RCA DRC500N

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Kevin Miller
• Reviewed on: 09/09/2002
• Updated on: 01/11/2010

RCA's DRC500N, a five-disc DVD carousel player, is an interlaced-only deck with merely average performance. So what are its biggest selling points? Well, it's an attractive piece of equipment that offers a nice feature package at a reasonable price.RCA's DRC500N, a five-disc DVD carousel player, is an interlaced-only deck with merely average performance. So what are its biggest selling points? Well, it's an attractive piece of equipment that offers a nice feature package at a reasonable price.

Design
The mirrored look is in fashion this year with consumer-electronics manufacturers. Like Zenith's line of DVD players, this silver-finished RCA's front panel has a mirrored bottom half. While it's sporty, the reflective finish is clearly more appropriate for casual use in a rec room rather than in a darkened, dedicated home-theater area, where reflections from the unit could prove to be a visual distraction. The front panel sports buttons for disc select, skip, exchange, play/pause, stop, rewind, fast-forward, previous disc, next disc, open/close, and power.

The DRC500N's onscreen menus are fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. The remote, on the other hand, is a bit awkward in its layout and functionality. For example, the chapter-skip function is controlled with the misleadingly labeled Ch+/- key, and the player's Setup mode is accessible by stopping the disc and hitting the Menu key rather than via a dedicated Setup button. The remote's one saving grace is that it is universal and able to control a wide variety of TVs, DBS satellite receivers, and cable boxes.

Features and connectivity
The DRC500N's connectivity options are adequate but not generous. They include one set of component-video inputs, one S-Video input, one composite-video input, one coaxial digital-audio output, one optical digital-audio output, and two sets of analog stereo-audio outs.

On the other hand, the 500N's feature package is more comprehensive; in addition to DVDs and regular audio CDs, the unit will play CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and VideoCDs. Users with CD burners will like the fact that this RCA can read both MP3 audio and JPEG picture files. The headphone jack has its own volume control, which is a rare feature on a low-end DVD player.

Convenience features include Picture Scan, which performs a high-speed scan in either reverse or forward modes; Frame Advance; and a three-step zoom function (up to 4X) that allows you to magnify a frame for close inspection. Finally, the Go Back button repeats the last few seconds on a disc in case you missed a subtle visual detail or a whispered line of dialogue. Continue reading

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