Rating: Summary: does not function properly Review: it has cool features...but good luck getting your disc into the tray to utilize them...I received a GE dvd player (DGE100n) as a gift and had to take it back for exchange because the tray was failing to open/close for me, no matter if the remote or the button on the unit face were used. Was able to "trick" it to open by holding down power and open buttons simultaneously as soon as it powered up, and finally were able to play a DVD for the first time! Well...in the middle of the movie, the phone rang and we pushed pause. When we came back to it 5 minutes later, it was frozen. We could not get it to resume, stop, or even eject the disc! So we ended up having to unplug the unit from the wall and tinkering to "trick" it again to open so I could just get my DVD back out! We exchanged it last night at Wally mart for another DGE100N, brought it home, plugged it in and guess what: Similar problems! Except that in order to get the tray to open on THIS different unit...pressing the play/rewind simultaneously with the open button works after powering it on/off every 3rd or 4th try. I've tried it in different sockets around the house and ruled that out as a potential cause as all my other electronics have all worked just fine over the years. Wally mart will not let me exchange it toward another unit...so looks like I'm stuck with exchanging it for the same model...again and again in hopes I'll finally find one that works right out of the box!? Gee, do YOU think this quality GE unit will last me for years and years??
Rating: Summary: Common Problems Review: It looks like there is a common bug on the chip in this machine. I bought a DGE100NA at Circuit City so I could play a VCD a friend sent me - and because the Apex DVD player I had could not read the VCD, even though it was supposed to be able to. The GE was able to play the VCD. This DVD player does NOT resume properly from Pause. But I've found a work-around. When you are ready to resume, press the Pause button and immediately press Stop. Then press play and the movie will USUALLY start from the place where you paused. If you try to resume by just pressing Pause, the unit locks up, and as the others have said, the ONLY way to get it to re-start is to pull the power plug - even the Power On/Off button is frozen. The fact that it sometimes also randomly starts movies in the middle is another annoyance. This unit will PLAY a DVD, but it is sadly lacking when it comes to reliable functionality.
Rating: Summary: Decent video, great price. Rated down for MP3 handling. Review: Purchased product at [store]. I am using this unit with an eight year old 31" dirct view TV made by Mitsubishi (4:3, no high def). Exterior appearance of the DVD player is very clean. Remote control lacks backlight, but is well laid out and comfortable to hold. Good video quality, especially at [money] price point. Very impressive reading of MP3 and JPEG files on homemade CD-R's. This machine was able to read discs that several Toshiba, Philips anad Panasonic units were unable to read. However, the user interface for non-DVD features is disappointing: -- Unit only displays the first 11 characters of MP3 and JPEG files. Since most of my files names have 40 characters or more -- they include the artist and song title -- this restriction made it difficult for me to navigate my files. -- Unit does not support 'random play' or 'play lists'. This makes the unit inflexible during parties or for background music. -- When you want to play, say, song 24, you must press 0-2-4 on the remote. If you press 2-4, the unit plays song 2, then jumps to song 4. This operation frustrated me. This unit can also display JPEG files. I found this feature exciting; it let me see pictures taken with my digital camera on my TV (after I burned them to a CD, of course). High resolution files loaded quickly, but they flickered a bit on my screen. I don't know if this was due to the DVD player or my TV or my interconnects (S-Video). Like MP3 files, JPEG file names are restricted to 11 characters. This was less of an issue for me, though. Generally I view images as a slide show without jumping from picture to picture. My opinion: if you only want to watch movies and have a non-HD setup, this machine offers great value and good performance. If you demand flexible audio controls or have a large collection of homemade MP3 discs, this user interface on this unit is limiting.
Rating: Summary: Decent video, great price. Rated down for MP3 handling. Review: Purchased product at [store]. I am using this unit with an eight year old 31" dirct view TV made by Mitsubishi (4:3, no high def). Exterior appearance of the DVD player is very clean. Remote control lacks backlight, but is well laid out and comfortable to hold. Good video quality, especially at [money] price point. Very impressive reading of MP3 and JPEG files on homemade CD-R's. This machine was able to read discs that several Toshiba, Philips anad Panasonic units were unable to read. However, the user interface for non-DVD features is disappointing: -- Unit only displays the first 11 characters of MP3 and JPEG files. Since most of my files names have 40 characters or more -- they include the artist and song title -- this restriction made it difficult for me to navigate my files. -- Unit does not support 'random play' or 'play lists'. This makes the unit inflexible during parties or for background music. -- When you want to play, say, song 24, you must press 0-2-4 on the remote. If you press 2-4, the unit plays song 2, then jumps to song 4. This operation frustrated me. This unit can also display JPEG files. I found this feature exciting; it let me see pictures taken with my digital camera on my TV (after I burned them to a CD, of course). High resolution files loaded quickly, but they flickered a bit on my screen. I don't know if this was due to the DVD player or my TV or my interconnects (S-Video). Like MP3 files, JPEG file names are restricted to 11 characters. This was less of an issue for me, though. Generally I view images as a slide show without jumping from picture to picture. My opinion: if you only want to watch movies and have a non-HD setup, this machine offers great value and good performance. If you demand flexible audio controls or have a large collection of homemade MP3 discs, this user interface on this unit is limiting.
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