As a registered DvD King(c) I think this piece of equipment is merely sufficient in allowing me to enjoy DVDs and their extras to the max. As we all know, there is no such thing as a bad DvD, however, the 9900SE and its 'Letterbox Effect', as referred to in recognised dvd circles, really affects ones viewing pleasure. For example, I found it particularly distracting while attempting to watch 'David Bowie - All the Hits'. It really put me off my stroke.

i dont no yet if its good or bad just got the thing from RS its old yes i no but just 1 for the kids room but would like to no if any1 out there has a user manual i could have as this 1 did not come with 1,plzzz
anyhelp would be cool,cant find a web page for the thing must just live in RS can any1 help a limit 9900se bor?
[email protected]

I just bought a Limit DVDA900 after the Richer Sounds saleman told me that the Pioneer 565A I was returning wasn't compatible with either of my 2 TV sets. Strangely, it 'wasn't compatible' with the 50" Pioneer plasma that they use in the demo room, either.

Rather than get a refund, the salesman talked me into buying one of these, for £20 less than the Pioneer.

After playing with it for just a couple of hours, I reckon the Pioneer is a steal for an extra £20.

A good picture indeed, and the sound packs a punch, but for £180 I still think it's lacking:

Certainly not much in the way of setup options, and the remote isn't very intuitive at all - awkward placement of buttons (especially skip/ff/rew), and I had to refer to the manual to find where the pause button was.

Navigating the disc was also noticibly slower than the Pioneer.

Very strange that there is no standby button, and you have to turn the unit on and off (using the power switch on the unit) every time you wish to use it.

Setting the player to RGB, I have found that when I switch it back on, it claims to be still in RGB mode, but it isn't in fact producing an RGB signal, so you have to enter setup again and re-select RGB.

Overall, not very impressed.

After reading here that Richer Sounds have the UK rights to this model, I can now see why the salesman recommended it.

Tomorrow I'm taking it back to the shop and asking for a full refund.

Since the last review, I have added a Yamaha AV amplifier and a set of Eltax surround speakers. I was using a pair of Tannoy 607's as my main units and found I can add them to the existing system. What an experience! I have several friends who have all-in-one cinema packages ranging up to 600 quid - and this setup trounces the lot of them for less than 500 notes.
The picture is great, the sound is real cinema. The neighbours don't know if there is an earthquake or me watching U-571. By the way, no faults other than the ones listed above. Got to go now, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. Where's my "Terminator 2" DVD.....

Overall i've been really pleased with the limit 9900se. However my only basis for comparision was my playstation 2 which was my dvd player before this. The lack of a standby button is a bit annoying but i just stop the dvd and leave it on if i'm in bed. I've been assured by the staff in RS that this will not do any harm to the machine. The main thing that's annoying me at the moment is the way that dvds play in a letterbox format, i.e. with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. This gap is bigger with certain dvds. I thought it was my tv but it happens on my parents widescreen tv as well. Is this a feature of this player, can anyone help please?

Ref the Limit 99000SE there website can be found here:- www.limitgroup.com
The reason a lot of people do not know much about Limit because they produce studio & DJ equipment in Europe. The parts for there DVDPlayers come in from Japan and they assemble them on site with there own design in Belgium. They have an exclusive deal in the Uk with Richer Sounds,they are marketed as Synn in Europe. I believe the parts they use are Panasonic or Toshiba not quite sure though, lookin to get one soon to replace my Toshiba that bit the dust. I hope this info is of use

When I bought this Limit 9900SE from Richer Sounds..I thought they were selling it to me because they were over stocked, but no...it does have a lot of facilties at a very reasonable price £150. It is made in Germany ( I think!! ) And there are couple of Hacks, so it plays all regions, Disable Macrovison, and it also plays all VCDs even the ones from normal PC only play, I had some photos on a CD, and it played them too, has it has that facilty , like a kodak player thing!!
The connections at the back are very good.
It has all surrond sound connection so you can get the best sound. Scart sockets.

From the outside it looks pretty sleek and modern piece of machine.
Regard less of what all say I have had not problems, at the end of the day you are only paying £150, you get what you pay for.
I think the main advantage is it plays all DVDs of all regions and VCDs and Jpeg at a excellent quality and sound.
You can not get a Top Brand like Sony to do that at that Price.

From the ohter reviews, they have said it is a little noisy when playing, well mine is in a cabinet, that solves that problem.

After reading several reviews about this machine, and suffering a dreadful Harman/Kardon lifestyle system from Currys, I decided to take the criticisms of the 9900SE with a pinch of salt and make up my own mind.

First impressions were... well, not too keen on the brushed alloy front... but at least it's REAL metal, and not plastic! The drawer opened quietly, but there is a fair amount of sideways play in the drawer mechanism, which could be interpreted as being cheaply made.

Once a DVD was in and running, however, I could see straight away that the picture quality was very good. The blacks were... well, very black, and I could adjust the contrast, brightness, sharpness and colour to further tweak the image. Compared with the Harman/Kardon, the 9900SE has infinitely better picture quality.

I have tried VCD's (very good indeed!) Especially my "back-up" copy of Harry Potter! Photo CD's from Max Spielmann and Kodak work well too, with the ability to zoom and rotate images. There is also a slideshow feature.

The sound seems pretty good, too, which is presently being blasted through an Arcam Alpha 3 and Tannoy 607 speakers (much to the annoyance of the neighbours). OK, it's only stereo for now, but a surround kit is on it's way. Ordinary music CD's sound just as good as my £170 Philips CD player, so I might as well save space and sell that! Limit claim the machine will also play DVD-Audio, but I've not tried that yet.

Now the downside. Some DVD's must be made off-centre, because certain discs can cause a vibration in the unit. On one disc in particular, I could hear the throbbing from ten feet away, yet another was totally silent. The main issue seems to be the mounting of the motor unit which is a solid type, rather than a floating mechanism on more expensive machines. The situation was not helped by the casing design, which acts as a sounding board. This is where some DIY soundproofing came in.

*I found the noise could be muted considerably by using self-sdhesive acoustic mat (used on car body panels) on the inside of the casing lid, taking care to avoid the motor mechanism. The difference was quite marked, with the vibration effects being greatly reduced.

Nevertheless, if one finds some DVD discs are worse than others, TAKE THEM BACK and get another one! For almost 20 pounds a time, one should expect a disc which is at least "round"!

In conclusion, I am happy with the 9900SE. I have found a solution to the vibration issue, I don't get electric shocks, it plays everything I put in it, and it goes all the way through to the end of a film without stalling. And I can record on to my VCR if I feel daft enough. If the motor mechanism was a floating type, Limit could stick another £100 on the price and I'd still be happy.

PLEASE NOTE: I do not recommend the dismantling of any unit still under warranty, or in any case by persons not qualified to do so. Now you can't sue me. So there.

Been through 3 players from Richer Sounds now in the space of a year & half.


1st was the CyberHome ADL528 (Cheap at £79 but had major grief with subtitles re-appearing at each new scene & main disc menus disappearing completely! (e.g. Monsters Inc). RS say these players now work fine (quote: April 2003) after their original "faulty batch" so might be worth checking out if you ever wanted a cheap player.


Upgraded to the Acoustic Solutions 651 which was much better picture & sound but again would get flickering on/off subtitles at random moments & the occasional skip whenever (re-wound back and would play same scene no problem).

So finally took back & managed to persuade the RS staff to replace for the Limit 9900SE after falling in love with the looks. Yet another massive step up in picture quality (even on my terrible Sony Nicam 22" and this is obviously without progressive scan running).


Unfortunately this is where the romance stops. I'm getting on/off stops on certain discs from 40 minutes onwards which can last the remainder of the movie (i.e. I can't watch them!!!) and like other reviewers have pointed out - you get to the start of a new scene on a disc usually nearer the end (if you manage to get that far with my on/off probs!) and the motor starts making the most god awful din (loud even with sound full up!).


Will be replacing ASAP but what with? Don't get me wrong - this player is nice (especially the picture quality). I just wish it worked properly & I'm starting to loose my patience (could I be the unluckiest RS customer ever? - I even know their all their names just about). I also see there is a new Limit player out (DVDA900 - £179). It's a pity this new player has outdated buttons down the left though (very early 70's) so money still on the 9900SE for looks.


Oh and did I mention the disc draw wobbles badly when open and doesn't shut evenly (at least it has 'electrocuted' me yet! - see previous reviews for more info). If the player worked in the first place it would probably get a very high rating from me - I just think that this is another DVD player that hasn't been through all the quality tests.

I changed from my Samsung 709 as I was looking for a player that would be able to play vcd/svcd's. This picture quality and sound quality are both a slight improvement from my Samsung, but, and this is a big but, every commercial disc that I have played so far has had periods where it has got stuck for a few seconds. It's not down to the discs as it will play the same section fine if you reverse back to it.

It would appear to me that Limit needs to really work on their quality control as it would appear looking at these reviews, that its pot luck just how well your player works.

Bought to use ona Pana PTA 100 projector with progresive scan input. The picture is far sharper than any other player I have used in the past.

This player's picture and audio qualities are up there with the best; playback of audios CDs is particularly impressive but, and I'm afraid it's a very big but, the unit itself is so noisy during playback I can actually hear it above the speaker system. With some DVDs the whole unit actually vibrates!

I also have problems with the disc tray jamming open.

The major selling point for me was the machine's JPEG image playback facility which, incidentally, is very good but a DVD player's main job after all is to play DVDs and if it can't do that efficiently all the extra features in the world won't compensate.

Only had it a few weeks but it's going back to RS and being replaced with the Toshiba 520.

Overall, it has been a huge disappointment.

This was bought only to compare entry-level DVD-audio (24/192)stereo with direct-disc vinyl but bad faults get in the way. Stereo (Deep Purple) well defined and crisper than CD even with the budget speakers, but was not convinced the output was at the 24bit/192Hz of the recording. Would be worth taking a chance with at a lower price.

Firstly i would agree with all the other reviews of this unit, both good and bad. I think this unit is superb for the price, but a few comments have attracted my attention as my 9900se has suffered from the picture 'hanging' for a second or two in places other than the layer change on discs that have been viwed before without problem on my old wharfedale M5. Also has anybody elsed noticed (or realised) that without using a plasma screen the best picture quality is via RGB/Scart, however, as the lack of a standby button means you have to get up and press the on/off switch, the next time you view a dvd, the player defaults back to composite even though the video menu says it is outputing RGB. Press OK on the RGB select and you will see the picture quality change and the AV setting on your TV change to AV/RGB. This occurs on three units i have tried. I still think this is a good machine even if it won't remember what you've told it!

I bought the Limit 9900SE on the recommendations from this site, I was not disappointed when I got this player home. Setup was easy, plug in and play, and the mannual, although a little on the minimalist side, was good enough for me to get going.

First up, would it play all region DVD's? The answer, an emphatic yes. Unsurprisingly it handled region 2 DVD's (UK) flawlessly, but region 1 (USA) DVD's played well on an old telly with no scart socket! Because of the frame-rate difference, the picture did jerk slightly, but it was definitely watchable. On an NTSC compatible TV the picture is as good as region 2 DVD's.

On the subject of picture quality, through a good quality 21" TV the picture is excellent. It has a nice crispness to the screen, without being too hard on the eye. On a plasma TV (sadly not mine, I saw the limit playing in Richer Sounds when I bought it) the picture quality really is stunning. I guess that progressive scan was on, and although I have not tested it personally, it looks amazing, believe me.

As for the other features this player has to offer, audio CD's played great, no problems. Then I burnt my entire MP3 collection to CD and shoved it into the limit. Within 3 seconds the file system appeared on screen (directories and everything) and allowed me to select tracks, make playlists, etc. So far so good. Then I decided to shove my entire JPEG photo collection onto CD, and I must admit I was not too optimistic, there not being a great deal in the manual about this. But, to my delight, the file system popped up within 3 or so seconds, and I could browse through the directories, play the photos as a slideshow, and even generate thumbnails for easy viewing. On the subject of audio DVD's, I haven't had chance to test this yet, but the player is supposed to handle them fine. I also tried a DVD-r in the player last night, and it played with no problems.

So, any bad points? Well, it would be nice to have a stand-by button, but what the hell, I'd trade it in for all the features offered in this player! Also, it is a little on the noisy side when loading disks, but if you sit a sensible distance from your telly you won't notice it at all.

Overall, great stuff. I did extensive research before buying this player, and rather than opt for something that would set me back 60 quid or so, I decided to get something that offered far more features and that was also way more future proof than a bargain basement model. I would reccomend this player to anyone who wants loads of features for a great price.

PS. The Hacks work great (including the macrovision) - I will post them when I can lay my hands on them. I haven't tried copying my DVD's to video yet, but will post the results when I get round to it.

This is my first DVD player and I'm still exploring the functions although I'm told it is amazing for the price. However I played a disc from a DVD mag and it wouldn't play which was dissappointing. I was also slightly dubious with the Limit make but was informed that they are new brand and are breaking into the audio industry with impressive results.

I have spent many hours trying to configure the machine so that it wil perform the most basic of functions - to play a DVD. I relise now that it is not me but the machine that is at fault. RS have been great and will exchange without question. I've lost confidence in the quality of this product and am considering a Sony or a Tosh.

This DVD player not only looks the part but plays the part. Very stylish looking case with a metal cabinet and very little fuss, not the usual tacky flashing LED's all over the place. The sound and picture quality is very hard to beat for the price and this player is the only player to feature progressive scan for under £1000! This player is strongly recommended and you wont find a better player for under £300. Almost perfection.

I realy love this player but it is going back because of the D.V.D Audio problems and get the new Tosh SD520e D.V.D A at R.S

Picked up this player 3 weeks ago from RS. It's played everything I've chucked at it and would probably get a picture from a beer mat! Still pictures in SVCD format are very watchable and it will allegedly play Kodak style PhotoCD's (untested) I haven't tested the prog scan yet as my TV can't use it. Remote is easy to use as are the on screen menus All the sockets you could want on the back and at price that's just short of theft. Highly recommended.