I did not have a good experience with this player and returned it after two days of use for a failure to read discs, at all.
Pros (while it was working)
Nice menu system
Monster Cables
Plenty of output formats (except digital coax)
descent price

Cons
Could here disc spinning, from 15 feet away! Really annoying
No digital coax output
Remote was poor (too many button, not enough useful ones)
And of course, it quit reading discs!

Even if this player had not crappeed out, I would have returned it because of the disk noise problem. Very annoying listenning to your movie or DVD audio disk and here the disk spinning.

The DIVX portion of this product was not an issue for me since I purchased this after the more than welcome demise of DIVX.

Prior to this product breaking, I would have given it 2 1/2 stars (4 1/2 minus two for disc noise).

After breaking, well lets just say that I am being generous with 1.

I've evaluated this DVD player for a week now. I had to return the first unit since it worked for a glorious 20 minutes before its laser pickup became totally FUBAR'ed where it would not recognize that a DVD was inside the player. So I returned that splendid unit for another one, and it seems to at least work as advertised (having watched the following on this unit: Contact, Batman, Batman Returns, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Sweet Hereafter, Mallrates, A Bug's Life, True Lies, and Jawbreaker)
The Good:

1. The video playback quality and down conversion of 16x9 DVDs are really good.
2. The fast forward scanning is smooth, backward scanning is okay.
3. The layer changes are really smooth, rarely see it unless it's a bad one.
4. The sound quality of the downmix DD track is quite acceptable, I've been
listening to plain 2-channel stereo mode (I need a TOSLink cable to test
the DD 5.1 audio quality)
5. The remote control is a universal remote, but it won't control a
receiver. It's supposed to control VCRs/TVs/DVDs/DSS.
6. The build quality feels quite solid, moresoe than other DVD players.
7. The front panel looks nice and sleek in titanium gray.
8. The ability to slow motion scenes either forward or backwards is nice.

The Bad or annoying:

1. There is an audible pop when you skip chapters forward or backwards.
2. There is no coaxial digital audio output (need to spend $15-$25 for TOSLink)
3. The menu access speed is slow, slow, slow. This is very annoying.
4. Changing audio track requires too many buttons to be pushed: you hit the AUDIO button, then a menu pops up and then you have to cursor over to the desired audio track, and then hit CLEAR to close the pop up menu.
5. If you turn off the player with a DVD inside, the player will continue to
make some weird low rumble like it's in some form of standby mode. The easy solution is to take out DVDs before turning off the unit.

I don't have a 16x9 Tv, so I could tell you how it looks on one of these
16x9 TV sets, but I'l assume it will look nice.

No DVD player is perfect, but if you can live with the listed annoyances, then for $330 at Circuit City, it's a steal! Let me know if anyone finds anymore strange characteristics with this DVD player, or anything that gets rid of some of these minor annoyances. I really want to find out how to speed up menu access since I like to poke around all the extras of most DVDs.

I have tried several DVD players. Pioneer, Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba. This player is the best, period. I have never seen a player handle layer switches like this one (you cannot identify the layer switches on this player). Forget that it's has the DIVX player, it's simply the most wonderful DVD player in existance now. For $329, it's a true bargain. It even includes monster cables. After having bad experiences with Pioneer and Panasonics, I have finally found the player that don't choke on any disc. This is the player to beat.

After reading good reviews about this player for so long, I thought I would give this player a spin. I have several DVDs to test out, so I tried them all. This player handles them like a dream. I could not believe it, all of the layer switches performed just like everyone said the Proscan would. Flawless! Having the title of the movie on the player is nice addition too. I really don't find the noise too annoying. I have a CD player that is much louder. This player looks really good on big screen television (50-62'). You certainly get alot for your money with this player. Everything Obi said about the Proscan was true.

I bought this unit at Circuit City for $189.00 and I have to say this is the best DVD player I have used yet. I started out with a Toshiba 2006 then I upgraded to a JVC XV-1000. I recently upgraded my receiver to a DD / DTS unit so I wanted to be able to play DTS DVDs. This is a great player. I have watched several discs on it and have not been able to detect the first layer change. On the JVC the layer change on the Die Hard movies was so noticeable and now it doesn't even hesitate. This really is a great unit and now with the demise of DIVX you can get it a great price. Plus this player has component video outputs a very nice touch.

I'm one of the unlucky ones....I lost my reciept so I'm outta luck. I got this at a great price so I shouldn't complain to much but I can hear the disc spinning clear across the room...even when you hit stop. It's ok for the money but I really hate that noise. I recently put vibrapods under it & the picture is slighty better...The color & black are very impressive actually but I gotta give this guy a bad review.

Found the unit at Circuit City for $189, and was too good a price to pass up. Have found no problems and the faint sound of spinning discs doesn't really distract. Ditto to the rest of reviews stating no layer glitches and fine picture quality. My sound system is moderately high end with Vandersteen, Anthem,McCormack, and a Denon processor. The sound is very good. My only caveat is the toslink connection, which makes me wonder how much better it could have been, since toslink is considered inferior to coax. I am pleased with it and the price point adds an extra point if value means anything to you.

Bought unit at Circuit City for $230 (Keith was luckier) figured couldn't go wrong at that price. First DVD player I've had so expectations were not very high, but so far unit has exceeded them. Using with Onkyo 575 ($325) and Polik Audio RM7500 satellite ($640). No spinning noise. Remote Works well, easy to use menu (if wife can use it you know its easy), and having text print out is nice. Since monster cabling came with, it would have been nice to also get optical or dig.coax with, but can't have everything in this world at good price. Great Unit!

Incredible layer changes, video quality

slow menu access

Incredible player, especially at the current price!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Philips 825, Sony DVD300, Panasonic A110

Layer changes

Playing scratched disks

This is a rather lengthy discussion about my experience into DVD players. After 15 years my Magnavox CD player finally died. Time to buy a new one. After some checking of prices, I discovered that for a few dollars more I can upgrade to a DVD player. All well and fine. My expectation for any DVD player it to play any CD or DVD completely though. I will allow for pause for layer changes. But lip sync, lock up or drop outs are not acceptable. My old CD player and VCR do not have these problems so why should newer technology.

Magnavox 825:
Since my Magnavox CD player lasted 15 years without a problem, I decided to choose Magnavox again; model 825. I paid $229 at Circuit City. Played several disks include the Batman disk that came with the player. Problems began when I rented Homeward Bound for the kids. Every so often the picture and sound would just freeze up. The real bad part is, it was not reproducible. Next came Con Air. After the layer change, the picture and sound would breakup and freeze and the disk would eventually stop playing. Also while playing audio CDs the sound would randomly dropout for a half a second or so. Again, not reproducible. Defective player I thought, I’ll just exchange it for a new one. Got the 2nd 825 home and tried the same Con Air disk (this was now my standard difficult disk) and guess what, the same thing happened; It could not play the second layer of the disk. Boy was this disappointing, back to Circuit City for more adventures. (Total DVD Players 2 - Magnavox 2)


Proscan 8680:
I promptly got a refund for my 2nd Magnavox player and with the Con Air disk in hand, walked over to the DVD player section again. The salesman showed me the Proscan 8680 DIVX player. I initially did not like it because of the DIVX feature, but at $250 it was hard to beat. Put the Con Air test disk in, quickly jumped to the second layer and voila, no lock ups. Out the door and back home with the Proscan. That night I sat down to finally watch Con Air in it entirety. About three fourths the way though the movie, lockup gain. Next day, back to Circuit City again; this must just be a bad player. Exchanged it for the same model, came home to really finally watch this disk. Locked up gain about three fourths the way through. Now, is the disk bad??? Pause… Hmmm… I will keep this player for a week or so and rent a lot of movies (30 day return policy) and see how it goes.
Played several more movies no problem. Then came Willi Wonka. This disk did have some scratches on it, but nothing I would consider abuse. The Proscan locked up and could not play three of the chapters. Well now what, maybe that Con Air disk wasn’t bad and the Proscan just has problems with scratched disks. Back to Circuit City for a refund. (Total DVD Players 4 - Proscan 2, Magnavox 2)

Sony S330:
Now free from the wrath of bad DVD players, I started my search over again. With the Willi Wonka disk in hand, I again walked back to the DVD player section at Circuit City. I liked the Sony models but for $350 it seemed a bit expensive, but might as well try the disk in it anyway. Put the disk in and jumped to the offending chapters and as if by magic it played though flawlessly. I repeated the chapters several times; worked every time. Now life is good, but $350. Time to shop around for pricing. Sears had a sale on the S330; $330. I ask the salesman if the lip sync problem had been fixed yet. He had not heard of any lip sync problem. I figured I’d give the unit a try and if it did have the problem, deal with it then. The unit I got had serial number 0196891. I watched several movies OK, then came RONIN; lip sync problem. Stop and restart corrected it, but to me this was not acceptable. I made a call to Sony. The rude lady at customer service knew nothing of any lip sync problem but did offer to have the unit picked up for repair. I did not want to send the unit in, unless I knew that the problem would be fixed. I decided to wait.
Checked Circuit City’s web site, they now dropped the price to $300. I returned the lip sync plugged S330 back to Sears and decided to another chance on later serial number one from Circuit City and save $30 in the process. Checked the serial number at the store 0262393, higher than the old one, this is good. The serial number is located on the box directly above the UPC bar code. Got the unit home and check the firmware version (Title, Clear, then ON from the remote). It was 2.21. This means I should have no problems with lip sync. As I understand it 2.1 fixed the problem. Looks like I have a keeper. This unit finally meets my standard of playing DVD and CDs completely through without locking up, drop outs, or lip sync problems. (Total DVD Players 6 - Proscan 2, Magnavox 2, Sony 2)

So it appears Sony fixed the problem between serial numbers 0196891 and 0262393. I just wish Sony would be more up front about the lip sync problems and fixes for it. It’s a great player otherwise. Proscan- sorry you could not play scratched disks; very noise transport. Magnavox- total disappointment considering my fondness for my old CD player (anyone remember the FD2040 2nd gen); has many problems playing dual layered disks.

Similar Products Used:

Philips 825
Sony S330