Page 1 of Budget DVD Player or not?

I know this has been discussed all over this forum - but can anyone advise me what is the best player to go for?

I`ve seen all the budget player reviews and can`t believe that one player gets a decent review in one mag and a crap review in another.

I`ve already bought an Alba from Toys R Us for my son for Christmas - good excuse to get a player now and see how good it is. In all fairness I am quite impressed. Not being any sort of DVD expert, I don`t really know what to expect in terms of picture quality. I certainly don`t see any `block-o-vision` tendancies or any major lip-sync probs.

The player is Region free out of the box - already tried a couple of R1 disks - and experienced absolutely no probs. It also plays MP3 stuff, but only on CD-R`s - not RW`s. Not really a major prob because most stuff I listen to I will take the time to put on a CD-R anyway. I like the way that on a CD-R MP3 disk the menu`s are displayed on the TV - I must admit, navigation is a little awkward but acceptable. VCD`s are also no problem.

OK, it hasn`t got a decoders for 5.1 or DTS, but I have an A5 for that. That only leaves Macro as a feature to discuss - which it hasn`t - but, in all fairness, I`m not sure I`d bother with anyway. Once I have got/seen a film on DVD, why bother putting onto VHS with crap sound and picture?

So, the question is whether I buy another Alba at Christmas when I need to give one to my son - or plump for a different player, like the Yelo (which I WAS considering before seeing certain comments), which has extra features like Macro and decoders on board.

After reading various forum comments, I am tempted to go for a Pioneer, Hitachi etc...to benefit from excellent picture quality. How much of an improvement in terms of picture quality can I expect over a sub 200 deck? I know if I do this I will lose MP3 playback so I`ll have to resort to burning WAV`s instead! Another factor I am also concerned about is the `new` coding on some DVD`s just being released and their incompatibility with certain? (Wharfdale???) decks that are meant to be region free!!! via a hack or mod. Will this be a problem?

Hi, I`ve had a Pioneer 414 for over a year now, modded of course. Picture beautiful. But I was tempted by the lure of MP3 and macro etc etc. I bought a Yelo. Many problems. Plus picture quality was noticeably poorer. Got refund on Yelo and with that and the money from selling the 414 I bought a Pioneer 727. Major indulgance! Back to superb picture and RCE, it can kiss my butt! Big thing though, it actually holds 301 discs. (well 130 more till I fill it).
It`s up to you, if you are satisfied with your player then fine. But I was spoiled by the superior picture from my Pioneer.
Check one out, you won`t be disappointed.
Cheers
Jim

Herein endeth the message... It`s all about your own personal standards - if you like the 103 buy one for your son, or yourself....If you like the Pioneer go for it (Jim, pleased to see you didn`t buy a multi-CD after my advice!). That`s the bootiful thing about consumer power...you pays yer pound yer gets yer product. One man`s "perfect picture" is another man`s Ski Sunday. It`s all subjective. If you like the 103 go for it. Great choice of amp, mind....

Thanks for the advice folks - gives me something to dwell on.

Talkin` about `block-o-vision` - I was watchin` Drop Dead Gorgeous` last night and whether it was just me or whether it was a problem with the player I don`t know (my mind playin` tricks on me!!!), but I definitely noticed some pixelation in some of the background and even foreground picture. One such scene was when the camera was looking across the basketball court to half a dozen girls sitting in the opposite stand. I happened to notice one of them had `fuzzy` hands which, on careful inspection, looked like the blocky pixels of a Crime Watch `cut out the face` scene!!!!!!

I became increasingly paranoid about this occurrance and spent most of the next half an hour not concentrating on the film but looking for repeats of the above. I then became extremely critical of every aspect of the picture quality and I`m sure that I reached the point where I was convinced that in every scene pixelation occured!!!!

Now, on a `decent` player would such pixelation occur as in the scene mentioned above - even minor pixelation - or would it just not happen at all? Maybe it was just that particular film, I don`t know, but I`m off now to examine some of my other films with my head 2mm from the TV screen!!

Have had 3 Pioneer DVD players, 2 Computer DVD players , 3 cheap DVD players and 1 excellent Tosh DVD player and i can tell you that you get what you pay for :( If you want MP3 then your only option is a cheap DVD but if you want to watch good pictures without the pixelation then you need a better machine I.E. Pioneer, Toshiba or Hittachi. I have kept the best cheap player ( Daewoo 2002k) that i have found mainly for the MP3 output, but for my main TV i use Pioneer 626D, If you go to Richer Sounds you can pick up the Pioneer 525 for £225 all region, and thats a good machine.

Max

Just the sort of response I was looking for - cheers Max!!

not being a dvd expert i recently bought a matsui dvd120, didn`t want to spend too much until i found my feet so to speak.
What a load of CRAP, lip sinc out, slow motion diabolical, all in all cheap and tacky. So i took it back and swapped for a proline dvd1000, fantastic player, region free with superb picture and sound, all for £150.00.
Now i`ve got the bug!!!!

Where did you get the Proline and do you know if it plays VCD`s and SVCD`s???

I have just bought the ALBA103 from toys r us. I dont know a thing about DVD players but i found an article in the " What HIFI awards" magazine that says that it has a digital decoder and DTS capability.
Is your player the 103? and if so how did you get it to play region 1 discs? do i need to change anything inside the machine? One more thing, How can i tell what region 1 DVD`s are RCE encoded?

Thanks

The Proline is available from Comet or Woolworths. It is advertised as VCD version 1.1 and 2.0 compatible.

Its worst feature is the remote control - both the design of the handset and the fact that the remote sensor seems to be so far buried in the depths of the display window that you need to be directly in front of the machine and pointing the remote straight at it for it to work. But I can easily live with this for £150.

It also does output DTS bitstream - even though this is not mentioned anywhere in the documentation.

There is a small problem, though - maybe a fault on my machine - on 4:3 discs and anamorphic discs where the actual picture is 16:9 and not some wider ratio (ie it should fill the TV screen), the picture on my widescreen TV has a small black bar at bottom of the screen. Does anyone else have this, either with the Proline or other players?

Regards,

Darrell.