Sungale DVD-2026 DVD Player

... or possibly a serving platter for a wine and cheese party. But if you plan on actually showing a movie at your wine and cheese party, you'll want to get yourself a different DVD player.

Before I begin, I will admit: I did not actually buy this player. DirecTV, in a marketing move that I must now wonder if it helped or hurt them, handed out one of these modern technological wonders when you signed up for a new account. I already had a fine DVD player, but my parents had none. So I thought hey... nice gift for the fam, let's give it to them. It is a good thing that my parents already like me, because if I was hoping that this DVD player would win me any points with them, I would have been sorely disappointed.

I got everything unboxed and hooked up, all was well. I happened to be toting a copy of A Knight's Tale with me, so I dropped it into the player, and again, all was well. The movie played decently. For an hour and forty-five minutes, the player performed as any free DVD player should be expected to perform; not many bells and whistles, but it gets the picture on the screen. The movie ended, I pressed eject...

Nothing came out. I press eject again. Nothing came out. I turn the unit off and back on, then press eject. Nothing. I unplug the player from the wall, leave it unplugged for a minute or two, plug it back in, turn it on, and press eject. Nothing. I press play. The DVD begins to play back the movie. I press eject. Nothing. I sigh, unplug the DVD player from the TV, force the door to the player open with my finger, and turn it up on its side and shake the DVD out of the player, stick the player back into the box from whence it came, and send it back to DirecTV. I buy my parents a nice Toshiba DVD player from Best Buy as a consolation prize.

The story doesn't end, however. A few weeks go buy, and a package arrives at my door; DirecTV has sent me a replacement DVD player, same make, same model. Still quite happy with my own DVD player, I give the player to my wife to give to one of her friends. She takes the player over one night and sits down with her friend to watch a movie. They put the movie in... and the player refuses to play the movie at all. She tries to eject the movie, the movie won't eject. She turns the DVD player up on its side and shakes the movie out (this seems to be the only way a person can retrieve a DVD from this player after you've fed it one), and brought the player home. I dutifully stuck it back in the box it came in, and shipped it back to DirecTV... without a return address this time.

I've gotten tired of shipping these units back to DirecTV.

In short, given the track record I've had with two of these units, I'd strongly recommend putting out an extra $20 and going with a more reliable player... save yourself the aggravation.