One day last month I found our 3 month old DVD player no longer worked (back to the shop for you - if I can find the receipt). It was a really nice (though cheap) DivX DVD player. It had a USB interface so I could watch DivX files from our computer via a flash memory drive - a really cool feature. So I was gutted that the machine didn't recognise any discs put into it.
* Time for a new DVD Player *
The next evening was spent browsing around some sites on the Internet. I found some very good reviews about the Sigmatek XS-700 PRO player. I've never heard of a company called Sigmatek and I thought they were one of a long list of new Chinese companies that have sprouted up from nowhere recently (it appears they are French actually). But the reviews and prices were very enticing so I took out my credit card and bought one from PIXmania.com (for £40 + £6 P&P) - another company I've never heard of, but after a bit of research I decided to take a chance. I found out they were part of the Fotovista group - another company I've never heard of (I've got to get out more).
The company gave me an order confirmation email and I wait for around 4 working days. When it arrived, the package seemed quite light and smaller than I expected. I unwrapped it and found the manual was in French - strange! After reading it a bit further I found the English part of the manual was at the back of it. I suppose I'm just used to seeing English at the front of manuals, though I didn't read much of the manual as I enjoy setting up electronic products without looking at the instructions to see how screwed up I can get myself before I start panicking and scrabbling for the instructions - like most people.
* The Setup (part 1 - the packaging and features) *
The packaging contained the following:
[] The DVD player unit (obviously) [] A European electrical cable (with a UK plug adapter) [] Instruction booklet (in many languages, including English - somewhere) [] Remote control (with 2 AA batteries)
At the back of the DVD player, it has the following connections: [] SCART RGB out [] S-Video out [] Video composite out [] Audio 2.0 out and Audio 5.1 out [] Audio Numerical out (coaxial) [] Video Progressive Scan out (Y,PB,PR & RGB) [] HDMI out (480P/576P/720P/1080i)
At the front, are the buttons for on/off, open/close door and other familiar controls, a flap revealing a USB port and another flap for (wait for it) a 3 in 1Card reader (SD, MS, and MMC) - yes! [punches fist into the air above him]
* The Setup (part 2 - shock, horror and idiot moment) *
Once I unpacked it I suddenly realised that the remote control was missing. Disappointed and angry, my first response was to ring the supplier (PIXMania) to complain but as I calmed down I noticed it was embedded in the foam packaging (wake up Ian!), with batteries included - nice!
* The Setup (part 3 - installation) *
Surprisingly (for me), I set it up very easily. I attached the UK adapter (a funny little UK plug that snaps into the two pronged European cable) into the electric cable, and the other end of the cable into the DVD player. As we have an old fashioned non-HD CRT TV I attached a SCART lead into the DVD player that was still plugged into the TV and placed the player underneath the TV and switched everything on.
> Important Note <
I should point out, despite this having a HDMI connection for HD Televisions, is does NOT play HD-DVDs or BlueRay discs. It simply allows you to view normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill DVD's using the new HDMI technology, so if you have a HD TV you can view DVD's with slightly better quality. OK, back to the review…
* The DVD player in use *
I got the company logo that is displayed on the TV when no disc is loaded straight away. The setup could only be done through the remote (luckily I found it wasn't it!). It wasn't very intuitive but once I got the hang of the controls (using the up, down, left, right, and select buttons) I managed to set the player for English UK (default is French). I left most of the settings alone as they seemed obviously set up for optimum performance anyway. I won't bore you with the settings in detail as they are explained in the manual.
The buttons operating the player are placed on the far right-hand side of the unit, and are rather small and a little cumbersome to use. They aren't very obvious which one does what. This could be frustrating to some people. The picture was very good quality and typical of DVD players of the same type. The remote has the usual buttons that operate a DVD player and are designed for easy use.
One very obvious omission is the lack of a Stand By button - it has a on/off press-button instead. This doesn't matter to me, in fact in a way it's a good idea and saves a bit of money as it doesn't use up any electricity when not in use. The only downside is that I have to get up of my lazy backside to turn it on (though I suppose I'd have to do that anyway to load the DVD disc into the player).
As I don't have a HD TV, I can't comment on the HDMI connection. I've added a Sony 32" HDTV to my Christmas list so maybe Santa will bring me one this year [crosses fingers and wishes very hard].
* What's DivX *
I was really looking forward to trying out the USB and SD Card reader features. As I said at the start, my old DVD player could read 'flash drives' using its USB interface. I copied a home movie DivX file of my kids running around in the park onto a 2GB flash drive and plugged it in. As the player was already switched on it automatically started to scan the flash drive, though it did take a while (20 very long seconds). It then displayed a file menu of the contents of the drive. I selected the movie file of the kids and pressed on the select button on the remote. It started immediately showing a very good quality of my two little darlings on TV - brilliant! The only problem was after around 10 minutes the picture and sound started to drop (short picture freezes and popping sounds), which meant the data from the drive was being copied too slowly - the USB was only 1.1 rather than the latest and faster 2.0 - it was a shame but it wasn't too noticeable for short movies. I tried copying it onto a SD card - again the quality was great - without any problems this time - so SD cards good - USB flash drives not so good!
I should also note that as well as movies, the player can play MP3 music files and JPEG pictures (with a side show effect) - which I used to show my mother-in-law our holiday pictures last week.
> Quick notes on DivX <
DivX is a new kind of video format (a software driver known as a CODEC - coder/decoder) that compresses/decompresses video and sound data very well with relatively little loss of quality. It is a proprietary owned technology (by DivX Inc), but is becoming very popular in electrical products, such as DVD players.
You can download the DivX codec and other useful software for your computer from http://www.divx.com - for free (though you can buy the 'pro' versions from the site too). For more information on DivX visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DivX
* Conclusion *
The DVD player is very nicely priced with a lot of useful features. It can play anything that is flat, round and shiny, and can almost play any video format you want - I have tried burning some more home movies onto a blank DVD disc, which plays all of them flawlessly.
My only issues with it are the speed of the USB and the small controls on the front. With my kids, it's only a matter of time before they spill orange juice over the remote and it no longer works, so I will have no choice but to use these basic controls to play movies (unless I find a replacement).
Specifications: [] 5.1 channel out: RCA pin jackx6 [] Coaxial out: 0.5V (p-p) 75Ω, RCA pin Jack x l [] Video out: 1.0V (p-p)/75Ω, sync, negative polarity, RCA pin jack x 1 [] S-video output connector (separate Y C signal output connector): [] Frequency response: 20Hz to 20 kHz [] S/N ratio :> 90dB [] Total harmonic distortion: <0.0025% [] Size (without package): 430 x 230 x 45 mm [] Net weight: 1970g
Thank you for reading
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