Cheap and cheerful - if it breaks, buy another one! (Yamada DVDSlim-5520)

Member Name: sophiefour

Product:	Yamada DVDSlim-5520
Date:	18/07/05 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, looks good, multi-region

Disadvantages: Blindingly bright standby button!

I have to admit that one of the main reasons I bought this DVD player over any of the other similarly priced ones, was that I mistakenly thought it was made by Yamaha (rather than Yamada, who I had never heard of at the time)! However, I have been using it happily for well over a year now and it's still going strong. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to spend a lot of money or who doesn't want dozens of fancy features.

It looks pretty stylish for something so cheap (I paid £35 for mine), solid and well made, too. It was very easy to set up, is multi-region, and plays a whole range of other discs in addition to DVDs (see tech spec). I have noticed that it takes a little while to load a disc, but I'm only talking about 10-15 seconds or so. Not a huge problem!

The sound and picture quality is very good, if not excellent, for such a cheap player. It compares very well to DVD players of 5 times the price! It has frozen for a few seconds and then jumped forward while playing some films, but I think that has had more to do with the discs being dirty than with the machine itself as they have all played without any problems after taking them out, wiping the back and putting them back in again.

As the player itself only has a few buttons on it for the simplest functions - stop, play, eject, etc - you will find yourself using the remote control for everything. This isn't a problem, of course (and has the advantage of leaving the front of the player looking clean and smart), but the remote you get with this machine does look a bit cheap and tacky, although it works fine. Some of the buttons glow in the dark, which might appeal to you, but I have never really seen the point. If I've been sitting in the dark for a while when I want to pause the film or whatever, the buttons will already have dimmed. Nice idea, but I'll just put the light on (although I can usually find the right button by touch as they are different shapes).

My only other complaint - and it's only a minor niggle really - is that, when the machine is on standby, the red light is blinding! I ended up having to put a bit of masking tape over it. Oh, and you don't get a SCART cable with it so don't forget to buy one at the same time if you haven't got one already.

To conclude, this DVD player might not have all the features of a more expensive machine, but if all you want to do is watch movies or play CDs, you won't be disappointed. A great buy!

Summary: Short on features, but is multi-region and does more than just play DVDs - which it does very well!

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