Reviews about DVD Players & Recorders

MRSverret says "Nice product for the price" about Venturer - 8" Portable DVD Player

MRSverret — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:04:43 GMT

I'll admit it. I have a hard time passing up a good deal. So when Black Friday came around last year, I was shopping at 4 am. One of the specials was the Venturer 8" Portable DVD player. With two young boys I figured I better go with a cheap one. That way if they break it, it wouldn't be that much of a loss.

I bought this DVD player for $50, what a deal! The player has a 8" screen. It's not the best quality but for a 6 year old and 17 month old it works just fine. The DVD player has all the usual controls fast forward, play, pause, skip, etc. It can play a DVD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW or JPEG. On the side is a headphone jack and if you need to hook up a game console or video camera, there are A/V jacks. There is also a on/off/charge swith and a volume dial on the side and a menu button. The unit as a whole works good enough.

Paying $50 for a portable DVD, you will expect some flaws. My biggest issue with it is the screen falls down if you don't have it proped up on anything. The sound is another...

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KaciOhio says "ALL COBY DVD PLAYERS ARE CRAP! NEVER BUY EM!" about Coby - DVD-227 Progressive Scan DVD/CD/MP3/CD-R/CD-RW Player

KaciOhio — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:31:13 GMT

I have a Coby DVD Player....well not anymore because I threw it in the trash along with the other two Cobys Ive had in the past. Let me tell you about our experience with Coby. Last year we recieved a Christmas present...It was this Coby DVD Player 227 Progressive Scan, it can play mp3's, dvds, cd rewriteables. If it would work! The first time we hooked it up it wouldnt work, it made a loud noise like it was trying to work and eventually it did. After about a month it died. COBY IS A CHEAP PRICE FOR A REASON!!!! It's a cheap made cheap piece of JUNK! My kids had a Coby dvd player a few years ago it wouldnt read brand new dvds and just stopped working after a few months.....TRASH... For Christmas 2 or 3 years ago my mother in law bought my daughters a portable Coby dvd player with a 4 inch screen they were sooo excited, they got to use that for about 5 months I was surprised it lasted that long. They didn't break it, it just stopped working! That thing would play a whole movie and need to...

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suep1103 says "Best keep secret on the market!" about Panasonic - DMR-EH75VS (80 GB) DVD Recorder / VCR / HDD Recorder

suep1103 — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:28:52 GMT

I love this product. It is the best DVD Recorder on the market and has so many functions, it's just too bad they stopped making it.

The Panasonic DMR-EH75VS is a DVD recorder, DVD player, VHS recorder, VHS player, and SD card reader all in one. You can take old VHS tapes and put them on DVD, you can record tv shows and watch them later, or even save them to the unit's 80 GB hard drive and edit out the commercials, so you can watch them later. The remote even has an option for commercial skip, so you can skip one minute of recorded time with the push of a button.

I have taken family videos and transferred them to the unit's hard drive, to then be able to edit them, add chapters and even titles. You can them take your videos and put them on a DVD, with thumbnails (little pictures that show what a snapshot of what the video is) and make nice gifts for family functions. There's nothing better than preserving family moments.

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stef42678 says "Great Movie Experience" about Panasonic - DMP-BD35K Blu-Ray Player

stef42678 — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:42:37 GMT

I recently bought a Panasonic - DMP-BD35K Blu-Ray Player and it is such a great movie watching experience. I connect the BluRay Player to my HDTV and everytime I watch a movie now, it really feels like I am in my own movie theater. It plays reguar DVDs and BluRay DVDs so it is the perfect accessory for your movie watching experience. The device was easy to connect to my television and is lightweight and easy to setup. The BluRay is small and compact so it fits neatly in your home and really looks fantastic. The device plays movies in such high form with a great picture quality and a sound quality that is truly epoch. I like that so many BluRay DVDs have so many special features and now I can enjoy them easily on this player. The system also plays your SD cards so that you can watch your homemade videos easily on your television or view your photo albums in HD technology. This BluRay device is great for a movie watching experience and really makes you enjoy watching movies....

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batterypark says "Okay for the price, but with some drawbacks" about Audiovox - D1888 Portable DVD Player - 8"

batterypark — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:05:15 GMT

The video quality is quite good and the unit comes with a car charger (some others don't), but I would not buy this item if I realized the drawbacks. The audio, even with headphones, could be better. To the extent that there is anti-skip technology (I'm not sure it is there) it is not effective enough. It is nice looking and you get an 8 inch widescreen for the same price as a 7 inch screen from other manufacturers. Two hour battery life is standard, and I don't plan to run this on batteries often, but there are players with five hour batteries. Shop around before you settle on this unit.

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hossman3000 says "Definitely worth the price" about Insignia - Insignia Blue Ray

hossman3000 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:30:32 GMT

I purchased the Insignia Blue Ray Player maybe six months ago. My wife and I are dvd collectors and have recently been turned on to the world of blue ray. Together we have collected maybe 1200 dvds over the past five years. We purchased the said blue ray dvd player at best buy for a modest $149.99. The blue ray player has not disappointed. It was easy to install and the remote is just as simple. The blue ray looks beautiful hooked up to our 46 inch flat screen 1080. It has never frozen, stalled, skipped a dvd or blue ray, and was even left on for a week straight(accidentally while on vacation) and still worked perfectly upon arrival from destination. This blue ray player literally makes regular DVDs looked much better as well. If you run across this blue ray player at any electronics store and are in need of a high quality blue ray player without dropping $400 then you should definitely consider the Insignia Blue Ray Player.

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toastqueen says "Save your money" about Sony - DVD/VHS Player RDR-VX555

toastqueen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:19:45 GMT

The Sony DVD/VHS Player RDR-VX555 is one of the worst products I have encountered. After our previous DVD player died, we thought this would be a great solution to having a VCR just laying around really not being used because of the need to plug in and out. The Sony player disappointed from the start. The first unit we bought made "squeaky" noises about 30 minutes into use on the DVD portion. We exchanged that unit for a new one, and the noise wasn't always present, but it was more frequent than should be on a new unit.

Later on it would overheat if used for more than 45 minutes, which required the opening of our entertainment center's doors for a cool down. The player lasted maybe 16 months before just refusing to play DVDs altogether. We are still using the VHS portion for some old-school children's tapes, but are entirely disappointed in this product. It is no longer sold to my knowledge, probably because of quality issues. Avoid this product!

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katieladykatie says "Good if you want cheap and don't expect quality" about Coby - DVD-514 DVD Player

katieladykatie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:54:35 GMT

I have had two of these. Why two you may ask. Well, the first one broke and then the second. As it turned out after much investigation, the players themselves didn't break, but the end of the A/V cord broke off inside the player. No way to get it out without breaking the whole machine. I don't usually like things to break. I have had multiple cheap DVD players now, multiple brands. They all break. I have held off on getting a more expensive, hopefully better quality one, because I figure my children will break it anyway. I think if you are careful with your stuff and want something cheap to use every once in awhile, this might be okay. The picture quality is okay, if you are using good DVDs. I have found that if a DVD is homemade or at all damaged it won't play well or play at all in these, while it might be fine in my laptop player. Don't expect much if you get this, but for twenty bucks what should you expect? I miss VHS.

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katieladykatie says "Good if you want cheap and don't expect quality" about Coby - DVD-514 DVD Player

katieladykatie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:53:50 GMT

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ChadFitzgerald says "Works like a charm and no blinking clock to set!" about Sony - DVP-NS700H Up-Scaling DVD Player

ChadFitzgerald — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:54:30 GMT

From the days of Missing my typewriter, to the days of plug and play. I've come a long way. When we got our HD TV, I knew it would not be long before a high def, DVD player would be in order. For us the Sony DVP-NS700H, was a very good choice.

The Sony DVD players, reads all Cd's and DVD except Blueray (although I havent tried that yet). I was able to connect this DVD player up quickly and right out of the box began to enjoy a High def picture, and super sound. To my delight it reads jpeg files so I can review my picture CD's as well. I discovered that the Sony DVD also add's music to these files if you dont have sound already incorperated. And while this added sound is only a small clip you do have four to choose from and it does make photo viewing a bit more interesting.

The Sony CD/DVD player looks nice on top of haveing such a wide compatibility. We picked ours up at the local Target, on sale for 79 dollars. While I still have some learning to do on upscaling and the difference between...

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carlie609 says "inexpensive,frail,works" about Coby - portable DVD player

carlie609 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:01:02 GMT

I got this item new and it worked as advertised,but I must say that the item has a pretty frail construction.One has to be careful to center the DVD ,for proper rotation,to make it work properly.The remote control is also frail,but has worked for more than a year.I have played the dvd on a portable video player(psp type0,on a virtual reality headset,on a Tv ect.It works in a consistent manner,but the quality of material and overall frailty is an issue on such a portable device.The top door closes but not perfectly,on much push a little,and too much might damage the mechanism.Recommend it to an experimenter.

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sarahandhailey2004 says "the samsung dvd-vr375 is a waist of $" about Samsung - dve-vr375

sarahandhailey2004 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:24:49 GMT

Pros: EZ to setupAccepts all Blank Media except DVD-RWCons: No Built in Fan to cool the unit offNo synch between VHS and DVD recordings
What a great product at first glance, and when you first hook up the unit. But quickly you learn that there are some glaring problems, which is really disappointing.
Samsung fails to place fans in their DVD recorders which only will shorten the life of your recorder and cause melt downs and serious errors when recording.
Secondly , the most disappointing factor is the Dubbing ...well, there is a serious delay with VHS to DVD voice synch. So this is a no go for recommendation. Its too bad, because there is a lot right with the unit. It has simple setup , EZ to connect, but the above issues have this unit a 1 star rating.

bought as a replacement of a previous fail Phillips and Wal Mart brand units. Now this 3rd unit from Samsung failed with less than 1 yr under its belt. I used it to copy my NFL team each week. ONLY that. So, including playoffs/SB...

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seeker1964 says "Excellent Portable Entertainment for Long Trips" about Dynex - DX-BPDVD7 7" Portable DVD Player

seeker1964 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:01:58 GMT

The Dynex DX-BPDVD7 7" Portable DVD Player is great for long trips on the train or in the car. It has a bright, sharp picture for movies and jpeg images. The stereo speakers provide clear sound for mp3. The rechargeable lithium polymer battery gives over two hours of playback, long enough for a typical movie. It is able to play many different DVD and CD formats without difficulty.

Out of the box, the DVD player comes with a wall adapter, a car charger, a small remote control and AV cables for the option of playing movies on a TV.

The unit is very light. I weighed it on the kitchen scales and it came in at just under 1 lb 9 ounces, including the battery. I owned an older portable DVD player and it was nowhere this light!

The unit is very solidly made. I know someone who owns that same DVD player, who has dropped it and it still plays perfectly...

The viewable angle of the LCD screen is very good. Three people were able to watch a movie without difficulty.

I would recommend this highly portable...

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jpowersaz says "The Sony DVP-NS57P is a great choice!" about Sony DVP-NS57P DVD Player

jpowersaz — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:07:31 GMT

When my son wanted to buy his own DVD player for his bedroom, we went out and looked at a LOT of similarly priced models. He chose this one and has been totally happy with the decision. It has fantastic picture quality, really good sound, and is easy to install and to use. We hooked it up with no hassles in a couple of minutes, and it has functioned perfectly since. We like to make "home movie" DVD's from stuff we put together from our camcorder (then create with PC software), and this unit plays them without ever having a glitch (unlike some other's I've tried). We have not seen any "pixellation" or other problems that I have seen from other units when we tried to paly DVD+'s in them. The remote controls almost all of the functions, and while I have heard some others complain about this, I don't see it as a problem at all. It is a very reliable and feature rich model, that is priced very well. I think you would have a hard time finding something better for around $50.

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Fardreamer says "Samsung DVD-631P: Good player has served me well over time!" about Samsung - Samsung DVD-631P 5-Disc DVD Changer

Fardreamer — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:44:09 GMT

My first DVD player -- if you don't count my first DVD-ROM drive -- was a KLH Audio offering which, although freeing me from having to sit in my room in front of a PC to watch a good movie on the new format, caused me more headaches than I had bargained for.

It was a very inexpensive machine (less than $90 in 2000) and at first it wasn't too bad when it played a first-generation DVD (circa 1998-1999) as long as I didn't ask too much from it. If I just slipped a disc into the tray and just hit PLAY MOVIE when the disc menu came up, 90 percent of the time it would play the movie without too many hassles. There were a few discs that, mysteriously, would just not function properly; Saving Private Ryan, for instance, would freeze and go into pixel-blurring frenzies at Chapter 16. At first I thought I'd bought a bad disc, but when I played it on a friend's General Electric DVD machine it played perfectly; no freezing, no pixel-blurring.

Things got worse over the next two years. As the major studios...

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aldphckam says "Don't try to record DVD's with this one" about Magnavox - DVD Recorder/VCR Combo zv420mw8

aldphckam — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:17:45 GMT

We bought the Magnavox DVD/VCR Combo player because we had several VCR tapes left over from when my children were little and they still watch them sometimes. My plan was to record them onto DVDs so that I could prolong their playing life. It was very difficult to record anything onto a DVD from this player. If it would record, the DVD would not play on another DVD player. The instructions said to "finalize" the DVD after recording, but I found that the Magnavox would not finalize the DVD. Then there were times that it would not record at all. For the money, this DVD player did not live up to expectations . To record DVDs we had to buy another DVD player. The Magnavox still plays DVDs and tapes, but we have to use the second DVD player to record DVDs, which play fine on the Magnavox. I have since read that this is a common problem with the Magnavox players - I will certainly do more research before buying another one.

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buckey says "Magnavox dvd/vcr combo is good for the money" about Magnavox - DVD/VCR Combo

buckey — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:15:14 GMT

I got the magnavox dvd and vcr combinaton player at walmart for i beleive around eighty dollars. I had to have the vcr part, and it is getting very hard to find just a vcr anymore. I bought this about a year ago i guess. It has served its purpose very well, but it has a few quirks to it. Like for instance, the button that switches the player from vcr to dvd player an vice versa on the unit itself, is getting very hard to push, seems you have to push it extra hard for it to work anymore. something else i noticed was that when you play vhs tapes it has good sound and picture, but when you play dvds the picture is still good but the sound seems to be very low. I dont know what the difference is, but it is kind of a pain. Also if you leave the dvd side on for too long, and do not push play, it will switch back to the vcr side. Like i said i only paid 80.00 for it and i have had it about a year so i guess i got my moneys worth.

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MikeMaroon says "Watching Movies the way they should be watched." about LG BD370 BLU RAY PLAYER

MikeMaroon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:45:01 GMT

Okay, here's the deal. I've always been an early adapter of new technology. The problem with that is, when you rush right out and get the newest thing, you often wind up with the tech problems that come with unproven stuff. On the other hand, being the first to have something can be cool. I've experienced both those things. One of the prime examples, for me, was back in the early 1980s when VHS and Betamax video players came out. This development was exciting because being able to watch theatrical release movies in your own home, at your convenience was unheard of. HBO existed in those days, but, to watch a movie you had to be in front of the TV when when they were showing it. I was in Germany at the time and I chose Betamax because the handful of friends I had at Zwiebrucken AB had already chosen that format. Well, you know how THAT went. Those people transferred back to the states and VHS overwhelmingly won the video battle. It wasn't very long before I was a Betamax...

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minchen says "phillips DVD player is good price" about Philips DVD Player

minchen — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:33:46 GMT

You will find a good deal in this phillip DVD player. I bought it for a while, my friend bought one also even if she already has another DVD player at home. When I see this pillip DVD player, I immeidatly like it. The first reason is that price is good. Second reason is the shape look good. It look nice with a nice color. I do not like DVD player which is too thin or too thick, this one is right at the correct shape. The last reason to buy this DVD player is because phillip is a good famous brand to trust.

It is important to keep using them. One winter I used another DVD player all the time and did not use this one. Later I found it has a bit difficulty when reading DVD. I called the techincal help line of phillip and they are very friend and patient with me. They show me a responsible attitude and offered me many solutions. Later I ran the DVD player on hot summer days and it recoved.

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tsktsk says "Surprisingly durable!" about GPX PD708B Portable DVD Player with Screen

tsktsk — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:25:02 GMT

We love the GPX portable DVD player that we bought for our daughter to enjoy on long trips. It is small enough for her to hold in her lap, but it is plenty large for her to enjoy a full screen. The sound is great, and it comes with a set of earphones if we choose to not hear the same cartoon over and over! It also has an electric home charger and a car charger.

With a 4-year old holding the controls, it is extremely durable so far! My only frustration is that she can easily manipulate the buttons, but that is certainly not the manufacturer's fault. A 4-year old will find a way to do this no matter what, probably.

On our typical 6-hour trip to see family, the GPX portable DVD player holds our daughter's attention quite well. It is helpful in entertaining her, and it is not too loud for the front-seat passengers to enjoy their own conversation and/or music.

The GPX portable DVD player holds its charge for at least 4 hours, also, which is helpful. We would highly recommend...

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