Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 DVD Player

When you buy any "cheap" piece of electronics, you generally get what you pay for. So when I bought a Cyberhome 300S DVD Player three years ago for under $30, I fully expected that I'd need to replace it within a year. To my great surprise, after three years of moderate use, it's still going strong. Although it's definitely low-end, it's done a good enough job in my classroom.

The small unit is just under 9 x 9 inches, and about two inches tall. This helped it to fit into the jumble of other electronics I have in the classroom, but did have me a bit wary about someone walking off with it. Luckily that hasn't happened yet.

The front of the unit is deceptively simple, and would make you think that there aren't many functions for the player. You're not able to navigate menus without the remote, but for most DVDs, you'd be able to simply play the movie using the front panel. The remote, of course, unlocks the power of this tiny DVD player.

They crammed a lot into the remote. And although there are some nice features, I never use most of them with everyday use of the player. The ones I use most include the standard Power, Eject, Menu, Arrow Keys, Play, Stop, Pause, Chapter Skip, Fast Forward and Reverse. Other features include a Mute, Setup (including parental controls and other settings), Display, Goto, Bookmark, Angle, Zoom, Slow (in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 speeds), Repeat, Volume, and Ten-Key. Some of them would be more handy at home than in the classroom, but it's nice to have the features available. The functions all work well, better than other players at a comparable price. The remote does use a Lithium CR2025 Battery, which you're less likely to have on hand than AAAs; on the other hand, I haven't had to replace this battery in the last three years, so that hasn't been an issue.

The player hasn't had any problems with reading or playing DVDs--and I've used some pretty hammered DVDs in it that wouldn't play on other equipment for me. As far as I can remember, it hasn't ever skipped a single time. Which is pretty remarkable, considering the condition of our media center's DVDs. There is a slight delay after you hit the eject key, and being impatient, I hit it again, which of course closes the door and reboots the DVD.

I've used the same DVD Player to play video CDs, music CDs, and MP3s that have been burned onto CDs. The sound quality is clear, and it's the same quality (higher, actually) than the other CD player I have in my classroom. The player will also display JPG files from a CD, letting you have a family "slide show" on your television.

Overall, this DVD player has been a real surprise. The quality, ease of use, and durability so far has been excellent. I've had it for three years now, and although I probably only use it three times per month, when I do use it I absolutely need it to work so it doesn't mess up my classroom plans. Any skipping or other malfunctions would really stand out, and I haven't had any. Although I normally shy away from the absolute cheapest product in any group, this is one that was bottom of the barrel, and has served me well. Several of my students tell me that's the same kind of DVD player they have at home (because it's so cheap, most of them have their own in their own room) and none of them have complained about it either.

I'd buy a Cyberhome DVD Player again with confidence--this one has been wonderful.