wehoin's Full Review: harman/kardon DVD 101 DVD Player
I have a HK receiver which I've always been impressed with even though you don't hear much about them around as everyone seems to push you to a Denon or other quality device. This one was on sale so I bought it. Then after purchasing a new projection 55" widescreen from Mitsuibishi I plugged in my then DVD player (a Toshiba) and I couldn't believe my eyes. I almost cried. If you can imagine watching those grainy 16mm films from grade school you'll have a good idea of the relative quality I got from the Toshiba. I had invested all this money in a television to get smeared, blurry, grainy, stuttering picture quality.
Well, that day i set out looking for the best DVD player I could afford. I always laugh when people brag how they found a DVD player for $79.95. This is nothing to brag about. This is something to hide in the bedroom to watch in bed when all the other players in the house are busy. If you have a home theatre or even just a decent receiver and decent television -- get a player at least $300 or more. Once you get above $500 you really need a great system to notice the difference.
But I digress. I started reading reviews and since I subscribe to Home Theatre magazine I looked there. The DVD 101 from HK had just been released and they had a glowing review. Most of all they were stunned that the quality was coming from an under $600 player as that's what they were comparing it to. Well, I didn't have 50 other players to compare it to so I went with their opinion and happened to find one tucked away, in box, on a display shelf at the local Circuit city. Wasn't even out on display or plugged in.
Brought it home and it is really a beautiful machine. Fits with my receiver nicely. But it is what is under the hood that matters and boy does it deliver.
After suffering with the Toshiba this was like going from a Kia to a BMW. The picture, I swear, almost looks high definition it is so clear and grain free. Think a good receiver is all it takes for good sounds -- think again. The audio hardware on this is top notch. What a difference in clarity, sonority and pureness to the sound.
Now for what I don't like. This player does not support DVD-Audio formats. You can play them on this but you'll only get 5.1 DTS not true DVD-audio. I have one and it sounds better than any CD I've ever heard so I'll live with that. Best Buy carries next to none in that format anyway and those are bad.
The remote while nice is really unresponsive. You need to hit the buttons sometimes 3 times to get a response. If it were a game system it would go back to the store. I can live with it as who pushes the buttons alot with a DVD anyway?
The next thing is that after 3 months of ownership the picture went bad. Well gone. Sound there -- no picture. The tech at HK said there were no issues with that model but it was new. So I sent it in which was a 2 month waiting game as they bumped it around the horn at Ultimate Electronics, their service center. The the guy calls me and tells me it works fine. He said perhaps having it unplugged reset the chip as that will do it. I couldn't believe that was not in the manual. hopefully this was just a random thing with me, but who knows.
Having it gone though made me appreciate it more. I went back to the Toshiba and avoided watching anything which really needed the sound or picture quality that the HK delivers (The Two Towers has been gathering dust until my DVD 101 returned...)
I highly recommend this player. Either that or explore the $600-$700 Denon's as that is the comparable quality. If DVD-Audio is important don't get this one. Otherwise you will be happy.
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