With the Sylvania SDVD6655-B’s low price and uncomplicated design, it’s a great option for those on a budget or those who just want to watch their favorite DVDs without having to deal with a complicated device. The SDVD655-B has middle-of-the-road disc load times and weak customer support options, but it otherwise offers most of the same features you’d see on any of the best DVD players.
In our tests, we found the Sylvania to be fairly easy to set up and use overall, although not as much as the other players we tested. It had cheap-feeling RCA cords that took a little more effort to connect to our TV than the others, and the remote control didn’t have as intuitive of a layout as the others either. The player’s IR sensor for the remote control only works in a narrow 60-degree angle, so if you’re sitting at an angle wider than that, you’ll have to move to adjust it.
The player had an average disc start time. We logged it as having an average time of 16.82 seconds, which was faster than about half of the other players in our comparison, but not as fast as the Impecca DVHP-9117, whose average time was 11.92 seconds. Aside from that, the player works fine and has most of the other features and functions as the rest of the players. It can play standard and rewriteable DVDs and CDs. It also has an upscaling function, which can boost the picture quality of your lower-resolution DVDs up to 1080p quality. It also uses progressive scan technology to smooth out your DVD playback for a smoother experience.
With Dolby audio support, you can enjoy high-quality if your DVD offers it and you have a compatible audio set up. It can also play audio and subtitles from multiple languages. One of the SDVD6655-B’s most convenient features is its ability to automatically resume playback of your most recently-played DVD. This means that, if you stop watching a DVD before you finish it, the player will mark that spot, and resume playback from that point when you want to resume it.
The SDVD6655-B ships with a remote control and the RCA cables needed to connect it to your TV. It lacks a USB port, but does include RCA and HDMI connections. It only plays region 1 DVDs and has a 90-day warranty from the manufacturer. While it's good, it can't touch our top pick - the Panasonic DVD-S700 for performance.