Price Paid:  $0.00 from free

Summary:
I reciently was given a broken dvp855 that was as good as new but would freeze up after a few minutes. I took it apart and found that the post that held the gear for tilting the disk was was broken on the bottom side (cheap plastic). It has a stop and keeps the gear from rotating too far. A little epoxy fixed it and it runs fine. Just thought id pass it along.

Strengths:
Cheap. good features, Other than that, I really don't know

Weaknesses:
Cheap. Doesn't seem to want to work with dvd+r's.

Price Paid:  $65.00 from Friend

Summary:
I bought this from a friend, as he was having problems very simular to those described below. I opend up the unit and found the problem (at least with his) was a gear that adjusts the angle of the disc relative to the laser. I took a razor and removed a small bit of plastic it was rubbing on, and lo and behold it works like a dream. I have been using t for about 9 months since with no problem. It even reads a DVD that my $1400 Denon THX DVD player refused to read (Gladiator). Is it better than my 4 year old Denon THX unit? No. Is it good enough for daily use in a home theater? Yes. Please feel free to email me if you would like to learne the method I used to fix mine. I would be happy to share that with others.

Strengths:
Reasonable for an entry-level DVD player. Many Features.

Weaknesses:
So-so build quality. Uses an off-the-shelf computer DVD decoder (I have the very same chip in my old PC; an ESS Video Drive). REMOTE: too many same-size same-color buttons; reminds me of mid-80's NEC VCR remotes.

Similar Products Used:
None in this price category.

Price Paid:  $70.00 from Radio Shack

Summary:
Same as others--worked okay for first few months, then would only play 1/2 of DVDs with occasional blockiness/freezing, now refuses to even recognize disks. Steer clear of this product.

Strengths:
cheap, decent specs

Weaknesses:
unusable!

Price Paid:  $79.00 from Radio Shack

Summary:
DVP-855 is a dud. You basically pay for renting it, because it fails to last the life of even a $ 1.00 dollar transistor radio. Company expects you to send the product and $ 80.00 for a replacement. So, go spend 160.00 on a good DVD player and walk past a DVP-855.

Strengths:
Cheap, versatile.

Weaknesses:
Enough said.

Price Paid:  $79.00 from Radio Shack

Summary:
An inexpensive unit that has a lot of features. It played DVD's well for the first month or so, but then start giving us problems. Now it is completely unusable... Even the most defect-free DVD will not play in the unit. Everything freezes up into digitized blocks on the screen. I bought this at Radio Shack, and have since then gone back to the store to see if they will take it back or give me store credit. They would do neither because it had been over 30 days. I recently wrote to the corporate office to see if they could offer some sort of solution... I'll update this when I hear back from them.

Strengths:
Well laid-out remote control, with glow in the dark buttons. Component video... The specs looked good, unfortunately it failed to deliver...

Weaknesses:
Stopped playing DVD's after 30 days...

Similar Products Used:
JVC DVD player