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Fishman Dan
19th May 2004, 08:53 AM
While we're at it..

The missus has green-lighted the DVD player. Plenty of the seratonin in her head after shopping for a new lounge the other day - she was keen to buy the first one we saw :shock:

So what do i need to know? They're all around $200 and under. I like a Philips machine because it's got a 3 year warranty. LG has a similar unit for $169. Both have Progressive Scan, which apparently means crap if you don't have a progressive scan TV :?:

I guess they all support the different formats out there? What are the gotcha's i need to know about? Will they all play any dodgy DVD's brought back from overseas that we might pick up from a friend?

Just a tip - just because i work in IT doesn't mean i understand this crap. There is NO truth to the saying "If it's got electricity, it's IT" [-X :smt076 :smt098

McMw
19th May 2004, 09:01 AM
for those DVDs that u will get back from OS, and want to play on your new dvd player, you'll need to make sure that the player is capable of playing all zones... (ask the salesperson)...


my dvd player plays all zone...except for Zone 1 (US) only becoz I haven't got access to a Zone1 DvD yet... :lol:
but it plays the copies and aus DvD very well!!! :D

ah...life is grand here...20 bucks for 3 DvDs... :lol:

Fishman Dan
19th May 2004, 09:12 AM
The salesman muttered something about zones yesterday, and i think the LG's/Samsung's etc support more zones than perhaps the Philips. I think that's the only stumbling point...

markTHEblake
19th May 2004, 09:21 AM
Fishman.

The basic rule of thumb for DVD players, is if you have never heard of the brand and the price is too good to be true then its perfect. Yes i am talking <$100.

These players are mosy likely to play all formats, like SVCD, MP3, Picture CD, Region Free without mods.

If the player you want requires a flash upgrade to be Region Free forget it (many Phillips) or to a lesser extent a Remote control trick, - there is plenty around now that are Region free out of the box. ANd if the salesman tells you its illegal then he is a dope, region free is not illegal.

Macrovision free is hard to find but who needs that.

I recently bought a $70 Player from Target for my brother, and it even had Optical cable connectors, and it does *everything*

Personally i did pay $200 for my Nintaus 9808 from Hi Fi but i needed a Karaoke version (for the cook not me), and it wsa 18 mths ago.
I make XSVCDs from DVD's and these play fine in this player.

If you buy one of these things and open it up you will be surprised. There is a mainboard about 6-8cm square, a standard PC Dvd player with standard IDE cable (see, DVD is IT!) a power supply, and a lot of vacant space. Now that you know that why would you care about a Warranty? :-)

When you find a model that you want to buy, Go to Google Groups and do a search, for Australian only models (which are often oseas models rebadged) look at news:aus.dvd

Or even better go to http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers and look it up, you will see plenty of comment about important features. (NB, you might not see unique branded AU products here, hence the newsgroups)

I have spent 100's of hours on this site and others so if you have any other questions - say hoy.

andylo
19th May 2004, 09:46 AM
:shock:

I respect you, Blakey!!

Courty
19th May 2004, 10:03 AM
FD,

if you have got, or are planning on getting, a DVD burner in your PC/ Mac, make sure the DVD player will play DVD-R or DVD+R discs. When I bought mine (Panasonic RS-232) a while ago, there wasn't a huge selection that did. I wanted to be sure I could play the DVD's I created on my iMac with iLife :wink: :twisted:

Fishman Dan
19th May 2004, 10:09 AM
Or even better go to http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers and look it up, you will see plenty of comment about important features.

Wow. You da man.
Went to this site for a quick peek - the Philips 727 is the one i saw in stores for $249, and so far the best price i have got is $210. Generally it is getting good reviews for all purposes - but it can be bought for as low as US$49 or $80 Canadian!

Look at this post from a user;


The Philips 727 successfuly reads the following format/media types: VCD 1.x/2.0, SVCD 1.x/2.0, DVD+-R/RW and MPG Movies (from /Root folder of DVD/CDR/CDRW) without any problems.

The Region Code Media Hacks takes less than 10-seconds to perform > Eject CD-Rom and type 9990 on Remote

I experienced NO issues with video pixelation watching DVD-R/RW movies using DVD-R media: CompUSA 1x, Fuji, Sony, Memorex.

Get this player while you can, it's getting hard to find in the retail sector...buy it online before it's discontinued.

Wonder if that's true - simple remote control hack for the Region Code?!

markTHEblake
19th May 2004, 10:30 AM
Wonder if that's true - simple remote control hack for the Region Code?!

Yes. Sometimes there will be a slip of paper in the box with that instruction. Sometimes the salesman will tell you (and give the impression that its a national secret so you think he is a hero), otherwise you look it up on the web.

When i was shopping for my DVD player, phillips seemed to be go, but there were a lot of reasons why I didnt buy it in the end - one of them was no guarantee that you would get one with the right firmware installed (from memory). The hacks can be downloaded however but thats always a hassle - if you flash it wrong there is no recovery.

Anyway there is no harm in taking one of your disks to the store an get them to verify that it plays, if the dont let you find another store!
(consumers right, goods must be fit for the intended purpose).

Still i think $210 is too much, when you can get the same player for <$100. Think of how impressed Fishwoman will be

Courty - the <$100 players will play everything DVD +/- anything that you can throw at it.

Fishman Dan
19th May 2004, 11:28 AM
http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/cgi-bin/buy/online-item_id-B000093US3-search_type-AsinSearch-searchus.html

These guys are well dodgy, but advertising the Philip 727 for US$71, and they are based in Melbourne. Note the comment on the page - Availability: Usually Ships within 24 hours. Their stock comes from the US and they often cannot supply according to their sales guy.

I gave them a call, and of course they wouldn't be able to supply me. He then drew my attention to a disclaimer on the left. I read it - blah blah, cannot supply other than these product lines.. * DVD and Video. So i told the guy he could supply me... on and on we went, it was quite funny.

Regardless - i've got a printed quote to take to Bing Lee and get their bestest price.

BrisVegas
19th May 2004, 12:12 PM
I bought my last DVD player 18 months ago (I had two American Sony players previously, one of which was a 200 carousel) from Grace Brothers. If you find a switched on salesperson, they will soon tell you which players are region-free. Some are marked as such, and others are not marked. If you're worried about whether it'll handle your various discs, take them with you and try em out.

For what it's worth I bought a basic Sony with component video outs (to connect with projectors and better TV's) for $350. The same model is probably $200 now or less. I have probably 100 American DVDs and it has played all of them no probs. No remote control tricks needed, no chip upgrade required.... And it came with 5 free movies... Nice!

I bought one of those no-name ones for $79 for my Dad at Christmas and it works fine. All it lacked was the better audio/video connections and snobby brand.

markTHEblake
19th May 2004, 12:17 PM
Stop Press! :-)

Do you get APC - Junes arrived just now and on page 107 - DivX compatible DVD players.

These have been around for a while, but at USD400 or more. This article quotes some amazing prices for these players starting at $159

Check out the;
Zensonic Z300, $159
XMS888 $179
Trio Dx628 $249

The latter 2 are sold at Stratfields.

Google is my freind and i found Zensonic at
http://www.i-tech.com.au/products/item575.asp
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3316&item=3095896306&rd=1

there is also a cheaper Digitrex GK4000 on Ebay. dont know Chipset it has though, but even has a VGA out !
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3316&item=5700376162&rd=1

There is a definite advantage in having a DivX player, almost all DVD rips are downloadable from P2P and the quality that can fit on a 700mb CDR (full screen) is impressive. I fact i cant tell the difference.

If my Xbox didnt play Divx movies i would buy one today.

Golfgirl
19th May 2004, 04:53 PM
Ok - so while we are on the topic - DVD/VCR combos - any good???

I need to be able to tape record the golf because I am currently paying too much each month for pay TV so that I can watch golf that I get up too late to see.... :? :oops:

I have seen DVD/VCR combo for around $300, and today I saw a DVD recorder for $470 - don't really want to spend that much though.... :?

What do you think?

markTHEblake
19th May 2004, 05:08 PM
What do you think?

waste of money, you can buy a DVD player for $70 and a VCR for $100, and there is no advantage in having the combo except one less electricity plug - its still two different sets of output connections.

The DVD recorders are coming down in price very rapidly. Less than a year ago they were barely under $1000.

crikey i just looked at Ebay, a heap of digitrex DVD Recorders are going off for $310 approx. DVD+R only.

AndyP
19th May 2004, 07:48 PM
Just get a PS2. :wink:

Golfgirl
19th May 2004, 08:08 PM
What do you think?

there is no advantage in having the combo except one less electricity plug - its still two different sets of output connections.



Oh dear... that could be a problem - I don't think we've got anymore space to plug anything else in.... I don't even understand how it is working atm other than that it plugs in via our stereo, which we have to set to "Game" to play DVD's.... :?

I really don't understand this crap... I hope I am never suddenly single again.... :roll: