Given that this critter cost me less than one haircut or 2 low-price DVDs, I figure that after 2 months of regular, mostly hassle-free use, it's paid for itself. When my old DVD player went, this was all I could afford and I expected the worst. But I've been pleasantly surprised.

It took a little figuring out. For instance, one of my DVDs had a squashed picture, which made me start exploring the menus. Sure enough, the player needed to have its picture settings manually adjusted. I played around with the settings and ended up with a uniformly good configuration that has held without a problem.

Like other reviewers, I wish the remote was larger. I have skinny fingers, and I still find the buttons too close to each other.

The player has other quirks that are at least as amusing as they are annoying. I have a big TV, this player, an internet radio, and a boombox, all with remotes, scattered around my bedroom, plus a wall heater whose remote disappeared before I moved in. Before I got this player, they each did their thing without interfering with the others. But now . . . various buttons on the player remote will turn on the internet radio and change its stations and volume and main menu selections (I haven't figured out which remote buttons are doing what). This morning I discovered that something on the remote had upped my heater shutdown temperature from 66 to 74. (So far the boombox and TV haven't been affected.) And another new development is that while everything else is turned off and I'm away from the room, the player will turn ITSELF on (while the connected TV is off) and just idle at the DVD's main menu. It got good and warm doing this, apparently for hours, yesterday.

So we get what we're paying for"”a less than stellar product"”but at least for me it does its main job very well, and I'm grateful.

I wanted a small DVD player for my bedroom. I did not want Blueray, just an HD DVD player. I like this DVD player, and it's working well for me. My only beef is the remote. I'm used to a huge Play, Stop, FFWD, and Chapter buttons on the remote. On this remote, all buttons are the same size. Laying in bed you have to turn the light on to find the Play/Pause button. I've got a programmable remote with big buttons, I'm going to try that.

Remote Functions Viewing Images - USB

DVD/USB - switches from DVD to USB
Navigation Arrows - navigate Folders and Images in File Manager mode of what's on USB
Chapter Up and Chapter Back - go forwards or backwards while viewing images
Return - while viewing image, switches back from image viewing mode to File Manager mode
Numeric Keypad - enter the number of the image you wish to view. Only works while viewing images

Note: All the ABOVE are NOT LISTED in the User Manual

It's a pretty crappy USB image viewer as far as navigating, good clear picture though. But knowing the above does help to navigate.

Let's face it - you don't always need top of the line and for a spare room to play DVD's on - this is great , no issue with zones or any of that crap , simple easy to use and even comes with the cables - for the money even if it dies after a couple years - your still ahead of the game. Would I want this on my main entertainment system , no I would want a Blue ray player and something high definition.

This was an unexpected purchase which came about in a pinch to to watch a new (birthday gift) DVD that would not play in our old (circa 2015) DVD player. This machine is all that it professes to be and more - it literally comes out of the box ready to go, just plug and play - a lifesaver to be sure! And yes, it plays everything regardless of country of origin (except JP) - nice!

SECOND UPDATE; After just under 10 months it would no longer read disc. Seller honored warranty and did send a replacement, but it was a little slow getting it. 11 days from the time I applied for the replacement. WORD of CAUTION; do not leave a disc in on pause. I forgot and left it in overnight and that's when it went bad. I recommend unloading player and turning off the power when not in use. UPDATE; After 6 months the remote control quit working. Didn't spill any liquids or anything on it, it just quit. I contacted the seller and they promptly sent out a free replacement. GREAT SERVICE !!! I didn't want Blu-Ray or anything special, no bells or whistles, just want to play my store bought and home burned DVDs(years ago I owned a DVD Player/Recorder and recorded a lot of episodes of Columbo, Gunsmoke and movies off TCM and AMC). I've went through two Walmart $25.00 ONNs , one lasted just under two years and the other seven months. This Mediasonic seems more substantially built, feels more solid, when the door opens and the tray disc holder comes out it doesn't feel as flimsy as the ONN. The whole unit doesn't get as hot as the ONN, only slightly warm. The HDMI cord is about three times as thick. Picture is adequate for me, I'm not that particular. So far so good. I'll see how long this lasts. Shipping was fast, ordered it on a Thursday and received it that Saturday.