Introduction

The Sharp DV-S1U dvd player is priced to provide an entry level dvd player for general use. It is also compatible in playing audio cd's and mp3 discs. The manual states it is compatible with prerecorded cd's and dvd's, as well as dvd-r, dvd-rw, cd-r, and cd-rw (it says nothing about dvd+r or dvd+rw compatibility). However, the player does play dvd+rw discs- Verbatim 2.4x DVD+RW, and HP 4x DVD+R. The player supports the smaller 8 cm (12 cm is the regular size) dvd and cd discs. It does not play back video cd's or photo cd's. Let's see how well it does with its compatible formats. The review is based on my use of this product over the last 2 years as my main dvd player and have viewed over one hundred dvd's on it. I also use it as the cd player to my main home stereo.

What's In The Box

In addition to the player, I received a remote control, 2 AA size batteries, a manual and 2 cables. The manual is outstanding; it is comprehensive and well illustrated. Each cable is 3 feet long. The first cable has yellow plugs for the video. The second video has a red and a white plug for the audio. These plug into the video and audio on the TV. If your TV is older and does not have RCA inputs and only an antenna style coaxial input you'll need an RF converter- about $20, or consider a dvd/vcr combo deck like the one I own from Sylvania which has the coaxial output built in. "http://www.epinions.com/content_108956061316"

Appearance

The box itself is a silver metal box and plastic faceplate. It is wider, but less deep and tall than a standard vcr size. If you stack a vcr on top of it, the back of the vcr won't be resting on the unit and potentially unstable.

On the front are the following buttons:
power
open/close
play
stop
still/pause
skip up/foward
skip down/reverse

There is a display on the front that gives title, track, and chapter info, or time info.
The following logos are on the front of the player
dvd video
compact disc digital audio
dolby digital
dts digital out
energy star

Connections

All of the connections are on the back of the unit. Of course there is a power cord. The outputs are grouped into audio out and video out.

For the audio there are 2 choices of output; an rca left and right jacks, and a coaxial digital audio jack. Only the cable for the rca jacks are included. I have them plugged into my stereo directly, or you can plug them into the tv. If you want 5.1 sound you need to get a cable and run it to a dolby digital receiver to drive the speakers.

For the video there are three choices of outputs. The first is the yellow video out jack that uses the supplied cable, and is the lowest quality video. The second is the s-video out which splits the video into 3 colors, but carries it in 1 wire. You would need an s-video cable and an s-video input on your tv. The third is component video jacks which splits the signal into 3 colors and carries each one on a separate wire. You would need additional wires and corresponding inputs on your tv to provide you with the best quality signal. For the record I use the regular video out jack.

The Remote

The remote control is very well done. It is reasonably sized and takes 2 AA batteries- which last about 18 months. The play, stop, rev and fwd are on the bottom and easy to use in the dark. Above that are the numeric buttons to select times and tracks- I rarely use them. Above that are the menu buttons to navigate the dvd menus- again easy to use in the dark. And at the top, are the buttons for on screen display, subtitles, zoom, power, audio, dimmer, black level, and to open the loading tray.

The remote is one of the best parts of the device. The buttons are large, easy to feel, and easy to learn and use in the dark. Unfortunately, when shopping, it is difficult to compare remotes as they are not displayed, however I feel this is an ideally designed remote.

In Use

The player has all the standard features you would expect from a dvd player: subtitles, camera angles, audio soundtrack selection, parental lock, on screen display. Of course, some of these features are disc dependent.

In addition, the player also has some features that other models don't have. This includes a dimmer to dim the digital readout- nice when watching movies in the dark. There is also a 2x and 4x digital zoom which is useful to see a detail in a movie such as handwritten letter. There is also a screen saver if you pause the unit for more than 5 minutes, and the unit will turn off after 30 minutes- useful to prevent burn in. You can skip ahead by chapter, or by fast fowarding at up to 60x! The on screen display is excellent showing chapter and title info as well as time left in a movie. The resume play will start playing where you left off even if you turn the unit off.

One peculiarity is once in a while, in the middle of the movie, the subtitle will appear for a line or 2. This is a reproducible phenomena that will recur when the disc is played again over the same spot. It has nothing to do with if the disc is dirty. Interestingly, the same thing appears at the same point on the same disc when played on my dvd/vcr combo deck so it appears to be disc dependent more than anything else.

The player is equally adept at playing cd's. It appears to play all brands of cd-r I have used- it has not choked on a disc yet. It has the expected functions including repeat, program play, and random mode all accessible from the remote control.

Note: The creation of mp3 music discs requires a computer with a cd-rw drive "http://www.epinions.com/content_123092242052", and dedicated software. The following discussion is for intermediate and advanced computer users. Beginners can skip to the conclusion if they wish.

As an mp3 player it also works well. Only mp3 files are suppported and no other formats. It can recognize up to a total of 255 tracks and albums per disc. When you insert the disc, the track names are displayed after a brief 10 sec pause. I like the random mode- it plays about 10 hrs of music without hearing a repeat, like a commercial free radio. The music sounds full and rich. For mp3 discs I encode the tracks are 128 kbps at constant bit rate. This works very well- I have not experimented with other rates. The tracks should be written on a cd writer using a program designed to write mp3 files to a disc. I use Music Match Jukebox. When dragged using a "packet writing" program such as DirectCD or InCd the tracks were fragmented on the dvd player into 2 or 3 files each even though they were intact on the disc when checked on a computer cd-rom drive (I guess it's a quirk of packet writing).

Conclusion

The player works very well as both a dvd player, and a cd/mp3 player. It has a solid feature set that supports its dvd playback capabilities. I would recommend it to the non-videophile user who wants a solid player from a name brand manufacturer at a reasonable price.

If you need a computer dvd recorder check out this review
http://www.epinions.com/content_145685450372

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 99.99