Harman kardon DVD 101 REVIEW

As seen in:

R E V I E W

D V D P l a y e r

H a r m an/Kardon DV D 101

ith so many DVD players on the mar­ket, how do we tell the difference

W

besides reading magazines for expert opinions, sim­ply look at the features. Some inexpensive players
p e rf o rm well, but may not have the best build qual­ity (and therefore not last too long), or some play­ers don’t have all the features you want. You won’t
have to worry about either in the case of
H a rman/Kardon’s DVD 101. With a suggested retail
price of $349, it’s certainly not the cheapest on
the block, but in our experience, you really do get
what you pay for when it comes to electronics.

Installation Issues

Hooking up the DVD 101 was very easy, since it
offers such a wide selection of audio/video outputs.
Seemingly rarely these days, it offers both a coax­ial output and an optical digital output, allowing
flexible audio hookup. On the video side, there are
progressive-scan component video outputs as well
as S-Video and composite, in case you don’t have
a component input on your TV.

The build quality is excellent, with a solid feel
to it that escapes many other players. Most DV D
players feel like the cheapest of VCRs, but not the
DVD 101. It has a high-end feel, which is always a
good thing.

P e rf o rm a n c e / F e a t u r e s

Once the DVD 101 was set up, we watched a bevy
of movies and music DVDs. The picture quality on
our progressive-scan monitor was excellent. In fact,
it was as good as our $1,000 reference DVD player
from last year. While showing challenging DVDs like
the newly remastered The Mission and Pe t e r
Gabriel’s Secret World Live, it brought both of
these films to life in a vibrant, restrained way. On

between the good and the bad? We l l ,

brighter fare like Two Weeks Notice, the outdoor
scenes looked natural and realistic, which is the sign
of any good DVD player. Overall, we were very
impressed by the picture on this DVD player. Using
the remote control was also very straightforw a r d ,
and it worked well in all conditions. It’s comfortable
in the hand, and is easy to use in a darkened room.

The Last Wo r d

Two features that we felt should have been includ­ed in this price range were SACD and DV D- A u d i o
playback. Both of these features are becoming more
prevalent as the available software selection increas­es dramatically, and we were surprised that the DV D
101 didn’t include at least one of these options.
O t h e rwise, we were very happy with the DVD 101’s
p e rf o rmance and abilities. It was easy to use and
a pleasure to turn on and enjoy. The sign of a great
product: Did we want to send it back to the man­ufacturer? Not any time soon. E H

I n f o : H a rman/Kardon, $349

516-496-3400, w w w. h a rm a n k a r d o n . c o m

Jeff Cherun is a freelance writer, as well as a

home theater consultant.

T H E S C O R E

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4 ➞ broke the mold 3 ➞ playing with the big boys
2 ➞ not such a bad buy 1 ➞ just plain sad

I n s t a l l
R e l i a b i l i t y
Overall Va l u e

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W H Y Y O U

WA N T T H I S

This DVD player

has progressive­scan component

video outputs, and

provides images

as good as

a $1,000

reference

DVD player.

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Ease of Use
E x p a n d a b i l i t y

w w w. E l e c t r o n i c H o u s e . c o m J u l y 2 0 0 3 ■ E H 4 3