I missed this article when it first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, but yesterday The Seattle Times ran a column by Mike Langberg that discusses the large variety of inexpensive DVD players available at consumer electronic resellers. DVD players were offered as loss leaders on Black Friday this year, with a low end model going for $29.87 at Wal-Mart. The floor of market prices at the moment seems to be around $40.00.

The big question Operation Gadget readers ought to ask themselves before they buy an inexpensive DVD player is, why wouldn't I want the cheapest model available? Here are a few reasons:

1. Lack of output options. The least expensive models often omit S-Video and component outputs. If you have a high end NTSC television, don't buy a cheap DVD player without checking to make sure the model you want to buy connects to your TV at the highest-possible quality.

2. Lack of support for secondary formats. Every one of these DVD players support "Region 1" DVDs. If you want to view JPEG CDs, listen to audio CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, or play VCDs, make sure the model you want to buy supports the disk formats you have.

3. Lack of progressive scan support. If you have HDTV, you need a progessive scan DVD player. The lowest cost models are not progressive scan DVD players.

4. Limited or non-existent quality assurance. User comments have indicated that some of the least expensive DVD player models have high defect rates. The big issues experienced are player freeze-up and playback stuttering. You're on fairly safe ground if you assume that major consumer electronics brands require more final assembly testing before each DVD player is boxed and shipped.

5. Lack of customer support. In reviewing user comments on a number of sites, it appears that the "no-name" electronic manufacturers are skimping on customer service. This won't necessarily be apparent to you until you experience a problem or have a question. Some people have reported that the lowest priced models have customer service telephone numbers that are not toll free, and that they have waited on hold for a long time to receive assistance.
   

Looking at all of the options available at Amazon.com, my choice for a low cost DVD player is the Samsung DVD P-230 Progressive Scan DVD Player. For about $70 you get S-Video and component outputs, progressive scan support, Dolby Digital and DTS capability, a wide range of secondary formats, and a unit that will look pretty good in your home theater component stack. Best of all, Samsung is a major consumer electronics manufacturer that has supported its products whenever I have had a problem. [ via Slashdot ]