Hi All

Buying my fiancee a DVD player for Christmas and want to spend about £100 on it.

I have seen a Sony for that money that looks pretty good, any opinions?

Is there anywhere to buy them online?

Any better ones on offer for that money?

Thanks

Paul :)

Techtronics


sorry not upto date with any

Have a look in Makro. Some gooduns there at the moment. I bought a 28 inch telly for 100 notes the other week - one which someone had returned, admitedly, but it's worth a look.

ooer. I can't spell...

[Edited by Franx - 12/9/2003 12:16:02 PM]

Haven't got a Makro near me :( Their website is next to useless too :(

Richer Sounds

If you can up the budget a little I'd strongly recommend the Pioneer 565A. For £188 you get a multiregion player which also supports MP3, SACD and DVD-A.

That's a :cool: site :D I am just browsing it now :D

Thanks :)

I'm even more confused now :rolleyes: what does "VCD/SVCD Playback" mean?

SVCD stands for "Super VideoCD". A SVCD is very similiar to a VCD, it has the capacity to hold about 35-60 minutes on 74/80 min CDs of very good quality full-motion video along with up to 2 stereo audio tracks and also 4 selectable subtitles. A SVCD can be played on many standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a SVCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a SVCD is much better than a VCD, especially much more sharpen picture than a VCD because of the higher resolution. But the quality depends how many minutes you choose to store on a CD, less minutes/CD generally means higher quality.

SVCDs can be played on

- Many standalone DVD Players, check here for compability list
- All CD-ROMa/DVD-ROMs can play SVCDs with a software DVD/SVCD-Player

If your DVD Player does not support SVCD you can try this VCD header trick, it requires no reconverting which mean that you do not lose any quality.

So when would I be likely to use them? Is it worth buying a machine that doesn't support it?

Thanks :)

It's really redundant technology. It was very popular in the far east, more than VHS. The big thing about it was, anyone with a PC with a CD burner could make copies for a few pence each, but now most people have DVD burners the demand is dying off. You don't really need it, unless your big into HongKong movies, but most DVD players support it anyway.

:cool: Thanks :) I think I have decided on this one How does it sound to you?

Paul :)

From what I can gather it's a good machine.

£5 cheaper here

Oops, just realised that its R2 only, doh! Get it from RS multiregioned.

[Edited by corradoboy - 12/9/2003 1:39:28 PM]

:cool: You have been loads of help :D I will order that I think.

Right I am going to order the one from Richer sounds. It should come with all leads etc doesn't it :confused:

If you buy it from Techtronics you have the option to buy an enhanced scart lead half price (£25) which will allow you to copy any R2 disc to VHS regardless of copy protection. We all like to buy our favorites, but for all the rest you can have top quality video copies for the price of a blank tape and a Blockbuster rental. Also, Techtronics machines are chipped to make them multiregion, as opposed to remote hacked. Some titles are protected with RCE (Region Code Enhancement) which can occaisionally cause problems.

They never ship DVD player with connection leads. There are too many different ways to connect. The most common being a scart, as in one lead you get the picture in either RGB, S-Video or composite and the stereo sound. Some prefer to use component video to utilise progressive scan (plasma/projectors). Some use composite video (not recommended) or the S-Video outputs and get the sound from the stereo phono jacks. Then, if you want to use an AV amp, you'll need to connect up the 5.1 (6 phono jacks) outputs to use the onboard surround processing, or use the digital out (recommended-esp coaxial) to let the amp do the work.

See guide here

You could also look at http://www.amazon..co.uk I got my Mum a Toshiba mulit-region DVD player for sub 100!

Not the greatest but it played the Matrix and Fifth Element okay for it will be fine for her! ;)

Buy a Toshiba SD-330 - £79.99 from Amazon.co.uk, region free - plays EVERYTHING - and consistently wins awards every week for quality & playback - plus its got component video for your plasma..;)

Can't go wrong......:)

Posted by Franx...
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Have a look in Makro. Some gooduns there at the moment. I bought a 28 inch telly for 100 notes the other week - one which someone had returned, admitedly, but it's worth a look.
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It wasnt a silver Goodmans 28" widescreen was it?

I bought on and took it back a while ago. Would work fine for a while then the colours would go tits-up and alll the green would dissappear.

I'm getting the Tosh 330, Richer sounds does it for £80 last time I looked.

I'm no expert other than I bought 'What Home cinema' (or whatever it is) last month and made my mind up from reading that :)

I went for the Panasonic in the end because it had more gadgets that I am never going to use :rolleyes: She wanted a silver one and the toshiba was another £10 in silver which made it nearer the price of the panasonic. I made a mistake on my order though when I placed an order online and richer sounds just called me back and are refunding my card :cool: Top service so far :D

Many thanks :)

Paul

ooh, if you've got a plasma, then look for progressive scan video. There is a new Sony DVD player for around £129 that supports PAL and NTSC progressive scan. You'll get a much better picture on screens that support it (eg plasma, LCD, projectors).

EDIT: £133 from techtronics, multiregion.

[Edited by mrklaw - 12/12/2003 2:22:28 PM]

Haven't got a plasma :( Not that rich :o