DVD Player for TV with HDMI, Multi Region DVD Player, DVD

 

Device received on 13 September 202
This review on 9 November 2021 (60 days’ subsequent)

I will start by stating that the model I received is the Electcom ELC-1910 multi-region DVD player (the model’s identification was not displayed on the site when I ordered it).

To date, this player is providing satisfactory service. It plays my DVD’s from North America (where I lived for many years) and from Britain without specific action required on my part. I place the DVD into the drive and the DVD plays regardless of its origin.

The player arrived in a neatly presented and packaged box. The box contained the DVD player (with a mains cable moulded into it, terminated with a three-pin UK plug), one HDMI cable, one three-channel A/V cable (RCA cable), one remote control, and one instruction booklet.

The player is aesthetically pleasing (as any entirely black box can be). Its case is entirely plastic.

A sticky label on the back of the case indicated the manufacturing date to be January 2021 (I received my player in September 2021). The unit has no serial number.

If you are keen to see the player in action as soon as you receive it, be aware that the remote control requires two AAA batteries, and these are not supplied with the device.

Physical set-up is easy. If your television has a HDMI connection (all recent ones do), then connect the player to that (if your television has multiple HDMI connections, refer to your television guide as to which one to use). Otherwise, use the RCA cable; the instruction booklet shows you how.

I strongly recommend that you make yourself a mug of tea, sit down comfortably, then take the time and the trouble to first work through the instruction booklet, familiarise yourself (at least to some extent) with the remote control, and to set-up your system. The instruction booklet is far from perfect, and is confusing in places, but it is all you have to get started, and it does provide some useful help. Persistence is a virtue that brings its rewards.

During set-up, under “Rating”, be aware that the player is initially set to the highest parental control rating (level 1, “Kid Safe”). There are 8 settings, level 8 being “Adult”. Unless you are aware of this, you may think that the player is faulty (when it is not) when it fails to play some DVD discs, or some chapters on some DVD discs. (I encountered this upon inserting a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation disc for my initial test before I had read about the parental control. The main menu appeared , but I could not select any of the options.) Set the parental control rating to whatever is appropriate for your needs. It can be “password” protected (a four-digit number).

Criticisms made by others may, in some cases, be due to a lack of understanding in the set-up and use of the player.

The remote control:

The remote control is fairly large with the buttons neatly laid out. This is better than many. A single, firm push of a button works fine. While adequate, a larger device with more space between the buttons would have been better.

My biggest niggle is the placing of the rewind and fast-forward buttons immediately beneath the previous chapter and next chapter buttons respectively. On a number of occasions, my finger nail has accidentally pressed the change of chapter buttons when all I wanted to do was to go back or forward a few seconds. There is then the fiddle and delay of getting back to where I wanted to be.

It would have made sense to place the mute button beside the volume up and volume down buttons, but you won’t find it there.

Other:

Apart from DVD-video, I have played a few CD-audio discs (music) through the player. I can find no fault with the sound quality that the player outputs. Obviously, I interpret this only as I hear it through my television speakers, but I can detect no distortion; indeed, the music sounds wonderful.

When playing a CD-audio, the “ELECTCOM” name and a large QR-code-square are permanently displayed in a fixed position on the screen. If you are going to use the player frequently for CD-audio, then, to alleviate your concern about potential ‘burn-in’, you will need to turn off the display using your television’s controls, because you cannot turn off the display using the player’s controls or settings (at least, not that I can find).

I have not used the player for any other purpose.

The instruction booklet states, under “Features”, that this device has “high reliability and stability and super error correction.” This does not mean that you will not experience jitters and jumps on occasion. Such occurrences have been few, and can, of course, be a problem with the disc itself, nothing to do with the player (everything is clean and free from dust on my system, and I handle all with care). What I can say is that in all cases so far, rarely by just rewinding and replaying, more often by ejecting the disc then restarting from an appropriate position (chapter selection, for example), I can view those same scenes without the jitters and jumps reappearing. While I feel it harsh to mention this given the few occasions I have experienced it, I feel it fair to consider why such problems arise, and that I have to go to such lengths to review the scenes, in light of the player’s “high reliability and stability and super error correction”.

I hope this has been of use.