Koss DVP2161 Compact DVD with MP3/CD Player

With this player I can watch DVD's from all over the world. It's neat, clean and easy to use.

exact product at an affordable price w a smooth transaction

Touch n go with this unit, currently on the shelve at the Salvation Army.

Bought this one to use at home. Made sure to ventilate it well based on other customer reviews and we've never had the problem with getting shocked. However, it won't play any of our kids' Disney DVDs - guess they are just too loaded (special editions), none of the LOTR DVDs that we have, most of our Film Movement movies (too much extra with all the subtitles?), etc. So we've relegated it to our cabin where it gets used infrequently and only with older DVDs. Might be good as a backup, but don't count on it for every day use.

slim, small and compact. cheap all plastic body. the drive for light weighted design and cost cutting recuded reliability and durabiligy. You won't expect it work for your for over 2 years if your are heavy-duty user. portable design allows you to bring it with you on the run. You may even use it in your car without power converter because the DVD player used standard 12 voltage power.

can play dvd, vcd, svcd, mp3, photo disks with jpeg format files(nice feature, you can view your CD photo album on your TV!), some older avi format(doesn't support latest avi file in motion picture format of those video clips shoot by all Canon digital camera, this is big mistake Koss made).

It won't support real player file, mpeg-4 format, or any other newer computer based movie format.

some fussy about this player is that it produces a lot static charge on it after you played a disk. when you hand touches any button on the player you get electric shock! it is very annoying i guess that's because its body cannot be connected to ground on power outlet due to its design with converter power supply and the heavy of plastic material in the player body. you have to hold your car key to touch the button getting the player discharged! i see many times strong static discharges when i use my car key touching those buttons!

Ordered brand new from Amazon. Within 15 minutes of the first plug in, player made a lot of loud spinning noises. On top of that, skipping happened every two minutes or so. I rushed to Amazon and requested a RMA right away. I bought it for the compactness, but quality is very bad.

I would generally agree with most of the reviews that people have written, both positive and negatives.

Positive - It does play almost anything you put in it. It is sleek, small and very portable. A fairly functional remote. Video quality is good.

Negative - It does not play some new dvds. It gets warm and this sometimes turns the player off but keeping in ventilated fixed that problem.

In all I would give this player 3 stars.

But there is one very good thing I discovered about this player that should get it an additional star. I have found this player to do something that no other player has done, it will play only the video files. In other words your dvd or vcd does not need to be in dvd or vcd format. All you need are the .dat files for vcds. You can copy several .dat files from several vcds into a dvd and play them one by one. Just remember to put the files in folders that have their respective movie names. The dvd player menu will help you navigate through each folder with some work( You will figure it out).

I have to agree with all the negative reviewers on this product--and I wish I had read them before buying. I was lured by the price, discounted further by an Amazon special a year ago.

But the DVD player skipped and then froze halfway through the first movie, and it has rejected other discs all together.

Furthermore, the unit does not hook directly to a tv; you'll need a conversion set from Radio Shack, which completely undermines the enticing value. Sure, you can get the unit for $30 plus shipping (after a mail-in rebate) but you'll need to spend another $30 to $40 for the conversion set.

All together, this product was a complete waste. Don't bother.

Ive had this machine for two weeks now and am buying another as a gift. it plays MP3s well,and ofcourse dvds. Its more technologicly advanced than i am so far i just put the dvd into it and press play. thats all you have to do. It comes with rca cables, which allows it to be connected to most tvs. It has an optical output, which my tv cannot utilize. but i can and do use the component outputs which enhances picture quality. check your tv if you have red,green,and blue jacks adjacent one and other you could take advantage of its advanced picture quality as well. The component cables are inexspensive at amazon (8.00).

I was looking for a compact CD player to use by my bedside to play sleep CD's. The Koss player turned out to be a perfect tool for my purpose. I can preprogram the track I want to hear ahead of time. If I fall asleep that is ok too. Only negative is the on/off power switch is really tiny. Also bad location near the right rear corner end. Otherwise, I feel I made a wise selection.

For the price, the Koss DVP2161 Compact DVD player worked o.k. It was used for travel to keep kids occupied in the car. It was hooked up to a TV/VCR combo. Only problem was the player did not come with a car adapter which you had to purchase separately from an electronics store. Koss does not have an adapter for this unit. This caused some problem as the adapter was not working properly. Once fixed, the player worked well for an 11 hour trip.

bought this DVD player couple months ago, the description was somewhat miss leading - the "hook up to computer" part, you will need either buy some type of converter or use a S-Video, for those monitor does not have S-Video, you're out of luck.

Mine broke down 2 weeks ago, with no indication, it just stop reading DVDs, any DVDs i put in, it says "no Disc". and weird thing is after i stop using it for awhile and almost decide to give up, it plays DVDs again... maybe this is the over-heating problems people were discussing in the previous threads. such a bad experience.

i would not recommend this produce.

I purchased this DVD player because I didn't have room for a full sized one. It cost about $90 at the time I bought it in March, but has come down to less than half that price.

Besides its small size, it plays discs from regions other than 0 or 1.

The problem is that almost every disc I play on it either stalls or skips, so I was forced to purchase a full sized model and disconnect this Koss.

In short, if you're thinking of purchasing this Koss portable - without a screen, save your money.

I bought one of these little gadgets despite some of the warnings here on Amazon, and so far, so good. I have watched several movies, as well as the entire "Enterprise" TV show DVD collection, and have had no problems whatever. However, I have not watched any four hour DVDs or anything of that sort, which might trigger the overheating problem that another reviewer mentioned.

The unit presents a quite-good picture, and the sound is pretty good too. I have not done an A/B test with a full-featured DVD player, but the fact that this little unit will accept an optical cable and produce Dolby 5.1 sounds is pretty impressive. This is a great unit, it appears, for use in an RV or any other environment where its small size is an important virtue. While it might not be your choice for your living room home theater system, this one seems fine for light and moderate duty use. For $39 dollars, it is a pretty good value.

I took a risk with the mixed reviews and the player that arrived today failed to play several disks and would error out shortly after the two times I got it to start playing at all. I'm returning the unit for a refund.

I ignored the reviews on this product and bought it anyway because of it's uniquely small size. I had a large number of things to bring down to my home in Central America and I was able to bring it down in the pocket of my jacket. However, I would have been better served to just slip it in the trash basket at the airport instead. Every single complaint listed in the other reviews haunted mine, particularly the heating, failure to recognize the disk, and the "frame-freeze". The most unforgiving was the frame-freeze, which, would begin for no apparent reason, usually about half way though a movie, then "freeze" for 2-15 seconds, and then play for 10 or so seconds and "Freeze" again. Well, this was it's ultimate undoing, and mine, because after just a few weeks, when in one streak it ruined 3 movies in as many days, I thoroughly "tweaked" the damn thing with a claw hammer, which was the most satisfaction I recieved from this product. I am all for saving a couple of bucks, but this product is simply below the threshold of utility. Spend the extra $10 and get something that works.

When it worked, it was OK -- decent picture/sound and small profile. But most of the time it wouldn't play disks, or it would freeze in the middle of them; all kinds of playback problems. I eventually stopped using it altogether and it's collecting dust in my closet. I would feel too bad trying to pass it off to someone else so I should probably just throw it away.

assuming the cost of shipping is included otherwise it's probably better to forget the whole thing. The player worked fine but died after a couple of months of not very heavy use and no harsh handling. You might have better luck than me, who knows.

This is a nice little dvd player to have. I'm a student and I find it convenient to take it around my dorm and hook it up on anyones tv without any fuss (since its so small). you can also connect it to your boombox and play mp3s. It does seem a little flimsy when you hold it but I haven't experienced any problems yet. I guess if you handle it with care it should be ok.

Tired of complaining about my school's equipment--antiquated, erratic, remoteless, installed in inaccessible cabinets--I purchased this bargain-basement little machine as a last-ditch effort to regain control of my classroom. It's sufficiently light and compact to fit in a book bag, it sets up faster than a drawer-type player, and so far it's handled every visual and audio source I've fed it (even my computer does a lousy job with VCD's). The remote is not only intuitive but the most versatile one I've used. It'll perform forward and backwards motion at any speed, freeze frames and even advance or reverse them one at a time. As a result, kids are able to spot even the minute details in "Citizen Kane," and I can set it to automatically repeat Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy until they get it.

True, some of the previous reviews do not portend well for the durability of this little sanity saver, but mine has been going strong for two months. At these prices, that's good enough for me. And if it fails next week, I'll order two more from Amazon just to be on the safe side. Besides, I could use the extra remotes to put in my students' hands.

[Follow-up: the machine got me through a 5-month semester, during which time I never played it continuously for more than an hour or two. Now that summer is here, I've been using it more regularly for longer periods. I'm afraid some of the negative experiences reported by other reviewers are becoming noticeable. When the machine gets warm, it begins to become temperamental about loading some DVD's and sticks while reading the others. What helps is to turn off the power at the player instead of the remote when it's not in use. Over night the machine seems to restore itself--at least so far.]

If you are truly interested in a quality portable DVD player, I would shy away from this one. However, that was not my intensions when I purchased this item. I wanted a relatively inexpensive (less than $ 30.00) DVD player that I could hook up to any TV and watch pre-recorded and recorded DVD movies when I was out of town and on the road. You can accomplish that with this player (via a RF modulator and some A/V cable and coax cable). I did not want to spend $150.00 - $300.00 on a portable DVD player.

The good: This unit is very portable, small, compact and lightweight. It is not very expensive and it has a fairly well know brand name attached to it (Koss). It has played every DVD and CD I used in it, including the ones I recorded myself utilizing my computer or my stand alone home Panasonic DVD recorder. It delivers a pretty good picture quality and the sound quality is not bad either. Of course, all this depends on the quality of the television set you have in home, or in my case, your hotel room (UGH).

Now for the bad: After about 45 minutes to an hour of continuous playing time, the picture and sound starts to "freeze". Afterwhich, the unit discontinues to play any further. This is an inherient problem with all these units. Just read all the other reviews below. The unit get too hot to properly load and play any DVD or CD. Period. So you are warned. It does not run on batteries, only A/C. You have to hook up a lot of wires to make it go (power cord, RF Modulator, coax cable, A/V wires, etc...) It does not have it's own screen and/or it's own internal speakers (but then again, what do you expect for the price).

I knew about the overheating problem beforehand by just reading the reviews of others prior to purchasing it. But, for $ 30.00 I figured how can you go wrong. My solution to this problem was to purchase a small 4" fan ($3.97 at WalMart), place the DVD player on a small cup to allow the air to circulate around the top and bottom of the unit, and direct the air towards the back of the unit. Do not place the DVD player directly on a tabletop and definetly not on any soft item. Too much heat is generated in the unit and the player cannot dissipate the heat quickly enough function properly.

I also purchased the extended warranty for this unit, since it only comes with a 90 day warranty period. For $ 5.99 you can get a full replacement warranty for up to a year. Well worth it because this unit has a high probiblity of failing completely within a year, if you plan on using it a lot.

All in all, 3 stars is a fair rating for this product. It works to accomplish all my objective (although I have to help it along a bit). And as I said earlier, you can't beat the price.

Wanted a DVD player I could take to the Philippines when I visit my Wifes Family. This was just what I needed. It even came with an AC adapter that will run on the 240V in the Philippines. It plays DVD's DVD-R DVD+R music CDs MP3's JPEG photo files VCD's and SVCD's. I havent had any problems with mine its played every DVD I tried. Once in a while it wont recognise a DVD, just power off and on with the remote or open and close the cover and it will work. Funny, my GE DVD player does the same thing at times. This usually happens when I go from one brand of DVD to another. Maybe the player has to be reset to focus the laser correctly for the new DVD? I like this player so much I just ordered a second one so I can leave one with my Wifes Family.

everything looks good and works good....except that its hard to play MP3 cds.I would recommend for DVDs and audio CDs but not for MP3.

I've had this player for 6 months and not had any problems AT ALL. I feel I've already got my money's worth. I mean for $40, what more can you ask for than it playing everytime, never skipping, never freezing, NEVER overheating. It doesn't have all the ridiculous features that a $200 Sony does, but how often do you use automatic frame locking. (This is where you can program it to pause on a certain scene) Who needs that? Anyway, for the one blaming Amazon. You're stupid if you don't buy from Amazon anymore because of your experience with this player. Who knows what your daughter did to it within the two weeks she had it. Amazon can't be responsible for that. The manufacturer should be, and would if you would just contact them and keep on it. To that reviewer, you're an idiot!

First off, I have had this DVD player for over 2 years. I read the reviews before I purchased it (at twice the current price) and just today. Perhaps some customers had some type of unit failure; I do not know. And yes, mine does get quite warm for some movies over 2 hrs long. And yes, sometimes it will freeze up for a second or two. However, with proper cleaning of the laser and the fact that I keep my elevated (it sits on my PS2 vertical stand) for ventilation.

In conclusion, I'd simply say buyer beware. Some folks buy it for the price without reading the reviews and then complain to no end about how they were ripped off, etc. etc.
I've had very few problems, have made no modifications to mine and until I find room for a full-size DVD changer, this one works just fine.

Daughter picked this product to buy with her gift certificate.
Problem dvd player by Koss only worked for two weeks. Not only
defective but, amazon.com does not refund nor exchange it, and no information to get Koss to refund or replace it. I may never buy anything from amazon.com again because you don't know what you can return til after the fact.
Very angry and disappointed in Amazon.com

This product is horrible. I have had it for about 1 and a half months and it doesn't work. It recognizes that there is a DVD in there tries to load it and then says there is no disc. I tried this with every DVD in my collection and 1 out of 10 times it wont recognize that I am tryign to play a DVD. It is no fun when you rent a movie, try to watch it and the DVD player decides to not recognize the disc. Don't cheap out and buy this DVD player, it is nice and small but overall just sucks. I would rather have a huge DVD player that works all the time than this little one that never works when you want it to.

I have liked this player for 3 months. However, right after the warranty period ended, the player stopped playing DVDs. It doesn't even play brand-new DVDs. I really regret this purchase.

THE VERY FIRST DVD WE PLAYED STARTED SKIPPING ABOUT HALF WAY THROUGH A 2 HOUR MOVIE.
It was so awful that we had to turn off the unit and waited about an hour to finish watching the movie. The next day we watched another movie and it did the same thing. Each time - I unplugged the power from the unit after turning it off. It's my own fault for only reading a few reviews about the Koss DVP2161 and I thinking, "Who knows, maybe I'll get a good player". Since I read about the overheating and skipping problems, we stacked 2 VCR tapes under each side of this model for adequate air circulation, but that didn't slow or stop the problem.
I've returned this unit and I've got my refund back, but I hope that nobody else wastes their time.

*THIS KOSS UNIT DOESN'T DESERVE ANY STARS - Koss should recall and fix this!!

I'm always worrying whether or not this DVD player will play a DVD consistently. Sometimes it plays it, and sometimes it doesn't. If a DVD player can't do its basic function: play DVDs, and do it well, then what's the point? You might as well pay an extra $20 and get a DVD player that will play DVDs consistently without skipping!

This is definetly not worth the hassle.

I have one of these and it will only read the occasional DVD. Terrible product.

Very good quality....I wouldn't worry about heating...all cd type player use lasers that use light energy that does turn into heat energy...very normal for all such units to get warm..outstanding price....sound quality superb....If your using it as a component to
a radio....you will have to buy a 3.5 jack to 3.5 jack to plug into your system....I have this unit sitting on top of my dresser and with my radio...it is great because it doen't take up alot of space and I don't have to worry about batteries....great price...dosen't take up alot of space...

I've had the Koss DVP2161 Compact DVD for almost 2 weeks, and have kept it running on my desk for long periods to see whether it would get too hot for comfort. I'm happy to report, at least in my case, the unit has not gotten hot or even warm during this period.

I've run it using the supplied AC adapter as well as directly off a 12v power source as in a car. I intend to use it most often in a car.

The Koss played commercial DVD's without hesitation, but I was initially dismayed by its rejection of many of my own DVD recordings. It often failed to recognize the disk. However, I tried opening and closing the lid, which restarts the loading process, and was pleased that the Koss would "eventually" (a couple of tries) recognize the disk and then play it fully.

Ultimately, it played all my recorded DVDs except one old Maxell DVD-RW which never worked. More recent +RW and -RW's played fine if not the first time.

As others have reported, CD's CD-R's MP3's and various other formats and files all played without problem.

I wish it wasn't necessary to have to "coax" this unit to play the +R/-R disks, but at least it will play them. I gave the Koss 4 stars in spite of this because it resolves all of my auto system needs - replacing a 12v VCR - at a nice price, and has a nice variety of output connections.

With the heat problem apparently resolved, and a little patience, I can recommend this unit quite highly.

Hi
Me and my other two friends bought this DVD player during thanks giving. When our package came we were excited but than the disaster struck. In the begining mine worked fine but both my friends had problems with theirs. It would not play any DVD's. We thought that particular one was defective peice. But the next day mine too stopped playing DVD's. So it seems that in general, its a bad product.

I recently bought this player and have tested it with almost all kinds of CDs/DVDs/MP3s and even simply written dics with MPEGs. It plays everything and does not get soo much hot in 2-3 hrs. I played it continuously for about 7 hours the very first day I got it, just to verify the reviews I read it. Its quality is good and it has all the functions one can think of.

It would have been great had it been portable with batteries.

This won't play many kind of DVD-Rs. I am gonna return it!!! However liked its MP3 capability.

I ordered one unit, I couldn't get it to play any DVD's. Returned it and got another one, it wouldn't play any DVD's. Would be cool to have because of it's size and price, but it's NO GOOD.

It Plays every kind of disk, But Why Did the little weak thing that holds the DVD in place have to be made of cheap plastic?
And it gets hot- I feel I did get my money's wroth.

this little gadget will be perfect if it can also be powered by batteries or auto charger so that it can be portable and use with car screens on the road.

I bought one of these with some trepidation after reading the reviews posted here--in particular, the concerns about overheating due to a poorly regulated power supply.

The unit I got (not from Amazon) was factory-refurbished by Koss. (it wasn't much cheaper than a new one--so I'd recommend buying new.) To my surprise, it came with a switchmode inline power supply, rather than the linear "wall-wart" supply described by some owners. My trusty Fluke DMM showed the supply's open-circuit output to be 12.21 volts--very good regulation!--and the player was not noticeably warm even after running for a couple of hours.

Now, I can't guarantee you're going to receive the same AC adapter I did. But it looks to me as if Koss recognized that they had a problem with the old linear supply and replaced it with something a lot better regulated, thus eliminating (as far as I can tell) the overheating problem.

With that trouble spot gone, this is a sweet little player for the price...and an exceptionally versatile one, as others have mentioned.

Andy Baird

I purchased it Jan 2004, worked fine up until a week ago. Same problem as above, didn't think anything of it until reading first review. It does get quite hot. If I knew that it was a known problem I would have unplugged it when not in use. It wasn't used very often. I usually read reviews if they are offered, don't know how I missed them this time. It says,no disc, and won't play after it makes this grinding noise. Very disappointed, I have dvd players in my bedrooms and parlor for a couple years, this one 6 months. I only purchased it for its compactness to fit on kitchen counter.

This DVD player is great! I don't understand why people are saying that it overheats very easily. Mine has never done it. Oh and for the freezing up of the picture...sorry to say it but that's just the dvd. Mine froze up and started skipping one time so I just took it out and wiped the back off with my shirt...I popped it back in at the same point and it was fine! And I have to agree that it is VERY compatible and lightweight. I would definitely recommend this product to interested buyers!

I opened the box, and fixed the cables, etc..
What a surprise, it does not work at all!!!
It comes a message that says "NO DISC" all times, and I live in SP - BRAZIL, there are no authorized dealer for KOSS here.
It means, I will have to pay for repair!
Take care with this unit!

This thing pays my friend's pirated DVDs she brought back from a trip in China. Nobody else's DVD players understand them. This until also lets you view raw video and JPEG files burned straight to disk. It's also Very Tiny! It's got the digital outputs and component, etc. that big units have. The hidden cool thing about it is the AWESOME sound out of the headphone jack. Koss primarily makes higher-quality headphones, so the HF jack had to be great. It sounds way superior to my other CD players, so I actually take it to work for listening.

Now the bad part... it's got a jumpy (although clear) image. The power supply is wrong, so replaced it with a Radioshack 12v one like the manual says (how did they mess that up?). It will overheat unless you sit it on top of a videotape so the vents are not covered on the bottom. Heat still an issue since heat rises (so why are the holes on the bottom???).

Worth checking out, but don't pay too much!

For the price ($69) this is an awesome player. It's very easy to make region free. It's easy to get an adapter for it no matter what country you go to, it's highly portable and you can bring it anywhere. The only issue is the power supply which is actually faulty. But that's easy to fix. Just go buy a new adapter. That will prolong the life of the player.

Excellent With Intec screen Made for Gamecube for portable use. With computer allows fast duplication of DVD or to do captures to make posters or Sims(for the Maxis game) if you download anti-copyright software. Gamedrive program (also from Amazon, has utility that automaticly downloads cracks) Player is a little mors sensitive to bumps than I would like, but overall a great toy.

I only managed to get 4 months out of this DVD player before it started to go wrong - the screen permanently has grey lines all over it. This makes it unusable.

It has a very cheap feel to it - very plasticky and feels like you will break it every time you use it.

Initially I was pleased with the quality of the output - seems very clear. But as others have said, it is prone to overheating (which makes it impossible to watch a whole movie without problems)

I bought this unit from the local Target for about $65(US). The overheating issue that others have described was a problem... After an hour or two of continuous use, I'd get some skipping. I was able to resolve the problem fairly easily. I bought a set of standard gaming dice, and a packet of adhesive velcro stickers.

I used the velcro stickers to mount four dice on top of our 13" TV (the velcro makes the unit removable if necessary), and additional velcro tabs on the underside of the DVD player. The end result is that the player is now has a solid half-inch of airspace below it. Made me feel like MacGyver, I have not had any overheating problems since.

I was also able to hack the unit's BIOS such that it is now region-free, and I have COMPLETE control over fast-forwarding and chapter-skipping, including during those annoying FBI warnings. :)

I have owned this unit for about 9 months and it just burned out. I traveled with it for business and used it approximately 3 times a month. It performed reasonably well over that time span, although it always runs hot.

I researching before purchasing I learned that one reason it runs hot is the power supply included in the box puts out about 17 volts rather than the 12 it's rated at (and presumably the hardware is designed for). So I followed the instructions of one of the smarter users and bought a radio shack power supply that actually does run at 12 volts. This may explain why I got 9 months out of the unit and others get much less. Despite this fact it still runs hot. Other users in other forums talk about making sure you mount it on something where air can get underneath it. Ocassionally I would resort to putting it on a bag of ice during presentations to make sure it stayed cool (I would very rarely have this problem with my first generation Panasonic portable as well, though).

While it was running it ran quite nicely. Picture is good, it has S-Video and even component outputs. The remote has all kinds of nifty, useful buttons. However it is a conventional remote, not a credit card sized one, which would be preferable for a portable unit.

It's reasonably small (not as small as the Panasonics) and very plastic-y (the Panasonics feel much more solid). But ergonomically its quite well thought out and comfortable.

I'm moderately miffed about the 90 day warranty: if it were one year and I could have gotten them to replace the unit and I could get another 9 months out of the second one, I would have considered this a pretty good purchase.

There you have it. I'm off to by another portable dvd player. Not a Koss, though.

(...)

After only two days of use, the unit wouldn't hold a disc. On the outside of the small black circle that holds the disc, there are some tiny silver balls on a metal spring clip that are supposed to hold the disc in place. The piece came loose and fell down inside the unit. Not only would the unit not read a disc, but it also damages the disc because it is not seated properly and scrapes around inside the unit.

It's sad that they don't fix this problem. Otherwise it is a nice unit with some high quality output capability - but I wouldn't trust it to be reliable in the long term.