COBY DVD Player with Karaoke DVD628

 A six month solution
We bought this for Karaoke last July. We've used it maybe a half dozen times since then, but when we went to use it today (less than 6 months since we bought it) the CD drawer would not open. I hope J&R Music World (who we bought it from through Amazon.com) allows me to exchange it!

The karaoke was ok. The microphone sound is not very clear since it's being synthesized through the player, and the lyrics are sometime jumbled, but for the money it was an ok karaoke machine. Now I wish I'd spent a little more, though, because six months is not enough for anything to last!!!

 COBY DVD Player with Karaoke DVD628
It is not a top of the line product, but enough for amature young children to have fun with. Unforturnately, the microphone that came with the package did not work. I checked out the warrenty on Koby's website and found out that it would cost me more than the microphone's worth to get a replacement. So I did nothing.

 Don't waste your time.
Save your time and don't buy this item. I bought this from Comp-U-Plus last Monday and the lyrics for the karaoke did show up on the screen at all. I am glad that I opened up and used it before Christmas. Unless your know every song by heart, don't buy. Everything else worked with it, like the dvd, cd, and mp-3. That's why I gave it 2 stars. I guess I will be losing twice my money on shipping. Happy Holidays!

 Good for the price, Poor user manual
The DVD plays fine and sounds good(no DTS, tho). Getting the microphones to work was not explained in the virtually worthless user manual. I found, through a user review, that you have to go to the karaoke setup menu and select "auto" for the microphone. "Auto" appears to be the default, but unless you manually select "auto" (!), the mics won't work. I bought it for karaoke and fun, not viewing movies, so it does that job fine.

 Good looks but Mediocre Quality at a Cheap Price - Your Mileage Varies
For weeks, I've been looking for a good quality DVD player with the following specs:

1) Slim design
2) Progessive scan/component video
3) Plays all DVD/CD formats
4) Dolby DTS (not just Dolby Digital 5.1)
5) Karaoke
6) Region-free

Of the above, this players meets 1) 2) and 3). 4) Karaoke sucks but it does work. On formats, the manual actually says it plays DVD+_R and R/W, which I only tested with a couple DVDs and they played (barring restrictions below).

The problems...

It's built in China and distributed in the U.S. but unfortunately, it is NOT region-free. It claims to play PAL (vs. NTSC) but does NOT convert from PAL to NTSC for play on NTSC-only TVs. There's no DTS decoder so you can't take advantage of a great system (DTS rocks when compared to 5.1). 'course, when one can afford such a great system, why bother with this not-so-cheapo performer?

Perhaps this player is too 'new' to have many reviews, 'hacks' or firmware upgrades that I'm not aware but given it barely met my needs, I give it 2 stars and only then, because it's a decent player with karaoke.

*Edit 1-11-06: by now, I've used this on a number of occasions and love that its a cheap backup that can play tons of stuff my Sony can't (what doesn't though?). For the price, I have to give it 3 stars now but can't edit the rating. Still no region-free hack...*

Next time, I'm buying the highly recommended Philips (my friend has it and it plays most of the COBY rejects) and skipping the karaoke. Not worth the disappointment before x-mas, esp. since I'm too lazy to return it via Amazon.