Coby DVD-283 Upconverting DVD Player

 (9 customer reviews)

I got this player for its up-conversion feature and HDMI outputs. It worked fine for a while, but broke down after 2 months. I contacted customer service and they suggested I send it back (with a $13 S&H charge) and they will replace it.

I did just that, but got a player without the HDMI output nor the up-conversion feature. After writing to them again and some phone calls, they agreed to send a unit like my original one. At that time, I had two units (one without HDMI, one with HDMI) and was happy.

A couple of months later the non-HDMI unit broke down. Like the first unit, it just stopped recognizing disks. Thinking that I still had the third unit, I did not contact customer service but instead opened that third unit and started using it.

Guess what? After 4 months, it broke down. I'm using it for 2-3 hours a week, inside a home, in a fixed location - nothing extraordinary.

So, within a year, I have THREE units that are all bad, and am out...Read more

I bought this player because I bought an HDTV and want to take advantage of the HDMI input and surround sound. It is about the cheapest unit you can find, especially with HDMI input. I found that DVD players break rather easily, regardless of brand, and new HD DVD's have not come down in price enough, so I brought to this unit to hold me over for a few years.

The unit works as what you expect- brilliant picture and good sound. The picture is close to HD quality, but not quite there. I bet it is no different than any upconverting dvd player. It is smaller than the picture suggests. It is almost like a portable unit.

The downsides:
The Coby unit cannot be used with a univeral remote. There is no digital display on the unit, and it looks low priced. The remote has a cheap feel to it, but is intuitive and easy to use. The unit feels warm to the touch in "off" mode. It is probably one of those energy sapping devices.

I do not recommend this player. Within a couple months it broke to the point where it will not even recognize any DVDs that are put into the player. The warranty is awful considering I have to pay shipping both to and back from the company. At which point I would be paying as much money as I paid for the player itself. Basically it's wasted money.