Cyberhome CH-DVD 402 > Reviews > A cheap player but definitely not basic!

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Excellent
Range of Features	Excellent
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Can play almost every CD, cheap price, reliable, great picture and sound, good features for the price
Disadvantages:	Small buttons on remote, a bit slow to load some discs, useless glowing buttons on remote

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This DVD player is made by a German manufacturer called Cyberhome, who I had never heard of before, but I thought I would try the player anyway. I bought this player from WHSmith for £79.99 and I was going to buy the cheaper CH 400 DVD for £49.99 (without a front display, that's why its cheaper), but they were out of stock. So I took a gamble with my hard earned cash.

Thankfully I was impressed with the player and the stunning range of discs you can play. Not only that, but the picture and sound quality is superb, despite the fact that it was so cheap.

DISC FORMATS

It is capable of playing more than just DVDs. With the ability to play VideoCDs (the forerunner to DVD, with VHS quality), JPEG images/MP3 music/MPEG video from CD-R & CD-RW discs you can make with your PC. However, some MPEG video files I had written to my CD-R disc locked up during playing, but maybe they will sort this out in the software upgrade, available from the company website. It also plays Audio-CDs as well, as do most DVD players. I don't know if it plays SVCD (Super VideoCDs), DVD-R or DVD-RW discs, as the manual doesn't mention any of these formats. So probably not.

MULTI-REGION CAPABILITY

This DVD player can play multiple regions, but not without using a player hack from the Net. I've used the hack to make it multi-region capable and I have successfully played a Region 1 disc I bought from the USA, via Play.com, without any problems. The picture is just as pin sharp as the UK DVDs, but apparently I've heard the disc plays slower and the film running time is longer as a result. I don't see this as a problem though.

SOUND FORMATS

This player has DTS and Dolby Digital decoders built in, with an optical connector on the back for modern Hi-Fi's and (Digital 5.1) Surround Sound Cinema Systems. However it also has a phono/coaxial sockets for old analogue systems you may have already. Although this player produces good sound on the NICAM stereo TV and Virtual Surround TV I have, without the need for extra speakers. So its not a necessity, unless you are obsessed about perfect Surround sound! You also have the EFFECT button on the remote, which allows you to choose different Surround Sound Equalizer settings (such as ROCK, POP, CLASSIC, etc) or you can switch Surround Sound off, which increases the volume slightly!

PICTURE FORMATS

This player has a multiple zoom feature (which may or may not be useful) and you can zoom in four times (in or out), slow motion and fast forward/rewind in 2x, 4x, 8x 16x steps and multi-speed searching. You can also change the brightness, contrast and screen settings. The picture quality is pin sharp (although this depends on the quality of the original disc, I've noticed), even with VideoCDs, which look better than they do on my PC!! It has two screen modes: 4;3 (Pan & Scan "normal" TV mode) & 16:9 widescreen. You can change whenever you want from the set up menu. There are connectors to SCART, RGB (Video/Computer Monitor mode, apparently) and composite video out, whatever that means!! I'm not an expert here! All of which can be changed via the setup menu. There's also a multiple angles feature, button, which only works with certain disc titles and is used to show storyboard/effect comparisons or differently filmed camera angles on some movies. It can be good or bad, depending on how useful you find this feature! There's a Bookmark feature on the player, so the player can remember your favourite clips on each disc. I haven't tried this feature yet though.

SPECIAL PLAYER FEATURES

The Repeat function is a standard I think on most players these days, but there are a couple of nifty options on this player. The standard Repeat (ALL/1) button allows you to play either an individual CHAPTER, the TITLE (without the title menus) or ALL of the disc, which includes title menus. The other button is called A - B (or "A to B"), which allows you to mark a specific section of the film as you are watching and you can loop it forever! You press it once, it remembers the A (first) mark in memory and then you press again for the B (second) mark. The player will then loop between these markers until you press the Repeat button, to the show the ALL or TITLE selection. So if you get bored of your discs you can always play around with them, childish I know, but fun on boring nights nonetheless!! :) There is a GO TO button which lets you go to a specific time (even to the nearest second!) on the disc or jump to any number chapter you key in. Finally, there is an INTRO button, which allows you to view the first few seconds of each Chapter, the whole Title or Specific Time Segments from the Disc (from an on-screen Scene Selection Grid) and this is useful if your DVD disc doesn't have a Scene Selection option. I find it useful anyway, to memorise specific scenes on the disc.

PLAYER FEATURES OVERALL

• Slow Motion, with Fast Forward & Rewind steps
• Multiple Language Subtitles (does depend on the DVD)
• Multiple Angle views (does depend on the DVD movie)
• TV Format Selection (4:3 & 16:9 formats)
• MP3, JPEG Image and MPEG Video clip compatibility
• Zoom In and Out Feature
• Title and Menu button (for the DVD and VideoCD menus)
• DTS and Dolby Digital sound format selection
• Bookmark feature, to remember chapters on individual discs or clips you want to play.
• Rating Level (with Parental Lock)
• A Screensaver, if you don't play a disc! :-)

OPINION OVERALL

I have to say for the price, I'm very impressed with what I've got. The player is great even when playing slightly scratched CDs (the mark of good laser reader I think) and only a couple of titles have had "pixellation," also known as picture decoding/reading problems. Although this may be due to fingerprints or dirt on the disc (or also vibrations disrupting the laser), which is why you should always handle the discs by the edges! The remote control buttons are a bit small & too close together and I think they need to rearrange the buttons slightly. The fast forward/rewind and skip forward/back buttons are too close together, which is really annoying when you want to fast forward!! I keep pressing the next chapter button instead of Fast Forward, which is very irritating!

The main player buttons glow in the dark, which I suppose is useful, but unfortunately you have to remember which button is which because I can't see them well! Duh! Slightly useless methinks! :-) The player is also slightly slow at reading the disc and sometimes takes ages to eject the disc. Apart from these small niggles (which are hardly worth mentioning), this is a very good player and I urge you to buy it now before they sell out.