Home > Consumer Reviews > Norcent DP1800 DVD Home Theater System

Good overall player with 1 limitation..

This is my second or third one of these.. If you know you will probably be buying a 'real' home theater system in a year.. or, if you have found a really good deal on it.. then go ahead and grab it..

BUT.. do keep in mind.. it will probably only last you about a year before the DVD part of it wears out..

This is really awful. I should know by now that you get what you pay for....and this thing cost about $89 at a drug store.
The sound quality is muddy. You can't turn it off/on from the remote provided. 2 speakers don't work at all and you have to jiggle the wires for the other 2 to work.

There are no remote codes for "Norcent" on any of the universal remotes.
I went to Norcent website and e-mailed them a couple of questions using the "contact us" link and the mail came back as undeliverable.
Save yourself the headaches and spend a little more for a real brand.

I've used this item for over 2 years. During that time, I was very impressed with the sound quality that this system gave out. The only complaints is that after the 2 years was up the DVD player started to have problems reading discs. I actually had one disc get a crack in it because the player was reading it too hard. Also the Super Bass Boost is way too much, it covers the dialogue severely and will most likely give a muddled sound because its too much for the subwoofer. This is a great system for a small room or for a kids room. Very simple to install and setup. If your looking for something to blow you away, then go somewhere else. If its something just to get by, this will work. One more Con to the product, the remote does not have a power switch on it, therefore you do have to go the system to turn it on or off. No big deal, everybody could use some exercise.

I bought this as a second system for my bedroom. I already have a much more expensive reference system in my living room. I was offered a Phillips 9 inch colour portable very cheap and thought this would go great with it. I spent some time installing the speakers around my bed with the front three, subwoofer and monitor on special shelving at the base. I have to admit I was totally blown away with the sound quality and volume possible from this little unit. Norcent should have added adjustable bass and treble controls because the bass while impressive on DVD material is too much on CD or on information fed to the input jacks. Unfortunately my unit developed a problem with intermittent sound output on the right front and surround channels. At first I fiddled with the speaker wires and got the sound back but the problem kept re-occuring so I've had to ship it back to Norcent for repair. The speaker terminals are cheap and nasty and let down an otherwise nice little performer. Given that this unit will probably be installed in a lot of bedrooms and dens a headphone socket would be useful for late night use. Overall good and, if it hadn't developed this problem, I'd say an incredible value unit. To be honest I've had just as much fun using this as my other system which cost as much as a small car!

I did some trial-and-error tweaking and delved more deeply into the submenus; and I now got the component (RGB) outs to give great signal into my TV. The problem was twofold: the factory default for the "component" video signal is "S-video;"I went into the "component" menu and reset it to "YUV" (which is the foreign term for RGB). Got a wildly distorted and greenish signal, similar to a scrambled premium cable channel. It was only then that I discovered that Norcent goofed and put the blue jack on the green channel and vice versa; when I plugged in the cable plugs in the same order they appear on the cable and the inputs of my TV, I finally got perfect signal. I also was able to get full 5.1 sound only by disconnecting the cables from the unit's "audio outs." Got the center channel speaker working only by jiggling the ends so they sit firmly in the terminals. (Wish I could use better cable--at least I can do that with the subwoofer, whose cable isn't hardwired into it). Oh, and for the guy who needs a remote--go to http://www.norcent.net, click on Support, then select the DP 1800: you'll get the setup codes (DVD and receiver) for universal remotes so you can go out and buy one. Finally, for the guy who suggests a standalone DVD player and computer speaker system instead of the Norcent: you'd still need a standalone amp or receiver. Considering I got the entire system for $99.95, I can't complain all that much.