Choosing a DVD player is as simple or hard as you want to make it. Either you can go for the price and availability, or you can get one to cater for your individual needs; i.e., whether you want to be able to play discs from other countries (a non-region or multi-region player), or whether you want to have different camera angles or zoom facilities, etc.

When my husband said that we couldn't live without a DVD player in the house, my first thoughts were a) Why do we need one? b) Can we afford one? He convinced me that we could afford it and that I would wonder what I had ever done without one. So, we consulted various Consumer reviews and catalogues from retailers to make our choice.

This done, we went to our local branch of Comet, in Chesterfield town centre, to see what offers they had. We left half an hour later, proudly clutching our new Proline 1000 DVD player. It had been reviewed favourably, was reasonably priced (it cost about £100) and had won a couple of consumer awards. My husband quickly connected it to the television set and we sat down to watch a film we had borrowed from our local library.

Before I relate our experiences and findings I should first provide the technically minded among you with the system details.

PROLINE 1000 DVD PLAYER

FEATURES: DVD/VCD/Video CD playback. Resume play option. Dynamic range compression. Zoom mode. Repeat play. Parental lock. Two speed. Slow motion. One Scart (RGB/ composite compatible. S-video (an alternative to Scart) mini-DIM socket. Optical and coaxial digital output. 96Khz 24 bit DAC. Multi-language support. On screen display.

DIMENSIONS: 430 (W) x 300 (D) x 85 (H) mm

WEIGHT: 4.2kg.

AWARDS: What TV & Video award 2000. Best Budget DVD Player winner.

Right, glad that's over with. Most of that means nothing to me, but it does to some people and it says all this on the box and in the reviews. I'm not sure about the cur
rent price, ours was about £150 pounds at the time, but prices and offers are changing all the time. One other selling point was that it was a nice gold colour and shiny things have always appealed to me!

Generally I was quite pleased with its performance, it did what it was supposed to do and the picture quality was good too. It was simple to understand and the remote control, though not remarkable, was user-friendly. I was particularly impressed by the repeat and zoom functions. So up until now this is quite a positive opinion and it seems as though I am recommending this product.

It was only when we came to eject the disc that the problems began. The tray opened but, to our shock and dismay, there was no DVD! It had become trapped inside the machine and my husband had to remove it using his fingers. We thought that maybe we hadn't put the disc in correctly so we tried it again and the same thing happened, meaning the old fingers in the tray routine again! This was dangerous, painful and not to be recommended; but it had to be done before we could return the player to Comet.

When we returned it to the shop we were told that we had probably "seated" the DVD incorrectly or that we had played the disc too long and it had got too warm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the point of watching the film is to see it all, not watch a bit, let the player cool down for a bit and then watch some more! Woe betide anyone who wants to watch Titanic!

He asked if we would like a replacement Proline machine, but we declined. It might just have been a fault with that particular machine but we didn't want to risk it. We are now very happy with our Toshiba DVD player and have given Proline a wide berth from now on.

So, I am afraid I will not be recommending the Proline 1000 DVD player to other buyers. My bad experience has put me off and meant that I could not trust the same thing to happen again. It may just be a one
off, but it is a potential fault that people should be aware of when choosing a product. The cheapest is not always the best option and it did damage one of the DVDs quite badly.