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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Does its job, 'frustratingly', 17 Feb 2005
Hear the name Alba and it conjures up thoughts of cheap electronics designed to do their job. Take the TVD3450-XI television/DVD combo, a seemingly functional attempt at a particularly useful concept. With a 14" screen, AV and sound outputs on the front and a SCART socket on the rear it could be well suited to fit in those narrow cubbie holes found around the house.On the positive side, the TVD3450 does its job. You can watch television or a DVD, and that is what it's designed for. However, the TVD3450 is particularly frustrating in use, with woefully sluggish and counter-intuative operation, and inconsistent DVD error correction. It would seem that the further into a DVD one goes the less reliably it plays back. It is not helped by the volume settings not being remembered when the unit is switched off. Then there is the remote control. It follows the "2 function" idea, i.e. most of the buttons have two functions, decided upon by pressing either the 'TV' or 'DVD' buttons at the top of the remote. However, no feedback is given to indicate which mode is currently selected, leading to much confusion when a button doesn't work. On top of all of this nearly all of the DVD functionality is controlled solely from the remote, so if you lose it you're stuck. So, would I recommend the Alba TVD3450-XI? No, I would not. It may do its job but with its aggravating user interface it will annoy more than it will please.
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