Toshiba SD-K760 DVD Player

I bought this DVD player last year at Best Buy for around sixty dollars thinking (falsely) that by 2007, DVD player technology has been refined enough that even a $60 unit would probably be more than I need to just watch movies on the weekends.

So hooked up the unit and subsequently enjoyed about 3 movies until the unit didn't work anymore. The DVD player constantly froze mid-play. Lucky for me, my friend has the all unifying theory of electronics: if its Japanese-made, tap it a few times / if its made anywhere else, give it a good kick. Oddly enough, this actually worked! The DVD player continued to work for another... whole week! The the issues stared again, no matter how many times you kicked it.

So I took it back to Best Buy (I didn't mention that my buddy used it as a soccer ball the previous weekend) and had it replaced with a fresh one. Again, the new unit did the same thing and this time (even without physical abuse) the unit didn't even recognize any DVDs- it did absolutely nothing and might as well have been a beer coaster. This was the last straw. I decided not to be a miser anymore and spent $200 dollars on a Pioneer unit and never had DVD player issues since.

I suppose the moral of the story is this: out-thinking the market and trying to be a smart shopper at times, can just make you a cheapskate. And oh, don't let your buddies kick your electronics equipment, regardless of how convincing their reasoning is.