Greetings all,

I purchased a Koss KD365 standalone player awhile ago at Sears.



Here are the specifications:
http://koss-av.com/product_video/dvd-player-kd365.htm
As you can see, it boasts compatibility with almost all DVD formats.
Now onto the problems...
1) The player freezes when attempting to recognize some DVD-R discs, you can clearly hear a very loud spin up noise, and then it starts to make a loud repeated 'clacking' noise and does not recognize the disc. The player than freezes up, and the only way to get it functioning again is to either press the eject button numerous times or power cycle the unit. The same exact discs are recognized and play fine on my older Philips DVD704 standalone player.
This same behavior has actually occurred with a DVD-ROM disc before also. The DVD-ROM disc has a capacity of approximately 2GB. Additionally, my brother also has a KD365 and he has reported hearing this same 'clacking' behaviour on some discs.

2) When ejecting a DVD-R, and placing a completely different DVD-R (with a different movie) in the player, the player will attempt to start playing the same chapter that it left off from on the previous disc. For instance, if I'm playing "The Hulk" DVD-R and I eject at chapter 21, and then insert "Spiderman" DVD-R, the player will attempt to start playing from chapter 21. This causes problems because some discs don't have the same amount of chapters! The player then makes the same clacking noise described above. Anyone else experience these problems?

3) It has trouble with DVD+RW even though it officially supports it! The audio and video on the DVD+RW are played in slow motion on the KD365. The same disc played on my older Philips DVD704 player works perfectly! I have attached the Disc Quality scan for this DVD+RW disc. As you can see it is well within acceptable specifications!

I'm thinking this player is crap-ola!
Please comment if you have this DVD player!
All other comments/thoughts/suggestions are also welcome!
Thanks in advance. :-)

Well, since this player has no available firmware updates.
It looks like I may be dumping it and purchasing a new player.
Any suggestions for a cheap-o player that works well are appreciated.
So far I've heard that Target has a Cyberhome DVD300 model for ~$35 that might be pretty good.

Of course, I still would appreciate any and all comments pertaining to the first post in this thread.

What kind of brand dvd-/+r are you using?

It is displayed right in my screenshot
RICOHJPNW11 DVD+RW with booktype DVD-ROM

The deal with Koss, Apex, and Cyberhome players is they are put together without much testing. If you get a player that works you are golden, but you have a 50/50 of getting one that works. I would do like other's here and spring for a Philips.

Incidentaly, last time I emailed Koss they said they do not make DVD players. They only make speakers, their name is pimped by Apex or other such generics.

Wesociety,

Unfortunately it is as said by one of the CDFreaks: if such brands work - fine, if not - shrugs. Anyway, according to my experience these type of standalones never last too long.
I have checked some of my places and it occured that others have the same and even more problems with this player. You can make it region free, but you can not update the firmware. Does not exist.

I would suggest buying Philips DVP642. Please, check it here: http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/d...&grp=&cat=&sct=

And of course it is a potential region free player.

I went to look up Koss DVD players a couple years ago, and they had no website. So I emailed someone through www.koss.com and they told me that Koss ONLY makes speakers, anything else I see that's labeled Koss is probably a Apex rebrand.

Spend $10 more and get something at least name brand, real brand. Phillips, Panasonic, maybe Sony.