Memorex MVD4540

The Memorex MVD4540 is a DVD & VHS combination player. It sells at Wal-Mart for $278. CDN. I don't particularily like combination units because they tend to skimp on features & they tend to be more expensive than if you bought separate units. This one seemed to have a pretty good DVD section, but the VHS section wasn't so good. Here is a brief overview.

Likes:

• Has a 4 position DVD zoom control.
• Clock can auto set.
• Does not cut off blacks in NTSC below 7.5 IRE from DVD.
• DVD white level output was very good at only 1% too high.
• DVD image covers full raster width.
• Will play DVD-Rs properly with slight burning defects
• Will play from DVD-RWs.
• VHS record color saturation & hue are very accurate (based on recording SMPTE bars & playing back result from a calibrated VCR to a vectorscope).
• HI-FI audio records at the correct level.

Dislikes:

• Can only play the first session of a multisession CD.
• No Y/C (S-Video) cable included.
• No AAA bateries included for remote.
• Colors are slightly undersaturated from DVD (based on SMPTE bars & vectorscope).
• Doesn't play PAL DVDs.
• Doesn't play DVD-Rs with slight authoring defects.
• Doesn't show MP3 file names or folders.
• Doesn't play VCD (Video CD) movies.
• Time counter didn't seem to work on DVD or VHS.
• Recording SMPTE bars results in a 6% increase in brightness (100 = 106 IRE)
• VHS tape mechanics caused some vertical rippling of picture.
• Linear audio is -3dB on left & -7dB on right, indicating tape head alignment problems.
• Calibration VHS tape played back 100 IRE white as 91 IRE which is serious & the color saturation was undersaturated.
• There are not many VHS controls on the front panel, so you better not lose the remote.

For more info contact Doug Hembruff