My Cheap, Wonderful DVD/CD Player: GPX D1816

Ever since I received the GPX D1816 DVD player for Christmas, I’ve been singing its praises without hesitation. Until today. Maybe it was the heavy use of it last weekend (Dances With Wolves’ Director’s Cut, 4 Abbot & Costello feature films, numerous CDs), but it started complaining. I thought it was just because they were 1941 movies, but today while watching Cat Stevens’ Majikat Tour (a 2005 release), the movie jerked several times before stopping for many seconds and repeating like that for the whole song. I cleaned the disk, noticing a scratch, but tried again. Same thing. Now it gets very interesting. I then tried it in my old Toshiba DVD player that had been giving me lots of problems two months ago. That song played just fine!

I think I must conclude that my GPX D1816 needs a rest! So did the old player. Let me tell you more about my gift. It was only about $35 and it hooked up very easily to the video output ports in front of my Toshiba TV/DVD/VHS player. They’re color coded and the instruction manual tells and shows you what to do (in Spanish and French too). The player is equipped with the Composite Video, S-Video and Y, and Ph/Cb, Pr/Cr video output ports. It’s small enough to sit on the arm of my couch in front of the TV.

Excitedly I tried out all of my old CDs on it that I hadn’t listened to for months or years because of scratches. No problem…then. I loved the player. The little remote control took more getting used to and the red light that always stays on, then blinks when in use. The remote comes with a lithium C battery. My biggest concern was that my non-cable TV reception took a nosedive, but it’s still bad when the GPX D1816 is disconnected. I’m pretty sure it’s the new power lines outside my window for the condos going up.

For a person who owns a TV with the video output ports and hasn’t a lot of money to spend, this player seems like a great choice. You don’t need to be too smart to hook it up. There are only three buttons on the player as you can do everything with the remote control you need to do, except adjust the volume. That kind of annoys me to have to use the TV remote for that. I also need to be fairly close to the front of the player to use the GPX D1816’s remote. Not a lot of power, I guess.

My only caution is for people not to use it too heavily all the time. After two months you may discover it complaining on one song or picture, then maybe more. It might not like scratches anymore. The warranty is for a month.