Info and forum posts by ';-David'

Multi Region Philips 711 @ Jungle for £179.99

Just spotted:

Due for release in 3-days.
Home Cinema DVD 711 Player (Black) Multi-region @ £179.99
MFR: Philips (Includes free delivery).
On Jungle web site.

I know there is another post for it being at Tescos for £164, but these offers don`t always apply across all stores, and with the latest Hack news, they might start to sell quite quickly !!

RE: Scan DVD Player Any Good ??

That is fair enough. I remember a similar problem with Toshiba lap-tops every time a new model came out.

That does not excuse being advised that a product was discontinued, when clearly it wasn`t.

RE: How to connect your DVD player

But I thought that all DVD Reviewer Columnists had been adapted for the optical interface, patched into the left hand optic nerve, via a little socket just behind the ear.

Isn`t that how you watch DVD`s in your sleep !! ;-)

RE: Please help on Cyberhome AD-M512

I have an AD-M212, which doesn`t have the built in 5.1 decoder.

You don`t say how you have the system connected up. There is a lot of choice with the 512.

I don`t have music DVD`s so I can`t say whether it is a universal problem.

Have you tried switching between 2-ch and 5.1 sound modes, using the EFFECT button on the remote.
Also the Audio setup menu allows the digital output to be set to OFF, AC-3 or LPCM, try each of these.
DVD audio mode can also be set to CINEMA or KARAOKE.

RE: How do I ident pre and post Oct SC2000

>P.S. thanks anyway for replying
No problem.

>>most of the budget players ... suffer from reliability issues
>I`m confused on this from what I read roughly as much people complain >as there are ones who did not find problems.
Exactly. I did not mean most owners, just that most budget makes have issues. It is a bit more of a lottery than buying a quality branded model. If reliability is a concern a budget player is higher risk. (Not unique to DVD players of course). Cheaper and more feature rich though :-)

>>I do own a budget player though and I am happy with it.
>I`m curious if I may ask, what make and model is it?
Cyber Home AD-M212 German Parent, Chinese build (surprising, eh ;-)
http://www.cyberhome-europe.de

>>twice the resolution of VHS no matter what you watch it on
>AFAIK TV screens have only one resolution.
It is not the screen that is the issue. It is the signal being fed to the TV. This is governed by the format, PAL 625 lines and NTSC 525. The extra bandwith of DVD allows more faithfull reproduction to the original. I can`t find the reference, but I remember reading that DVD is about 500 lines, and VHS was about half that. You are correct though about it not being ready for HDTV. Has anyone ever seen a production HDTV ?

>>do not justify the switch to DVD alone
>actually I`m not switching I am buying a player for myself, besides with >all the mechanisms in VHS we have gone through three players in a >couple of years because of mechanical failures, DVD have much less >mechanics (I never had a CD drive break down for instance)
I would agree, but interestingly enough I only ever had one VHS machine break, and I have two broken CD players ;-)

RE: DVD Recorders - Told you so

But who wants to spend £1800 on a dedicated unit, when you could probably get a decent PC + Video capture, etc.

You might even be able to include the new pioneer DVD-R/RW & CD-R/RW ATAPI drive.
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/news/0011/pioneer_dvd-r_cd-rw.shtml

I know the argument about the average consumer preferring to keep things simple, but the user interface couldn`t be that simple on a box like this. It probably has on screen GUI to run it all.
What I would like to see is a component based black box solution (or silver ;-)) with a network option to allow connection and remote control via a PC. Particularly with the state of flux in DVD recordable standards.

I doubt you will see a recordable standalone system for under £500 in the next five years. Of course I could be wrong !

The line is definately getting thinner.

RE: azda price thats right!

The trouble with Asda is that the offers don`t always apply to all stores.
We have a difference with two stores only a few miles apart. I did notice that the display had expanded the other day, but not the offer you describe. (East Lancashire).

RE: Vivastar 80 min CD-R Problems!

Does an Aiwa NSX-AV90 5 Spk Pro-Logic qualify for membership of the (BBC) Budget Buyers Club. I got it from catalogue surplus (GUS) plus a staff discount approx £230 can`t remember.

Cyberhome budget DVD player too. Bush 14" budget tele and also Sanyo budget Nicam video also from GUS CS.

I bought a 50 pack of Memorex 700MB 80Min Memorex CDR from Jungle £25.

I have access to a HP 8100 CD Re-writer care of Work. I read at http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_cd-r80.shtml that HP and SONY don`t and won`t support 80Min CD because it is not part of the standard.

I have recorded on them using Adaptec EASY CD in DA format, but not beyond 74Mins (HP Drive only shows 74 mins free) and they play back on anything I have tried, DVD and CD players. I did back up a Data CD above 650MB and it worked OK ! Who needs standards ;-)

Budget Buying Rocks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well it saves you money :-)

RE: How do I ident pre and post Oct SC2000

Sorry to take issue with your posting, but you did give us your two cents, so here goes..........

I have no intention of suggesting an alternate player, but you did mention "trouble free" in your P.S. Good luck with the Scan, but most of the budget players refered to in this forum suffer from reliability issues. You simply do not buy reliability for <£200. Corners have to be cut somewhere.
I do own a budget player though and I am happy with it.

Re picture quality. DVD has twice the resolution of VHS no matter what you watch it on, even ignoring the fact that one is analogue and the other digital. You must been watching excellent VHS gear not to notice a significant difference. I watch on a cheap 14" portable set and there is a noticeable improvement between VHS and DVD. The fact that VHS degrades with use is also a consideration.

IMHO the features you mention are certainly valuable but do not justify the switch to DVD alone. That is what all the fuss is about......
The media might be smaller, but have you seen the boxes ;-)

Save your money and stick with VHS.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 14th November 2000, 21:24

RE: Cant play audio cd-r`s on sony DVP-S525D.

I cannot speak for your make and model of player but I find this very strange if it is supposed to play audio CD`s
My budget DVD player supports DA and MP3 on CD-R & CD-RW.
All of my CD players (Some very cheap and nasty, too.) can play CD-DA on CD-R. They don`t mention it in the specification of course.

I would have thought that a DVD drive supporting CD-DA would also work.
I understood that burned CDR-DA is almost identical to CD-DA.
I do agree that the construction of the media is different, CDR tend to be thicker, but most drives have a reasonable degree of tolerance.

Does the player play normal CD-DA discs (remember those, the ones people used to buy before MP3 came along ;-)) ?
Do the CD-R discs work in a normal CD audio player ?
I use Adaptec EASY CD to create DA discs (It was supplied free with the HP CD Re-Writer).

The media can make a difference, but I have used many different brand`s without any problems. I even use cheap (50p each) 700MB 80Mins CDR (Memorex) which I thought would be fussy, and they work fine !!

Have you tried Sony UK support to confirm one way or another ?
They must have a web site !

RE: Scan DVD Player Any Good ??

On the subject of Scan service.

I was mis-informed by Scan tele-sales that the latest Hitachi DVD-ROM drive (which was out of stock) had been discontinued !!!!! It was in my short list of Three. Hitachi X12(Reads DVD-RAM and cheapest), Pioneer X16 (FAST)and Toshiba X12 (I like the brand).
Funnily enough they could supply me a similar drive !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did think it was odd that Hitachi would discontinue their latest model !

I went to DABS web-site (also based in Bolton, but they offer free delivery !)
They didn`t have the Hitachi in stock, but I bought the Toshiba which I am very happy with.

Guess what ? they have the Hitachi back in stock !!

This item was edited on Tuesday, 14th November 2000, 19:58

RE: Need advice on what player to buy

Sorry I only have a budget player myself.

But have you tried ?:
http://www.techtronics.com/
http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/
they might help. They both seem to have a good range of players.
Techtronics also have user comments on most pages.
(I am not affiliated with any of these. Prap`s I should be, might be sum money in it ;-))

When you say CD-R do you mean CD-RW or VCD perhaps? I thought that a burned CD-R would play on almost anything that supported the format i.e. audio or video, etc. e.g. My cheap CD player can play an audio CD-R, but it doesn`t mention it in the specification. I have noticed that manufacturers have started listing support for CD-R, but I think this is the same as when car manufacturers started putting 16V in the specs of cars, that had the feature already.
Also to make matters worse there is more than one version of VCD and SVCD!
CD-RW on the other hand only works where there is specific support for it.
I am sure that this will be true of DVD-R, which will probably play in most DVD players. DVD-RAM will probably be similar to CD-RW requiring specific support.
The rare issues that occur are sometimes caused by the dyes that are used in CD-R media.
If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

The problem is caused by manufacturers mixing formats with media types.

I opted for a budget player that supported most formats DVD, VCD, SVCD, CD-DA, MP3, (Media - DVD, CD, CD-R & CD-RW), rather than a quality player that doesn`t. It does warn me not to use DVD-RAM or PHOTO-CD. It doesn`t however support HDCD.

U pays yer money...................

This item was edited on Tuesday, 14th November 2000, 19:22

How to connect your DVD player

I often see questions about hooking up a DVD system.

I found the following info useful, so I thought I would pass it on.

http://www.techtronics.com/ttn/shop/510-how-to-hook-up-dvd-player.html

Hope it`s some use to someone.

RE: Cyber Home ADN 212

Here are the URL`s I mentioned.

Cyber Home: http://www.cyberhome-europe.de/
Fan Site: http://home.t-online.de/home/0306855728-0001/CHindex.html

RE: Cyber Home ADN 212

I can confirm Richer Sounds Price in the latest brochure. Don`t understand why it isn`t on the web site!!

I purchased the AD-M212 from Jungle. It is supposed to have more sockects and costs more. Jungle had AD-N212 for £139.99 and AD-M212 for £199.99. Jungle stopped listing both of them after real problems getting supplies. But I think they still have some stock now !!

From the spec`s I found MP3 wasn`t listed for the AD-N212 and only Dolby Digital sound. No DTS support.

Trying to get reliable info on the full spec and features of any player is a real pain. Particularly MP3 support. It would be great to think that one day you could get a full breakdown of all the components used in such equipment, chipsets, etc. Oink, Oink, vrooomm.

I am very happy with my AD-M212. I posted an initial rvw to this forum and can now add that `The Matrix` works OK on it. It is not state of the art, and the audio support is very basic, no explorer style menu. But you don`t spend <£200 on a player and expect perfection. It does what it says on the box and it is upgradeable from CD image so I guess it might improve in future. I have experienced a few crashes (don`t people believe in building decent OS`s any more, when was the last time your washing machine / video / HiFi, crashed?), but only in menus.

Multi-Region is via remote, or front panel on AD-M212, and supports Manual and Auto modes.

I don`t have the German Web site URL handy, but it is mentioned in earlier postings. I suggest you use Alta Vista world.altavista.com to read it. There is also a very good fan site, also in German, mentioned in earlier postings.

There must be an International DVD player foot shortage, with all these rocking players.


CyberHolme AD-M212 - Sits comfortably on all four feet !!

RE: For BRILEY

Hmm ! How do you know he doesn`t owe me a large sum of money.

In this case does that mean for a modest fee, I get the money back !! :-)

(He doesn`t actually ;-)

RE: Proline 1000 DVD/Grundig 28inch Wide screen surround sound conundrum Help!

For what it`s worth !

The symbol you describe is like the Dolby logo, it is like two D`s back to back. Must be worth trying it out. PCM mode on DVD is often described as CD quality but with a higher data rate.

My understanding is that to get true 5.1 or DTS sound you have to have a decoder built in to the DVD player to drive the speakers directly, or take a coax or optical feed linked to an amp / TV that supports it.
I have an aiwa dolby pro logic hifi linked to my DVD player via nicam video.

The 2 channel sound from DVD player is labeled as down-mixed, which I assume is pro-logic. I get mixed (sorry no pun intended) results but I think in my case it is down more to speaker location (My missus has an aversion to any speakers that are not hidden :-( ). It always sounds better than through mono TV (not difficult really !!). I do have a DVD with the Dolby clip used at the cinema, with the helicopter flying about. I must try to experiment with that sometime. I think it is on Walking with Dinosaurs (good old aunty beeb).

I am sure that it must make some difference according to what is used in the original recording. There must be some sort of test DVD or CD that could be used to test the system end to end against a known source.

I would check :-

Does dvd player support down-mix for 2 channel, and does this need to be set to on somewhere.

What inputs does TV accept. Is pro-logic in an option, and does that have to be enabled somewhere.

This item was edited on Thursday, 2nd November 2000, 01:54

RE: CYBERHOME AD-M 212 Arrived at Last !!!

Thanks.

I have already been there, (I had to do something while I waited!) and if you use Altavista Babelfish http://world.altavista.com it`s quite readable. It even gets a mention on the Cyberhome site links page. It does seem to focus more on the AD-N212 though.
I already have the firmware upgrade, but I am not in a hurry to start messing just yet. I need to wait for the ink on the warranty to dry first.

I also found a Belgian site, but vista doesn`t support that :-(
Did try German and then French with interesting results.

For BRILEY

Hi,

Just checking whether you are a B. Riley I knew, who worked at a company called Elton Cop.

If not, sorry to have bothered you.
Regards.

CYBERHOME AD-M 212 Arrived at Last !!!

Well I just couldn`t believe it. It did take over a month !
I like to think that the e-mail I sent to the german sales address `selas[at]...` did the trick, cos three days after I sent it, I got a reply from the UK tech support contact that an order had been shipped to Jungle that day. I didn`t get it till Monday because of the weekend.

BTW the player in WHS is the lower spec AD-N 212, with lower spec Audio and no MP3.

In the true spirit of the Net, I thought I would put something back from where I have taken, so here goes:-

Well it`s my first DVD player so don`t expect too much, and it is only connected to a portable colour set. My massive dvd collection can be counted on one hand, and three of those are childrens titles.
Evita, Walking with dinos, Flumps, Tigger Movie and Tarzan 2CD. All region 2.

Comes with everything, (except amp & speakers of course ;-)
Scart and Phono cable, even batteries for remote.

TV only has UHF in, so it had to be SCART to SCART on Nicam video. The output of this is connected to a Dolby Pro Logic 5 speaker HiFi. Having read some postings, I wasn`t sure if this would work.

Works, just great, picture is brilliant, mind you cartoon animation does seem to stress system less. I think it is because the level of detail and colours tends to be lower, and of course I am used to VHS. I know what I will be buying in future though!! I think you can guess from this that Macro must be off, out of the box, well put it this way, it makes VHS backups !! (but why would I want to !?). Takes about 6 secs to load, feels like longer ( oh just think of the days when they had to loop the film through the projector for stuff like this), Zoom X2 and X4, does anyone use this ? Great way to miss the film and X4 is crap. I suppose OK if you freeze frame and then zoom in on the interesting bits (I said bits!!). X2, X4, X8 & X16 Fwd & Rvs, pitty the sound cuts off. Slow 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16. Goto - Title, Chapt, Time. Repeat A-B & 1/ALL, SubTitle defaults to on. (heard of that before!)

It has DTS & 5.1 coax and optical out, not much use to me though, but it does down-mix to twin phono which is OK. The simulated surround modes are great, that is if you want it to sound like you watch TV in the bathroom or the albert hall. It also has a graphic equaliser. Lots of fun to be had, just not while the kids are watching disney films, they get quite nasty.

Basic navigation and playing can be done from front panel (lots of buttons) which makes a change these days, great if you lose the remote, I am sure the kids think it is funny to hide them and see how long it takes me to find them. I do have a 4 in 1, but it never supports all of the functions. Anyone know how they cope with DVD players. I don`t have the dosh for one of the all singing dancing variety that connect to a PC and cost more than a basic VCR, (more than a basic DVD player for that matter).

Remote is OK, probably just above average, not too cramped, main buttons made from that luminous stuff that glows if you take it from light to dark, oooooohhhhh.

I am still having fun getting used to the controls. First problem is that I keep pointing the remote at the telly, Doh! It can be frustrating the way buttons aren`t always active, you get a little symbol in the corner of the screen like a no-entry sign to indicate this.

CD Audio no problem, CD, CD-R and CD-RW. Sadly just a boring splash screen. Could have been much cleverer, No text title or track info options. Very basic but no worse than any of the other CD players in the household. X2 and X8 Fwd and Rvs amusing. MP3 even more basic, only limited trials using CD-RW and root directory, just shows total tracks and plays in order. You can skip fwd, but not back !! I did try Adaptec Direct CD at first as an experiment on the CD-RW tests, but player didn`t recognise it, (Surprise, surprise).

Sorry not into VCD yet, I really must get a capture card for my PC (ATI ones look good). Should support VCD & SVCD but not tested.

It does warn you not to try Photo-CD or DVD-RAM, as problems may occur !

Only offered in black. (Great the rest of my kit is black and her in doors said definately not Gold, or is it Champagne ;-)

Did I miss anything ?, I think I have just re-written the user manual, (Mines Better ;-). No I am not affiliated with CyberHome or Jungle.

Oh yes, hack code (thank you DVD Reviewer for Hack Section), same as AD-N212. System menu is "Argus 3" ?, lots of info about firmware and drive revision, etc. Two pages and several codes that can be changed. Region (preset to 2) tested on 1- (refused to play reg 2 disc), and 13 - (played disc OK). Error correct - OFF ?, Macro, etc.
Also from German web-site it looks like you can upgrade code from a download + CD-burn, etc.

I notice that Jungle still haven`t put it back on the web site yet ? but if you phone orderline and quote CYB044 they can give you stock position !! and take an order from you (they did try, didn`t mention I had one on order already, well if CS hadn`t kept on messing me about.... blah,blah..).

I paid £182 cos of my jungle jewels (don`t ask!), normal price is £199.95
Free delivery.

In summary, Congratulations if you got this far! Based on limited testing and IMHO, looks OK, picture great, sound OK, Audio controls could be much slicker for DA & MP3, but it does play them and sounds OK to me.
It has crashed twice and needed cold restart, once from standby to on and navigating Tarzan Bonus disc (disney really pushed the boat out on this one, it has early demos of Phil Collins sound track !!, this is what bonus stuff should be like, I take my hat-off, Sorry slipping into a DVD rvw;-) It also locked during an MP3 test, but ejecting the disk cleared it.
Manual is OK but a bit short and just runs through basic features falling short on detail on more complex issues. I like to know Why ? as well as How. No mention of service menu ;-) What I would really like is the documentation for that!

P.S. If you want to have some fun, ask a sales assistant in any high street electrical store about HDCD, and if it is like MP3.
(Sorry if you happen to be one;-)

This item was edited on Wednesday, 1st November 2000, 02:06

RE: Cheap `n` Nasty

Hi,

I have been struggling to decide which player to get for some time.
Price range up to £200.
I started looking in Curry`s and Comet i.e. LG, Samsung, Phillips, etc. and then I started to look on the NET.
I saw the Cyberhome players at Jungle ADN212 & ADM212, I wanted the MP3 so that has to be the ADM212. I have jungle jewels (don`t ask) which brought the price down to £181 from the £199.95. It`s multi region via remote, but not sure about macro disable, so I ordered one.
Only been waiting a month for it !!!
Very difficult to get info. I also found the german site, and used altavista babel fish to translate it.
The ADN212 was 139.95, no MP3 in spec and audio spec is poorer .
As has been mentioned they have now dissapeared from the site !!?
I now wonder if I will ever get one. CS say I am moving up the queue, but I bet that is just other people cancelling orders !

I must say that looking here at dvd reviewer forums doesn`t help with my decision. No sign of Cyberhome till this posting. Apart from hack entry. Also, if this one doesn`t turn up, what do I get, everyone recommends something different, YELO, SCAN, WHARFDALE and there are contradictions. In one post someone said ALBA DVD103 is MP3, but I can`t find it in any specs (and ALBA don`t have a website), and would it have it at this price.

Honestly, it`s getting as bad as buying a computer, buying consumer electronics. Actually I even toy`d with getting a DVD-ROM and MPEG card.

Prices keep dropping, specs keep changing.

I think it is like Parachuting. It`s a question of knowing when to jump, from how high, and if it all goes wrong making sure you have a soft landing !! AAAAaaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..............

P.S. Does the Hitachi 505 really rock ?
(maybe one of the feet is missing ;-)