Very good value for the money, easy access to everything the DVD movie has to offer such as subtitles, angles type of sound output and special features, user friendly remote, the special zoom feature.

No Dolby Digital Decoder built in, kind of sluggish with startup when inserting disc.

I have had this DVD player for just over a month and I am actually quite satisfied with the player, because I got my DVD player around the beggining of May so I already had the upgrade. I haven't watch the Matrix on it yet but all the other movies that I watch on it ran smoothly. The only thing I am not happy about is the fact that the 2200 like the 2250 should come with a univesal remote.

Similar Products Used:

First personal DVD player

Plays Everything provided you get Latest Firmware

You Shouldn't have to get Latest Firmware

This player has had problems with earlier firmware. After upgrading from v. 1.2 to v. 1.4B that was available in the fall of 1999 most problems were solved. BUT NOT ALL! Further upgrading to v.1.6 (available April 2000) all problems that are detectible, at least by me, have been solved. All DVD's including Matrix play flawlessly.
If you buy this player do not even bother unpacking it. Just take out the accessories and ship it back to Zenith for the latest Firmware upgrade.
Call Zenith at 256-774-4025 tell them this player does not play DVD's properly, and ask that they mail you the UPS 2nd day air label so that you can send it back for the upgrade at no charge to you. It takes ten days to get it back.

The 3d Virtual surround sound is great and makes the player sound better than the Pioneer DV525 that does not have it.
However, the Pioneer has a dual laser pick-up and the Zenith does not. That results in smoother playing when the laser has to change layers on the disk. Momentary freezes or hesitations when changing layers are avoided.
I believe that for a primary player one should not buy a player without a Dual Laser pick-up. But then again if price is a consideration....

This is a great player for the price, HOWEVER,
Zenith should have upgraded or be upgrading ALL the players in their and their distributors' warehouses BEFORE it ships them to customers. In April 2000 they were shipping players with v. 1.2 firmware from their warehouses, even though they know about these problems. That makes for POOR CUSTOMER RELATIONS. And that's why the customer should send the player right back for the latest firmware upgrade.
If you do not mind this inconvenience and you get a good purchase price, especially with some rebate(s), you'll get a great value player.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV525, Raite AV711, Raite AV715

Zoom

Cheaply made (Lots of plastic), loads DVD's and audio cd's very slowly, pretty poor remote, very sensitive to scratched DVD's/CD's, skips on a lot of dvd's.

I don't particularly like this DVD player. I only paid $120, but still.. I expected better. I would imagine the firmware upgrade which is available for free would help, but it won't do anything about many of the above weaknesses. Spend a few extra bucks and get a panasonic or toshiba.

price

This is a great basic DVD player. Missing is the ability to play Video CDs and some special effect features but for a basic "watch movies at home " unit this will suffice. The remote is somewhat awkward to use.

Low Price,many features.

none so far

i received it today.first thing i checked
was "The Matrix".worked fine.slow mo and
special effects were great!i heard early
models were problems because of software
that is easily upgradable at a zenith service
center.i've been buying zenith products for
15 years,never had a problem.my Zenith vcr is
12 yrs old and still works great!

Well this is my first DVD player. I just purchased it tonight and watched my first DVD(Hollow Man) The movie played fine. Looked great and sounded great all the way through.

I found the remote to be quite natural. Of course I don't have a mental disability to operate a remote of it doesn't have 1 inch square buttons and is backlight with a spotlight. The packaged remote works just fine.

Of course I haven't had it that long but the one thing that I don't care for is the fact that you only get 4x or 16x zoom. It would be nicer to have 2x 4x 8x 16x etc. Basically a wider range as opposed too just those 2 choices.

So far it has been great. I will post another review in a few months when I have broken it in further.

Similar Products Used:

None

Zoom Feature

Quite intolerant of smudges and dust on disc.

First DVD player. The price was quite low for the time (1999). First DVD played in the machine skipped badly and this was a NIB machine and a NIB disc. Cleaning did not help on some DVD's it just skipped, the Matrix skipped and hung BADLY in several places and TRAFFIC was unwatchable. A newer DVD machine purchased in 2001 played all movies flawlessly and before finding this page I had banished it to CD duty only. I will get the firmware upgraded and see how it works then.
Thanks to those who provided the ph # and contact info!

Similar Products Used:

Various Toshiba and Sony

None. Any inherent strengths are rendered moot by it's abysimal performance.

Every known DVD problem.

I've owned a Panasonic A110 since it first hit the market and have had absolutely no problems with it. Some people do experience layer-change problems with the A110, but I suspect it is a quality control issue, not a design flaw. Mine was manufactured in Japan. I suspect the ones with problems were built elsewhere. Anyway, I wanted to give a DVD player as a X-Mas gift and a regional chain has been selling the Zenith DVD2200 for $200 for quite some time now. Last night they were having an after-hours sale so I knew I could get it for another 10% less. I checked with Zenith's web site and this seemed to be a decent entry level player. It has a 10-bit video DAC, 96/24 audio DAC, and even has a few extras like a zoom function and the ability to play CD-Rs and CD-RWs. For $180 how could I go wrong?

The store only offers a 7 day return policy so I thought I'de better make sure it worked properly. Good thing I did because this machine is a piece of shit! I connected it to my relatively good Panasonic Superflat direct-view via a $50 S-Video cable and the picture was full of snow! If that isn't bad enough it frooze, mistracked, jumped, and the audio went out of sync. And this was with FULL METAL JACKET, a full-screen, single-layer, Dolby Digital 1.0 disc! I unplugged it and tried again this morning with no improvement. Thinking I just got a dud, I intended to exchange it but when I got to the store I saw someone else had just returned one also. I got my money back. There is a CC nearby so I stopped in. They were selling the 2200 for $250! And they had 3 open-box returns of this model. It is beyond me how Zenith ever let this door-stop get to market, especially since Zenith is in financial straights. Forget the low price, don't even waste your time.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic A110

It has zoom, simple to use, good remote control, and inexpensive.

Doesn't play VCDs.

I'm very happy with this DVD player. I got a great deal on it. I have no regrets about the DVD player. I only wish that it could play VCDs or CD+Gs.

A lot of feature for the money

stutters sometimes for a few frames (not often)

Great player. Plays Matrix fine in contrary to other reviewers. My manufacture stamp (located in the back of the player) is June 1999 may have something to do with it. Zenith must have fixed most of the problems with the newer firmware. Picture and sound quality are similar to the JVC 501. It does stutter or skip a few frame once in a while on certain dvds but it is not reproducible. Considering I bought this for $99 from the infamous (and now pulled) Valueamerica promotion...it is a sweet deal.

Similar Products Used:

JVC 501