At the time I bought my original of the brand I have it cost 25% of the big brands but yet could play 'more' than the big brands could ... was not restricted to brand of dvd or other types of media it could play such as mpeg 4/mp3, divx, etc. The definitions of the design were by a local electronic whole-saler who had a company make it specifically under those specifications for them. Amazing huh ... can pay 4 times more for something that has less playability .. designed like that deliberately for marketing reasons. My only complaint is the remote control is not well designed. Just shows you how big brands play with their customers .. customers think because they're paying heaps more they're getting heaps better which in many cases is totally not the case (if you shop around of course.) I shopped around with home made dvd-r's, dvd+r's, dvd-rw's, dvd+rw's, mpeg 4 disks, mp3 disks, etc with me to try out. (Which included home made videos.)