Review of the Lite-On LVD-2002 DVD and Plus player
By flung
WhiningDog.NET
12/2/2003

Introduction

Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to review the Lite-On LVD-2001 DVD player. The LVD-2001 was Lite-On’s first major home DVD player and made a splash by offering support for not only DVD playback but MPEG4 video playback. Only a handful of hardware manufacturers have actually offered support for DivX/XviD in home DVD systems and with the LVD-2001, Lite-On joined the rank and file. Of course, the overall market for a home DivX player is still rather small when you consider that the average consumer isn’t even aware of what DivX is. However this certainly has not stopped Lite-On from continuing to push forward in the home digital entertainment market. This year alone, Lite-On released a slew of DVD related products including a DVD recorder and a combination DVD/VCR deck. A few months after the LVD-2001 was introduced, Lite-On announced the next model - the LVD-2002. At first glance, it’s extremely difficult to see what differences exist between the two models. I dropped by a local computer store recently and picked up the LVD-2002 for evaluation. Today we will take a look at the new LVD-2002 and see how if it’s a worthy upgrade to the 2001. Let’s jump right to it. Be warned – I won’t be spending as much detail as I did with the original 2001 since there’s plenty of overlapping information.

Packaging

You will immediately see differences with the new Lite-On LVD-2002 in the form of the packaging materials. Lite-On uses a more professional cardboard box typically used in competing electronic audio/video products. I have included a picture of the box used for the 2001 model here for comparison’s sake.

LVD-2002 box	LVD-2001 box

The LVD-2002 is very nicely packaged with Styrofoam padding on the sides of the player. This is a major improvement over the cardboard padding that was used in the first model. Here are more pictures of the packaging.