All DVD's that I've tried played flawlessly. I even compared it with a friend's Toshiba SD-1600 to be sure. The dark scenes on both units appeared to be identical. The only letdowns I have with this unit is the loss in picture detail during zooming and it's inability to play CD-R's. Remote is one of the best I've tried and the gold color is a nice contrast to all the black components out there.
CD sounds blast louder than dvds though.