Harman Kardon DVD 27 High Performance DVD Player

While this may play most anything, it does not handle the 16x9 format and the picture quality is limited by having only a "component out" output. No HDMI, Can't recommend it except if you have an old TV with no HDMI inputs. Read more

This player is typical HK...quality. Great picture and function, size and style. Only con would be no HDMI output, but the composite output still works well Read more

I rent a lot of dvd's from netflix and my last dvd player always stopped and skipped - even if we cleaned the dvds. This player has read through every dvd - sans skips! Yeah! Other things are great about this player too. The picture is heads above my last several players and it remembers the last place you were on a dvd (even if you take the dvd out). This is a great player! I would buy another one if I needed a second! Read more

A great performer, does all you want or need. User-friendly, bullet-proof dependable. Read more

I have this 1 week now, so nothing about durability here. It looks elegant, picture is good. Got a dificulty with a selfmade homemovie DVD the player did not recognize as a DVD but as a DVD-ROM and was not playable... well, those discs have some scratches... I had a cheap LG and a cheap JWin player, but their laser wore out quickly. I hope the harman has a more duarble better quality laser... I will see. CON: The JWin I had permitted to go to main menu or skip any part (like that endless copyright warnings or preview movies) even if the disc itself had that function blocked. Now the Harman DVD 27 player can not overrun a discs skip blocking, thats not very userfriendly - of course we have to blame the DVD producers for that in the first place. The player works with region 0 and 1 only, thats ugly too, but you can change that (see below). There is no OFF button, the player goes into standby instead and consumes 1 watt. No HDMI out. PRO: Nice remote with nightlight. Good setup menus and manual. The region stupidess can be defeated, it is easy to make this player region free. 1. press SETUP on the remote. 2. Press "3141590", the player is now region free. Read more

I've had my DVD 22 for 2 years and my DVD 27 for a year now. Both have amazing pictures and I've never had an unusual problem with either. It seems to me that the cranks dismissing these players don't have much experience with quirky DVD technology. Most stand-alone home players have any number of "goofs" with various movies, unlike DVD devices in computers. Maybe that's where the misunderstanding lies; these people never have trouble with their computers so they think the same goes for their home players. Not so. They should experiment with burning movies at different rates or with different software, since that's likely the source of the problem. These players read without freezing better than any DVD players I've worked with, though there is the rare problem of sticking in a loop and needing to be unplugged. Every player seems to have its particular quirk; this is the HK's quirk, no biggie. The picture quality, reliability in general, and audio DACs are worth forsaking the standard $50-$60 import. Read more

I'm not an audio/video elitist. I was having problems with DVD players that were only a couple years old and cost 3 or 4 times as much as this one: they would skip, jerk, and then freeze. NetFlix DVDs were almost guaranteed to freeze, but others were an increasing problem as well. Haven't had a single problem with this unit. The picture is great (screen is a 37" plasma), the setup was painless, and the remote is one of the more thoughtfully designed variety...one of the things I've generally liked about Harman Kardon. This one will definitely be kept and transferred to the den when my primary TV setup gets upgraded. Read more

I was just looking for a player under $150.00 as a replacement. What a pleasant surprise it has turned out to be.Great reproduction of both sound and video. Its not HD, but puts out the best non-HD picture I have seen. The sound quality is awesome, HK has a great product-line. I cant wait to see what they do with SuperHD or Bluray. Now if HK could only figure out how to make a great remote? Read more