Alba DVD54 > Reviews > Cheap as chips...and it shows

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Good
Sound Level	Satisfactory
Range of Features	Limited
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	cheap !  Does the job
Disadvantages:	No extras, operates loudly, no display to show playback time

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought this DVD player because a) it was cheap from Tescos and...that's it!

Capabilities & Playback:

Firstly, i have to say that the player does what it is meant to-it plays back DVD's just fine. I have tried out DVDs that I have burnt myself on the pc and found it also plays mp3 Cds and Kodak picture CDs. It plays region 2 DVDs only but that was not a problem for me as I don't tend to buy other region Dvd's. So for playing back DVDs it does the job with no problem.
However I have noticed that when I am playing DVD's later at night or when the house is quiet, it is so loud! It makes a loud whirring noise that does not stop after the disk has loaded as might be expected but often continues throughout the film. Now I have no idea whether this is just my player but I have a feeling it is just something you have to put up with for the low price. I've become used to the noise now and don't really notice it, but I can imagine it might be a real pain to someone who has just bought it expecting a nice quiet playback.
I have not yet, in 2 or 3 years of owning it, had a DVD it refused to play (unlike when I try to play DVDs on my playstation 2 and find it will refuse disks with the tiniest scratches on them).

Size and Design:

The design of the player is as a "mini dvd player"- it really is quite small, partly due to the absence of a LCD screen showing the legnth of the playback of the dvd, etc. Therefore you have no idea how long you have been watching and if you want to stop the DVD and continue it from that point another time, you cannot just skip to the same time on the DVD- you'll just have to fastforward through the film.
The DVD player is a standard rectangular shape and may not be the thinnest DVD player but it is quite small in terms of width, so should be easy to slot into any shelving, etc.

Usage:

The front of the player features 7 different buttons. At the far left there is the main power button, when this is pressed the "standby" light comes on which then switches to the green "on" light when a function button is pressed.
Moving along the player, there are rewind/skip back, fastforward/skip forward, stop and pause buttons and a large play button in the middle. To the far right there is the "open/eject DVD" button.
Using the DVD is straightforward, the buttons do exactly what they say and the player can be controlled by the remote control that is supplied also which is handy. When a DVD/ CD is inserted, the player plays the DVD straight away and the play button can be used as an "OK" button when navigating the main menus on DVDs, but the remote control must be used if you want to skip along the options on the DVD menu such as "extras, subtitles" etc- the usual options given on DVD film menus.

The voulme can be controlled to a certain degree with the control- the volume can be increased to level 20, and then controlled also with the Tv obviously as usual. I tend to have the volume at 20 constantly then just use the TV volume control.

Setting up the DVD player is straightforward and I fuond it ver useful that the player is connected to the TV not by the scart sockets but by the 3 wires- yellow red and white, this is good as if you have many other appliances connected to your tv you might run out of scart sockets as many tv's only include 2.

The boxed weight of the player is 2.00 kg and included the player, remote control and instruction manual.

Overall I am happy with this DVD player as it is inexpensive and easy to use. The sound when playing DVDs can be annoying but is intermittent, it should be considered when buying the player as I'm sure there are other cheap DVD players that don't do this! The player is not ugly or massive, it is a good fairly small size and is in a nice silver finish. Basically it does the job and plays disks but don't expect any extras apart from the playback of DVDs, Kodak pictures CDs and CDs/mp3 cds. A satisfactory buy for the price.