is good when it works

bad product

This DVD player is good , but its not reliable , for any kind of DVD if the DVD player finds a bad sector it hangs , this DVD player gave me a problem that it stopped recognizing the discs and then it was no use , even though it was in the warranty RCA guys asked me to pay 45$ and get a new one which I think speaks up for them , instaed of guaranteeing a repair they were asking me money to replace it.

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sony dvd player

It makes a good paper weight. That is all I can say about it's strengths.

It's just junk.

What a junk pile. I can't even get it to play new DVD's. I so wanted to have a DVD plaier. Did I ever pick a lommon for my first time out. It is a POS. I put in a new DVD, for the first time ever, it play's for three or four min, and then quit. It has not plaied right from that time to now.

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First time to ever use an RCA product, and my last.

Plays anything(DVD,MP3,VCD,SVCD,CD-R/W). Great low price, has plenty of outputs.

Skips the first secopnd an MP3 file.

After returning my RCA RC5215P player that wouldn't read discs I picked up this player for $265 Canadian. The main reason I bought this player was for its VCD playback and CD-R/W playback, thats not to say I don't enjoy the occassional DVD movie. I held off writing this review because I didn't feel my current 25" inch tv with an RF modulator was up to the task of allowing me to judge the video quality. Recently however I was able to hook this player up to an NEC projector through S-Video and I was very impressed. This player has the following outputs:
Composite Video x 2
RCA Audio x 2
S-Video x 1
Front Headphone Jack + Volume Controlx 1
Optical Audio x 1
Coaxial Audio x 1
and 1 set of component interlaced outputs.
The mp3 playback is very simple and it skips the first second but hey I'm not losing any sleep over it. Other then the limited mp3 playback everything this player does it does well. It even play uncommon SVCD discs and (S)VCD discs with off-spec bit rates or resoluntions. This player is a great value and is a great choice for a user who has the need for playback of different formats in one machine.

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RCA RC5215P

Easy to set up... Get going in a flash!

Don't like the configuration of the remote (although it's a universal remote that will also run my Toshiba TV). The key layout is cramped and the instruction book, while showing a remote, only lists the keys and their function. I prefer a diagram w/ arrows and clearly labeled keys.

The machine was a good deal and, along with NetFlix (I'm renting a ton of DVD movies without leaving my chair). Overall quality appears good, so for the price you cannot beat it!

Biggest complaint is the remote control. It's not intuitive and the buttons are all over the place (and I am familiar with 'clickers'). Also, the connector cables that came with the machine are CHEAP quality (thin, inexpensive).

Overall good quality sound and video output... Good deal for the price.

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Used the Toshiba 1700 for approximately 1 month. It was skipping/stopping, etc. on "clean" CDs so I took it back.

Plays CD,CD/R,CD/RW,MP3,VCD, and DVD.

None

This DVD is easy to set up and has great picture quality. It also has a zoom feature and a nice multi-function remote. So far this has been a very good DVD player.

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Sony

Optical output, MP3, VCD, great value, blue LED

fails to play the 1st second of an MP3

All in all this is a very good DVD player for the money. I bought this particular model because of its capability to play MP3's and also because of the optical output. Another nice feature (which i was plesently suprised to find out after i purchased it)is the universal remote control it comes with, which can control many brands of TVs.
The performance of this DVD player is pretty good, and so far I have no complaints with the quality. It boots up the DVD fast as well as MP3 cd's, which can sometimes take awhile on lesser machines.

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PS2

Cheap
MP3 Playback

Display - that animation has to go
very cheap looking
Bad MPEG2 decoding
Noisy audio playback

The RCA unit has a decoding bug that makes solid colors breakup making the disc look heavily compressed when it's actually a cheap decoder chip inside the unit. When viewing the same scenes and discs on the same TV via component with the Pionner the flaws in the audio and video become apparent. The sound quality suffers from a high degree of noise and the unit also suffers from terrible pixel cropping which is 20 pixels off centre. The display is cramped especially with the title/chaper and time not separated so it's like deciphering a puzzle. The display also has a multi-color DVD logo animation that continues to play throughout the film making it distracting. A front dimmer would be nice. The play button has a nice blue glowing light which makes it reminescent of many Pioneer DVD players that have a blue light that changes to green for CD's.

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Pioneer DV-434, DV-444

Loads fast, quiet, plays everything I have

None worth mentioning

Great value DVD player. I did a lot of research on this purchase becuase of all the mix & max features of the myriad of DVD players out there. Some don't play MP3, some don't play SVCD, etc. This one does it all. It is also the same size as my other audio equipment, unlike some of the units out there that look out of place because of their size.

Check out vcdhelp.com at http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=5240p&cdr=1&vcd=1&svcd=1&mp3=1&Search=Search&list=0

for a bunch of reviews on this unit as well as VCD/SVCD info.

Plays my DVD's great, picture is nice and clear (definitly an improvement over my hi-fi VCR). Disk loads and runs fast (almost as fast as my 16x DVD ROM drive on my PC). The DTX/Dolby sound seperation through the optical connection is awesome through my Yamaha HTR-5450 A/V receiver. I watched Rush Hour 2 on it and it just rocked. My TV is a 27" Samsung and only has composite video inputs but picture quality is good. My wife really likes the video and sound quality. During a typical movie there might be one little blip that lasts no more than a second. On Rush Hour 2, a particular blip was repeatable on my computer's DVD player. I think that many times a blip is caused by the compression algorithm used to make the DVD's MPEG2 file. If it is repeatable from DVD player to another, then I can only assume that the glitch is with the disc, not the player.

I like the feature of being able to enter a time and jumping right to that point in the movie - very cool. The fast forward is crystal clear, even at 8x. Pause feature is crystal clear.

It plays my homemade VCD and SVCD discs without a hitch (made with my Canon ZR30MC miniDV camera, StudioDV Ver 7, and Nero authoring software). It won't play mpeg files direct from disk like the Apex models will, but the Apex players had too many "issues" when I was trying them in the store. This RCA started right up, everytime, disk after disk, and format after format. The $300 Sony that I tried choked (audio out of sync with video) on my VCD when I fast forwarded it, but this RCA picked up without skipping a beat everytime.

Plays back my MP3 files just fine. Sound quality of audio CDs may be a notch down from my Sony CD player, but barely noticable.

The remote control is pretty easy to operate. It is a bit large (the largest and bulkiest by far in my growing collection) but the controls are actually layed out smartly. I think I only had to look at the book once to operate this unit. Very intuitive if you have had any experience at all with remotes. My Yamaha receiver's universal remote operates most of the unit's functions nicely.

Paid $149 at Target, but also sometimes available at Kmart and Radio Shack. Also, stay away from Circuit City and Best Buy for cables. I got a 6 foot optical cable for $12 at Target while Circuit City wanted $39 - what a rip off. All in all, this RCA 5240P is a great deal and a good value. I highly recommend this unit.

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Tried many brands (Apex, Pioneer, Sony, etc), this was best value