Wow, that's all I can say. I bought this new in 1997 and it has not failed me yet. Used it daily in my home theater system from 1997 - 2005 when it was moved to my son's room and used at least weekly for watching DVDs or listening to music. (He was only 3 at the time but it held in there still.) After leaving my sons room it was inherited by my daughters who used it the same way and it never missed a beat. We'll today, 19 years after I bought it, it is being retired from the girls room as they have been upgraded to blue ray. Still works the same as it did when brand new. Thank you RCA for a great DVD player, wish other companies still had this type of quality. Time to donate it to it's next new home. Although a part of me thinks I should store it in the basement next to my old NES and Garbage Pail kids.

Reliability, Simple design

None (for 1st generation)

I purchased this player in late 1997. All these years later it is still going strong. I''d estimate at least 600 different discs have gone through it and it hasn''t failed me yet. I''ve since moved on to multi-regional capability but the RCA remains the DVD backbone of my home entertainment system. It really is a workhorse.

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Shinco 1500 Malata N996

Good build quality, optical out, small and compact.

small remote, amber color is dim.

I bought this unit in December 1997 when there were approximately 100 DVD titles on the shelves... What a cool thing, owning a rare technology such as DVD! I''m glad it caught on like it did, because I would have been stuck with this! Anyway, the player has been instrumental through the years, even through the purchase of all new Dolby Digital hardware and the Sony 36" HD Vega. Even with the newest DVDs, this player still comes through with excellent color and sound. Definitely worth its lightweight, even in these ''modern'' times.

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Sony DVP-S700P

Had it for over 4 years

Seems to be wearing out

I bought this unit in December of 1997 and I was the first person I knew with a DVD player. It has given me years of entertainment but recently it seems to skip at about the same time on about 50% of my DVDs, new or old. If you can get this unit at a discounted price, because of it's age, it's probably worth it. I've upgraded four computers since I've bought this DVD player so I guess I really shouldn't complain, all in all it has been a great player.

slim design with solid overall performance for a first generation veteran

Does not read CD-R, no componemt video out. Also no DTS but to me who cares!

I have had this unit for 4 years now (purchased in late December 1997). At the time I got it on sale for $399 and can remeber thinking "Wow look at how cheap I got a DVD player for!" A month earlier it was $650 regular price. Overall it was very good to me for the first three years. During the last summer (2001) it started having problems with moisture. On humid days the player would stop, flash "H2O" on the display then eject the disc. Quite frustrating. Even worse it has lately been skipping CD's like crazy, so bad that I have re-hooked up my old laserdisc player to play CD's. However DVD's 99% of the time still play fine. One exception is a copy of Fargo that I have which has froze the player twice.

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none