Superb picture and sound with great looks

General functionality

Pro's:
- Superb picture quality though a little on the dark side.
- Excellent sound for both DVD and Audio using digital and analogue outputs.
- Well built with a metal facia and nice layout of buttons.
- Plays Audio CD's automatically (I.e plays track 1 without having to press Play)
- Fast tray
- 2 x RGB Scart sockets (UK model) with both Coaxial and Optical outputs
- Plays CDRCDRWVCDSuperVCD discs

Cons:
- Need to use a special multi-functional remote control that can send an RC6 code to make this player region free and RCE compliant. Cannot do this with the supplied remote.
- Slow at reading discs, typically 8 secs+
- Slow at skipping DVD/Audio tracks.
- Complicated on-screen display.
- No time elapsed feature.
- Fiddly remote with no eject button.
- Annoying spinning disc on LCD screen.
- Poor zoom feature. Does not zoom in while movie is playing. The movie is paused and takes a few seconds to resume playing.

I have just exchanged my new DV4200 for the DV4100ose as I thought that it would have been a better player. I am going to get my 4200 back as the picture is better and the sound is almost as good as the 4100ose using the analogue outputs (Digital sounds the same!). The general functionality is superior on the DV4200. I.e. Faster skippingloading; better OSD; eject button on remote with better layout; better zoom and fully RCE compliant using supplied remote and cheaper, $396 (£275). It also plays MP3's but I must admit that this is a bit of a gimmic but lacks the VCD support!

The DV4100ose is a good player and if I didn't see the DV4200 then I would have said that it would have been a great player.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz DV4200; Yamaha S520; Toshiba SD210E