One thing we did not have in our living room was a DVD player. But, I also wanted a VCR player as well in there, so when I spotted the Philips DVD Player/VCR Combo DVP3340V for $69.87 at Wal-Mart, I jumped right on it. We have Philips satellite receiver as well, and we have had no trouble with it, plus this thing was nicely priced, so I just had to have it. It comes with a 1 year limited warranty.

What I was looking for in a combo player really wasn’t too complex- I just wanted to have a place to play DVDs in the living room, but since I still have a bunch of home movies, and kiddie tapes on VHS, I still wanted that type of player as well.

Here’s some technical info from Wal-Mart’s website:

Output Mode: ******Stereo
Digital Audio Format: ******Dolby Digital output
Dynamic Range: *****95 dB
Signal-To-Noise Ratio: *****90 dB
Response Bandwidth: *****8 - 20000 Hz
Total Harmonic Distortion: *****0.02%


The player is silver in color, is about 16 inches wide, and 10 inches deep. It will play CD-R, CD-RW, SVCD, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD, CD, Video CD, DVD+R DL. It also has A/V hookups in the front of the machine, so if you wish to run your video camera through it, you can do it right on the front. You can also play JPEG files and MP3 media as well on this.

What you get in the box is the player (which is a single disc player), remote, two AAA batteries for the remote, a quick start up guide, a direction booklet, and one set of A/V cables (yellow/red/white). Do note though if you are running this through a satellite receiver, you will need another A/V cable, which runs about $6 at Wal-Mart as well. I had to tell you that, so you’ll be sure to pick that extra cable up so you won’t have to scratch your head upon getting home trying to hook it up, and then make a trip back for a cable. You can also run it through your sound system as well, but do note you’ll need more cables for that as well.

Setup:

The quick start guide was really helpful in getting everything hooked up; it had simple diagrams and directions. As I noted earlier, if you want to run this player through a satellite receiver or sound system, you’ll need an extra set of cables. On the back of the player, you’ll see 4 sets of color coded A/V holes that are labeled. Just hook one set of A/V cables to the back of the TV, then hook the other end to the back of the player, then take the other set of cables and hook them through the satellite receiver and back of the player. Also, with your TV if you have to press the ‘input’ button to make the player play through to the TV, be sure to do so- I didn’t the first time and I was bumfuzzled at why it wouldn’t work, then I realized with our particular TV the input button has to be pushed.

As for the setup of the machine, it was also very simple, just setting the clock, and selecting your language. When you turn the player on, a green LCD ‘hello’ pops up where the clock is- and I thought that was cute. Also on the front of the player, there are a few buttons where you can work the player should you misplace the remote.

Remote operations:

The remote is very simple to use, but you can’t adjust the television’s volume with it, so be sure to have your TV remote around to adjust that. But, you can change the satellite’s channel with the remote, because it has a numbered keypad, but no channel up and down buttons. It would have been nice had I been able to work the TV with the remote, but it’s not a big deal, just another remote to deal with.

DVD:

As I mentioned earlier, this is a single disc player, and it has a tray type loading system. This is a progressive scanning player, and you can select to have subtitles, picture zoom, and multi camera angles. The DVD player is just for playback only; you can’t record directly onto DVDs. The playback to me is pretty good, but every once in a while the player wants to misbehave and skip a little. Seems as though this happens after using it for several hours consecutively. Also, the player has a child lock system should you need it, but for me, I am the child lock system, I don’t let my kids watch anything inappropriate anyway.

VCR:

The VCR has two recording speeds, SLP, and SP, as well as three playback speeds- SLP, SP, and LP. You can record from DVD to a VHS tape, but do note that you can’t record copyrighted materials. You can also record from satellite to a VHS tape as well. The VCR can be programmed to record as well, but if you are going to watch TV while recording, you must be on the same channel as what you want to record. Programming is very simple to do, and it has worked the few times I have used it. The VCR to me works fine, and I have had no trouble with it.

Overall:

Overall, this is a good bargain if you just need something to play both DVDs and VHS tapes, which is all I need it for really. The playback for the most part is great, but sometimes the DVD player wants to misbehave, but I have only noticed it twice. It sounds good, and it looks good on TV. It’s nice that you are able to record from the satellite, even though it’s not something I usually do.

The only 2 qualms I have with this machine is the strange antics it wants to have every once in a while about skipping, and as I mentioned earlier, it only seems to do that after about 3 hours of consecutive use. The other problem would be that you can’t control the TV with the player’s remote, but it’s not a huge issue.

For the most part, I would recommend this, it has been doing the job for me, it’s simple to hook up and use, and it was a nice price.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 69.87