tylerdave

I'm looking around for a good DVD player in the sub-$200 range. I want whatever gives me the most features and reliability for my $$. I'm willing to give $5 to whoever can make their case the best.

The Void

I can recommend the Toshiba SD-1200/1600 because I've had the 1200 for 8 months or so and have had no problems. My dad also has one and no problems. Toshiba is good but not the only ones to look at.

I'd also check out the entry level Pioneer(forget the model #), a Panasonic RV-30 and maybe a Sony.

All would be great players. Finally, if reading CDR's is important to you I'd go with the Pioneer since it's the only one that is made to read CDR/CDRW.

Trencher

Void pretty much said it all.

Some people don't like Toshiba's downconversion.
Some say Sony is soft.
Some say Panasonic is harsh.

I have the Panasonic RV-30 which replaced a 2 year old Panny 110 with it's bad reputation only gave me problems on 3 Discs out of about 300 played. Two were problems for every player and the other from Hong Kong.

I just picked up a secondary player. The Sampo DVE620. You can find it for $150-160. The quality does not meet the other 3 brands mentioned but it has features to play MP3/VCD/SVCD/CDR/CDRW/DTS. A future firmware upgrade will allow you to play minidvd which you can create on your computer. Turn ~25min. of home video into DVD quality. This is not a perfect player. You can find better audio/video quality in others but this player does all sorts of stuff. Do a search for it on the 'net.

Xanager

I've got the Panasonic RV30 and haven't had any problems with it. I'd probably stay with Panasonic, Toshiba, or the Pioneer. You'll find varying opinions for all of these, so you'll just have to make a decision. I don't think you'll find a "perfect" player.

matchpenalty

With the $50 rebate out there, nothing touches the Sony 360 in my opinion. Sony has had the fewest disc compatability issues out there...

1blwnsaleen

I'll give a vote for the Toshiba also. I have the 2109. It has been replaced by the 1600, I believe. I have had no problems however it does switch from menu to menu very slowly. This point was covered by someone else in another thread not long ago. The Panasonic's are supposed to be better at switching times.

jackflood

Does anyone know if the Toshiba 1600 will play CD-Rs?

stevevt

It doesn't.

JLB

Don't forget that you can still get a $50 rebate on the Panasonic RV-30 if purchased by the end of this month. Amazon has it for $229, making it $179 after rebate. I think this is a very good value!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...676527-9780111

speedzon21

Toshiba 1600 is only $180 after rebate right now at 800.com. A very good player...

juice21

My, .02 cents, go with the Panasonic, least amount of compatability issues.

reverb

Only one person has mentioned Pioneer? If you visit HTF, the sub $200 Pioneers always come out the preferred player in their polls. They also play CD-R/CD-RWs.

We have a Toshiba SD1200. Though I at first thought it wasn't significant, the downsampling really is bad, and I wouldn't recommend the player. I would seriously look at the Pioneer DV-333 (excellent picture), the Sony 360 (soft picture). People complain about a loud transport on both of those models BTW. The Panasonic RV80, though aournd $300, is becoming popular, whereas Panasonic is often bashed due to a poor track record.

JPerks

I know the SD1600 is listed as not being CDR compatible but I play CD-R's on mine all the time, I have never had a problem with playablity when using it to play CD-R's.

Jperks

mr. longshanks

panasonic rv-30. awesome non progressive

cloud

If you want CD-R capability then go with Pioneer. If you don't then go with a Sony as Sony players have the least amount of software incompatibility issues.

Cy Jervis

I'll go along with the sony 360 after the $50 rebate it comes to $119 plus tax if you get Sears to price match the $169 price from http://www.pricescan.com

Also the sony 660, 5 dvd changer comes to $195 plus tax after rebate and a pricematch of pricescan.com.

dvdrocks

how about the sony 560d, should be able to get it for less than $200 after the rebate, but I don't know if you have buy from certain retailers to qualify for the rebate. if you dont, you can the player for $230 shipped(before $50 rebate).

cubanx

I have had a Pioneer 525 for almost 2 years and it Rocks... Play's VCD's ( Sorry Sony ), Play's CDR'S ( Sorry Toshiba ), Play's Every DVD iv'e tried ( Sorry Panasonic ). Excellent Picture and Sound but clumsy remote. Not sure what the 2001 Entry Level Model number is but saw it at Best Buy last week for $179. Going to keep this baby till it dies.

cloud

Actually Sony's play VCD's, at least mine does. It also plays CD-R's too by the way, although that's a moot point.

asabase

You could look into an Apex. They are much lower quality but have the nice feature of playing mp3's burned to cd-r. The mp3 on screen menu does suck though (8 chars per song title - no spaces)

Only consider this if you are wanting to play mp3. Otherwise you are wasting your money.

NotThatGuy

I have a Toshiba 2200, and I LOVE it. The only down side is that it is picky with CD-R and can't play MP3's, but as for a DVD player, it is great.

-pedagogue

Q-Dog

Actually if you look at http://www.pricescan.com you will see that $169 is after the rebate.

Does the Sears B&M pricematch from web sites?

Joel White

If you look around online, I think you can find the Pioneer 333 player for under $200. We really like this player for the money, and often recommend it to people.

It does play CDR disc, that's a nice bonus.

reverb

Huh? The lowest price I see there is $119 after rebate ($169-$50).

Yes, Sears matched internet prices.

Q-Dog

If you go to pricescan.com you will see a price of $169 at Etronics.com. However, if you go to http://www.etronics.com you will notice the actual price is $219. They list $169 on their site as "After Rebate".

After some research, I did manage to find the Sony 360 for $178 at TechNetAmerica.com. This would be $128 after the rebate, which is just a bit more...