Customer Reviews

Norcent DP300 DVD Player , Silver

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

I had been looking for a 2nd DVD player that will do multi-format playback (DVD-VCD-SVCD-MP3). My Apex 5131 changer has served me well, but since it was the only player I'd had experience with, I figured to get another. While perusing the Nerdout.com forums on dvd players, I came across some good comments on the Norcent DP300, and the price seemed right, so I bought one. This single disc unit is small, but it's performance belies it's minimalist demeanor. It will play anything but soup can lids, as near as I can tell.
One of my gripes with the Apex unit was having to re-adjust my TV's video setting to make the picture viewable each time I watched a DVD in it. The Norcent was perfectly balanced right out of the box, PLUS it has built in brightness, contrast, & sharpness controls to boot! The only shortcomings I can see with it is not having a front display (no biggie, as the onscreen menu is well laid out and easy to use), and it not having an optical digital output (coax only).The build quality overall is quite adequate, although a little "delicate-seeming", perhaps. But heck, what do you expect at this pricepoint?
This unit was purchased to be used as a 2nd machine. Well ..guess what? The Apex was recently moved into the back bedroom.This little silver box is chock full of features at a price you can't beat.

This unit is awsome. The Multi-region feature is worth is weight in gold. Unlike the units the Big box retailers bring you in on this one plays all of my discs and does NOT skip and is everything I need or want in a DVD player. The picture is great and the sound blew me away.

Much like paulandjulchen, I received my first unit and it was defective. Would not recognize any discs. Made the return and Amazon shipped out a replacement right away with 2 day shipping. It seems like quality control might not be a top priority at Norcent. But the second one arrived and worked as promised.

It's a basic player, small footprint, lots of plastic. But when it works, it works as advertised and plays my cdrs and mpegs too. We thought a $... VCR a while back was a great deal, this is even better. If you are just looking for an entry level DVD player and don't need all the bells and whistles, this is a good first step into the world of DVD. Our one seems to play fine through the VCR so not sure whether Macrovision is enabled or not. There are various hacks online to edit various functions of the player but it sounds like it is hit and miss.

Added 09/03 - three months later.
Ours is still working fine. It gets used every day to play kids DVDs. AsIt also plays VCDs and mpeg files but not DivX. Some other reviews mention that you can only turn the unit on and off by the button on the machine. That is true but you can put it into standby mode via the remote.

Final update 02/05
This DVD player died the other day. Well beyond the warranty so I opened it up and took a look and it appears a couple of capacitors leaked and are dead on one of the boards. It has been a great DVD player and probably saw service just about every day. For the price we paid, I can't complain too much. RIP.

...Since this is my first player, I do not have a real comparison, but the picture seems good enough, it is capable of running at voltages from 110-240V 50-60Hz, plays PAL/NTSC DVDs, I made mine region-free (OPEN/CLOSE -> Setup -> 8888 -> Next -> Version -> Region Code -> 0 :o)...) so I can even take it back to Europe when I go. I was able to play couple DVDs, also one VCD that I made. I do not have any DVD-R/RW to try, but it's supposed to handle them too as well as MP3 CDs. For [the money] what else do you want for this price? Sony doesn't even make models that can run at 220V/50Hz, nor do they make models that can play PAL DVDs, let alone region-free...(that's what they wrote me).
I highly recommend this unit. Especially at this price.

I purchased this player in Feb of 2003.

All I wanted was to play DvD's. That's it. Nothing else. And that is exactly what I got in this player, and much more. The fact that it plays CD-R/W's and CD's and MP3's (contrary to another review, THIS PLAYER DOES NOT PLAY .MPEGS or .AVI's!) is a delightful bonus, and one I expect to take full advantage of.

Overall, I'm happy with this player for the price. But there are a few minor complaints worth mentioning. The remote is feature rich, however its layout stinks; the buttons are oddly placed. It is very slow to load a DvD or CD and be ready for play. And here's a legitimate bad point: it can not be powered up with the remote; you can only operate the standby feature from the remote; you must hit the on/off switch on the unit itself. And also, the power button is so stiff I have to hold the unit down to push the button, otherwise I'd push the unit clear off my TV.

Other than that I'm quite happy. 5 stars!

From what I understand, the original versions of this player had secret ("accidental") options to turn off the region-codes and the copy-protection; and you could switch the voltage in the back so you could take the player to the U.K. and Japan, etc . . .

But the newer versions usually don't have all of these features. For instance, I can turn off the region coding via a secret menu, but I can't turn off the copy-block. And the firmware that certain "DVD Upgraders" modified to force this player into being copy-block free (among other cool things) is not relevant to the chip placed in most of the newer versions of this player (mine included, regrettably). Another bad thing (which the "official" amazon.com editorial review now gets wrong, although it used to be correct) is that this player no longer has an option to switch the voltage from U.S. to U.K. standards. This is really too bad, since it makes the PAL output function kinda pointless, in a way (well, unless you buy your own voltage adapter and you're taking the player with you to the U.K. to output to a PAL TV. . . in which case it's still a handy bonus). I bought this player because of the above benefits -- and because I'm moving to the U.K. next year, and maybe Australia after that, and I was hoping I could take this handy little player with me. The lack of a voltage switch in the back makes it tougher, though.

As far as I know, the region-free menu can still be found, although there are a variety of different codes you'll need to try to figure out which code will work with your player. I suggest giving this player a full google search, and include the words "region free" in your search, and you'll find a lot of cool stuff. And if you happen to have (or get) one of the slightly older models of this thing, then you'll have really great fun hacking/modifying the firmware and playing around with both the "hidden" and overt options.

All in all, though, this player has worked wonderfully for me and is nice and super-light-weight and I've never ahd a single problem with it. Great player at a great price. And the Mp3 play-back can be quirky but works pretty well (it can't display long ID3 tags, but it plays fine).

Buy this with free Amazon.com shipping and you won't find it anywhere else at a better price from a more reliable dealer. One last problem, though: I't been almost 3 motnhs since I bought this thing and I still haven't received the promised rebate. In fact, the rebate center says they never even got my rebate submission. But then, that's why dealers and suppliers love to offer rebates -- half the time customers either forget to turn them in our they forget that they did turn them in but never actually got sent the check . . . and then when you complain the "rebate center" can simply deny they ever got it. But this isn't a problem with this awesome player -- it's just a problem with rebates in general (or maybe I'm just consistently unlucky when it comes to rebates?)

I got this player mainly for the multi-region function hack that I read from other customers, and for my daughters been able to watch the dvd+r's that I made for them. My first generation Sony player(cost 33 times of what I paid for this machine) that they were using did not read recordable dvds. Well, the multi-region hack did not work on this machine(yes, it didn't claim to be able to.).

Some observations that I'd like to share with others:

My player came with a manual that seemed to be returned, it had finerprints all over it. I looked inside and saw that the drive and the circuit board were marked manufactured Nov 2002! My guess is that this might be a reconditioned unit with updated firm ware.

Some people complained about the sound. Try go to audio in the menu and make adjustment in SPDIF.

My 4:3 Sony XBR tv.s auto Anamorphic function did not work with this player. It seems the DP300 only down convert picture to letterbox resolution, but I could be wrong.

I am keeping this unit. It works within its limitations as advertised. Picture quality is ok if used with tv screen no more than 27". But if you have a wide screen projection tv I would get a progressive player for just a few dollars more.

p.s. make sure you are careful loading disc into drawer as I found with the new less expensive dvd players it's easy to ruined laser tracking if accidently put in more than one disc at a time(stacking).

The unit I just received has component output, in addition to S-video and composite, so there's obviously been an update since the original Amazon review. Also, PAL vs NTSC output is set via a preference menu item, not a button on the remote as it apparently used to be according to another reviewer. But it is still very easy to change the region (I just watched a bunch of R2 DVDs I'd bought from amazon.co.uk - until I unlocked the hidden menu the unit rejected them with "Wrong Region", but after telling the unit it's a R2 player they play fine). It's possible that the computer DVD drive used is RCP2-compliant, and if it is, that might limit the number of times you can change regions. At this price, I bought this unit just for R2 discs, so I don't care. Although the label on the back of the unit says 110V 60Hz, the spec section in the manual says 110-240V 50/60Hz, so if that were as important to me as it appears to be to the earlier reviewer, I'd confirm with Norcent whether it is really 240V-compatible before returning it (I doubt they'd remove that feature, as it would force them to manufacture different versions for different parts of the world).

Picture quality (of PAL discs played back on an NTSC TV) is very good through both composite and S-video (haven't tried component, as both my component inputs are already in use). All in all, an excellent value.

You cant beat this DVD player for the money. I recently bought a Sony DVD/VHS Tape player for 5 times the cost and returned it because it skipped and froze while playing back DVD's. This one works flawlessly. Plus it has every DVD function that you would ever want. Zoom, shuttle, FF, plus many more functions. More than you will ever need or use. The only complaints I have are the instructions are rather lacking in detail, but hookup is intuitive and easy, also the button labeling on the remote is a very tiny font that is difficult to read. However, for the price, this can be easily overlooked and you will soon memorize which buttons on the remote you use most frequently. Definitely a best buy in my book.

This machine is great. I needed a dvd player that also plays vcd and it does. My expensive dvd player doesn't support it and I was kinda upset. But this norcent player surprised me and it even played mpg movies I burned as a data file on the computer!! Definitely worth the price.