The Kalua arrived in a large box that I now recognize as a "typical Genica" look-with its combination of simplistic black and grey patterns on a white background. But, of course, we all know that you're not reading this review for the box...

Inside is a whole assortment of goodies and accessories that come bundled along with the neatly wrapped Kalua unit.

The Kalua is of pretty standard home theatre equipment size and is of a sleek black color. On the front is a wide display window and on the right are some common buttons like Play, Stop and Open tray. What surprised me, however, was the presence of two jacks for microphones. A quick glance back at the spec sheets told me that they were for the Karaoke feature. This thing can support Karaoke! Gee, another bonus!

On the back are some common jacks for plugging in the necessary cables to and from your TV and/or home theatre system. It's got the standard RCA jacks for plugging in RCA cables and also an S-Video jack for those of us who decide to use S-Video. Also present are both coaxial and optical jacks for the Digital output to your receiver (if you have one).

As for the accessories, let me just tell you that Genica has included everything that you'll need to get everything set up. They include the necessary RCA cables for audio and composite video. Unfortunately, they did not include an S-Video cable. Although it'll still work fine with composite video, I, personally, prefer S-Video because I know that I'm getting the best picture possible. Anyways, I had to go out and buy one just to satisfy myself. Also included was a remote control, along with the batteries needed for its operation. I must briefly comment on how ugly the remote control looked like, but it does its job fine.

Finally, the Kalua also includes a CD full of 115 full-length MP3's (most that I've never heard of, unfortunately) and some MP3/music software such as the famous Winamp and the not so famous MGC DJ 2000 (allows you to mix your own music). Although you can get most of the stuff from the 'net, it's nice to have them, especially if you're on a modem connection.

Installation
I tested the Kalua on my home theatre system composed of a Sony receiver and RCA TV; you can also set up the Kalua as a stand-alone player with just a TV. Installation was very smooth as all I had to do was remove my old DVD player and plug this one in its place using the same wires. For most people setting up a home theatre system for the first time, the installation could get very confusing, but the Kalua's installation process in this scenario will be the same as any other DVD player available today.

The manual included some detailed instructions on how to install the Kalua on a few specific installation scenarios such as installation with a TV and an AV power amplifier (i.e. receiver). It didn't, however, go into enough detail on how to install the Kalua with your home theatre system, which some might find to be overwhelming to do with detailed instructions in the first place. Thus, buyers beware! If you don't have any knowledge of how to set up a home theatre system, then I suggest you get someone knowledgeable to help you out! This applies to setting up all home theatre systems, not just the Kalua!

Once everything was set up, I powered up the Kalua and was ready to get started with my testing! Woohoo!

On to: Powering Up...