Koss DVP2161 Compact DVD with MP3/CD Player

-Design: 4/5. The unit is sharp-looking, with a nice silver chrome finish that's pretty durable. I have the purple "hip hues" version and despite its toy-like appearance it stands up pretty well to wear and tear, and the "psychedelic" look is unique. A point off for the lack of functions on the unit itself; it's pretty much play, stop, a/b view, fast forward and reverse. Everything else is on the remote, which could have matched the look of the unit a bit more.

-Portability: 5/5. Small, sleek and easy to transport. Great if you want a unit that you can easily move from room to room, bring to a friend's place, or, of course, for traveling. Setup with the audio/video outputs (or s-video) is a snap for the majority of televisions and adapters are easy to find for monitors without a/v inputs.

-Picture Quality / Sound: 4/5. Despite some limitations with Dolby 5/1 and surround sound (this won't give you the same bang in that area as most standard-sized players) the stereo audio is excellent on this unit. My dvd of "Showgirls" played with Cristal-clear sound ;), and Ditto for its mp3 playback, which comes with a nice onscreen display which lays out any folder structures your pc or mac creates on the cd-rom. More good news: the picture quality is superb, as good as any full-sized unit. Color and definition are outstanding. I hooked this up to a 27-inch monitor and played a DVD of "Last Tango in Paris" and it looked as good as on a full-sized Sony DVD deck which was connected to the same tv.

-Performance: 2/5. And now the bad news...the majority of disks should play on this deck. However, the sad truth is that this unit will reject a good number of DVDs. I've been able to play about 90% of DVDs on this deck. Another 5% had problems with skipping or, most aggravatingly, picture freezing. The other 5% won't run at all on this deck, not even registering a DVD menu. The motor will turn, the player will struggle to register with the material, and after a couple of attempts the unit gives up. This player seems to play single-layer DVDs very well, which don't offer a lot of special features (i.e. only a trailer, a couple of stills). I tried to play my Criterion copy of "In the Mood for Love" which is packed with a fully rendered menu and special features; it was a disaster, the player couldn't even register the DVD menu. A rental copy of John Carpenter's "The Thing" which didn't have any noticeable scratches only played about fifteen minutes of the film, then froze. Another DVD which had a small scratch froze in the last five minutes and would only continue if I skipped ahead to the next chapter. On the upside, the majority of disks I've tried on this player have played acceptably, with only occasional problems (see below). It's just sad that the temperamental nature of this unit would generate more suspense in keeping you wondering if it will make it through a whole movie than anything in the actual film you are watching.

-Engineering: 1/5. It's amazing that this thing made it through product testing, if that was even performed on this model. As others have mentioned, one of the major reasons this player malfunctions so much is that it doesn't have proper ventilation. It overheats, so after 1.5 to 2 hours of play (if not sooner) the picture will begin freezing and skipping. If you are watching a disk of television shows in half-and one-hour chunks, that might be fine, but curling up with three hours of "Apocalypse Now Redux"? Not too darn likely. And if your DVD is loaded with special features, the demands placed on this little cutie will cut your viewing time even further. All the special features - slow mo, step frame, a/b view, chapter search - work as they should (although you can only access most of them on the remote, so don't forget that if you plan on traveling with this player). Overall, the player's tendency to overheat renders it unacceptable for all but the lightest applications. Considering the possibilities of DVDs, that's a huge liability. Also, the remote's buttons are tiny and take some extra pressure to activate---and compared to my other vcr/satellite dish remotes, its lack of range is annoying. Basically you have to aim it directly at the unit, since it seems to have problems when used at angles.

-Suggestions: as others have mentioned, the ac adapter packed with the unit is really bad. Replace it with a compatible adapter from Target or Radio Shack and performance will improve. Some users have mentioned cutting a hole and installing a small fan---for the mechanically uninclined like me, this is not an option. The ac adapter heats up if it's plugged into the socket even when the unit's off, so unplugging the AC adapter from the socket between uses greatly improves performance. Also, setting the unit on top of a well-ventilated area helps, especially if air can pass under the bottom.

Overall, it's a commendable attempt by Koss to produce a small, portable DVD player for multiple purposes and situations. Had the design/engineering team resolved the player's basic problems - overheating, incompatibility with some high-performance DVD software, and erratic performance with even basic functions - this would have been a winner. Too bad. It could've been a contender.

To tell you the truth, when I looked at the brand name I was kind of skeptical to get this player. Usually I'm a Sony guy, but the price and size were right. The picture is just as good as any of the other dvd's I've seen. That goes for the sound as well.

It also has a lot of features not found in other dvd players. One of which, you can select a portion of a scene and view it over and over again by a button called "A-B." Very useful if you want to examine a part very closely without having to rewind then play then stop, then rewind and so forth. Another feature is being able to view a "Scene" over and over again. This baby's got a volume control also within the dvd player. That way you don't have to switch between controllers so much. It's also NTSC/PAL compliant and VCD 2.0 compatible too. Another thing is that if you burn a cd with jpeg pictures (a type of format that pictures can come in) you can view them on this player. You can take digital pictures, burn them, then view for your family and friends to see on the tv. It also tells you on the screen what scene you're looking at if you press |<< or >>|. It also has an optional optical digital output for exceptional viewing (if you don't know what I'm talking about don't worry, just know it's there).

Basic features are Dolby Digital 5.1, MP3 playback, CD/CD-R/CD-RW, Parental controls, zoom. It also has a small LCD screen to tell you which scene or time the dvd is playing. It comes with an AC adapter, A/V wires, and a very handy remote. There's pretty much a button for every feature which is handy for quick clicks. It has S-Video output. Handy buttons on top of the case also for play, stop, rewind, fast-forward, etc.

Small quirks that I have with this player are that it is a bit flimsy. It also gets a bit warm after playing a movie (but I guess that's with any dvd player). There also is no DTS surround sound, but for many that feature won't be needed, I know I won't utilize that.

Overall, I am very happy with this dvd player. I bought it because in my dorm room there isn't much space for a bulky heavy one so when I saw this I grabbed it. Plus, mailing it back and forth between my school and home won't be as expensive this this light and small package. It was a very reasonable price for such a small player.

It may look small and dinky but inside's got a full fledge dvd player. If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive small light dvd player, with some extra features (not found in some of those other brands), opt for getting this one.