Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 - Want To NOT Watch Finding Nemo?

I am so frustrated. I just hate when we buy products that just don't perform - especially in the Electronics area because they never are cheap! We decided to take the plunge and get a DVD player since our young son was going to be getting a number of DVD's for Christmas. Also, since we still have a lot of his favorites on VHS tape (and some favorites haven't even been released in DVD form yet) we decided we wanted a dual player - so we'd have the option of using either tapes or DVD's as needed.

The Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 seemed ideal. (picture can be seen at http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/05/38/18/27/0005381827011_215X215.jpg ) We found it at Walmart and it really stood out from the others. Mainly because it was silver - yes, my husband has to have coordinating electronics, and our son's Sylvania flat screen TV is silver. We also wanted a separate player from the TV in case something stopped working (was that a sign?).

The Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 was reasonably priced at just under $100, something we felt we could afford. And it seemed easy enough to use - just click a button to indicate whether playing the DVD or VHS side and all of the needed buttons to play, rewind, eject, etc where right there on the product - plus an easy to use remote coordinating it all. The picture quality was good - not great and we had seen better, but ok for our use.

Features include (found on the box and on the Walmart site):

Plays These Formats

Video: DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VHS tape
Audio: CD, MP3
Picture & Sound Features

Component video outputs for best quality picture
S-video output for good quality picture
TruSurround sound effect for use with your stereo system or the 2 speakers in your stereo TV
Dolby Digital/DTS surround sound output
2x/4x zoom
Multi-language displays
Parental lock
Remote control with 2 AA batteries
4 video heads for better picture quality at the slower EP tape speed
Automatic head cleaner
Front and rear audio/video inputs
Standard RF input/output for antennas or cable boxes

Shipping weight in pounds: 9.0
Product Measurement in inches: 3.89 x 8.58 x 17.13
Volts: 120V
Instruction Manual: Included
Instruction Languages: English, Spanish
Batteries included: Uses 2 size AA "


Set up was easy - my husband had the Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 hooked into the TV in minutes. It took us another few minutes to figure out the remote and possible DVD functions and we were off.

For about 3 weeks we had perfection. Then, the DVD's started freezing - part way through whatever we were watching the screen would either freeze the picture or just stop. We thought maybe there was a problem with the DVD's, maybe our son had touched them or something. We then cleaned off the DVD's we were using and retried. Day after day it just got worse. What was odd though was that we could play the VHS side just fine - there was never a problem!

When we kept trying the DVD side it sounded to us like it wasn't even reading the DVD. It would just spin and we could hear it clicking. It went from letting us see most of a DVD, to half, to 1/4, and then to none. It just stopped reading the DVD's - all of them. It's now almost Christmas and we've told family to only buy our son DVD's this year. He opens up his gifts and excitedly runs to our Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 to play them - no such luck. My husband even resorted to banging on the thing out of frustration - then it would play the DVD about 1/3 of the time. We literally spent 30 minutes one day inserting the DVD in and out trying to get it to load. How maddening.

How did we fix it? We were so frustrated that my husband went and bought another DVD player - a Panasonic, and it is working beautifully. So now we have the Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 as a way too expensive VHS tape player and underneath that the Panasonic DVD player.

We don't own anything by Emerson and were even joking when we bought this player about how it would work - I guess we found out. I do not recommend this Emerson DVD/VCR Combo EWD2203 to anyone and we would hesitate to buy anything with the Emerson name on it again.