Summary: Nothing but rave reviews, I wish it would play CD-R''s & VCD-R''s but my $400 Sony 5-disk changer can''t either. An excellent player and best of all - it was free since we purchased a Warner Bros. Venture van in December 2001.
Strengths: VG picture & sound
Weaknesses: None
Similar Products Used: Sony DVP-C660
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Summary: My friends have Toshiba SD1200 and Toshiba SD1700. The 1200 plays exceptionally well and has almost any feature you could want in a DVD only player, but it cost around $300 US. The 1700 had good features but skipped or pixelate every now and then. It cost about 140-170 US, but it seems rather cheaply made and you can hear the drive while watching a movie. Both my sons have Apex AD-500W and it does well for a player that was under 100 US dollars. It is also hackable and there are firmware crackes for it too. I lacks ouputs I wanted and it does stutter. But, all I wanted was a player for rented DVDs and for discs that I would be purchasing from retail sources. It had to play dirty and scratched discs well and be of as high of quality possible for the least amount of money, within reason. It also had to have all the ouput sources that I thought I might use. I went to evey local outlet and had all of units under 200 US dollars demo-d for me. I thought that I had settled on the Toshiba SD2100 because of its features for the price and the picture quality was good. I was just about to order it from Amazon on my next pay period when I happened to be shopping at the local Sears and I noticed they had a few DVD players running demos over in far corner of the store. They carried a Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Toshiba, and a Samsung. The Toshiba was the SD1700 and they asked $169 for it. The SD2100 at Amazon was $159 so I tried to get them to come down on the 1700 so that I could have a player to use the upcoming weekend. The A/V manager wouldn''t come down at all so I decided to leave when I passed the display which had the Samsung M101 red tagged for sale because Sears was no longer carrying that line. I saw the price $150 and figured WTH I will check it out. I ask the sales person to let me try it out. The picture was just as good or better that any of other models and the remote seemed more intuitive to use. I then ejected the demo DVD disc and looked at the playing surface to see just how perfect and clean it had to be for video this good. I couldn''t believe my eyes, that disc was actually be read in that machine? It was so smudged and scratched that I looked to see if there was a mistake as to which tv monitor was showing to see if I wasn''t viewing a different video feed, but, I wasn''t. I was actually watching the video coming from the Samsung D
Strengths: Plays whatever prerecorded disc I put in it without a glitch, skip, or pixel out of place. Quality construction and quiet drive unit. Outstanding video quality.
Weaknesses: At this price and quality - none.
Similar Products Used: Toshiba SD1200, Toshiba SD1700, Apex AD-500W
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Summary: This DVD player can be picked up for about $130 at any retail store, for that price you can't go wrong. I bought a Samsung VCR almost 10 years ago and it still works as good as new with only a handfull of cleanings. That really influenced my decision to buy Samsung. This player will play DVD's, VCD's and CD's. It will not play recorded media, and it doesn't claim to anywhere on the box or in the manual. If your looking to play recorded media the M301 is probably for you. I have never had a problem playing any DVD's on this player. As I mentioned it only has an optical output for digital sound, it would be nice to have coax as well, it just gives you more leadway if you add components to your HT system. 9/10 people will never need to switch but I like something to fall back on. Bottom line, If your looking for a DVD player and you don't have an HDTV(progressive scan) this player can't be beat. I have also used a Toshiba SD1700 and it had had a number of problems playing DVD's, and it's the same price/features. I feel that Samsung is highly under-rated and Sony is highly over-rated and you won't be disappointed with this DVD player.
Strengths: Great player for the price, component video
Weaknesses: only optical out
Similar Products Used: Toshiba 1700
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Summary: I traded-in with my VCD player for US$55 less. I installed it in my bedroom. It works so well even with only my 21 inch Hitachi flat screen TV. I have yet to use it with my living room new entry-level HT system which comprises of:-
Hitachi 29" Flat screen TV Robertson RAV9000 DD/DTS 5.1 100W AVR Robertson RVD1000 DD/DTS DVD/VCD/CDR/MP3 multi-region player Robertson MP-11 Two high front speakers Robertson Center speaker Robertson Two small rear speakers mounted on the wall Wharfedale 8" active subwoofer
Strengths: I got asian model DVD-M108. Good quality, plays everything, nice slim looks.
Weaknesses: None so far
Similar Products Used: Robertson RVD1000(only in Singapore)
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Price Paid:
$30.00
from Bonus product for purchasing a bed for $500.
Summary: It plays all "store bought" media just fine, however, the laser seems very sensitive to dust and smudges on the disk (I put a new DVD in there, never touched - and it skipped twice in the movie due to very small little inperfections on the disk's surface). It plays store-bought audio CD's, and I believe it also plays "pressed" VCD or SVCD's.
I have yet to get this player to play anything at all on CD-R's, but I hear that it will play certain CD-R media. I may just forget it and never play CD-R's... it will probably be easier for me to just buy a totally different *better* unit to play my SVCD-R's.
Quality is good... but this isn't quite robust enough to my liking. So I rate it bad (but good for "normal" users - not good for "pirate" users like me : )
Strengths: model M101 - Plays all "Pressed" media, DVD's, Audio, VCD, etc. Good quality too.
Weaknesses: Plays almost NO CD-R media!!!! (Audio CD's, VCD's, SVCD's). I have heard that the unit *may* play some brands of CD-R such as some Maxell (but it won't play my particular brand of Maxell, I don't know yet which ones work).
Similar Products Used: none.
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