Pacific DVD-1002 Review

Overall Rating

Cheap
Plays MP3
Zoom
all cables and batteries included

** skips/judders every 5 or 10 mins while playing dvd's **
poorly laid out remote control

I'll skip to the chase, I'm on my second player now and I'm about to take this one back, I will not be getting another one. On every DVD i've tried every few minutes there is a small judder, it's as though it's missed a few frames, audio is still ok but video isn't. Sometimes you don't notice it and someone else will other times vica versa, so depending on how well your concentrating depends on whether you notice it.

On some DVD's there can also be a slight pause, normally at a scene change. In The Matrix there are at least 2 times this happens consistently, at 3m 13s and 1h 42m exactly. It happens twice so it's not the layer change that does it and I've also tried the movie on another DVD player and it doesn't suffer the same problem.

Luckily ASDA offer a 3yr warranty and a 100 day refund or replace scheme if your not happy in any way. I will be returning this Pacific and may swap it for the Philips DVD625 (not seen any reviews yet) or just get a refund...any suggestions?

ALso I'd be interested to see if anyone else can test the Matrix on their Pacific and see if it is also affected.

Members' Comments onjonnyboy's Review

• chadster2k on 28th Oct 2003

  I have one of the Pacific Players the Pacific 1002w model i swapped it for a Philips 625 and the Pacific out Performs is, the Philips 625 does not play certain types of DVD-R due to the Poor Lazer inside. The Philips is also Very Bland and the Remote is even worse than the Pacific. oh and i also have The Matrix, The Animatrix, & the Matrix Reloaded and they all play fine considering i watch my movies with atleast 3to4 freinds, and me and my friends have not noticed any slight pauses even when the layers change, i think you should check the model number becuase the Pacific 1002 was a bit Pooh, but the Pacific 1002w was a far better machine looks the same but works better and all you miss out on with the new model is Optical Out, but you still have Coaxial Out which is better anyway. So try again but i deeply advise you against getting a Philips 625 they are not very good, Go for a Samsung if anything because they are all Dual Lazer now and they have an Excellant Picture and the Sound is the Bomb. Hope i helped and good luck finding that perfect player.

• jonnyboy on 10th Nov 2003

  It's definitely the 1002w model, still haven't got round to taking it back but I will do soon. I'm now looking for reviews on the Samsung players and may even bite the bullet and pay real money for something decent, I've heard Pioneer do some good ones for around the 150 mark....

• cj reviews on 7th Dec 2003

  Just bought a pacific 1002w - first disk i played was 'walking with dinosaurs' and i get the same skip in video and audio. seems to be when the picture in picture thing has just happened. Anybody else seen this?

• jonnyboy on 12th Dec 2003

  Here's the scoop guys. I took it back and swapped it for another Pacific 1002W, this also had the exact same problem so I got a refund. My mate then bought the DUAL one that Asda is now selling for about £55 and so I tried it on that. I'll tell you now that it has the exact same remote and menus as the Pacific so no prizes for guessing that it too has the same problem.
  
  I've just bought the Samsung E235 at Currys for £70 and it plays The Matrix fine, just to be on the safe side I also tried my Matrix disk in a Bush all in one Tv and DVD player and that worked fine too. I've also tried the disk in my Dell laptop and it played it fine too. So no, it ain't the disk.
  
  My opinion is now that they all have a design fault on them, I quite simply don't believe the other reviews that claim they're amazing. I know that distributors and manufactures sometimes freqent forums and post bogus reviews and it looks like thats whats happened here. If someone wants to show/prove me different then I'm all eyes and ears. If you live in Leicester or Loughborough then just comment on this review with some contact details in your write up and I'll be happy to show you in person.
  
  On a good note I think the FF and RW is better on the Pacific than my new Samsung, just a shame it won't actually play the DVD's properly.

• Nocco on 22nd Dec 2003

  I too have the judder problem, it occurs only on certain disks, but as said previously on this thread, it happens usally after 20 mins into a dvd, and it's every time a new chapter is started, it will judder for about a 2 second pause.