Our review:Item Description:Oritron, famous for its lowest-possible-price approach to DVD players, has a sure-fire winner on its hands with the DVD600. For the most part, the DVD600 is a basic DVD player: it passes DVD-based Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround formats, it offers both stereo analog and coaxial digital outputs, and it routes video through two composite-video connections.The DVD600 will let you not only open the drawer, but also remove the disc and start four other DVDs, all the while remembering where you left off on each of them. DVD broadens your A-B repeat options. Now you can savor special effects, dancing, or fast-moving action over and over at the touch of a button.The DVD600's sound and picture quality are very good - that's one area where microchips have helped narrowed the quality gap between cheap and expensive electronics. The sound from the analog stereo outputs is definitely inferior to what you'd get from a better DVD or CD player, but the DVD600's coaxial digital output lets you listen through your surround receiver's digital-to-analog converters rather than those onboard the DVD600 itself. The unit is lightweight and smaller than the average DVD player, but its build quality is lower. With its feature set and remarkably good sound and picture quality, there are no reservations about calling this a great buy and a terrific starter or bedroom DVD.
Amazon.com Review:Oritron, famous for its lowest-possible-price approach to DVD players, has a sure-fire winner on its hands with the DVD600. And while Oritron has made its newer player more reliable than the infamous DVD200, it's still affordable--and still a little quirky in its performance.
For the most part, the DVD600 is a very basic DVD player: it passes (but doesn't decode) DVD-based Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround formats, it offers both stereo analog and coaxial digital outputs, and it routes video through two composite-video connections (there's no S-video jack here). Not bad for a budget model!
But this DVD player offers a couple cool, if only marginally significant, features we haven't seen elsewhere: a five-disc resume capability and A-B repeat.
Resume--whereby a player will begin disc playback from the last point viewed--is a common enough feature, but normally just for the disc currently in the player. As soon as you open the drawer, forget it--you have to know where you were or start over. The DVD600 will let you not only open the drawer, but remove the disc and start four other DVDs, all the while remembering where you left off on each of them.
A-B repeat is used mostly on CD players; it's a handy feature for looping and scrutinizing (or digitally sampling!) a riff, a line from a lyric, or a bit of between-song banter; the A and B represent user-definable start and end points for the loop. DVD broadens your A-B repeat options. Now you can savor special effects, dancing, or fast-moving action over and over at the touch of a button. Want to pick up some moves from Gene Kelly? Here's your chance.
The DVD600's sound and picture quality are very good--that's one area where microchips have helped narrowed the quality gap between cheap and expensive electronics. The sound from the analog stereo outputs is definitely inferior to what you'd get from a better DVD or CD player, but the DVD600's coaxial digital output lets you listen through your surround receiver's digital-to-analog converters rather than those onboard the DVD600 itself.
After experiencing the earlier DVD200's difficulty with delivering high-bit-rate audio and video (that is, loud and busy DVDs), we were skeptical about this area of the DVD600's performance. But the player pulled through with none of the picture freezing or excessive pixelization of its ancestor. And while this model
does play DTS surround-encoded DVDs with ease, it does not pass the digital signal from DTS-encoded surround CDs, so fans of multichannel music should take note.
The DVD600's biggest drawback is actually something far more mundane than any technical shortcoming: its lack of a front-panel display. There's a red power-on light, a green status indicator (basically saying, 'I'm ready for action'), and that's it--no chapter or title indication, no program time. So if you're planning to use the DVD600 as a CD player, you'll have to do so blindly or with the TV on. The onscreen display for menus and commands takes up some of the slack when you're watching DVDs.
The unit is lightweight and smaller than the average DVD player, but its build quality is lower. At one point in our testing, we hit eject and the tray emerged--without our disc! It did come out with no trouble when we tried reclosing and reopening the drawer, and it didn't happen again in our tests, but it's something to consider.
Is the Oritron DVD600 a great player? Not in the growing scheme of all-around great DVD players. But with its feature set and remarkably good sound and picture quality, we have no reservations about calling this a great buy and a terrific starter or bedroom DVD.
--Michael Mikesell Pros: - Great deal for the money
- Plays both Dolby Digital- and DTS-encoded DVDs
- Unique features
- Rapid disc access
- Helpful onscreen display
- Plays CD-RWs
Cons: - No front-panel display
- Cheap build quality
- No S-video output
- Will not play CD-Rs or DTS-encoded CDs
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Buyer Testimonials
Average Buyer's Review:
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Not the best unit in the world
This is by far one of the worst DVD players I've had the misfortune to own. Although it is a 5-disc player, it does not have continuous play - therefore one must press play to move on to the next CD. The player responds very slowly to each command - for example it takes approximately 30-45 secs after pressing the open/close button for the unit to open, or after pressing the menu button for you to be able to select a menu option. The only good thing I'd say is that the sound - once the unit plays (and it is temperamental, is quite good. Frankly, the only reason I haven't returned this player is because I can't find the receipt!
Buyer's review: -
Horrible DVD Quality / Riddled with problems
I have had this dvd player for approximately 2 years and have had nothing but trouble. First of all, it doesn't effectively play mp3 cd's. Secondly, a few months ago, my sound quit working right through my receiver, you couldn't hear any voices (although you could hear the background music way too well). Then, my video wasn't working and all I got was black and white video, but then the sound worked fine. Now, neither sound nor video work. Ok, so I got this wonderful idea to call Tech Support. All the guy there did was repeat the same 5-step routine with me for 20 minutes. By the way, tech support is really located in Hong Kong (Oritron is not a US brand). Overall, I would not recommend this dvd player to anyone.
Buyer's review: -
do not buy
for xmas I bought two products buy oritron. 1 dvd player, and 1 dvd home theater system. which one worked? neither! the player didn't work, right out of the box. the home theater system worked long enough to see a picture, but as perr the instructions once you see the picture you're to stop so that you can run the set up. after that it never works again. AND....the problem is inconsistant. sometimes it won't scan. sometimes it won't open, which is really frustating when your rental disk is STUCK IN THE DAMN MACHINE. also what's with the long delay on any command you give it? not just from the remote, but even when you use the ones on the console it's self it takes so long before anything happens your sure it didn't register when you pushed the button. AND...the remotes for both units [stink]. even if your laying on the floor with the player right in front of you, you still have to wave the remote around don't while pushing a button repeatedly. now i'm not just some lame tech challanged dork whose not how sure how to get a vcr to stop blinking 12:00. i've been an AV guy for decades, and have stayed up with all the latest, and all i have to say about these oritron products are DO NOT BUY!!! they are crap and a lesson in frustion. OH, and here's the topper. the main reason we bought this system when we did was, cause of the rebate. which oritron di not honor. they sent me an e-mail stateing "we did not qualify because our purchase was before OR after the specified rebate period". my girl friend works at the store where the system was purchased and not only do I have a reciept showing otherwise but I also have the computer print out from the stores register print out dated well within the "specified time period". and apperntly everyone at oritronis one vacation or maybe their computers are down. I hope they don't use thier own products.
Buyer's review: -
do not buy this - horrible (I'd give it 0 stars if I could)
This machine goes into some wierd mode every now and then that requires it to be unplugged and reset. It lacks features, is poor quality. I regret buying it. I suspect all Oritron products are bad given they could make this one so bad.
Buyer's review: 
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You get what you pay for - That's a good thing in this case.
This is a very good unit for its price. I have had 1 for approximately 1 year and have not had any problems. It is very simple to use and the remote control is very good.
This is the cheapest DVD player that I could find at the time. I didn't expect much when I purchased this unit, but it has performed flawlessly. Of course, there are much better units out there for more money, but I rated this one 5 stars, because of its price compared to performance and features.
One last thing, this is just my opinion but I believe the Oritrons are nicer looking units then some of the other low end units that I have seen.