Customer Reviews

CYBERHOME CH-LDV 700B 7-Inch Widescreen Portable DVD Player

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(67)

 

 

UPDATE 12/12/06
Cyberhome the company got out of the electronics business, particularly the cheap DVD player business a few months ago (and this is the reason why their site is not running anymore). You will not get any technical or warranty support for the unit if you purchase one. BUYER BEWARE!!!!

REVIEW 10/10/06
The player is relatively cheap compared to the branded ones. Works as advertised if you are lucky enough to have a "working unit".

I bought 2, one each for my two kids. One started to act weird after only a few days of use. The screen would "TURN BLACK" but you would still hear the sound playing. Initially, I thought it was my son who accidentally adjusted the brightness setting or any screen settings for that matter. I spent a good hour or two going through the other working unit and entering the same factory defaults on the other one to no avail. As a last resort, I removed the battery from the unit and placed it back in. That fixed the "BLACK SCREEN" problem temporarily because it would later come back when pressing one of the buttons of the unnit and at the same time tilting the screen (intermitent). So you have to remove the battery all over again to make it work.

If you are stuck with the unit, I would suggest not to move it around when watching a movie. The problem is actually documented on the manufacturer's web site (not accessible for the past 2-3 weeks that I checked) and the ONLY recommened fix is the same as I what I have described above.

Now my other working unit was fine. WAS in the the sense that the middle pin that plugs into the AC adaptor broke off for some reason. Wanted to get an RMA or something but it would be a miracle to try and get cutomer support from the manufacturer. I can't find any contact information at the web site at all. No phone numbers, no emails, nothing.

I'll try to get one from the retailer instead. So if I were you, look for another brand and don't get stuck with a lemon.

I bought this device this summer when I was on a vacation trip in the US, especailly for my 2 year old son so I can keep him entertained on the transatlantic flight back to Europe. As these things are cheaper in the US (compared to the Euro-currency) I thought it is no big risk if I buy one under 200$ as I can not return it here once I am back home. So my expectations were not high either as if I would buy a brand name device also at a higher price. One thing however I should have better paid attention to is the handling of the battery. Due to a major 'technical design flaw' you cannot shut off the device completely - you really have to remove the battery physically otherwise it remains in a standby mode and draws power from the battery up to a point where you cannot recharge it anymore. This happened to mine - so now I can run it only on 110 V (here 220 V) or with the car-adapter. But otherwise it works quite well, can also read my self-burned VideoCD (VCD and SVCD). Also a very good feature for someone from Europe: it can be switched also to PAL-TV (the norm for TV here, in the US it is NTSC) and in the menue you can also change the region-code so I can watch the European region-code-2 DVDs here too (to change the region code is an undocumented menue feature and you can find out how to do that that on various internet-forums). Anyway it fulfills its purposes - works fine in the car - and for 200 $ I didn't expect any high-quality features. I give it an average rating of 3 stars - if the battery worked properly it would be 4 stars.

Update.. 4/4/2005 machine lasted 6 mos. Nearly impossible to contact company. Rude to me when I finally got a real person. This turned out to be absolute JUNK!

Everyone is right here, the battery is JUNK. J-U-N-K! Mine lasted just a few days and quit permanently. I'm currently looking for a replacement now. Even fully charged, the battery never lasted more than an hour to an hour and a half. It's true too, the battery does NOT hold a charge IF you leave it in the machine. You have to leave the battery OUT ALL THE TIME if you want the charge to hold. Even if you have it plugged into the wall or car, the battery WILL drain! Keep the battery out, and it stays charged.

As for the machine itself, the picture is beautiful! Very sharp, crystal clear. The carrying case flips over the seat in my van and is PERFECT for my 21 month old to watch his dvd's on long trips.

If cyberhome would do something about the battery issue, I'd give this machine 5 stars. We use it all the time just in the house as our regular dvd player. Kids love it because they can take it right in their beds or to a friends house. It's a very cool and handly little item!

Please stay away from this DVD player! I was attracted to its price, progressive scan, and included case that turns into a car converter, but the good things ended there.

I had two of these units (I exchanged one after one day of use) and neither even came close to working properly. The battery does not hold a charge (and removing it every time it is not in use is a major pain), the sound and video was often out of synch, black and flickering screen, and poor quality buttons that are unresponsive.

It's unfortunate that this player has such terrible build quality because it does have a very nice picture for the price. The list of problems and issues make it impossible for me to reccomend it to anyone though.

Do not buy this horrible product. I got this as a present, and I was thrilled to get it. I try to use it in the car, and it will freeze and the screen will go black all the time. The battery also holds a charge horribly. I can not stand this product. I am happy that someone bought me one of these, but I wish they had bought a different brand.

We have exchanged this dvd player for the THIRD TIME. Every time there seems to be some sort of problem with the monitor. The dvd will play for a short while then it will suddenly shut off. Cyberhome should recall this dvd player. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE WE HAVE MADE --- DO NOT PURCHASE THIS DVD PLAYER!!

Don't buy this DVD player.<br />
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We bought this DVD player less than 6 months ago. It has been used less than 10 times and always stored safely in it's bag. While watching a movie, suddenly the color in the picture became very distorted. We e-mailed cyberhome and they said the DVD player only had a 90 day warranty. If we want it fixed, they said to mail it to them (at our cost) and it will cost us $100 to fix. We should get it back in around 6 weeks. No thank you

Don't make the same mistake I made, research any product before you buy. I purchased this DVD player for my daughter in August 2004 as a christmas gift. I tried it out when I got home and it worked fine, but 5 days after christmas the thing stopped reading disks (just speeds up and slows down repeatedly until it say BAD DISK) the disk is fresh out of the box from Disney. Target was NO HELP at all and as for customer service at cyberhome give it up. So just look at all of the reviews on this site alone and you will RUNAWAY from this product. Target shame on you for offering you customers such a poor product and letting them hang out to dry. I will NEVER buy electronics from Target again.

I bought this unit for the same reasons as everyone else; price and features. This is one of those cases where the old addage "you get what you pay for", rings true. I read the horrible reviews this unit had gotten but decided to give it a try anyway. BIG MISTAKE. <br />
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Right out of the box the unit had trouble reading discs, new and old. However, I decided to keep the unit for a week or so, watch a few movies, and give Cyberhome the benefit of the doubt. After watching two or three movies on the unit, the screen, which up to that point had been crystal clear, began to pixal in and out. Sometimes it would freeze up completley and had to be powered off before it would work again. Other times the screen would go completely black and the entire unit simply stopped responding. Other problems such as lag (audio not keeping up with picture) and temporary picture freeze, occurred on every disc played at one time or another. These were new, off the shelf DVD's I'm talking about. As far as the recordables, I couldn't get it to read any of them- ? kept popping up. I tried about 15 of them, all with different formats and not a single one of them would play. <br />
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I ultimately decided to return the unit just 9 days after the purchase, opting not to risk debating with the manufacturer over parts and labor and other such issues I'm sure would have came into play. I have read several reviews in which customers have had problems to numerous to mention concerning customer service with Cyberhome. To tell you the truth, I am suprised a manufacturer would be allowed to continue producing such low quality merchandise. I now realize why the price was so low- because the quality was right there beside it. I gave this 1 star only because the rating scale didn't go any lower. Save yourself some gas money and use it to buy name brand, you'll be happy you did. <br />
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I recently purchased this unit and was initially pleased with the picture quality and decent sound quality. In the car the sound has to be almost on the max setting to hear OK (without headphones... don't think my 6 month old is ready for headphones...) After a couple of uses the battery would barely hold a charge. The fact that you need to remove the battery when using the car adapter is a big negative; it's too much hassle and a weak design point. Perhaps they should put a real battery disable switch or something so you don't have to remove it. Also, it would be nice if the IR sensor for the remote was on the face of the unit, not the side, to make it easier to use when unfolded in the car mode.

On the positive side, I was pleased to learn that you can plug in external video (PS2, camcorder, etc.) The included accessories are extensive and the carrying case is great for keeping everything in one place.

Having to unzip the case into halves to mount in the car was a bit of a hassle too. After a week or so I returned the unit for a refund, not wanting to take a chance on an exchange. Apart from poor battery performance and charging methods this is a decent unit for the money; although with a bum battery it kind of defeats the purpose of a portable DVD player.