After One year of service....
Written: Mar 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Loads of options, no movie glitches
Cons: Will not play CD-R or RW disks, unit is a year old now
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| lpmiller's Full Review: Philips DVD815AT DVD Player |
I've had the 815AT player for one year now, and while it annoys me to NO end that DVD players are going for 150 bucks now (sucks being an early adopter, deal with it Miller!!) at the time, it was the cheapest bang for the buck. It also was the first of the Generation 2 toshibia drives, which are much more reliable then the 2000 series.
One advantage it had was the inclusion of both Dolby digital and DTS support, bitstream or PCM hookups, zoom, multiangle, a 3d sound option (which near as I can tell, does nothing), S-Video - at the time, a loaded player for being on the low end side.
Picture quality for me has been good, though like any DVD player, you really need to futz with contrast and sharpness settings on your TV to get it just right. Mines mated to a Phillips 25 incher, and my Pioneer tuner, and everyone gets along just fine. I have alot of interference in my apartment, so I was forced to use Monster cables to clean things up - I do not believe it is the fault of the player in anyway. I personally cannot detect a picture difference between this unit and say, a higher end Sony or Pioneer unit - your visuals are more limited to your TV and hookups then anything else.
Sound quality - when paired with a decent tuner, mind you - is superb. CD's also play well, though this unit will not play CD-R or RW media at all, and is finiky about finger prints.
The remote is fully functional, though the buttons are tiny and it is easy to hit the wrong function. I would also like to know who the Einstien was that put the Open/Close button on there - I'm lazy, but I don't see myself going for the 3 pointer trying to get Blade to play!
It has held up well over the past year, and looks to be good to go for a few more. It has not suffered any problems with DVD's like Blade, the Matrix - movies known to choke on some players, due to how the firmware reads the DVD-ROM content. Layer switching is usually smooth, and the unit runs quiet.
You'll still see it in a few stores, but mostly it's an Ebay item now. On the used market, I wouldn't pay more then 150 for it - the cheap no name brands out there now can serve you well, and tend to have most if not all of these functions. But if you do find a good deal on this player, by all means go for it, I have always had good luck with Phillips!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lpmiller
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Location: Plymouth, MN
Reviews written: 100
Trusted by: 93 members
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