Customer Reviews

CyberHome CH-DVD 500 Progressive-Scan DVD Player

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I had a Philips DVD-825, an old DVD player, for a long time. It served me well and all, but it was time to upgrade, and now that DVD prices have dropped substantially in comparison to 2 years ago, I figured I would take the initiative.

For me, a DVD player has to:
1 - play VCDs
2 - play CD-R media (kinda goes hand-in-hand with 1)
3 - connect easy
4 - look good externally.

That having been said, I went to Best Buy and saw this DVD player. It was advertised for [a relatively low price], and I was skeptical at first, but I'd brought a CD-R-based VCD to test it. Sure enough, it passed the test; passed #1, #2, and #4 so far. Bought it, got it home, and set it up. I had wanted to connect it through component video,[but due to a lack of funds], I wasn't going to buy that wire. So I'd gotten an S-video Monster cable. Hookups were easy as can be, and the menu is simple and easy. DVDs play with unbelievable clarity, and the sound is tremendously clear, especially on 5.1. This even plays MP3s and JPGs from a CD-R!! So you could copy like 120 MP3 files to a CD and play them on this player, and if you have a surround system, you could run a party with this!! Amazing!!

There are two negatives to this player, which are small or large, depending on how you look at it.

1 - It's VERY picky about its inputs to your source (receiver, TV, etc). My TV only has one pair of audio RCA jacks that have to be shared between the S-video and the Component Video, so I got two Y-splitters to connect both the audio from the DVD and my PS2 (which I had on the component side). The PS2's sound came through fine, but the DVD refused to play any sound. It would only play when directly input into the TV. I had to use a device switcher ... to get the PS2 and the DVD both operating with S-video.

2 - It's very iffy on DVD playback. There are times (and this is fresh out of the box) when you press play and it will sit at a black screen. You can't stop it, you can't do anything. You have to power it off manually using the switch in the back. Also, there are times when you'll press a button on the remote and the DVD will respond late. For example, I could press Play, and it won't actually start playing until like a minute later; almost as though it were processing something. It doesn't happen often enough to be a big problem, but it is sort of a nuisance. This might be just my ignorance about the product.

Besides these two things, this is a great product for the money. Buy this if you need a DVD player or you need to upgrade.

It plays some DVDs, but refuses to play others (won't play Cats or Finding Nemo). It sometimes freezes for up to 30 seconds and then continues. It is very slow to start a disc or select any options. The remote buttons are small and poorly placed.

I would like to get my money back for this piece of junk but I did not take it out of the box and discover its shortcomings until after 30 days ;-(

I would avoid this product at any price.

We were happy with this feature loaded DVD player - until it went and died after ten months. Anyone else notice a theme here? Yes it would have cost $40 for the repair under "limited warranty" and the company was fairly responsive. But still. A great product that does not last might not be all that great a product. Hello? British motocars anyone?!?

Until it died it played beautifully. Had trouble getting it to play an SVCD - hmm, someone else had the same problem. Just wish it could have lasted longer.

This is THE best low cost DVD player on the market. I can't believe the specs on this thing. Not only did I buy one for myself, I bought one for my parents and my girlfriend. S-video/component/composite outputs, digital out, 5.1 channel analog outputs (with DTS/Dolby decoder inside the player!!!) and that's just the beginning. Here are the three best reasons to buy this thing:

1) It can handle both NTSC and PAL (European) DVDs. That means that this will play an imported anamorphic DVD from England or Asia on your American TV set. Normally, you have to pay big $$$ to get this option.

2.) By accessing the system menu with a few clicks of the remote, you can change the region restrictions on the player, allowing you to watch movies from anywhere on the planet. (Only to be used when moving to a new country, of course -- wouldn't want to get in trouble with the MPAA ;-] ).

3.) And third, well, I can't tell you what the third bonus is. It has to do with Macrovision. Go to Google to learn more.

Unfortunately, the player doesn't come in black, and the eject button has a slow response time (you have to hold it a beat longer than usual) but picture and sound quality are great. Would look even better if I had a progressive scan HDTV, but my old CRT suffices. Highly recommended.

It'a an amazingly feature-rich product for the price. It's based on a new DVD chip (CS98100) developed by Cirrus Logic, which packs all the functions of a DVD player in a single chip. This chip was introduced in the early 2002 and my guess is that the CH-DVD 500 is the first product to use it in the market. The use of this chip is instrumental in bringing down the price of this product. All the features you can ask for in a high-end DVD model including progressive-scan output are offered in this model. Truly amazing how they can undercut the competitor's price almost by half. The picture quality is excellent on a traditional TV, but I haven't tested it on a HDTV for its progressive scan feature. A progressive-scan out would be a must-have if you're considering a HDTV. It basically eliminates the flickering of traditional TVs and improves the smoothness of motions (watching a movie in a movie theater is a good example of a progressive scan; all computer monitors nowadays are in progressive scan, so if you watch a DVD movie through your computer, that's a good example of progressive scan.)

Low price doesn't always come without some sacrifice. Build quality is about the same as other bargain brand/product, which is ok at best. Especially the search dial is very flimsy feeling. I was afraid of buying a completely unknown brand here and reviews for this product were almost non-existent, but it's already popular in Europe, so I decided to give it a try. It seems like they rushed the product from the factory to the market because I could smell the unpleasant paint odor on the outside the silver casing for many days. So if you're sensitive to harsh chemical, make sure you air it out before using it.

In summary, it has some flaws, but the good features it offers more than make up for its drawbacks.

I've had this DVD player for over a year. I have upgraded the BIOS twice. I have it set as region 0 (in other words, region free). There are tutorials on the internet on what you need to do to make it region 0. It's just in a hidden menu.

I play this thing to death, and have only ever had one problem with it. The problem was with "Anger Management," but I flashed the BIOS the the new version, and everything was perfection again.

The new BIOS is available from Cyberhome's official web site. All you need to do is download the ISO (disc image), use an ISO burning program (nearly every popular CD burning program will do this) to burn the CD, put it in your DVD player, follow some instructions, and there you go, BIOS flashed. Easy.

The only complaint I could have with this is the lack of DVD-A support. But, it came out before that was available.

I play US DVDs, imported Asian and European DVDs, mp3 CD-Rs, audio CDs / CD-Rs, VCDs, xVCDs, SVCDs, xSVCDs; all of them play beautifully.

This model probably has the best video quality among the [lower cost] players. The best kept secret of this player is that it can play the anamorphic PAL DVDs in their proper aspect ratios on an NTSC 4:3 TV, if this matters to you.

Unlike most other cheap brands, CyberHome's technical support does try very hard to answer and solve the issues encountered by their customers. It may not be a perfect player for everyone, but you won't regret it if you care about the video quality and not just playing all the disc formats. Although it is compatible with DVD, VCD, SVCD,MP3, and JPEG.

Don't confuse this model with 505 (which is a European model) or 402 (which uses a different video processor and without P-scan function)

I have had this DVD player for about 8 months and it died. It was great while it worked, but now it will only read audio cds (I have cd players for that!). With the product PARTS ONLY under warrenty for a year, it will cost me as much or more to have this player repaired as it will to buy a new one. Next time I go with brand-names I know and pay more attention to the warrenty!

We bought two of these DVD's from Sams Club because of the great price that they were. We loved them at first, and thought they were very user friendly compared to another higher priced DVD player we had in the past. The first one quit working after about 7 months, and the second one literally "BLEW UP" after 9 months! Sparks, popping and everything. I wish I had read these other reviews before buying. BUYER BEWARE!

Buy at your own risk. I got it since it was multi-region, great output options etc'. and it really was great in all other usability terms. However, Cyberhome sells bad quality. I know of 3 friends of mine that had CH and the unit stopped loading DVDs after less then 12-16 months. I thought I am ok since I had this 500 model, and they had the 300... no luck.
I got it sep-04, it was pronounced dead on apr-05... that is just 1.5 years of life time, which apears to be the going rate for Cyberhome.

here is the reply I got from them when I complained:
"'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sir, we appologize for the inconvenience and do really wich that you are under warranty but policy is policy and we have to be fair to everybody as well. Since we do not offer any refunds and we no longer have any parts or unit for this model. You would need to get it repaired possibly at a local repair shop. Once again, we appologize for the inconveneince.

regards,
jerry
CSD
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

good luck.