Cheap DVD Players
 

A question?!

Do you know anybody who has a "bargain" DVD player who constantly has problems? I mean, lockups, skips, DVDs that just plain won't play, and so on. A friend of mine had one of those and swore that he hated DVDs for that reason - that "so many of them have problems". He also could see NO DIFFERENCE in resolution between DVDs and VHS Tapes! He finally got rid of the cheap one and got a real one and now has NO PROBLEMS at all, and can finally see a difference in resolution.

Another friend who prefers to rent tapes because her cheap DVD player refuses to play most of the DVDs which she rents because they have scratches in them!

I have a good DVD player, have never had a problem except on one defective disc which the studio replaced for free. Also have never had a problem with a rental disc, even ones which look like somebody played frisbee with them in the parking lot!

I can CERTAINLY see the difference in resolution on my DVD player and a VHS rental tape. I have a few VHS tapes which have not yet come out on DVD, and I hate watching them because it seems like I am watching them through a thin layer of sand smeared on the screen compared to my progressive scan DVD player and progressive TV!

So, my question - do you know people like this?

And that leads me to the 2nd question - ARE BARGAIN DVD PLAYERS really a "bargain"?

Old Chinese Proverb

You get what you pay for.

"Nuff said?

Skip

Yes, a lot of people buy super cheap players, then buy those super cheap discs at Wal Mart for under 5 bucks from titles you've never ever heard of, much less seen.

At the Blockbuster I work at, I have one customer who if we have both a VHS and DVD version of a film will always rent the VHS. When I asked him about it, he said the sound on VHS's was fuller and surrounded him better :hscratch: I just slowly walked away from him rotfl

I can always pick out the people with cheap equipment, by how often they bring a DVD's back claiming it wouldn't play when all it had on it is a little smudge.

I own 5 cheap players and I've never had a problem with any of them. 2 of them I've had for over 2 years and they still play great. I wish they would crap out so I could justify an expensive one with the wife.

It can be a trade-off, what you might lose in longevity you make up for in price, features, and hacking potential. I've seen some that perform just as well as the bigger brands.

I really don't see the point of spending $30-50 on a Apex or Daewoo player, when for $80-100 you can get a Pioneer, Toshiba, or just about any other name brand. I spent $98 on my Toshiba player which is region free and has everything I want. If I wanted to be cheap and get a piece of crap I wouldn't be happy and it would probably be broken down by now.

Funny, My $88.98 APEX DVD Player from Walmart is well over a year old now and it doesnt give me any problems at all. However, our $300 RCA gives us lots of problems.

I can already see this becoming a cheap DVD player bashing/sticking up for thread!

My experience has mainly been with people who don't have their equipment hooked up properly and aren't getting the full use of their system. I had a friend who was using composite input with the red/white stereo plugs. I took him wire shopping, made him buy component cables and a digital coax. He was amazed at the difference, to say the least.

As for the cheap Chinese players, I only have 2 things to say.

1. I have an Apex 600A that is still going strong. It's not my main player any more, but it was the original discount Chinese player and still works great.

2. If you've bought a DVD player under $200 in the last year or so, regardless of brand, I hate to tell you this but you probably have a cheap Chinese player. Apex became the #1 selling DVD player in the US for awhile because they offered high end features for under $100 and had market penetration in all the major department stores. To stay competitive the big manufacturers had to figure out a way to do the same, and they ended up going to China too. The only difference between many inexpensive players now is the quality control at the plant and that the no name brand ones usually use older technology. There are exceptions to that as well.

I have a few apex ad-1500, for well over a year- i have no complaints, i wouldn't trade them for anything...

I found both for less than $45, and making them region free, took all of 1 minute

I don't know about anyone else, but I wasn't bashing "cheap" players. I was bashing people who go out, buy the cheapest player they can find, buy cheap discs, then say DVD sucks.

Practically everything has moved to China. It seems like the majority of electronics these days are made in China. I don't know that it makes a difference other than the fact different plants may have quality control issues. The harman/kardon AVR325 receiver I just bought was made in China.

The "Old Chinese Proverb" IMHO is very true. It has been my long experience that name brand "cheap" electronics break faster that more expensive name brands. And that no name "cheap" electronics break the fastest of all. Most people have to learn this lesson the hard way.

My Daewoo (region free) is still running strong and the Sony I bought for the other room died a few week after the warranty went out. I also had a JVC that lasted 4 weeks. Unless your buying high end with superior build quality I think it's all a crap shoot.

You must have been unlucky. I've never had a problem with any JVC electronic item. My JVC XVSA 70 is still going great guns.

My 2 Apex 1500's work fine. I also have a Samsung C621 (129.99) that works great. I had a Sony 5 disc (can't recall the model) that cost almost $300.00 that I took in for repair 4x at CC & finally got a refund and an exchange.

On the upside for a number of the cheaper dvd players (namely Apex) is that it is possible to easily hack a number of them. I was able to deactivate the macrovision (copy protection) and make the player all-region on my Apex AD-660 that I picked up at Sam's two years ago for $60 by simply downloading a very small zip file and burning it's contents directly to a cd and then putting the cd in the player and it changed the firmware. It's not that easy to modify some of the higher-priced "namebrand" players.

I use my PS2 as my DVD player for years and have NEVER had a problem with it playing ANY disc (reg. 1 of course). I'm really surprised, given that I've heard of so many problems.

Toshiba SD-3900 (97 Rating in DVD Etc.). I LOVE mine! Paid $99 for it.

APex 1500 sucks quality wise. The problems may be subtle, but apex picture quality does show more grain and picture noise then other players. Some don't notice or care to, but i definitely see a difference...

What model of Toshiba, where did you get it, and do any online retailers still sell them?

This sounds like a player I might be interested in. Thanks.

Your answer is here DaBargainHunta


http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=292253

Back when all brand name VCR's were all 200+ I could understand getting a cheapo Walmart special. But with DVD player prices dropping real low to get everyone and their mother to buy one, I wouldn't even bother getting a 50 dollar player when you can get a progressive scan Sony at Circuit City for 140.

working in electronics retail i see all sorts of stuff. the best example i can give is this:

our computer stores customer history, and tells us how much, and how often a person spends with us. whenever someone comes in for a sub-$100 dvd player, they've bought very recently, and very frequently. (sounds like a good customer eh?) not really. this is usually their 5th dvd player or so, 4th tv, etc... they just keep buying the same junk over and over, and their history goes on and on in the computer.

now, the person i see bringing in the 5 year old TANK of a dvd player for service (or to buy a new one), you look at their history, its a page or two long, and has one of everything. chances are, they spend about the same total that mr. cheapo did. BUT, theirs never broke, they bought it once, and they have owned something that blows the pants off anything that you can buy for $100. plus, its worth fixing if it breaks.

because of this, i ONLY buy upper end equiptment. and because of this, im an electronics fanatic. i love all my stuff, i probably listen to music at least 2 hours a day, and watch on average 1 dvd every other day. i dont know anyone who uses their equiptment more than me, but i know plenty that have spent just as much as i have, but not gotten anywhere near what i have.

you get what you pay for.

It really depends on your luck...I had an Apex 600A gave it to my friend years ago (player is probably like 3 years old now) and it's still working last I saw..

I had a Sony S7000(expensive, really old one with the switches) had it for 3.5 years before i sold it to a friend..he had to service it recently.. the laser was really badly out of alignment and could not be adjust via service menu...

I recently bought a Cyberhome CH300 returned 2 before I could get one that worked... The first one skipped constantly and the other one just died after 1 day(wouldn't read any disc)... This one seems OK but makes me nervous... Might just return it for a Toshiba 3900 just for peace of mind though...

--mike