A chunky player to fit in all the features!? (Alba DVD 103)

Member Name: AndreBoyle

Product:	Alba DVD 103
Date:	05/02/03 (482 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: MP3 playback, Multi-region, Video & Audio Quality

Disadvantages: Size of unit

I've had my Alba DVD-103 for about 2 and a bit years now. It came free with my dreamcast package at the time from Toys'R'Us and was replacing my super small Sharp player which had developed a fault.

I didn't turn my nose up ata free DVD player, no sir-eee. But I didn't expect to be this pleased with the results. The player itself is a nice burnished silver affair and is chunkier than you'd expect from a player these days. However this player has something missing ont he cheaper players now-a-days, an LCD info panel at the front. A nice feature of this is that it has a number of brightness settings all set using the remote control.

The player has the usual list of connectors around the rear :-

. RGB Scart
. Phono output
. Coax dolby digital
. SPDIF
. Power cable

Personally I hooked it up to my 32" Philips TV and Videologic Digi-theatre dolby digital system. The video quality is excellent and the audio, as you'd expect, is nice and rich because it's a raw stream going to my external decoder. Even when the audio is going through my TV its pretty meaty.

Unlike many more expensive players the Alba has nice audio CD representation and keeps up well with some Sony and JVC players I've listened to. Sure it's not the best, but it's far from it on price.

Other nice features of tis player are the multi-region supprt, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+r, DVD+RW and MP3 playback that I've found no-end of use especially since I make my own DVD movies at home. (Digital camcorder, Disneyand Paris and a DVD burner is an excellent combination I'd recommend to anyone :) ).

Summary: