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Rating: 
Summary: flexible player but not reliable
Review: I bought this because it was cheap and I knew it had the "secret menus". This has worked pretty good, kind of noisy like the other DVD-ROM drive based players (has a PC DVD drive in it), but it will play anything, even my homemade VCDs I make on my Mac, that I burn on CDRs. Most brand name DVD players will read VCDs on CD-RW if at all. It has problems with layer changes, just a stutter on some discs.BUT, I bought it in August and only use it 2-3 times a week and it just died. Now I get to figure out how to get warranty service on this thing, oh boy!
Rating:
Summary: flexible player but not reliable
Review: I bought this because it was cheap and I knew it had the "secret menus". This has worked pretty good, kind of noisy like the other DVD-ROM drive based players (has a PC DVD drive in it), but it will play anything, even my homemade VCDs I make on my Mac, that I burn on CDRs. Most brand name DVD players will read VCDs on CD-RW if at all. It has problems with layer changes, just a stutter on some discs. BUT, I bought it in August and only use it 2-3 times a week and it just died. Now I get to figure out how to get warranty service on this thing, oh boy!
Rating:
Summary: Watch out for hidden VCR hazard!
Review: I bought this DVD player in April of 2001. I bought it mainly because at the time, I ordered a lot of movies from England. I hooked it up to my TV, had no problems. Well, then the batteries started going out quickly. But I have another remote that does this, too, so I started taking the batteries out when not in use. When I moved, I had to hook it up through the VCR. It worked fine until 2 weeks ago when the remote died. No battery changes bring it back. So I contacted SMC. The man I spoke to said they'd discovered two years ago that the video protection inside the DVD player, which apparently is meant to prevent recording DVDs onto VHS, sends a signal back to the remote, and it makes the remote not work. If it is that way for too long, the remote dies. He said they stopped making them in 1999, and sold their quantities as is w/no warranties to larger companies who may or may not have opted to give a warranty. When the remote worked, this was a great product. Just be careful. It will cost you ($$$) to get a new remote, if they happen to have any in stock. If the remote doesn't work, you cannot change regions or TV systems.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent player, even plays PAL DVDs
Review: I bought this player about 3 months ago. Good, decent quality, nothing extra-ordinaire, except: It will play region free AND it will play PAL DVDs on an NTSC TV!! Just follow these instructions: CODE CHANGE:1) Turn on player and open tray. 2) On the remote press 7, 7, Select. 3) A hidden menu will appear on your TV screen. Use the directional buttons to scroll down to "Country Code". Press SELECT on the remote and change the setting to the Region Code you need, 1 thru 6, however changing it to "0" does not make it code free. (NOTE: this player's code fix seems to be like the Ariston DVD-2000 code fix so I tried entering "13" for the Country Code and the player is indeed playing Region 1, Region 2 and Non-coded discs with that code. I do not have discs from other regions to test them however.) 4) After entering the desired number press SELECT. 5) From this menu you can change other settings, but to exit the menu just press RETURN. DISABLE MACROVISION: 1) Access hidden menu as described above. 2) Use directional buttons on remote to scroll down to "Macrovision". 3) The default setting is "1" which seems to mean "enabled". Press SELECT and then press the "0/10" button; this clears the setting. 4) Press SELECT and the setting changes to "0" which disables it. 5) Press RETURN to exit the menu
Rating:
Summary: Great multi-region player.
Review: This is a very versatile multi-region DVD player that also plays VCD's and CD-R/RW's. It also plays back PAL system VCD's and DVD's on NTSC TV's. It has a full function remote control. The only drawback is that there is a visible jitter while moving from one layer to another during the playback of playing multi-layered DVD's.
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