5 comments about Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player.

1. I run LG's Super Blu and Sony's S300 next to each other. The Sony is by far the most irritating piece of equipment I've ever owned.
   
   Everything is painfully slow. Walk up to it and press the open button, and you wait about 70 seconds (no exaggeration) for it to open.
   
   Loading Blu-Ray's typically takes anywhere 5 to 15 minutes. Sometimes it will have an error where it justs loads forever (eventually you figure it out). I usually open it up and put a disk in, come back in 5 minutes when the menu is up, then hit play, then come back in another 5 to 10 minutes after the movie has actually loaded and just rewind a little.
   
   The fast forward settings are irritating. It just takes seconds for it to change speeds.
   
   It even takes 9 seconds for my LCD to disconnect from it. I don't know if it's the TV or the player, I just know that everything is painfully slow, as if it were running a poor quality computer inside.



2. I work for the Computer Art Department at a large university in Manhattan. We bought this player to replace a broken DVD player in our presentation room, and have had to return it because of how SLOW it is. It takes upwards of 30 seconds for this player to start up. In that time you can't put the disc in, so you're looking at a minimum of one minute before you can get an image on screen. Compounding this problem is the lack of a "real" power switch. It only has a "soft" power-on switch, so in our configuration where we turn on our entire AV rack with one surge protector, this player stays off until you hit it's power button.
   
   We're just going to stick with plain old DVD, for now. We considered a higher-end blu-ray player, but from the reviews I've read, all the players out right now (July 2008) are similarly slow. In a presentation environment, we just can't live with delays from our equipment. We didn't really need the blu-ray capability yet and were just looking for a reliable player that was also somewhat future-proof.
   
   On the positive side, the build quality seemed decent, the remote was good--if a few too many buttons-- and the setup and menus were easy to navigate.
   
   P.S. My unit gave me setup options for 720p & 1080i, but not 1080p. I don't know if this was because I didn't have an HDMI cable hooked up or not, but buyer beware.



3. I purchased my unit at Christmas in 2007. I've gradually begun using it more and more.
   
   The good:
   When you get a Blu-Ray DVD playing, the picture and sound quality rock!
   
   The bad:
   DVDs often take an inordinately long time to load. Really long.
   
   The worse:
   Many DVD's, especially NON blue-ray I've noticed, freeze up on the menu and there is nothing you can do to get it going again - I actually have to UNPLUG the DVD player and plug it back in to get it going again.
   
   I am deducting 1 star for the DVD load times and 2 stars for the freeze-up problem.
   
   I can't recommend this unit for the above reasons. I thought Sony would do better than this, a $300 player should not be so buggy and slow.



4. Terrible product by Sony. Yes the picture is great, but it doesn't outweigh the hassle of >2 minute warmup time, flimsy remote, extremely poor upscaling and very few bells and whistles (didn't even have 'time left' feature).
   
   Spend your hard earned cash on the new BDP-S350. Same price, half the size, better picture, easier navigation, minimal warmup time, etc.
   
   Mine is running on a 52" Sony Bravia and it is incredible!



5. Gonna make this short and sweet... don't buy this unit. Only had it for a few months now and it pops up with the No Disc Error... Great! Hundreds of dollars down the drain. Nothing you can do when this happens, it's dead. I've owned many, many Sony products over the years and they all eventually die prematurely. Maybe it's my fault for buying their crappy product. Save your money and get another unit. TRUST ME! Hope this helps, spread the word!

5 comments about Coby TF-DVD7377 7-Inch DivX Compatible Portable DVD Player.

1. Coby has packed what i consider to be very
   desireable features in this little wonder.
   besides the obvious DVD content playback,
   it handles media on CD, SD cards and
   USB memory sticks, and DVD-RW's.
   
   i pushed my playlist to a SD 2GB card
   and it has been pumping the tunes since.
   
   a very good piece of equipment for the
   price so far. it's been 2 months.
   vendor sent item quickly and it was
   well packaged.
   
   kudos Amazon!



2. I bought this thinking I could connect a USB portable drive to this player, and play my divx movies on it, but I cannot. It will not recognize them. I have two, one is a 160 GB Fat 32 Western Digital Drive usb powered, and the other is a 500 GB, Fat 32 Self powered drive. It only allows me to put movies on a thumbdrive and plug it in. Luckily, I have an 8 GB thumb drive for my trip, but this is not what I wanted. I also tried putting the movies on a DVD-RW disk, and it didn't like that either. If this isn't a problem for you, then this is a good buy, if it is not, then I suggest looking for a Philips or a Toshiba that might play movies from the usb drive.



3. This portable DVD player is fantastic. It plays whatever you throw at it and the best part is I can carry 5 movies in one 4 gig thumb drive without having to carry along a stack of DVD's. The battery life is not too great at only about 4 hours but you can't beat that for the price of this player. It comes with all the needed accessories.
   My only complaint is the case is made of lightweight plastic but you can't expect everything for the price I paid. I did get the extended warranty for only about $12.00 so In case it does break easily i am covered. The screen size for me is perfect and I can actually enjoy the movie with out having to lug around a large player (for that I would just use my laptop) I highly recommend this player



4. This player exceeded my expectations. I expected it to play my divx files, which it does wonderfully. It outputs to TV and has a nice and easy to use remote. It came with all the necessary cables and was extremely easy to set up. It plays my regular DVD movies with ease.
   
   The drawbacks? If you pause for too long, even when not using the battery, the unit shuts off after a while. If I have to walk away for 15 minutes, I'd like to resume when I return. There is no option to keep power on. Occasionally, a disc won't play right until I remove and reinsert the disc, although the menu has displayed perfectly.
   
   Still, I'm very very happy with this unit and highly recommend it.



5. Just got my player tonight. Quality for price very good. Picture quality excellent. Picture adjustments are color sat, contrast, and brightness, so it does have adjustment. Sound also very good. No more toyish earbuds like some have complained on the earlier models, but now a decent set of over the ear headphones were supplied with my player. A very nice value for the price. I would have given it 5 stars, but the specifications supplied here on Amazon did not list the size of flash card, or USB drive this unit will handle. After having purchased a portable HD, and also an 8 GB flash drive ahead of time, turns out neither work! HOWEVER, I just tried an old 256 MB USB flash drive with a sample AVI on it and it works great, so my guess combined with the other reviews on here is that this player only will work with an SD card or USB drive of 4 GB or less, and I'm still guessing at that. Because Coby and/or Amazon did not supply me that information upon purchase, I've had to waste money and time trying to determine what size flash memory will work in this thing, therefore I've had to demote it one star. I have not looked at the owners manual yet, and it could be in there, but this specification is extremely important to the customer who is buying this player in the first place because of its ability to play from external data sources, and this major detail should have been published for the potential buyer to decide on this unit. Let your customers know Amazon & Coby, and you will begin to see more 5-star reviews, and even greater sales. Folks like to know what they are buying, whether it can play from a 200 GB HD or a 4 GB flash drive is not as much an issue as knowing what else one needs to buy to make this unit work without having to return items, and loose their time and money in the process.

5 comments about Axion AXN6079 7-Inch Twin Monitor Portable DVD System.

1. Bought and used on a short vacation with three grandkids. Easy to hook up, no problems (once you get the kids to not touch the screens). Only drawback is that it starts over if you turn off the power, means that you have to listen to the same cartoon over and over again. Would recommend to anyone traveling with kids!



2. Works great, no problems so far (2 months) It is a real sanity saver on long car trips to grandmas or across country.



3. Like some others I read the reviews and figured I had about 50/50 chance of this DVD player working., but we really needed one with a long trip with 2 under 2years old. So I am happy so say that, so far, it worked great. The screens had good colors and sound was very adjustable. I liked having the DVD player part up front and the cords connecting everything were plenty long enough for the baby sitting backwards to have her own screen. It is great that the screens can be turned off separately, this did come in handy. we did not try connecting it to a TV yet and we have only used it about 3 times over the past week on our trip. But so far it was great. I hope it works next time we pull it out for a trip.



4. Arrived missing one mounting strap. Improvised with a long velcro strap from the hardware store (which works far better than the one supplied)
   
   1/2 an hour into the trip from Miami to NC my son lightly dropped his closed juice cup on top of the player and it went dead. Could not get it to turn on again. Made emergency stop at Walmart to purchase another 2 screen DVD somewhere in Georgia to save our sanity and theirs.



5. I did as much research as I possibly could before purchasing this. It sounded like it was a 50/50 shot of working well, but it was the one we liked the best, as far as dual screens go. It worked great for our vacation trip of 12 hours in the car with 2 two-year olds. I liked having the dvd player separate from the screens so I could control it in the front of the car. The screens were easy to attach and worked great! Plus, I really appreciate the storing case that comes with them, since we will only use them for long trips.

3 comments about Samsung DVD-V9800 DVD/VCR Combo.

1. A friend recommended the Samsung, as he has had very good luck with them, so I started looking at reviews over the past month on both DVD/VCR Players and Recorders. I had wanted to convert all my VHS Tapes to DVD, and had initially wanted a DVD Recorder, but since you cannot copy Copyrighted Material, I decided to go for the Player Combo.
   
   Pros: The HDMI Interface is a must with my new Bravia T.V., and the Up-Conversion works great at 1080P. I also have a Sony Blu-Ray, but did not want to wear it out from watching just good old DVD's, besides it's a bit finicky at times and takes a long time to boot and load.
   
   Cons: The VCR only works with the Video Out (Composite), so you still have to run those old Red/White and Yellow wires to support the VCR. I had hoped I could use a single output, but the only commonality across the DVD and the VHS would be the Composite Output and I would have then lost the HDMI Capability and the Up-Conversion.
   
   Over-all, it allows me to have a single unit, and still watch my VHS Tapes, and also supports higher clarity with regular DVD's, providing better quality than my Older Progressive Scan DVD on my older Sony 57 Inch, as it only supports the lower 480p.



2. VCRs are extinct, and even DVD/VCR combo players are starting to become very slim pickings. As a result, most manufacturers focus all their ingenuity on the high end electronics and churn out nothing but crap on the low end. In contrast, Samsung makes high quality electronics at both ends of the spectrum and this unit is no exception. Everything about this player screams quality, from the look of the unit, to the way it gently retracts and ejects videotapes.
   
   A couple of my favorite things about this player:
   
   1. Has all the bells and whistles of your typical player, and a few extras to boot. For example, a forward advance button on the remote that allows you to skip ahead 30 seconds, and a repeat button that allows you to skip back 15 seconds. This is a common function on DVRs, but I had never seen such a thing on a VCR or DVD player.
   
   2. Some VCRs have trouble playing tapes recorded on other machines. This player does not. Moreover, it gives the most crystal clear picture I have ever seen from videotape. The auto-tracking works great. On the rare occasion that auto-tracking does not work, you can also track manually from the remote.
   
   And now a couple minor annoyances:
   
   1. No ability to see the time remaining on DVDs. This is actually kind of a major annoyance. I like to watch DVD extras, but I want to know what I'm getting myself into, since some extras are longer than the actual movie... Oddly, you can check time remaining on videotapes, just not DVDs. This seems like a glaringly bizarre oversight.
   
   2. The rewind/fast forward speeds for the DVD player are 2X, 4X...and 64X! Accidentally hit the button a third time and you've just jumped into lightspeed. Good luck finding where you were. If they could only have three speeds, why not 8X or 16X? But 64X??? Weird!!!
   
   Overall, this is an excellent player, but the annoyances keep it from getting a 5 star rating.



3. Everything written about this unit in the other reviews is accurate. The combo player/recorder is an excellent example of a dying breed, is well crafted, and (I presume) performs to expectations. So why only 3 stars? Because no where in the description was the most important factor, that the V9800 is TUNERLESS. It must be used with another tuner source...like a set top box. Interestingly, I get cable from Time Warner through regular, in the wall, coax and all three of my HDTV's (Sony Bravia and 2 Sharps) have provisions for coax input. With separate DVD players and "traditional" VCR's this is no problem. Unfortunately I have not found any of the current combo players accepting of coax input for the VCR.
   If you receive cable through a set top box this unit would be fine, and for under a $100 represents a nice value for the quality of build. My real gripe is with amazon for not being more diligent in spec'ing technical products that they sell. So 5 stars for Samsung and 0 stars for the amazonians!

5 comments about LG DP781 8" Portable DVD Player.

1. The picture quality was fantastic. The features are very good as well. The only down side is the audio volume is pretty low. At the highest level, it was barely audible. Your only real option for watching video would be head phones. A suggestion for those radios with an audio input (1/8 inch jack or RCA input) would be to plug one of the head phone jacks into the car stereo. Outside of headphones, that is your only true option. I still give it a very good review because of the picture quality and features. I would have given it a 5 star if the audio was better.



2. Great picture. Sound is okay in low noise environment. However, even with headphones, it was difficult to hear with other noise around, i.e. other tv sounds, outdoor sounds, people talking, etc. Also noticed that it depends on the film, as I found that some movies were harder to hear than others.
   
   Other minor drawback is that due to the high gloss around the control panel, it left a lot of fingerprint smudges; Easily wiped with a soft cloth.
   
   For the price and excellent picture quality, I highly recommend.



3. We bought this DVD player mostly for our trip to Japan to keep occupied our two year old son through those 11 hours flights. It worked perfectly, picture is really nice and clear. Reads even very scratched DVDs. Very good battery life. Would buy again.



4. Very happy with using this DVD player on 2 trips so far. Read reviews about poor sound quality, but it was fine for our needs. Used with and without headphones (once @ home for an overnight, also). The sound doesn't bother me because mostly an 8 yr old was using it... The picture quality was great and ease of operation pretty good (I, the old lady, had to use the manual; the 17 yr old figured it out easily). I would recommend this product based on limited use/experience I have with it.



5. We bought this for our 4 year old twins on a long road trip. We read a review of it in Consumer Reports. It worked really well and we are quite happy with it. I will say that it was a little hard to hear at times, so it would be nice if the volume went a bit higher.

5 comments about Toshiba DR410 1080p Upconverting Tunerless DVD Recorder.

1. I purchased the Toshiba D-R410KU DVD Recorder a couple of weeks ago. I should have read these reviews first. It plays for DVD movies very well, but so far I have been unable to record a disc. It's probably not the fault of the recorder but I am having a lot of difficulty figuring out how to connect it to my Samsung TV so I can make a disc recording of a TV program. Even if I could figure out how to connect the right cables to the right inputs, from what I understand you can't do with it, the things you could do with an ordinary VCR and a CRT type TV. In addition, you can't use the HDMI cables for DVD recording and the TV has to be on. So according to what I have heard, you can't read a book with the TV off, while this recorder records a show on a disc. The upconvert feature is very good and does improve my movie DVD's. I just can't get it to record a TV show of my choice.
   I hope some of the information about its short comings are wrong. IF anyone knows for a fact that my information is incorrect, please notify me at ajmujica@optonline.net.
   Thanks
   
   Tony



2. The recorder was more then what I thought it to be. After my last recorder that I had this is very easy to uyse and works very well. As for the price, well it was well worth tne price. I am very satisfied with product.



3. I found that the DVR was easy to set up and to use. It was easy enough I pretty much didn't even need the manual, except for a few things. It plays DVD's well and the DVD I recorded was easy to do and looked good when I viewed it in another DVR just for review.



4. I would have given the product a 5 star rating, but the instruction manual is over 100 pages and not clear on some issues. The recorder is an excellent product... basically a plug and go. Makes beautifuly crisp and clear recordings from my DVR and I believe the copy is better than the original if that is possible. Also makes what I think is improved copies of my ancient VHS tapes. Well worth the $$$.



5. Remember when these machines came out they were close to a thousand dollars? Along comes this Recorder. At this price I was a little worried about it and the 100 page manual Don't be.Believe me I'm not the one you go to when setting these things up.I get frustrated fast so you can see why i almost panicked when i saw the manual.Take your time if i can do it anyone can.So far it is a steal.The first time you set it up it will take a little time,it took me one hour.I've had no problems it works great,but can anyone tell me why put tuners on any of these recorders in the first place.Update 07-21-08.Be sure you finalize your d-v-d or it will not play on any other machine but yours.Just follow Auto Finalizing pages 27-28-29.It's easy!

4 comments about Sony DVPFX810/L Portable DVD Player - Blue.

1. I bought this player for the large travels by plane. I used this player in the fly from Seattle,Wa to San Francisco,CA (1.5 hrs), ; I saw one movie with the full battery charge and later for the fly from San Francisco to Mexico City (4.5 hrs) with the rest of charge, I saw 2 movies with the same battery charge, the battery works very well. The only complaint is that the sound is very low, you must listen the player with headphones, I recommend you the Sony MDR-V150, then the sound will be great.



2. I got my DVD player last week. I got the blue one as it was less expensive by about $20 than the black, red or pink units. The unit is small, has an excellant picture and is fairly lightweight. However, the little speakers are very difficult to hear from. I am using an inexpensive pair of clip-on the ear headphones, and the sound is pretty good. I would recommend this unit to anyone that wants a little quality unit for a very good price



3. Thus far the DVD player works great. It has a nice big screen, clear picture & cool blue color that my boys love.



4. This is my first portable DVD player, so I don't have anything to compare it to. But so far it has met all my expectations -- long battery life, easy for my kids to use in the back seat of the car, and sharp picture.

5 comments about Panasonic DMP-BD30K 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player.

1. I am very pleased with this product!
   
   The controller needs backlighting, and the menues are not easy to use. For example, I had to search and search for the tiny little open tray button, which is placed in the upper left corner of the remote.
   
   It takes about 15 to 20 seconds to warm up, but then reading the drive and access is quick.
   
   I may need to update the firmware which is easy to download from the Panasonic wed site.
   
   Michael



2. This blu ray player does everything it's suppose to. Beautiful picture. I bought it to go with my Denon 3808, which handles all the up conversions and other things a more expensive player is designed to do. I don't need ethernet. All I want to do is watch great movies with a great picture: 1080p. The Panasonic BD 30 does it well.



3. Great quality of both picture and sound. Product now costs more than I paid because I went with Blu-Ray early. Research paid off!!



4. I was relying on my PS3 most of the time but now that there are more Blu-ray players out on the market, I decided to buy a stand-alone unit. AFter much research I bought the Panasonic and it works really well. Picture quality is probably even better than my PS3 can give. I can't be happier. Too bad Blu-ray movies are still too expensive.



5. With HD-DVD gone with the wind, I purchased this player as a high definition (Blu-Ray) disc source to replace my 2nd generation Toshiba HD-DVD player. Although still not as fast as your standard DVD player, I found significant peformance improvment in starting up and reading discs compared to earlier generation high-definition players.
   
   My player is connected via HDMI to a Sony VPL-VW50 (1080p) projector and is projected on a 100" screen. Blu-Ray picture quality is vivid with great sound effects. Setup was very easy and the player has operated flawlessly. Standard DVDs also play with very good picture quality. The player appears to have good DVD upconversion to 1080p.
   
   I upgraded my firmware from version 1.6 to 1.8 using a CD-R by downloading the update from the Panasonic website. The CD-Rs which I created using Vista (tried various formattings) gave an error message and ejected the disc. An earlier post mentions the need to create ISO compliant disk. I used a freeware Express Burn (nch.com.au)to create the CD-R data disk which worked.
   
   The player has good quality fit and finish. The remote is easy to read, though could use a backlight.
   
   I noticed the player is now directly avaiable from Amazon (free shipping with Prime) at about 10% off what others are charging.

5 comments about Sony DVP-NS57P/B Progressive Scan DVD Player, Black.

1. works like it should. no sleep function. zoom buttons and slow motion with sound button. good features. slow loading, but no problems once it's running.
   
   good for a cheap dvd player. might be worth spending more on a better version.



2. This is a great DVD, we use it on the job to show training information.



3. Player has worked well since we got it; it's a little slow, but still more than adequate. Picture quality is very good as well.



4. i twont play all dvd types but its ok, soo far it hasn't played only one dvd out of 40 (more or less)... i'll say it's a fair price for an acceptable DVD player



5. I got this unit as an "open box" on amazon, and it has pleased us in every way.
   
   Is it a high end blue ray player? No, but we sure didn't pay for one.
   
   The remote works great, and it interfaced w/o issue with our Sony TV. Unexpected bonus.

5 comments about Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player.

1. A little slower than my A2, but the 1080p24 image quality is fantastic. Up conversion of standard DVDs is also top notch. Best SD DVD quality seems to be at 720p, for some reason.



2. I can't compare this to other HD players because I've never owned another one. In fact, my last TV was a 10 year old 32 inch Samsung that was so fuzzy I couldn't read any text on the screen. Then I went HD crazy. I bought a 46 inch Sony HD LCD TV and a Sony upscaling DVD player. Because I bought them with my Amazon credit card, I got $100 in discount coupons. So I bought a $200 Sony 5.1 surround sound system that only cost me $100. Then, I stupidly bought the 5 disc Harry Potter set in HD DVD because I thought HD DVD was just fancy DVD. It didn't work in my Sony DVD player. The Sony website had a terse comment about how their players don't play HD DVD. Terse doesn't play with me. And I don't like proprietary formats and monopolies so I went looking for an HD DVD player. I found this one for only $99 from Amazon Marketplace. It was in an obviously opened box, but it was like new and everything was there, including the two free HD DVDs. Woohoo! Love that HD! So THERE, Sony! Luckily, I have a brother who owns a stereo and video repair shop in Rancho Cucamonga, CA so I can keep this thing running forever. He kept a Betamax player going for decades...speaking of Sony proprietary formats... And the Warner Brothers website is still making and selling HD DVDs so I'll be able to avoid having a social life for years.
   
   So even though this review has nothing to say about the relative merits of this particular HD DVD player, I just wanted to tell the world that it's safe to buy cheap ones from Amazon Marketplace. It worked for me. Now all I have to do is convince Amazon to stop recommending Blu-Ray disks to me because I bought HD DVDs. They're not the same. I know this stuff now.



3. I have been a dedicated Sony customer, purchasing Sony products for most of my AV requirements. As a rule Sony products are very good performers for the price paid.
   I recently purchased the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player, along with a Toshiba HD-DVD player (HD-A30).
   When the Sony works, it's night and day between Blu-Ray and watching DVD's on our old DVD player. We have a very respectable sound system which pushes the audio through the full compliment of all the Klipsch Synergy III, -3 series speakers. It would be nice if we could hear the true audio that is encoded on the Blu-Ray. Strange that Sony has the concept but makes players that don't support it.
   And to make matters worse, this 4 month old player began to sporadically freeze up after watching about 1 hour of select, various movies. As of this time, I'm unaware how to unfreeze it other than to turn the player off, then back on, then find where we left off, and hope it begins to play without additional issues. That timespan is usually around 7-10 minuutes, waiting for shutdown, power up, loading the DVD and finding where we were. By then, one has almost lost interest in watching the movie altogether.
   In researching the web, many have the same issue, no one has the solution other that what we are already doing.
   But this problem isn't unique to just the Sony Blu-Ray. Our Toshiba HD-DVD player does the same thing, fixed by the same process.
   Some DVD's play all the way through, most don't. We have returned and replaced a number of HD-DVD's only to get replacements that reproduce the same problem.
   I'm almost thinking that the commercial Blu-Ray and HD DVD's are dual layer, as both units freeze (when they freeze) at about the 1 hour timeframe. It almost appears than when they try to begin reading the second layer, they lock up making that transition. When you stop, reboot and reload, you usually go past the layer shift, thus playing the second layer all the way through, along with missing segments of the movie.
   I have contacted both manufacturers concerning this, neither have responded.
   I never had much experience with Toshiba products, and based on the lack of their customer support (even though it's a discontinued product, it should still be supported under their warranty), it is doubtful that I will ever look to them for consideration of purchasing any of their other products. As far as Sony is concerned, I am genuinely surprised at their lack of support to a problem which is obviously becoming more and more prevalent on a product line that is becoming more and more popular.



4. The description says refurb with possible cosmetic damage. I have purchased two of these players so far - through the warehouse: they both appear to have been unopened - and both work beautifully. Highly recommend. My only problem: what to do with those extra copies of 300 and Bourne?



5. I bought this to replace my Xbox HDDVD drive just in case it ever goes out. This player is great! Arrived in "like new" condition, only missing the original packaging. It upconverts dvds better than my ps3 and the sound seems louder than the ps3, but not by much. I haven't had any problems with this player. Definitely worth the 100 dollars. Only small downside is that it takes about 40 seconds to start up. I don't see this as a big flaw whatsover. Also, it comes with 2 new hd-dvds. Great buy.