Coby DVD237 Progressive Scan DVD Player
By: Coby Average Rating: 2.5 Total Reviews: 42
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 On: 2007-11-25
this was a great dvd player, had for 13 months and no problems. one day, i moved my tv to a different room and reconnected everything to it. and the green light on the dvd player was not as bright and it kept saying that i had the wrong disc or no disc. i would unhook it and re hook it up and then it would work. this work for a week and then suddenly the green light just faded into nothing and now it is "dead as a door nail". And you can look up do-yourself-repair for this dvd player all you want, you wont find anything. im glad this was a gift, because i would have never bought it myself!
 On: 2007-10-16
Really the only complaint I have about this player is the noise it makes. When the disc starts loading it sounds like the player might actually lift-off. It also makes noise while the dvd plays. Dont expect this dvd player to be around forever.
On: 2007-06-06
Im looking to trash this piece of junk as soon as I can find a new cheap DVD player. The door always jams, and it wont play any DVD with the slightest scratch on it. It was a waste of money.
 On: 2007-03-31
I was hesitent to purchase this product, but it works very well. Its quiet, easy to use, has a good picture, and is a great value for your money.
On: 2007-02-10
For this price, I am just glad it works. And works it does...
On: 2007-01-17
I bought it last summer for my parents in india and it is still working fine. The only issue I found with it is the range of the remote control. It is very low and the response time is more. Iam not satisfied with the remote. And there are no up and down or forward and reverse controls on the player. You have to rely solely on the remote which is not satisfactory. Other than that everything is fine for that price.
On: 2007-01-11
I reccomend this player. It is a good players at a good price.
 On: 2007-01-06
Its awesome product. By name it is DVD player but plays all kinds of CDs. It is also gr8 because has PAL compatibility.
On: 2006-12-09
I have had this player about 9 months now, and it does what I ask it. It plays dvd well, and was cheap. Dont expect to get a Mercades or BMW at a Hyundi price. This player does have a little lag when it switches disc layers, and the remote is a pain at time to work, often needing to do a dance to get it to work, but again, not the worst thing in the world. It does have progressive scan. So great as a second player or for the kids, but if you want high quality, you do have to pay for it.
On: 2006-12-04
I bought this DVD player for my bedroom because:
1.) It is compact.
2.) The design is great.
3.) It was so easy to disable region coding.
4.) It plays PAL format on an NTSC setup.
This allows me to switch between my American (NTSC, region 1) and German (PAL, region 2) DVDs without any trouble.
I have not had any problems with this DVD player, and despite the negative reviews, I took a chance and bought it. I LOVE IT!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Perfect for bedrooms.
(The only complaint that I have is that the remote must be pointed DIRECTLY at the machine. Other than that, its perfect for my uses.)
(I did not buy this DVD player from Amazon, because my mother bought it for me when I wasnt with her. -She called so that I could look it up online first. So, I knew what I was getting before she bought it.- But I buy all of my German DVDs from Amazon.de. The service is great! I recommend Amazon for all foreign DVD needs.) :-)
On: 2006-11-26
On the remote control, FF and Next share one button, and REW and Previous share another one. It is very hard to control waht you want.
 On: 2006-11-04
This thing looks great - but it still has tracking problems as these cheap units tend to. Do yourself a favor and buy the cyber home - its the only cheaper unit that seems to have some quality to it.
On: 2006-11-04
Coby isnt my first choice or second when Im thinking about buying electronics of any sort, which is why Im taking the time to write this review. I have couple of DVD players including a high end SONY and they all have one thing in common, they wont play out-of-region discs. As it happens, I enjoy watching many films made in other countries and not available in the US. While researching middle market DVD players that were region free and code free, I came across this Coby model and was surprised to discover it does just about everything all the hign end brands do but at a ridiculously low price. Ive had mine for eight months and Ive bought two more as gifts for friends and all remain problem free so far. Plays everything Ive put in it so far, takes up half the space as most other units, and is cheap enough that you can buy two for the same price as one of the big brand names. Worth a second look any day.
On: 2006-10-25
Even with all the nagative feedback about this product, I decided to take chances and bought it. Well, it worked fine for me. It played regular DVD, DVD+R, CD-R, and CD-RW with very good sound and video quality. I do agree on the fact that the remote needs to be aimed properly, but as I am using separate programable remote, that is not an issue for me. Enabling region free feature was a walk in the park. I am more than happy with this player. I would buy some more if I need extra DVD players.
On: 2006-10-08
We bought our DVD-237 last night and have watched about eight hours of video on it. The great attraction for us is its ability to play our Chinese PAL video on our NTSC television. The picture looks good and the sound, through our 2.0 system, is clear and clean.
The remote is small and awkward to use. It is small (2"W x 4.5"H x 0.5" D) and the membrane switches do not provide good tactile feedback. It is very sensitive to how it is aimed at the player. The remote is a key element because there are only minimal controls (open drawer, play/pause and stop) on the front of the unit. Basically, if there is no remote, the operation is limited to Play/Pause, Stop and open drawer. If the remote was better I would rate this player higher. Our Coby 224 has a more conventional remote that works very well with that unit.
Time will tell on the reliability issue. Our other Coby player has been working well for us for about three months.
On: 2006-10-05
I searched Amazon.com for a multi-region DVD player so I could view DVDs that I have purchased overseas. This DVD player came up. There are no instructions within the packaging that state how to watch Non-region 1 DVDs. I called the manufacturer and they told me how to "rigg" it to play region 2 DVDs. Also, the remote control did not work from the very beginning and the manufacturer said I would need to pay money to replace it. They also let me know that the DVD player will not work without the remote control (not compatible with universal remotes). This is not a good product.
On: 2006-10-02
I got this DVD player because it was cheap and I figured it would get the Job done. Well big surpise every dvd I put in it skipped all over and soon it made a loud grinding noise.
STAY AWAY From this dvd player.
On: 2006-09-18
Skip this DVD Player and buy the Coby 224 instead. Usually the 224 can be found for under $30. It plays NTSC and Pal, and also has the codes to be a region free player. I have had mine over a year and love it. It is a small, solid little workhorse.
On: 2006-08-28
This unit was a complete waste of my money. I set it up, it worked fine for 1 day. We watched 2 dvds on it total. After that, the player made a harsh grinding noise and quit. It is now FUBAR. It powers up, but will not load or play any discs.
On a seperate note, the remote that was included with this is very difficult to operate. You need to be right in front of the player, and press the button again and again for it to respond. I tried to program my universal remote to work with it, but the company is apparently too obscure to have codes that will work with universal remotes.
Please dont waste your time and cash with this DVD player. It will probaby just encourage COBY to turn out more trash like this.
On: 2006-08-08
Good DVD player but remote control is not a good one. no hope on that. after one or two days it was damaged.
On: 2006-07-30
Works for one week. Picture freezes after 5 mins into the movie. Machine overheats and loud. Cheap plastic with no lcd screens. Will work great for 5 min movies. Go look at something that is worth buying. Rather buy from store first so that you can return it with ease.
On: 2006-07-13
This DVD player freaks out after barely and hour of playing. Skips and gets blocky. The remote is awkward. WHEN IT ISNT lost, you have to be 2 ft from the dvd player. And still have to point it exactly right. For this price though it gets the job done. Sometimes I have to eject and push it back in just to get it to stop skipping.
On: 2006-07-09
Bought one of these. Plugged it in and connected to TV. Lights came on.
Thats all. Nothing worked except on/off switch. Returned to store and received full refund. Bought a Panasonic which works fine. Have three other Panasonics. They all work fine.
Coby is Junk.
On: 2006-07-02
This worked perfectly from the time it was plugged in. Outstanding clarity. Now I dont have to worry about the region the DVD was made for, I can just play it!
On: 2006-07-02
I bought this machine looking for an economical additional machine to play PAL and non region 1 DVDS. NO SUCH LUCK! THE MACHINE DOES NOT DO THAT! Its fine otherwise but NOT FOR THE ONE REASON THAT I BOUGHT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE! FEH!
by: superdude666 On: 2006-06-21
This is an entry level, bare bones minimum unit. I bought it as a second unit in my house, now it is downgraded to a third unit.
Pluses:
1. It is small and fits great in a room with little space (basement, bedroom).
2. The picture quality is descent (progressive scan on my HD TV for a short term trial did show that this dvd player can do the job).
3.Also plays most purchased and rented movies, even pal or ntsc.
4. Sound functions ok. Does do dolby 5.1(at least it stated it was doing 5.1 surround)
5. Full function remote (zoom, audio, menu, video, eject, ect...)
minuses:
1. Is noisy at times, does grind if it doesnt like dvd
2. Touch with fine scratches. Had to move to different dvd player when a few rentals dvds were really used and scratched.
3. The remote is tiny, easy to loose
4. Problems with copied/ CDR discs-would play most of the way through with multiple hesitations, then lock on some.
5. Movies over 2.5 hours tend to skip or freeze (possibly switching layers)
6. Random pixelation and picture flicker even with new short DVDs, again possibly flipping through layers on dvd.
Overall, I am very pleased with this unit as a thrid tire DVD player. I only paid 19 dollars on an incredable sale last year for it, so who can complain...unless you paid $30 for it. Do not pay more than what I did for this player.
On: 2006-04-14
BUYER BEWARE! I just got this DVD player and it doesnt work. It only worked long enough for it to tell me it cant read the discs. I am assuming it doesnt work because this DVD player is not initially produced to play all region DVDs!!!!!! There were notices on the RE-TAPED BOX and on the instruction booklet that read "This dvd player has been modified by our expert techinians to play all regions, please disregard the manual where it says this dvd player only plays region one". What a joke! I thought I was buying a DVD player meant for all regions. If I wanted a DVD player that was hacked by some computer geek in a basement, I would have went to EBAY!
On: 2006-04-12
Difficult to operate
DVD player is OK at the price but remote is not good and quality of sound is not up to the other DVD players priced in $ 30 range.
It is playing all the formats but sometimes makes noise.
On: 2006-03-25
well I read the reviews but figured Id give it a go anyway considering Im a student on a limited budget....
It worked okay (not great) for the first month and now it just died last night in the middle of a movie WITH MY DVD INSIDE! Who knows how Im gonna get that out now. Ive had it over 30 days so I cant return it. $30.00 for something to work for one month! I should have just bought a $50 player and it would have lasted longer Im sure. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
On: 2006-03-24
Product not bad for the price and even includes a small remote control. However, would not play the movie the Incredibles, but Ive had the same problem with other DVD players. For a small, cheap DVD player, not bad.
On: 2006-03-22
STOP and BEWARE. If you want to purchase a multi-region DVD player DO NOT buy the Coby DVD-237 DVD player it is just a regular DVD player. I wanted a multi-region player that I could watch DVDs from England on (Region 2). I read the reviews and other people wrote about how easy this player was to do it, so I ordered it. Well I got the player yesterday, and the player DOES NOT do multi-regions. It may be a fine little player, but it is not what it is advertised as, now I have to return it. You can contact Coby Customer Service at 1-800-681-2629 and they can tell you what the player can and cant do. But it does not do Regions outside the US.
On: 2006-03-18
Wouldnt play my burned ritek dvd-r 4x smoothly, kept jerking and pausing. Ive returned unit.
On: 2006-02-17
After 6 months I bought the Coby DVD player I started to have problems on playing the DVDs. Now after a year he doesnt work anymore.
On: 2006-02-12
Very lightweight and great appearance. Mine has worked fine without gliches! Matter of fact.....I was so impressed I bought 2 more! Thank you for the great deal!
On: 2006-01-08
I got the DVD player yesterday... it is Incredibly light, very compact and looks very expensive and unique!
On: 2005-10-12
Given that this DVD player was priced at $30, I didnt expect it to impress me, but I did expect that it would work on a basic level. After initially plugging it in, the disc drawer would not open. After power cycling it a few times it did open, but would not recognize any of the discs I inserted. All were normal unscratched DVDs. After power cycling the unit a few more times it did eventually play a DVD properly, but it also demonstrated that it would never behave reliably and repeated plugging and unplugging would be the norm with this DVD player. I hope that all of Cobys entry level units are not this poor. I give it two stars only because this unit could be coaxed into operation with enough perseverance.
On: 2005-10-04
Excellent machine and very inexpensive. Plays all region DVDs without a hitch and converts to whatever system you want. The only negative is that the infra-red remote can not be learned by other remotes in the U.S. and you can not use an IR remote repeater. You have to use the supplied remote and it must be line of site to the unit.
On: 2005-04-27
I got this from Amazon for just under 50 USD.
Many vendors are still selling it for a lot more, and it used to be about 200 USD.
This is an awesome DVD Player, Sure it probably doesnt have all the bells and whistles as many fancier and more expensive ones but it has everything needed for watching DVDs and has something that the EXPENSIVE ones dont!
It plays DVDs from any region regardless if it is NTSC or PAL system.
I have some Swedish (region 2) DVDs and it plays them without problems.
the good part is that you dont need a Hardware hack, or change any settings- just put the DVD in the player and it just works.. So nice, so easy..
And for all the wannabe singers you can plug in your microphone and do some karaoke too..
I highly recommend this product
On: 2004-12-08
I just got the Akai 5851 on Friday. I bought it as a Christmas present for my parents. I picked up 5 dvds from an Italian DVD website as well. The player worked great. I tested it when I got it because of the love it/hate it reviews here. All 5 dvds worked fine. There was no distortion in the picture, no skipping, etc. Little tip though if you plan on buying this player. Do not connect it through your vcr. Connect it directly to your TV or a switcher box. I had it originally hooked up through the front ports on my vcr & the copy protection made the picture cycle between perfect to a dark crappy version & back again. I hooked it up to my pelican device switcher & that fixed that little problem.
The Italian dvd site is pretty sweet too. These are the titles that I picked up:
Something About Mary
Elf
Old School
The Green Mile
Life is Beautiful
They all had a perfect Italian dub & they all had the option of turning on english subtitles. The shipping & handling from Italy is pretty heinous though (about $40.) [...] The other great thing is that there are a pile of new movies like the Lord of the Rings, Spiderman 2 & etc. The only negative thing is that the whole site is in Italian. I had to get help from a cousin that was fluent in Italian to help translate.
On: 2004-11-28
This is a peice of junk!! DVD worked only for 2 sec to go as far as saying no disc !! No customer support had to pay outof my pocket to send it for warranty at their only repair center in US
Spend your money in some more reliable product.!!
On: 2004-11-26
Please dont even have a second thought of buying this piece of JUNK!!! This is the worst ever purchase I ever made.
Unit never worked, I got an exchange from vendor second unit had ghosting problem; Unit also didnt recognize Remote Control!!
Called for Warrant this time - No way to get old of Akai as there is no tech support or warranty place around in US.
Learnt a lesson, I will not buy or recommend anyone to buy this junk.
by: author_a_restless_knight On: 2004-08-16
One thing being a pain when to go back and forth between Britain and US is Regional DVDs. US has one standard and Britain has PAL. In order to play anything in the US other than region 1 you have to buy a PAL DVD player, then have to have a PAL telly! What a pain. Even when you get region 0 which supposedly plays on a few (not my four!), you still need the telly that reads PAL!
So the brilliant solution is this AKAI DVD. It is just such a dream to this videophile. Its a multi region player, and yes I can play my DVDs I get in England and no special tell. The player has a converter! Gee, how SIMPLE can you get!!
It plays multi regions - 5 Disc changer, DC CDRW/MP3. The picture is exquisite. The Zoom is amazing on this one! So this Lovejoy Addict has my 5 Disc changer loaded with series 1 and 2 of Lovjoy (nearly) and eagerly waiting release of series 3.
So, dont sit around wishing you could play a DVD from Britain or elsewhere! Take control.
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