Coby DVD-224 DVD Player

I bought this DVD player for practical reasons. Paid $34.95 for it but have seen it for as low as $29.95 in stores. Pricewise, its a winner. Also was one of the few around that was small enough to fit into the cramped space I needed it to fit into.

Anyway, I hooked the *first* one up (Ill get to that later) using the component video (Y,Pb,Pr) conections and the standard R/L audio cables. Was suprised when I tried to play a DVD and got sound but no picture...blank screen Apparently the player comes out of the box in "progressive scan" mode, which my TV is not capable of displaying (ie: its not a high-def TV) basically what I had to do was fiddle around with the menu options literally in the dark trying to hit the right display option without being able to actually see the menus as I toggled through them. Took me a good 30 minutes of patients to get this kink worked out. This might have been due to my use of the component video cables to connect it to the TV. If you use the standard "yellow" video connection or the S-video connection you may not have this hassle...Once I got this figured out, all seemed well for the time.

It seemed to play DVDs just fine, but I quickly noticed a few bloops/whoops/hicupps during disc playback that seemed wrong. At least two or three times during an average length movie, a loud "snap" would report though the TV speakers, and usually this was followed by the video feed freezing up for a short time. Annoying to say the least, but I knew I must have had a lemon...the disc door would also refuse to open reliably when I requested the disc be ejected...seeming to jam or get hung up on itself.

So, I packed the first one up and took it back to Fred Meyer for an even exchange. When I hooked the new one up, I noticed it would not sit level even on a level surface, which allowed the relativily light unit to rock back and forth on two feet. This required a coin to shim one of the rubber "feet" on the bottom to make the player sit securely. This might have done the trick, because the second one did not have any of the playback problems the first one had. Also, I didnt experience any of the door jamming issues with this new one. So, possibly the problem with uneven posture was affecting playback of the first unit, which did not sit evenly on a flat surface either. I suspect however, that the first one had more serious issues. (But again with the second one, I had to go through the same hassle to get the screen to display anything but black.)

Other reviewers have not praised this player's longevity, and I honestly cannot add any constructive comments here...far too early to tell. If you have adequate space and a decent display I would stay away from semi-junk products like this...just pay the $150 or so for a nice Sony model, or something of similar pedigree, and never have to think twice about it. If you're really patient and really dont have the money for better, it might work okay for you.