Customer Reviews

Magnavox MRD210 Progressive Scan DVD Home Theater

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Home theater industry probably has the sharpest contrasts in prices, and unfortunately, the rule "the more you pay the more you get" does not apply at all. I know some people who spent close to a $1000 on home theater equipments and came out with nothing but headache. If you are planning to buy a home theater system, I HIGHLY recommend you doing your research.

The Magnavox (Philips) system seems to be a great choice if you want to save both time and money. I bought this system as a gift to a relative when I visited last Christmas. I installed it for him in less than 30 minutes, a very short time considering that he had a lot of wires, a lot of clutter and I had to connect several items to the system.

The sound system is simply great!! I didn't expect a system less than $200 to sound this good, I tested the system out with a concert DVD and it rocked. The speakers are compact but powerful, which I think is a great feature.

Another great feature of the system is that you can connect up to TWO external devices to enjoy the sound quality. I connected the cable box and the hifi VCR to it. Thanks to its built in ProLogic decoder, it can create surround sound effect even from older hifi tapes and regular stereo sound.

My only reservation on the system is the DVD palyer itself. While it offers a great picture, DVD navigation is a pain, it took me a while to figure out how to go backwards or do a slow. But other than that, it is good and can play DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, MP3 discs, and many more formats.

All in all, recommended!!

Our previous DVD player was a bottom-of-the-line no-name system, and, frankly, it performed better than this one. The programming on this system is very poor; for example, it is impossible to rewind through the beginning of a scene (you have to scene-skip back to the previous scene and then fast-forward to the end of it). The remote control combines the scene forward with fast-forward (and the previous scene/rewind likewise) but the buttons are often unresponsive, so we never know which behavior, if any, the system will exhibit when we press the buttons. Sounds or pieces of sounds are occasionally absent (and a switch to a different style of surround sound does not improve the matter). After six months of owning the system we are also frequently finding that sound and video are not perfectly synchronized, when the same DVD plays well on another system, and we notice a flickering/skipping of the image with some frequency that suggests poor handling of signal decompression. We are replacing our system with a different brand and strongly recommend that others look for a less error-prone model.

I purchased the MRD200 a year ago. After 10 months the audio would cut out when watching television, listening to radio, or playing a CD. No audio through the speakers or through the earphone jack. After a while it would return. The problem got worse and worse so I called Magnavox support and they said I would get a replacement if I shipped the unit to their exchange center in Tennessee. It cost me $61.00 via UPS, no RMA, no refund for shipping. Two weeks later I received a replacement, an upgrade actually, to the MRD210. I set it up and it works fine EXCEPT when watching a television program. With both the MRD's audio and the TV's audio on there is a delay that causes an echo. It doesn't happen all the time, it drifts in and out. After 15 minutes on-line with Magnavox's support I learn THIS IS NORMAL! The MRD200 didn't do it. I can't imagine this is normal, let alone acceptable. I won't be buying Magnavox products in the future.

PROS:: POWERFUL ENOUGH SOUND
EASY TO INSTALL
EXCELLENT VALUE

CONS:: REMOTE NOT UNIVERSAL
DVD SLOW WHEN LAODING
NO S-VIDEO CABLE

This was my first sound system. Very easy to follow instructions with illustrations. We love the system and its ease of use. It has a sleek look that does not stand out in the room. So far so good! We are not music critics so don't really know what to compare it to except to say there is no comparison to what you get from the regular TV vs. this sound system. The MRD210 is a great value with great sound and easy to hook up.

I found the Magnavox MRD210 at the closeout table in the electronic dept of our local Target. What a find!. I bought it and set it up. It easily performed as well as the Sony my son has. I have hooked it up directly to my cable box and the result is faux digital on all the movies that are shown in 5.1 digital. Put in a DVD disk and look out! It's mind blowing that these little speakers can sound so big. 300 watts is very suffient. For the money it was a steal. Can't thank Target enough for selling it to me at the ridiculous sale price.

This unit does not have a dts decoder and cannot play dts DVDs. Even though the Amazon tech details listings said it did when I looked and the editorial review said it did, the MRD210 does not. I put in a dts disc and the player said it couldn't play it. Also note that this unit has only 2 audio inputs, one for TV and one for AUX. In my case I found I wanted a third set since I have a TV, a TiVo, and a VCR. Also note there is no video selection capability in this unit so your TV needs multiple inputs and the remote is not universal.

I just received this as a Chrtismas present, and it works excellent for the money. It sounds wonderful, and the sub even does a good job! To the critics, of course there is better sounding equipment out there, it is called the Bose home theatre system and costs $3000! This setup sounds awesome for an extremely low price here on Amazon. Setup is easy, and if you know how to do it, you can patch it through your cable box and get theater sound all the time! It sounds awesome when you are watching DVD's, you pick up on background noises that you wouldn't have normally without the 5.1 Digital system. This setup sounds awesome, and I highly recommend this to someone who wants great sound and doesn't want to spend $3000!

Buyers of this home theater system beware. The first system was hooked up the day after Christmas '03. All went well, watched a movie, enjoyed the sound, the picture etc. The very next morning I tried turning it on and...NOTHING. After about 10 minutes a severely distorted readout showed up on the receivers display area, some sort of unreadable mumbo jumbo. We returned the system to Target for another. System #2 had a problem altogether different. Sounded great, digital display was fine but this time the picture faded in and out from dark to light, dark to light throughout the entire movie. I tried several other DVDs with the same result. So I then messed around with 'TV System Menu' to ensure all settings were OK. None of this solved my problem. Back to Target for a refund. When I returned the 2nd system to Target I noticed 2 other systems behind the counter that had also been returned. I'm now shopping around for a better system. I bought this system because my neighbor has one and we have one at work also. No problems with either of those, but they are an earlier model (came in black). Evidently when this newer model underwent it's facelift the quality was left out.

This DVD player can send video output for both NTSC and PAL(European/Asian) TVs. If your DVD System Setup is set to AUTO or PAL and you hook up your DVD player to NTSC you will get Black and White Picture. Change your DVD System to NTSC by using menu "Picture Setup" and then Choosing Option "TV System" and you'll get color picture. I hope this helps.