Price Paid:  $129.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
Bought this on a salesperson's recommendation for a middle of the road DVD player with Component Video. I am using it with a Philips Flat Screen and a Phillps Home Theatre system. Works well in conjunction with all of them. The remote is easy to use but difficult to read or even see the buttons. No probalms after about a year of average use (and some abuse my my teenage kids). Some rented DVD's will give trouble, but that is not uncommon.

Strengths:
Ease of Use Reliabliity clarity - both video and audio

Weaknesses:
none

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
THIS DVD PLAYER IS THE BEST I EVER HAD IT IS EASY TO HOOK UP. IF YOU DONT HAVE AN S-VIDEO CABLE IN YOUR TV YOU DONT NEED ONE ANDYOU DONT NEED AN EXTRA BOX EITHER I WOULD RECREMEND THIS TO ANY ONE.

Strengths:
clear picture,good sound

Similar Products Used:
SONY,PANNASNIC,GE

Price Paid:  $129.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I was at a Circuit City finding out that my piece of Crap JVC XV-523GD was out of Warranty after only 9 months and it would cost more to fix than to replace. I needed a player for that evening and the Zenith was bought only because it was inexpensive and had all the features I was looking for. Have been pleasantly surprised with the unit, easy to use, great picture, has not had a problem with a disc yet. Far better than my JVC which was problem ridden. A good value.

Strengths:
Excellent picture Problem free Feature rich Small remote but I like the ergonomics, easy to use without looking.

Weaknesses:
Won''t play VCDs or SVCds

Similar Products Used:
JVC XV-523GD

Price Paid:  $110.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
The first unit I got died after one week, but Circuit City took it back and gave me the floor model at an additional $10 off the original sale price of $129. I also picked up Circuit City's 3 year warranty for an additional $30.

Aside from the chapter and scan buttons being one and the same, and the inability to dynamically slow and speed up scanning (you must either cycle through the speeds or cancel the scanning, you can't press the opposite direction button to slow down; it will take you the other direction instead), I have absolutely no complaints. If the features and specs for this player meet your needs, you can't go wrong here. Rock solid performance on all DVD's I've tried (had to clean a couple of rental DVD's though). Remote is also not Multi-brand, but my other remote operates this unit fine, so not an issue (especially for the price).

Also looked at Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic, Apex and JVC.

Strengths:
Features, picture clarity, sound.

Weaknesses:
Remote; integrated search/chapter buttons.

Similar Products Used:
Sony

Price Paid:  $125.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
This is the DVD player I bought when I had about $2000 to blow on anything I wanted. I saw this poor baby sitting on the shelf in Circuit City in brand-new condition without a box at a nice price and had to try it out.

This player is just absolutely wonderful! I have had no problems with it so far. Most of my discs are DVD-9's and I haven't had any problems with them yet. I still have yet to try more complex discs.

This seems more like a family DVD player because everything is cute and easy to use. When you press the display button, you get a semi-transparent menu on the side with icons that allow you to change all of the settings quickly. Pressing the subtitle, audio, or angle button brings up a similar mini display allowing quick change of settings.

Menus are always quick... sometimes too quick. On my old DVD player, menus which had looped animations would pause for a second or two before starting up again but on this player, the pause is extremely brief.

I find it to be a wonderful player with not too many outputs. However, it may be a disappointment to diehard DVD users with a super home theatre setup. While not a flaw, this player is not progressive scan. Also, optical audio output is not included.

Overall, I suggest this player to families who want to get their first DVD player. Retail is about $150 but it's a better choice than the $100 Apex. I also reccomend this to people who just want to watch DVDs. It does have the ability to play MP3 CDs but it's meant to play DVDs so the quality of the MP3 feature is low. If you wanna play MP3 CDs, get a CD player that plays those types of discs.

And I totally do not reccomend this to people who are just going to let this player sit on the shelf collecting dust! Get this player, rent a few discs, and enjoy it for a long time. Mine still has yet to collect any dust.

Strengths:
Plays CD-R media
Nifty marker feature
Family-friendly menus and OSD
Memory functions

Weaknesses:
No separate FF/RW button
Buttons take time getting used to
Loadup time a little slow for CDs

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba SD-1200