Harman Kardon DVD 22 Progressive-Scan DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic DVD Player
Review: Beautiful industrial design, perfectly matches the HK receiver it sits on top of. Plays every disc like a dream... haven't seen a single skip or even an ugly screen artifact common with dirty or scratched discs. I wasn't sure it would be worth the price, but now that I have it, there are no regrets. What more can I say?

Rating:
Summary: Excellent audio & video quality. Typical H/K quality build.
Review: I cant believe there is that much of a difference in DVD players. So far the HK DVD22 has performed above my expectation. Its video and audio quality is stellar. The zoom feature lets you zoom up to 5x on still and motion pictures with great quality. My only gripe is the small remote. The remote has alot of small buttons that are hard to read in low light. It is no big deal because I have a Sony RM3100 comander touchscreen master remote so the HK remote goes in the cabinet with all the rest.
Quality and price you cant beat the HK DVD22. I paid around $175.00. It looks cool too, with its silver and blue lights.
I highly recomend it.

Rating:
Summary: Good DVD player, if it wasn't for the digital audio output
Review: Pros:
Beautiful picture, beautiful color, flawless sound--has built in Wolfson audio processors! If you don't mind not having HD upconversion, and don't need to play SACD's, this is a fantastic DVD player. Built in DTS and Dolby decoding processors are the best I've heard on any DVD player yet; even over Denon, Sony, Samsung, Zenith, and Panasonic. The closest I've seen comparable to this DVD player for the same price is the Toshiba S 5970.

Cons:
No HD upconversion--even though the picture is virtually flawless. HK has reported numerous issues w this DVD player's digital optical outputs (which I have had to return 2 in as many months) and is discontinuing it to concentrate on their new DVD31 (which does play SACD's and HDCD's, where this model does not).


Rating:
Summary: Useless remote control- good sound and picture
Review: the Harman/Kardon DVD 22 is generally a step above the run-of-the-mill players without becoming rediculous in price. It uses pixel-by-pixel - rather than line-based processing to produce a noticeably better image in progressive scan. It does have a stunning good picture.

It has been reported on some websites that there are "issues" with the optical output. I have not encountered this since I use the coax output and analog output. Audio analog out is very, very good.

The machine is hampered by truly lousy remote control. A bunch of white buttons. Above the buttons, in grey letters (almost impossible to see and blending into the background) are the names of the controls. Yes, the remote is backlighting, but that does little good since it just illuminates the white buttons, NOT the lettering which explains what the buttons are for. all this could be acceptable if the layout were "normal". But it isn't. The "pause button", for example, is nowhere near the "play" button. I found the remote impossible to live with.

My Pioneer VSX 1014 receiver (new model) did not have the controls for the H/K built in, so I had the program the Pioneer remote with the H/K codes. Finally, I was able to throw the H/K remote in some drawer some where, hopefully not to be seen again.