Sony DVP NS315 - DVD player
Nice Low-Endish Player
I didn't really have any intention of replacing my old JVC XV-501 DVD player - despite being several years old, the size of a truck and generating enough heat to keep a home snug and warm during even a Wisconsin winter, I had yet to encounter anything it couldn't play and it had, for its age, a pretty decent feature set.<br />However, then along came the Superdrive in my PowerMac and suddenly I could create my own DVD-Rs.  Except the XV-501 couldn't play them.  Disaster!<br />My mission - to find a DVD player that was cheap (as in non-expensive) rather than cheap (as in you've never heard of the manufacturer, the name on the box and the name on the casing don't match and the thing burns your house down after six months).<br />The DVP-NS315 fit the bill perfectly.  It's very reasonably priced, downright petite (less than half the height of the player it replaced) and it manages to be no-frills without leaving anything important out.  I've got it hooked up via S-Video and RCA audio, but when the time comes for my trusty Trinitron to give way to something large, flat and expensive, it's got all the necessary bits round the back to hook it up to.<br />If it's got any flaws at all, it's in the slightly bizarre remote design, and the matching slightly bizarre menu system.  They're not broken or bad, just...different.<br />In short, a nice little player for someone who, like me, wants to watch DVDs but has no particular need to hook it into a home theatre system that costs as much as a car.  Plus, of course, it plays DVD-Rs just fine, so I can marvel at my mediocre iDVD creations.