AStar DVD-3800 Progressive Scan DVD Player Conclusion

Performance

The testing started off on a very bad note. After connecting the DVD-3800 to my Sony TV with component cable for the video and standard RCA red / white for the audio, the only sound that came out of the TV was the background music. There was no dialogue and no sound effects. After trying a different set of audio cables and also connecting the player to my Panasonic TV, I was stuck with the same problem. I read through the manual and found very little help. Only vague suggestions were listed in the Troubleshooting section, such as "Ensure that you have set the players audio settings correctly." After fiddling around with the on-screen audio settings, I was finally able to fix the sound issue by changing the Analog Out settings to 2-channel. This was frustrating since there is no reason not to expect a DVD player to be fully functional out of the box. There should be no need to adjust any settings in order for it to work correctly. To add to my frustration, the remote control was only reliable when pointed directly at the center of the unit and only 2-3 feet to the left or right of the unit.

The video quality of the DVD-3800 is also lacking, regardless of whether progressive scan was utilized. A number of motion artifacts were visible in the action scenes of "The Matrix Revolutions" . In particular, the battle scenes between the humans and the Sentinel machines contained some sort of streaking lines above the objects as they moved up or down the screen. The color reproduction is acceptable, with faithful reproduction of colors without being washed out or over saturated, but does not match the same level of accuracy in higher-end DVD players.

Testing of the audio, once the settings were corrected, revealed that the DVD-3800 does an admirable job producing sound using either of the digital audio outputs. Dialogue and sound effects were clear and well defined, and the player had no trouble with the low-to-high spectrum of sound.

What's in the Box

DVD Player

Remote control with 2 AA batteries

Power cord

RCA A/V cord (red, white and yellow)

User manual

AStar DVD-3800 Progressive Scan DVD Player

Pros: Good audio quality; stylish appearance.

Cons: Poor video quality; quirky audio settings out of the box; no HDMI output; no auto-resume of DVDs; weak remote control.

The Verdict

The AStar DVD-3800 suffers from sub-par video quality and a troublesome out-of-the-box experience, and does very little to stand out from other budget DVD players. Despite solid audio quality and attractive styling, this DVD player misses the mark.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Price: $40