CyberHome CH-DVD 300S

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Offering a downright amazing feature set for such an affordable price, Cyber Home's compact CH-DVD 300S makes a rich and promising starter player. You get everything from top-of-the-line progressive-scan component-video outputs to built-in MP3 decoding, JPEG image viewing, and 3:2 pulldown for viewing movies in their native frame rates.

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the CH-DVD 300S stands ready to deliver the full potential of DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, providing higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. Composite- and S-video outputs bring compatibility with nearly any television.

With 3:2 pulldown support, the player corrects for a common distortion in DVDs when 24 frames-per-second movies make the leap to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown removes the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.
A set of multichannel analog-audio outputs routes decoded Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround signals to your audio/video receiver. Dolby Digital and DTS signals can also be channeled through the player's digital-audio outputs (one each of RCA coaxial and optical) for direct connection to a surround-featured AV receiver. The player has left/right analog audio outputs, too.

The CH-DVD 300S is compatible with DVD-R/-RW and DVD+R/+RW media, handling just about any recordable disc you give it. It can even play both PAL- and NTSC-formatted discs, handy when viewing non-region-specific European discs. Other features include motion zoom, screen saver, last-disc resume, and repeat play.
Amazon.com Product Description

What's in the Box
DVD player, AC power cord, multi-function remote control, remote batteries, and a composite-video/stereo analog-audio interconnect.

From the Manufacturer
The CH-DVD 300 is a small-footprint, ultra-compact DVD Player for home theater. While affordably priced, this unit has some of the most advanced DVD features available, including Progressive Scan, Last Memory function, JPG/MP3 and MPEG playback, Digital Audio outputs and more!
With the CH-DVD 300, you can get started watching today's hottest DVD movies with superb video quality and in full surround sound. It's a perfect first DVD player, or as an additional unit for growing families

CyberHome CH-DVD 300S

Price

Test Report

CyberHome CH-DVD 300S

Much Better Than Expected For the Price, April 28, 2005 Reviewer: John D. Knox (New York City) - Bought this unit for our store to use when the company's DVD player conked out and it was taking forever for them to replace it. Picked it up at Radio Shack 7 months ago. It still works great. Occasionally, it won't load a DVD the first time you put it in (I'm thinking this is as much a problem with some DVDs as it is with the player), but will boot it on the second load. That said, we put 5-7 DVDs through this thing a day to view, and this puppy keeps on kicking.

In a nutshell, if you're looking for a dependable player to use before you want to lay out some serious cash for that unit you'll be using for years OR a good second player OR a an inexpensive gift that works better than the money you paid for it, then this is the one to buy.

Poor and Time Degrading Performance, April 18, 2005 Reviewer: J. Ellis (Houston, TX) -
I've purchased two of the Cyberhome DVD-300 players in 24 months. The first one performed acceptably for approx. 18 months, then began to produce erratic/frozen video feed which lead to purchase of second unit. The second unit's out-of-the-box performance never equaled the first unit's. Within the first month of use it was producing the same erratic/frozen video feed - even from brand new dvd's! I will never again waste money on any cyberhome product. Please be aware that the bargain you believe you are buying isn't that great when you have to replace it every 12-18 months......

Mine lasted 16 months!, March 29, 2005 Reviewer: M. L. Acsbok -
I was happy enough with this 'disposable' DVD player, until it busted. I bought it a little over a year ago and am now shopping for a replacement. This time I'll spend the extra ten or twenty bucks for one that might last longer.

Nice while it lasted, March 27, 2005 Reviewer: Jonathan Monaco "cheesegod" (Hicksville, NY United States) -
This DVD player was great but the laser died out after a couple of months.

As far as features go this was great. It plays mpegs & jpegs right off of burned discs. I was even able to play mp3s off a burnt dvd, many players will on play off of regular cds. It was also region free and played PAL discs with no trouble at all.

The picture quality defenitly was subpar. But for $40, you can't complain.

I guess it was only built to last 6 months....., March 22, 2005 Reviewer: A. Kost (St Louis, MO USA) - 6 1/2 months and it stopped working completely. I used it about once a month so I got 6 or 7 good uses out of it. I guess that's not bad for a disposable dvd player that was only $40....wait....it doesn't say disposable anywhere on the packaging. Well, it's been 4 months since I e-mailed customer support but maybe they're still gettting back to me.....

Akai in My Eye, March 20, 2005 Reviewer: A Pohick (near Crystal City) - The hidden menu "secrets" suggest that this comes from the same Chinese manufacturer of the Akai. These contraptions are cheap but fair valued. In response to an earlier review about the unit's eventually hanging up, they eventually will. The little tinker toy type motor spinning at a gazillion rpms needs additional lubrication. A slathering of WD-40 into a frozen motor has kept an Akai DVD200BL working fine to this day. Okay, the oil flew in all directions, but the laser lense cleaner and DVD wipes polished off that mess. One has to open the cabinet to do this and loosen the driver, but no disconnection of electrical/tronic parts has to occur. As long as the cabinet is open, a dab of petroleum jelly on the slower moving, plastic parts makes for a quiet machine. Jellying the metal ways for the laser lense retards its movement. If resistance to leave well enough alone proves futile, just touch the light weight oil to the bars. Then close up the cabinet and plug it back in. You did remember to unplug it, right?

Three stars, maybe three and a quarter--a good deal.

Great value, March 19, 2005 Reviewer: Sanjay Kaluskar (Menlo Park, CA) -
I was not quite sure what to expect, when I bought this DVD
player, because of some of the negative reviews. I finally bought it because of the price & features and also because every product seems to have negative reviews.

The player has exceeded my expectations, and I haven't experienced any of the problems mentioned by other people. It works, and so far it has played everything I put in - DVDs, VCDs, CDs, DVD-Rs, ... Some of the discussion on the UI such as the remote control, etc. seems rather academic.

Waste of money, March 19, 2005 Reviewer: Rahul Kulkarni -
This product is a waste of money! I bought it August last. It worked fine for 2-3 months. Then it started hanging. It hangs utterly any time - its almost random. It doesn't reply to any button presses, not even power off and on!

I contacted the Cyberhome Customer Support. They charge about $40 as labour charges to repair it!! Plus the logistics charges to send the unit to them! This is hopeless!! I can go and buy another DVD player in the same money!!

In summary, DON'T buy this.

this machine will die, don't buy it, March 17, 2005 Reviewer: wally j (concord, n.h.) - See all my reviewsI bought this machine at Target, because it was cheap.
It worked fine for 6 months. Then it broke.
Don't bother with this machine. It's terrible.

Good for the Sake of Having a DVD Player, March 6, 2005 Reviewer: Jen A. V. (New York City, USA) - See all my reviewsI was a little nervous about purchasing this item because of all the bad reviews, but in my experience, the product works fine. The reason why I bought this is that I knew that my sister wanted a DVD player, but I knew she wouldn't be using it every day. If you're looking for something that's going to constantly be used, you may want to consider doing more DVD player hunting before you purchase this one. My sister has had no problems with it overheating or eating her DVDs (if it does this, there is an emergency slot I believe to retrieve the DVD); you just have to keep the room it's in well-ventilated like you'd do for any of your electronic devices. Also, if you accidentally lose or break the remote control, just go to the website to order a new one or if you have any problems with your DVD player go there as well (www.cyberhome.com). If you're giving this to somebody as a gift, make sure you test it out first; that way if it's dead on arrival as some some people in the reviews have stated, you can easily return it and get refunded. Overall, my sister is completely satisfied with how the DVD player works. Only once did the DVD pause a little bit, but it wasn't even that bad and to be honest with you, I have a DVD/VHS player by Panasonic and once in a while it does the same thing.

false start, but so far second time is good, March 29, 2004 Reviewer: An electronics fan I had similar problems as other reviewers with the first unit I bought. It wouldn't play every DVD, it was very noisy on some discs and not others, etc. I returned this unit to the store and exchanged it. For the low price I figured I'd give this product one replacement chance. My second unit is fine. The movie that wouldn't play in the first unit, plays perfectly in the second. The picture is clear, color is great, no skipping, no problems. Also the second unit makes absolutely no noise when the DVD is playing-if I were to turn off the TV during DVD playback-you would have no idea the DVD player was running. The model seems to have a major consistancy problem. It simply appears to be a matter of did you get a good or bad one.

Decent DVD player, January 19, 2004 Reviewer: CJU "cj-wsox" (Merrillville, IN USA) - Got this about a month ago and help out on my review to test it out..When I first got it I didn't realize it was so small....may have been looking at the bigger version...but no matter...small is nice. The first couple DVDs didn't play...when trying to read it a "?" appears...That can be frusturating..and then the tray wouldn't open to let me get the disc out! I had to "tap" it on the sides a couple times for it to pop open...the first fews weeks some DVDs didn't read or play for some reason...and some did..
My guess the DVD has to be in pristine condition(no scratches or smudges of any kind on the DVD) or it won't play..or it seems.
So give it a nice cleaning before hand for better luck...
It's a bit noisy though, but I usually have the TV loud, so it drowns it out..:)
I haven't tried playing any Cd's or or CD-Rs or any jpeg Cd's though..just use it for DVDs
So to conclude...doesn't always play certain DVDs..for reasons that it may not be in good condition or whatever...I have a better, more expensive DVD player in the living room that seems to ignore scratches and whatnot...cause it's more powerful...
But what do ya expect on a 50 dollar DVD player? :)
A bit noisy at times...but over time you'll be able to ignore it..
It's very small, so that means portability..can take it any where..probably can fit it in a purse..:0
just needs a TV with a/v jacks..and plug it in..that's nice
But be warned, if the DVD player can't read the disc, it may get stuck...if so, I just lightly tap in on the sides a few times until it opens..worked every time for me.
And also there may be a feature to turn off the region code, so you can make it region free..I've done that, but haven't tried any over seas DVDs to see if it works though.
But overall, when the DVDs do play the picture is nice, haven't seen any poor picture quality up to this point of any of the 12 DVD movies I've seen in it so far...
So for being only 50 bucks(I paid 46 dollars), and its compact size..it's a pretty decent buy for your bedroom TV or whatever...
Hope I didn't ramble on to much...lol

Excellent Unit, Low Price, and Multi-Region Capability!, July 30, 2004 Reviewer: Art (Minneapolis, MN) - Don't be frightened by the small-name brand and tiny size. This player works just fine. Good picture and good performance. I bought mine primarily because it can be programmed to play discs from other regions than Region 1 (North America's DVD region, for those who do not pay attention to such things.) It does this to perfection! I have had no problem with color shifts or distortion with PAL discs on my NTSC television, but be sure that you use the manual when you go through the "Setup" menu - you will need to make sure your player is set to NTSC, not PAL, if you live in North America and want PAL discs to play properly on your NTSC set.

Not familiar with the PAL/NTSC thing? It's like this - if an American buys a DVD from England, for example, he or she will find that it will not play in the average North American Region 1, NTSC DVD player because in England, DVDs and players are Region 2 and PAL TV format (North America has NTSC format TV broadcasts). They are incompatible and will not play. This player will play both PAL and NTSC DVDs, and will play them from any region!

There is one minor caveat - there are no instructions as to how to change regions included with the player (but can be found with an internet search).

Not to worry, though - this is how you do it:
1. With no disc in the tray, push "Menu" "1" "9" (ignoring the "No" symbol that appears on the upper left-hand corner of the screen).
2. A menu will appear that shows in highlight the region it is set to (almost certainly Region 1). Push the "Enter" button and the region number will change. You can set it to any region (1 through 6) or to Region 0, which means it will play PAL or NTSC DVDs from all 6 DVD regions!
3. Push the "Open/Close" button to close the menu, and you're done!

This DVD Player is Region Free !!!, October 12, 2004 Reviewer: D. Christen "dan_chris" (Rushville, IN United States) - When it comes to the price/value ratio, it doesn't get much better than this item. For a little more than 30 bucks you get a region free DVD player ! (Yes, you can play any DVD from any country on this machine.... however, it is not mentioned in the user manual. All you need to do is press 'menu' '1' '9' and select region code 0).
The picture quality is really good. I have a 500 dollar Philips DVD player but the difference to this 30 dollar machine is almost non existent. The size of the player is a big plus as well. It's nice and small and can easily be moved from one location to another. It is great in combination with a DVD recorder - especially, since it has an S-Video output. Also, it plays all DVD formats (including DVD+RW or DVD-R etc.). The voltage is variable from 110 V to 220 V which is great, if you want to use it in Europe as well. You can chose NTSC or PAL as output - again, this makes this player truly international.

awesome product, December 11, 2004 Reviewer: A. Dabrowiecki - I've had this cd player for a few months and so far it has worked wonderfully. Actually, I was so impressed with it's performance that I went out and bought another one for a gift. It is loaded with features that other top band name dvd players lack, especially the multiple region playing capability. It is so compact and light that it will disappear in your room. For someone that's constantly on the move (like me), it's the ideal size. I love this thing and for the price it costs, it doesn't get any better than this. If you want to waste money on other overrated "top" brands, go ahead, I'll stick with CyberHome.

Fantabulous!, December 9, 2004 Reviewer: Joseph Villapaz (USA) - Some people had some issues but I think if you get one that has a recent production date then the problems may have been resolved. The region free, to region 0, hack works and plays my region 3 DVDs beautifully. Region 1 works just as well. I don't have other regions so I can't test if they work. Keeping the player in a cool spot and not on top of another device should eliminate any heat issues. The only small issue is the eject is not that fast. However, the only thing that really matters is it plays what I want well. Besides, the price is great for a "starter" player anyway and if it doesn't work for you it isn't much of a hit to return it for an exchange.