IMPORTANT UPDATE (6th December ) - BUYERS BEWARE! (Proline 1000 DVD)

Member Name: catatonic

Product:	Proline 1000 DVD
Date:	17/07/00 (362 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: inexpensive and not region locked!

Disadvantages: it's gold!!!!

UPDATED 25th NOVEMBER

I have just encountered a problem with the Proline 1000 - it does NOT play the second Gladiator disk at all! This also appears to be causing problems with the Wharfdale 750 and earlier Grundig models - these machines share the Proline's chip. At the moment I can find no further information on this but have compared notes with several people on dvd forums who are also experiencing the same problem. I shall update this opinion further just as soon as I know more.

FURTHER UPDATE 28th NOVEMBER

I spoke with a member of staff at Woolworths today and they told me that they have not received a product recall notice but if I am having problems are willing to refund my money provided the player is returned in original packaging and I have the receipt. I have decided to return mine as I'm unwilling to take the chance that this is a one off problem. For those of you that are not so lucky, I have spoken to people who purchased their players through Comet!, there are a few tricks that you can try to get this dvd to play. As the universal logo comes up you can stop the disk and use the goto button to manually enter the disks extra features - numbers 02, 03, and 10 still cause the player to freeze up but the others sometimes work. Thanks to Reficul as well who posted a reply on this opinion saying that leaving it for a few minutes allows the menu to load - this did work for me but my player then froze up again and I was unable to access the features. If I obtain any more info on this problem I'll update again - Good luck!

UPDATED 6th DECEMBER

My player has now been exchanged for a full refund through Woolworths who are aware of the problem. This player is no longer available to buy new and the following opinion should only be read in view to purchasing second hand - please note that it was written before the problem with the Gladiator disk. As far as I am aware this is the only problem with this player.
The Proline 1000 has now been replaced with the Proline 2000 and brave creature that I am ( well if it goes wrong I can always get another replacement! ) I have now invested my cash in the newer model ( see seperate opinion )


ORIGINAL OPINION.

Well the Proline DVD 1000 is my first dooyoo purchase! Not only did I choose it after reading the reviews on here but I also paid for it with my first dooyoo cheque!!! How cool is that??

The important thing to remember with this player is that it's not the original model!!!! The only bad review on here is refurring to the older model - which WAS a major balls up!!! ( It had problems playing a few disks )

Aesthetically this player was a big no no for me!!! I've never liked gold and this player is completely gold - which I think looks a bit tacky! having said that it didn't look quite so bad when I got it home - my lighting is a bit more subtle than Wooly's so maybe that helps!

I actually read a really good review of this dvd player in home cinema choice ( you can read it online at www.homecinemachoice.com ) which gives you all the technical stuff, in summary the only real criticism they had was with the remote - which they considered fiddly.... fortunately I'm obviously very intelligent ( big smug grin!! ) because I found it very easy to use. The buttons on the remote are fairly small but neither I nor my boy friend found that a problem.

Obviously this is an entry level dvd player - so it's not going to be the best on the market! But if you put it alongside other entry level dvd players it holds it's own pretty well.

One minor detail to consider is that if you want to get the benefit of the sound you need to run it through an amp and speakers - I didn't know this!! My TV is currently being mended and the speakers on my portable aren't up to much! This doesn't pose a major problem though because if you have a decent stere
o you can run it through that. What's more the instruction booklet is excellent, it shows you how to connect all the wires whilst keeping things simple enough for complete techno-phobes like me!!

This player has one major bonus feature that puts it head and shoulders above other players! It's not region locked! I don't know about you but if you're counting the pennies then you probably don't want to be spending £30 on dvd's!! With this player all you have to do is insert a region 1 disk, type 0,1,2,3 and then press 'play' on the handset. This is a major advantage - it doesn't have a 25 times limit like the phillips and doesn't require technical knowledge or chipping! Most disks come out in America first and are far cheaper to import ( even taking shiping into consideration )

I'm really pleased with this player. It's easy to use, has a number of fun features to play about with i.e zoom, two-speed slow mo' and picture search and multi-aspect ratios, and even the colour scheme is beginning to grow on me! This player is currently on sale in Comet and Woolworths for £150 - an absolute bargain for skint people like myself!!!

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