Home > Consumer Reviews > Motorola DCP501 All-In-One Home Theater Receiver

We bought these for our lodge (63 2 & 3 Bdrm Units). While the combination of components in a small package is exactly what we needed, we have experienced a large amount of product failures. Out of 67 units ordered, we have experienced a 30 to 40% failure rate. Types of problems in order of occurrence:

1) Audio section - a) Subwoofer worked, but not satellite speakers b) "Overload" becomes too sensitive

2) Digital cable subsystem failures - a) Constantly losing the digital programming b) or just complete failure

3) Premature DVD Read problems - I say "premature" because the oldest unit is less than 2 years old.

4) Front panel lockout.

While we are a "lodge", this is a private residence club whose members tend to take good care of the appliances in each unit. So abuse is not a major cause of problems. Also, the manufacturing dates range over several months.
A failure of 10% or less would have been acceptable, but close to 40% is just ridiculous. These units were professionally installed and we have worked closely with the local cable company to try and find an outside cause, without success. The surround speaker system used with the DCP501 is a high end Yamaha setup, while brand new Panasonic flat-screen TV's were connected using S-Video.
We do have other Motorola Digital cable boxes in use here, and none of them have displayed any of these issues. So we were very surprised to experience all these problems. It's too bad, because now we will have to look for a multi-component type of setup that we really don't have the room for.

I bought this device mostly on the Motorola name and the incredible discount. Overall, I am happy with this device. It sounds good, looks good, and I haven't had a problem with it yet. My biggest gripe is that the front panel display is quite difficult to read from even a few feet away, especially during the day. If the display were larger and brighter I would be much happier with this device. This problem could have been mitigated with more "on-screen" info coming through the TV, but the DCP puts very little info on-screen. For example, when changing TV channels I would like to see the channel number displayed on the TV, but the DCP501 doesn't do that. It will tell me the volume, but not the channel- it's a little odd that way. Dolby digital works as it should. I don't need the MP3 feature but it is nice to have. Not Earth-shattering audio power, but good considering that it's integrated. In short, I got a nice AM/FM tuner, CD/DVD player, home theater system, for a great price. I think this M S R P'd for a little under n in e hun dred, but I got it for about t wo f if ty.

Not sure what all the gripe is about with this unit. I have had mine over a year and it hasn't had any of the problems others have stated (maybe I'm lucky). No sound distortion, clean crisp at high volumes (I'm using Precision Audio ceiling speakers). Good radio station pickup. Good dvd performance. I really enjoy the Dolby Prologic II- as even our ITunes files get surround sound.

That said, the only issue I have had is when i turned the powerbar off while the unit was still on. When restarted sound only came out of one speaker and not all five. I got through right away to Motorola and they were very helpful and gave me a short set of instructions to go about resetting the unit- it now works good as new... below are those instructions for anyone who needs them:

1. put the unit in DVD mode.
2. power off using the button on the front of the unit (do not use the remote)
3. Hold down the setup button and the 'down' button at the same time
4. While holding those buttons, press the power button on the unit
5. Release all three buttons at the same time
Unit should power up in the FM mode and be reset. Motorla says if it doesn't come up in the FM mode, try again.

Happy listening and watching...

Motorola DCP501 All-In-One Home Theater Receiver This would be a great machine for all of your audio/video needs except for digital cable channel selection. The real problem is Comcast refuses to activate this box. They will tell you that you have a stolen box and they will stick to that storey and never activate this box. Without activation by comcast the unit can only use channels 1-99. I bought one and am now stuck with a very nice looking audio video DvD player. So, don't buy one thinking that you can use it with comcast. Best to check with your cable service provider first be fore you spend a few hundred dollars. Hope this helps you make a better decision on buying any cable converter box.In short, The cable companies control what you can recieve.

Worst audio product I've ever purchased. Can't even use the RADIO without terrible interference & static. Any audio input run through this piece of junk comes out the other side muffled & popping.
Really not any value here. Motorola even replaced my item with a brand new one once....same problems. So, basically, this thing was designed by the Motorola summer interns.