Kudos to Konka................................
e-town.com
Konka
Model No: KD1800U
DVD player Silver
1 year parts & labor
List Price: $199.99
Product Review
Konka
KD1800U DVD player
Kevin Miller
September 10, 1999 -- Konka, a Chinese electronics manufacturer, is just entering the U.S. market. And it's already making waves in the video world, particularly in terms of price. Take Konka's KD-1800U single-play DVD player, for example. The KD-1800U breaks the all-important $200 price barrier, with a list price of $199. That's right, we now have a sub-$200 DVD player less than three years after the format's introduction. It took laserdisc 10 years to drop below $500.
Konka's sudden presence doesn't stop there, though. The company also has a full line of analog and digital direct-view TVs at highly competitive prices. Look for our upcoming reviews of Konka's 13-inch and 20-inch analog models.
Don't be so quick to write off the KD-1800U. At $199, the KD-1800U is by far the best value in its category. Fellow etowner David Elrich and I were both quite impressed with its picture quality.
Features:
10-bit video processing
four slow forward playing speeds
multiple angle
PAL compatible
2-channel karaoke playback
2.9 x 16.9 x 14.4 inches (HWD), 12.3 pounds
Don't expect a feature-packed player at this price. One nice touch is NTSC and PAL capability. This could be valuable to folks like me, who have family in countries where PAL is the standard. Konka does offer the multiple angle function, though I have yet to find software that can take advantage of it. The KD-1800U also provides karaoke playback. Although not popular in the United States, karaoke is all the rage in Asia.
Features Rating: 80
Connectivity:
S-video output
composite video output
optical digital audio output
coaxial digital audio output
analog audio outputs
headphone jack
The KD-1800U isn't heavily endowed with connectivity options, but then you shouldn't really expect it to be. It does, however, have both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs. This is quite a pleasant surprise in a budget-priced player and one that definitely is worth some points over etown.com's baseline average of 70.
Connectivity Rating: 80
Look & Feel: If you're like me, you'd anticipate a pretty cheesy-looking box for less than two C-notes. To my great delight, however, the KD-1800U is solidly built. Weighing in at more than 12 pounds, this player is heftier than most, plus it has an attractive silver finish. The KD-1800's overall build quality is exceptional for any DVD player -- let alone for a bargain-basement model.
The remote that comes with the KD-1800U is fairly large, with nicely sized (read: big but not cartoonishly huge) buttons that make operation easy and straightforward. The unit fits snugly in the hand and is comfortable to use. All of the most frequently used buttons are centrally located. A door slides down to reveal functions that are used less often, such as setup and karaoke. Unfortunately the remote is not backlit; again, don't expect such niceties from a player in this category.
Look & Feel Rating: 84
Performance: I used the Konka KD-1800U with two different systems. Most of my viewing and testing was done on the Sony KV-32V68 32-inch direct-view TV. David Elrich and I fired up the player immediately upon its arrival and were pleased with the results. The Konka produces sharp, crisp, highly detailed pictures with excellent color rendition and skin tone reproduction.
The Konka's picture performance is impressive, especially when you consider its price. In the resolution department, the KD-1800U surpassed at least two players that cost considerably more -- the Philips DVD-825AT and the Sharp DV-650U -- delivering between 460 and 470 lines of horizontal resolution from the resolution chart on the "Video Essentials" test DVD. Those numbers are near the format's limit. Most impressive.
The KD-1800U also passed my other DVD torture tests. In the area of black level, it is one of the few players that can pass a full PLUGE (picture lineup generation equipment) test pattern, which lets you set the black level (brightness) on a TV set. This was another welcome surprise. Even some of the most expensive players on the market today can't do that. The KD-1800U also excelled on the Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate test pattern, exhibiting few or no cross-color artifacts. Considering how well it performed on these tests, I have to award it many points above etown.com's baseline average.
Next I dragged the KD-1800U into etown.com's sound room for a listen to some 5.1-channel soundtracks. The system consisted of an ADA Reference surround sound processor powered by an ADA 6150 six-channel amplifier, a Sonus Faber surround sound speaker suite (look for Mark Fleischmann's upcoming review), and a Samsung HCH551W rear-projection HDTV. Watching scenes from "The Fifth Element" ("my favorite" for testing purposes) provided an excellent sonic experience.
Are there any problems with this $199 player? Yeah, there were some minor glitches. The player once froze up when loading a DVD. It had to be powered down then up again to accept and play the disc. A few times I experienced an inordinately long lag time during chapter skips. This was no big deal, but the freeze did concern me. I suspect the company may have skimped on some memory here. Although the KD-1800U performed fine most of the time, these problems, if recurring, could be annoying. They force me to reduce an otherwise outstanding Performance rating.
Performance Rating: 86
Value: A product's value usually is tough to assess, but it's easier in the Konka KD-1800's case. The KD-1800U is a killer value. Picture and sound are very impressive. Admittedly, the few glitches I experienced could be of some concern if you're the type of user who likes to shuffle around a disc. I, however, am not that kind of user -- except when I am reviewing or demonstrating the format. Still, it is an annoyance, and I must knock a few points from a still stellar Value rating.
Value Rating: 92
The Konka KD-1800U is a historic product, marking the dawn of a new era of VCR-priced DVD players. This breakthrough in price ensures the inevitability of DVD becoming a mass-market product. The actual definition of this term is a market penetration of 10 million units, which DVD is well on its way to achieving. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of next year we see a $99 DVD player from this company. Kudos to Konka.
Overall Rating: 84
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