Those $29.00 DVD players are really souped up

[ikojo]

computer DVD drives!

KMOV TV in St Louis had a report where Jaime Allman took one of the cheap DVD players on sale this weekend (the Cyberhome one sold at Radio Shack) into an electronics repair store. The repairman opened the unit and showed that it was basically a computer DVD drive. He said it would be fine for watching ONE DVD per WEEK but not for regular use. There is not display of any kind on the unit so there is no way to tell where you are in a movie or on a CD.

I checked the KMOV.COM website under Allman report and this report, which aired a few minutes ago, is not on the website yet.

[FlashHarry]

1. You get what you pay for

I've had a $150 Toshiba for almost 2 years now, and it's worked flawlessly the entire time.

[DrWeird]

2. Got one of those. Stupid thing doesn't have a rewind button!

I'M SO MAD!

[Kellanved]

3. they suck

The one thing going for them, is that they usually just require a PIN to be made Region-free.
Other than that: the picture sucks (shadows missing etc.) , the sound sucks and should you want to play a copy-protected CD: forget it (almost 100% of all Eruopean CDs have that **** protection - just the buyers have to put up with it).

A decent brand product isn't that much more expensive.


(Edit: to cheap players in general, not the WalMart model in particular)

[Tummler]

4. What's the big deal?

As far as I know, many consumer-grade DVD players use the same DVD-ROM mechanisms as computer drives.

In my experience, the cheapness of these Chinese-made "bargain" DVD players is more of a problem when it comes to general flimsiness of construction, heat issues, etc.

One of my three players is a Cyberhome (it's multiregion and does good PAL->NTSC conversion), and it's fine for much more than 1 DVD per week!

[Kellanved]

10. uhmm

"it's multiregion and does good PAL->NTSC conversion"

Sorry, but I doubt that. PAL is usually used with 625 Lines at 50Hz (25 frames) (625/50/PAL); Brazil uses PAL with 525 lines (525/60/PAL) US, Japan and a few more use NTSC at 525 lines (525/60/NTSC).

IMHO there is no way a cheap piece of electronics could convert that (the pulldown to correct the frame rate and the interpolating to downgrade the resolution are rather intensive tasks). Most likely is that your player does not convert the system at all (i.e. just uses NTSC, S-VIDEO or components as color-carrier and doesn't do anything about the resolution and the Framerate. Displaying a 625@50Hz (625/50/NTSC)picture instead of the American 525@60Hz (525/60/NTSC)).
The color signal is not the real problem, as it is generated by the player - usually S-Video or components are used instead of PAL or NTSC.


Edit: Thinking about it: I correct my above statement. While technically correct, I came to the conclusion that such a feature wouldn't be that hard to do - if the player just ignores the extra lines it might actually be pretty simple. :hi:

[Tummler]

13. Believe it or not . . .

I'm a DVD/home-theater nut with a penchant for multiregion (often PAL) discs, and display quality is an important issue for me.

At a retail price of $50-$100, the Cyberhome 500 is obviously not a high-end player. It does, however, play PAL discs in their proper resolution, i.e., without stretching the image (unlike some of the cheap Apex models). I'm in the U.S., so my TVs only accept/display 60Hz input, and they accept input from CH 500. I'm intimately familiar with the input requirements of my digital widescreen TV because I had to do custom timings for a Mac video card to get 540p output from the computer to the TV.

The CH 500 definitely does proper conversion of the framerate and resolution. It's not my primary multiregion player -- that would be a $300 Malata for the awesome, 1-pixel-increment scaling/pan features -- but it does a good job for the price.

These various comments/reviews on the CH 500 can confirm what I've said:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=281346&highlight=cyberhome

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=273488&highlight=cyberhome

http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30474

[Karenina]

5. Trample a fellow human being

to be the first on your block to get one!

[Sequoia]

8. Someone did in Florida!

Ture story I read this Sunday. Seems ole Wal-Mart was having an after T-Day sale and when the buzzer went off at 6:00 AM (who the heck gets up that early to go shopping anyway?), and the crowd just rushed in and a woman was trampled with a $29 DVD player under her. The woman's sister said people just keep going by and no one helped. So Miss Trampled goes to the hospital. What does Wal-Mart do? They tell her they will "hold one" for her. Not give it to her for all the trouble she went through, nor the one that was under her either. Such love, eh? Such love!

[TheMightyFavog]

6. MY player...

I've had my $40 (after rebate) Apex for awhile now, and I'm happy with it. it fits my needs perfectly.

[7th_Sephiroth]

7. i just use my

Playstation 2

[Kamika]

9. I just use my ps2 aswell

My computer can play ANY region though

[ikojo]

11. If the DVD player can't handle it then go look for

a piece of software called VLC....I've yet to find a media file this player cannot play. It's awesome!

[pnorman]

12. I have that Cyberhome Portable DVD Player.

(CH-LDV-712). I found it by web-searching for "region-free" players, and that one looked pretty good. (I thought I may have need for viewing Japan region DVDs, but that may never come to pass). Price was also a big consideration for me.

It doesn't look too sturdily built so I plan on being pretty 'gentle' with it. But I'm sure it would be good for a few videos per day, if not more. The accessory battery latches below the unit, and is almost as large. Laying on my lap after a while, I can feel warmth, but not to a degree that alarms me. The buttons on the player, and the (44!) buttons on the remote, are far from intuitive, so I'll have to RTFM some day. But it doesn't look TOO featureless. There's a rapid forward & back which goes to x8, as well as a bookmark feature. I can live with that.

I'm well at the non-linear end of my life span and I REFUSE to agonize over these things. I regard the first purcase of such a device as a First Approximation, and hope to get it "just right" a few years later when I buy the next one. (I don't even want to THINK about my elephant's graveyard of digital cameras).

[pnorman]

14. Here are the Amazon.com reviews of the above player:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AFX40/ref=cm_rev_all_1/103-4718586-3751823?v=glance&s=electronics&n=172521&vi=customer-reviews&me=A3LJ5WMKNRFKQS

There are a few bad reviews there, but overall it looks pretty good (for the price range).