I used to watch CDs on my computer, but it din’t have a DVD drive. The DVD players price were plummeting down like anything so I thought it is high time I bought a DVD player
I was always suspicious of Onida Products but never got to try one. After watching their commercial of Magic of playing scratched DVDs I thought that I would give it a try. On checking I was surpised to find this product at the lowest price range in branded DVD players. But even at the first sight the buttons seemed not to be properly aligned. I asked the dealer for another piece, he had none, but assured that it was like that in all the pieces.The DVD tray was also of low quality plastic I was impressed that it had analog output for the 5.1 Speaker system which most other systems lacked. So I thought I would better take this ugly duckling and give it a try. I asked the dealer for a demo and it worked fine.
After taking it home I first played an audio cd. After playing for a few minutes the sound seemed to break. I brushed it away thinking that I may not have connected it properly. Then I connected it to my TV ensuring that I connect it firmly, and sat happily to watch a DVD. It is then all hell broke loose. After few minutes of happy watching the sound started breaking again, then after sometime I was not able to hear any at all. Remember at this point that I always buy only orignal CDs and DVDs , never pirated ones, and I take good care of them too. Now I realised that something is wrong with the player. I now tried playing another CD but it wont read it at all. Frustrated I switched it off and checked my power outlet for proper voltage. It was fine. I even tried connecting it to my computers UPS, but nothing worked. So I switched it off again and left it go. After sometime when I tried it seemed to work fine. This time I was noting the total time it was playing and loo.. when the counter crossed the 15 min. mark the devil started to work again , First the sound got murky and finally stopped altogather. Since it was late in the night to fiddle with it any more I shut it off and went to sleep.
The next morning I thought I would give it a try and Played another CD, again to my agony the thing stopped working after 15 mins. Now I had an enlightment that the player is malfunctioning once it started to heat after some minutes of playing. So I tried cooling it with one of the small fans that you see inside a computer. And to my surprise it worked fine this time. Now I knew that the piece is defective, May be a manufacturing fault that happens once in a while. I was really frustrated at this point and began looking for the authorised service centers near me. Then after a thought I took it to the dealer from whom I purchased. He too ran it for 15 mins. and conformed that it is a fault. He said that he had not received any complaints on this product so far. He promised me that he would replace it with a new one when the stock arrives, which he said would be 2 days. He on his part immediately placed orders to the main dealer for few new pieces. Here comes the second part of my agony. After repeated calling, the stock did not arrive for a whole week. Then I went in person to the show room and talked to him. He assured me that he would have the stock in 2 more days. But even after a week more the expected stock did not come. Now it was 15 days since I returned the defective piece. So I again went to the showroom and blasted the fellow. But poor fellow was not to be blamed. He rang up the main dealer and gave the phone to me. The main dealer increased my frustration by being very unresponsive.
Now I thought that it is enough of Onida and let me settle for another audio brand which I always trust. So I exchanged the piece for another brand thought it costs me 1500 bucks more. It has a few more features like multi disc resume and text display on the DVD player which the Onida din’t have. Now I am happy enjoying my new player and I think won’t go for onida again.Finally I never got to try whether it really plays scratched CDs. Devil be with it.Buyers beware. Make sure you play it atleast for 20 mins at the dealer before buying