RCA DRC285 DVD Player with HD Upconversion
By: Thomson Average Rating: 1.5 Total Reviews: 15
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 On: 2008-05-04
OK, I normally research my products before I buy them. Well, I was out buying a well-researched new TV and saw this on sale and figured, Why not? RCA has traditionally been a good brand. After bringing it home I saw all the bad reviews, but my unit played beautifully so I kept my fingers crossed - for about 3 weeks. Maybe lasted through 3 movies. Then it stopped recognizing discs.
The Philips DVP59xx units are similar in features and price, but seem to stay alive a bit better than these RCA units.
On: 2008-04-08
First off, I can attest to the good video and audio of the product WHILE IT WORKED. My first unit lasted about two months then started freezing and feeding horrible noise to my receiver. My second unit was used 5 times (yes, this is no exaggeration) and started to shift portions of the video horizontally while occasionally peppering the video with white snow. The bottom line is that this is a cheap, flimsy product. You can get NO RCA SUPPORT! The website states that if the product is still within warranty you have to send it back to the place of purchase. There is no firmware update available and it will be cheaper for me to cut my losses now and replace the unit with another brand at extra cost than to spend the gas money repeatedly. I will never buy another RCA product as the RCA logo is just slapped on a Thompson product. The same goes for Thompson and Audiovox.
Do yourself a favor and dont buy this or another RCA product. If you do, which is your choice, keep your receipt as you will likely need it.
On: 2008-03-03
Please dont be fooled into buying this. The first unit I got didnt play DVDs and my second quit working after 7 months. It would play a movie (DVD & USB) for 10 minutes and then crash and display garbage on the screen.
On: 2008-02-03
Do not buy this DVD player!!! I bought this one based on the high review it got from Consumer Reports. The RCA DRC285 worked fine for about a month (daily use), and then suddenly started freezing up. The picture would be frozen in a garbled image, and then the machine would be completely unresponsive, and I had to unplug it / replug it in to get it to work again. Near the end it would freeze up after 5 minutes on any disc. The RCA was a great deal for a 1080p unconverting player ($50), and I definitely got what I paid for. Returned it and went with the Sony DVP-NS77H, which I havent had any problems with.
On: 2008-01-27
An otherwise good DVD player but with very poor product quality. Looks and feels cheap. Died on me after watching just a few movies and right on the very first time I hooked it to my TV using the HDMI port. Returned it to the store for an exchange. The second unit died in the same way after watching a couple of movies as well. The first unit first showed black stripes across the screen and then after a while it froze and the screen was full of garbled image. Second unit died suddenly with the same garbled screen.
Its a shame because the built-in USB port is really useful. You can view pictures and watch movies shot with a digital camera. You can also play music files from this port as well or convert an audio CD to MP3 files into any flash drive plugged in the USB port. This port was THE reason I originally chose this particular model over other upconverting models despite negative reviews I had read elsewhere.
On: 2008-01-20
I have one of these units and it worked fine for about 2 months and then it died. It had a great picture while it lasted but I would not recommend it to anyone. Buy a different brand if you want something that will last!
 On: 2008-01-05
I recognize that there are a lot of people who are dissatisfied with this product. Ive had this product for about 3 weeks. The batteries supplied worked for 1 day. That was strange. Other than that, the TV Guardian works fantastic. This is the only product on the market, at the time of this review, that has both HDMI up-conversion and TV Guardian. Of course, TV Guardian doesnt work on all movies, but weve had very good success.
As far as quality, I kept my Sony HDMI up-converting DVD player because it is a clear winner in quality (I bought the RCA for the TV Guardian). But, my Sony also cost about 4 times more. The up-converted picture quality looks fantastic on my Panasonic 1080i HD TV. You do have to manually set your televisions aspect ratio and resolution. (My TV can only support 1080i, and the screen went crazy when I set it on 1080p).
So, the DVD player isnt as bad as everyone says. In some ways it is a little complicating to set up, but it is do-able.
If something happens and the player breaks, Ill submit another review referencing this review.
On: 2007-12-21
I hooked the player up and in 5 min it died. The picture started scrambling and then it never showed anything on the screen after that. I have to return it now and speaking with "ritzcamera" customer support is almost to hard to even get my refund. Absolutly brutal experience. Its only $50 so I am thinking I am just going to give up. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.
On: 2007-11-15
I purchased this from Amazon 6 months ago. It broke last week. Since it is suppose to be under warranty I called RCA. They wanted to charge me a $50 service fee to have the DVD player switched out, which is almost the full price of the unit. Basically you really only have a warranty until 90 days, after that point you are forced to pay their "fee". They do not support their products whatsoever. I am now left with a very large paper weight. Save yourself the trouble and buy from a company that actually stands behind their products and offers a full warranty with no strings attached.
On: 2007-10-29
I have purchased 2 of these RCA285 units and both of them failed within a month. I took a loss on the first one but thank goodness I ordered the second one from Amazon and was able to return it and get an immediate refund. Amazon is wonderful, this player is horrible. Amazon should stop their losses and pull this item from inventory now. So please dont waste your money on this unit and buy another upconverting DVD player from another manufacturer.
On: 2007-09-19
Sure this player is inexpensive and is made by RCA (I guess a decent manufacturer???), but dont be fooled. This is a cheap piece of machinery. When I hooked the player up, I was able to play one movie. The picture was ok...definitely not great (even with the upscaling). After that movie though, no other dvds worked on the player. In fact, every film I tried to play ended up jamming the player and I had to unplug the system to release the disc. Thankfully, Amazon is refunding me my money. Dont waste your time with this player. Spend the extra $20 and go with another model.
On: 2007-09-18
Sure this player is inexpensive and is made by RCA (I guess a decent manufacturer???), but dont be fooled. This is a cheap piece of machinery. When I hooked the player up, I was able to play one movie. The picture was ok...definitely not great (even with the upscaling). After that movie though, no other dvds worked on the player. In fact, every film I tried to play ended up jamming the player and I had to unplug the system to release the disc. Thankfully, Amazon is refunding me my money. Dont waste your time with this player. Spend the extra $20 and go with another model.
On: 2007-08-31
This player has all the bells and whistles but is the lowest quality built unit I seen and tested. I am amazed that RCA would even put their name on this item. I know two people that had the usb port dies within the first month. The upconvert is always on and it messes up any video output from high res divx avi files. The most grainy picture I ever seen of any player converting divx files. Seen better video play of divx files on players priced at less then half the price this unit goes for.
hi res divx files should be able to force the upconvert to shut off instead of getting distorted colors and video output quality.
If I was planning on viewing alot of files from my computer divx avi etc.. on a dvd player and quality of the video output and color there of I would though this player in the trash before any other I have tried. Other then that it is a good player for normal dvd movies.
On: 2007-08-30
This player has all the bells and whistles but is the lowest quality built unit I seen and tested. I am amazed that RCA would even put their name on this item. I know two people that had the usb port dies within the first month. The upconvert is always on and it messes up any video output from high res divx avi files. The most grainy picture I ever seen of any player converting divx files. Seen better video play of divx files on players priced at less then half the price this unit goes for.
hi res divx files should be able to force the upconvert to shut off instead of getting distorted colors and video output quality.
If I was planning on viewing alot of files from my computer divx avi etc.. on a dvd player and quality of the video output and color there of I would though this player in the trash before any other I have tried. Other then that it is a good player for normal dvd movies.
On: 2007-08-20
I have video hooked up with component cables and have not tried HDMI yet. It produces good video and sound. I have had it for about a month and have had absolutely no problems. The menu and remote are anything but sophisticated. Overall it gets the job done and keeps the kids happy.
On: 2007-08-07
The product feels very cheap, as does the remote. It worked for about a week and then simply died. I sent it back. I would not recommend it to anyone.
 On: 2007-06-04
The DRC 285 is a good little upconvert. It upconverts to 480p 720p 1080i and 1080p. All the ouputs are active at once. The HDMI is the only one you can turn on and off. The componet outputs give a good picture but it is 480p. You can only upconvert through the HDMI output. Ive set mine to 1080i and was really impressed with the increased picture quality of standard dvds. While Im not sure you are getting full blown HD, there is no doubt it looks alot better. The player menu is about as bare bones as it gets-only settings for picture ratio and setting the HDMI to how you want it. It does let you make adjustments on the fly as you watch a dvd. Another featue I liked is you can set the audio of the HDMI seperate from the digital outputs.{coax and optical} This way if your HD set cannot support a digital 5.1 signal you can set it to PCM and still get 5.1 for the other outputs to you home theater. THe player also has a USB 2.0 port on the front and a special menu that lets you rip your cds to an ipod if you want. The remote is really small and I dont like it much. The instruction manual is just a paper flyer with very small print i didnt like it either. The player also dosnt come with an HDMI cable. All that being said I really like it, its cheap, plays everthing Ive put in it and handles layer changes better than any player Ive had. Recomended.
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