The worst dvd player on the market. Advise anybody looking for a dvd do not go anywhere near rotel. It was a present to me and much appreciated but there was better ones for £10 AND THIS WAS JUST UNDER £500.
ROTEL 985 DVD PLAYER

Very soft and clear sound

You have to use a good reciever

If you have any region problems you can re-program the DVD player like this to get it back to reg 2: 1) Unit unplugged from the electricity supply, no disc inside 2) Press and hold ‘PLAY’ and ‘OPEN/CLOSE’ at the same time. Whilst holding, plug into the electricity supply. 3) Press ‘3D SONIC’ button 4) ’96 KHZ SAMPLING’ should show on the display, followed by ‘PW’ 5) Enter the password 5963 using the remote handset 6) The display should read ‘PW****’ 7) Unplug the unit from the electricity supply; wait 2/3 seconds then re-apply the supply. The unit should then work normally. Have a nice day and pls enjoy your Rotel!!!

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Philips, Kiss, Marantz

Sound and picture.

The player resets to zone 1 only quite often. Poor service.

The product itself provides a good quality of sound and image. However since I own this player I've only had problems with it. I bought it as a multiregion player, and could see that it also played my DVD-Rs. In less than two years it has resetted twice to zone 1 only, and had to be repaired. When I got it the second time it had 'lost' its ability to read DVD-Rs, and Rotel refused any responsability because it was not an 'oficially existent feature'.

Good Movie Sound, Multi-region out of the box (no hack required)

No Scart, No Co-ax Digital, No Progressive Scan, Minimal Setup Options/Adjustments.

Second hand for £200... I'm not sure weather I will purchase this product yet, I am going to test against some other £200-ish players like Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba etc... I saw a lot of posts here saying how good audio quality for CD was. I have to disagree. I think it sounds overly bright and thin using the analog outputs. Optical out for movies with Dolby Digital is Excellent with my Yamaha AX620, but DTS sounds a tad on the light side. Also, you have to drive it loud or there is little impact but I guess that's the same with any product. Build Quality isn't bad, though for a retail of about £700, I would expect a heavier player. There is little to setup on this player - but it is multi-region out of the box (RCE?) Video quality seems ok, but at the moment I have to make do with Composite feed as this player as no SCART. It is worth noting however, that the composite quality was better than using a fully-wired RGB Scart with the Yamaha DVS520. Optical-out only is a pain as well. I am also a little concerned to hear that this is more or less identical to a JVC player costing half-as much. Maybe I could get a better deal on one of those second-hand? This product is also a little old now, and technology has moved on - have the improvements broght sufficent gains to entry-level products to out-perform this ageing rotel player? I shall see when I test the latest crop of £200-ish players over the next few days. Rest of System: Yamaha DSP AX620 Processor/Amp Panasonic NVHS640B VCR JM Lab Electra 905 Front Speakers JM Lab Cobolt CC800 Centre Speaker Acoustic Energy Aegis One Rears

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha DVDS520, Sony DVDNS700, Toshiba SD220

picture and sound quality, regio-free

none

oh boy, is this a good product. Rotel has done it again.
I already own a Rotel 972 Pre-amp, 981 Poweramp, 975 CD player and a 935 Tuner. The DVD player is connected
by a monster cable to a Yamaha DPS-595A. This one drives a Centre Unit and rear speakers with Focal unit (JMLAB).
The front is connected by pre-out to the Rotel 972/981 that drives two transmission line speakers.

This combination rocks the house. Picture is very sharp and can easily be compared to the best Denon or Sony products. I saw no difference at my local dealer when comparing it to the Denon DVD500. The menu is very easy to use, and one if the best feature is that it is code-free. The Akai needed to be switched from regio 1 or 2, but the Rotel does not even ask. It just plays.

Quality dvd's like "Aliens" or The Munnmy play very well. The picture is sharp and well detailed, provided you use a good SVHS cable like a Monster Cable. The software is as far as i can see bugfree, as the Akai sometimes would hang.
Reverse spinning dual side dvd's like Terminator2 also play well.

Sound from CD is very good indeed, but not as smooth as my 975 Cd-player, witch is still a very good product. Playing 24bit/96 dvd's would however make the difference.

I was looking for a Yamaha 795, but with regio modification it was even more expensive than the Rotel. So when my local dealer (hifi-team in Voorburg, Holland) had one, I bought it immediately after seeing it run.

This again an excelent product by a great manufacturer.

If only they would finally come up with that minidisc player, they announced long ago :-)

Similar Products Used:

Akai DVP-1000

If you turn the unit off in the middle of a movie and turn it back on the movie starts all over.

This by far is one of the best dvd players on the market.
A audio/video dream.

Similar Products Used:

Dennon Onkyo Sony

CD SOUND, VIDEO QUALITY, GUI, TRANSPORT SPEED

NONO

Just ditched the Marantz DV-400 after 3 weeks of use for the Rotel. This product is amazing. I was looking for a high quality CD Player/ DVD Player all in one. After spending a few days with DVD Players from NAD, Nackamichi, and Marantz I purchased the Rotel. I actually prefer the sound of this unit for a CD Player to Rotel's own 951. The transport unit is very quick. Video quality is also incredible (i hear that portion is built by Toshiba?).

My system consists of:

Rotel RSX 965
Rotel RDV-985
B&W 603 S2
B&W 601 S2
B&W LCR6
Velodyne 8100X
AudioQuest Topaz Interconnects
Synergistic Research Alpha Speaker Cable

Similar Products Used:

MARANTZ DV-4000

Build quality, Video Peformance and Audio

I didn't know how to hook it up when I first got it

I made an error when I submitted my last comments on this Rotel model I'd been listening to some ill informed gossip and didn't know what I was talking about. Unfortunately I'm not inthe business and while I like audio I really don't know anything about the actual workings of a DVD manufacture.
Now I've compared the Rotel to similar models I can se it's actual performance is really very good. JVC do make some excellent transports and it's much better and I had expected.
I really like it

Good interfece, easy remote, good price, code free, component output.

pixellation, only digital optical input.

Good audio, great color, but some pixellation in movement images. I think my player has some problem, maybe in firmware. The audio is very exciting, the channels are very distinguished, the channels has good low response, bass could be improved.

Similar Products Used:

pioneer 717

Shopping for a DVD player. Did not expect a great DVD/cd player.

Price?

Great Video
Great Sound
Great Interface
Easy setup

After watching DVD's on my computer for the last year it's refreshing to finally use a real dvd player. I picked up my whole system the same day. I was going to buy a Sony but the rep who was selling me my Marantz sr-7000 pushed me towards the rotel. The on screen GUI interface is great. Do all dvd players have a GUI? I have not had one problem yet with this player. When you spend $650 on a DVD player, I guess there shouldn't be any problems.