RCA DRC220N DVD Player
When it works, it's average
It has recently come to my attention that I am not the only person experiencing laser pick-up problems with this player. For the less technical, pick-up problems are when the laser cannot properly read the contents of discs. I'm a pretty big perfectionist about the condition of discs, most of mine are in as new condition, so that isn't the problem. This only made things worse however, when this player started scratching discs. The pick-up problems mean that the picture on screen freezes every so often for about 9 seconds. ... <br />To cut to the point: 5 month old player is having problems reading discs.<br />Video-CD playback also isn't exactly fantastic. Since VCDs only have a vertical resolution of 240 pixels (NTSC), they don't have enough lines to fill the full resolution of a TV set. Most [higher end] players fix this problem by somehow stretching the image to the full TV display. This player doesn't stretch it as such. Well, it gives that effect, but it just shows every line twice. The result is a picture that jumps up and down on the screen and is plain annoying. <br />To cut to the point: Jumpy picture on freeze frames and VCD playback.<br />The player also sells itself as CD-R compatible. This is true, it DOES run CD-R, however when playing VCD movies from CD-R, you basically have to watch the whole thing through without pausing or rewinding. Rewinding and fast-forwarding have problems. Like most features of the player, they do work, just not very well. They tend to lock the player up, meaning you'll have to power off and on again, and skip back to where you were on the disc. But, like I just said, the fast forwarding and rewinding don't work very well at all, meaning you're stuck.<br />Once you've paused the disc, pressing play to unpause it will start the sound playing a little before the picture starts to run again. It's not too noticeable at first but eventually the sound and picture will be totally out of sync like a Godzilla movie. <br />To cut to thepoint: Extremely error-ridden Video CD capabilities, even although the player pitches itself as VCD compatible.<br />As an added bonus, it also scratches discs (as previously mentioned), and the menus are slow and clunky to navigate with the big, fat remote.<br />One good thing about the player though, is that it can be made to play back all region discs without any problems. Simply press 1670, Power to unlock the player. (It is my belief that a product sold as a \\"DVD Player\\" should play ALL DVDs).