

We've had a $30 no-name in our bedroom for a while now, and that thing is a rock. It will play anything we throw at it, even DVD-Rs. If I had the time and patience I'd look to see if it was region hack-able, but we've got plenty of unwatched R1 stuff to go through in the meantime.


Quoted to update, it's a Cyberhome brand. And one of the things we'll do is go to sleep playing DVDs on it. Our TV has a sleep timer, but we haven't found it yet on the DVD player. So the TV will turn off, but the player will keep going, I'll sometimes wake up at 3 or 4 and see it on and turn it off then, but we've been doing this for a couple of years now and it's still going.

I guess if you don't literally physically abuse it, or put in dirty discs, these cheap players can last quite a while.

[hotsexyboi]

I paid 27 for my Magnavox DVD player from Wal-Mart a couple years back and still works great to this day!

[DVD Polizei]

Economic Terrorist you arez.