In order to satisfy my technological needs and not having had a product to review in this genre for nearly 6 months now I thought I had better purchase something…well that’s one of the excuses anyway. With an impending move ahead of me back to my hometown Norwich from Leeds, I decided to leave my old single region DVD player, despite its smart style, with my girlfriend who didn’t own one. Scouring the Internet revealed a possible successor: the Yakumo DVD Master XL2. Amazon seemed to stock these little beauties at £35…. yes that’s right £35!!! Now I had Amazon vouchers to the value of £20 and was almost stupefied that I could get this delivered for a sum total of £15 with Amazon’s Supersaver delivery… not bad but there had to be a catch, didn’t there? Surely £35 meant that I was buying a budget item that either wouldn’t work properly, wouldn’t sound good or wouldn’t produce pictures quality at quite the level my Goodmans had previously done. Reading the reviews posted on the Amazon site my mind was put at ease as every single one indicated that the player was well worth the money. Ciao reviews confirmed this too. On with the purchase I thought… and I did.
Arrival of the Product
The product arrived bang on date, much to my pleasure. All packaging is pretty much dull and lifeless in this price bracket and this player is no different but it really isn’t important when all you want is to see your new baby inside. The box is white and indicates
the general specifications of the product as well as what formats it will play etc.
The Look (7/10)
The XL2 doesn’t look as good as others on the market: what do you expect for the price. It does look fine though and won’t detract from the room its in one bit. In comparison to my old player the size is identical but is perhaps a little less sleek. It is 99% silver with black writing on the front face and a blue colouring around the power button.
Picture and Sound Quality (9/10)
There appears to be no problem with sound quality. All DVD players I have used seem to provide a low sound output to the TV. This one is no difference and you have to turn the TV sound up quite a way to hear properly. This isn’t really a problem unless you forget to turn it down before putting the TV back on… ouch!
Sound quality is as good on usual TV sets as other DVD players I have experienced. I have no idea what it would be like on a massive screen and probably never will, but then if you can afford a large TV you can afford a more expensive DVD player.
Features (9/10)
There seem to be too many features to really describe. You can zoom into the picture at 2-4x, change angles when scenes are recorded in multiple angles, slow the playback down to around 1/16 of the normal speed and repeat titles or, tracks or chapters, even segments of film.
Subtitles can be used in every world language, supporting Thai, Hindi, and Arabic etc. You can actually have several subtitles up at a time, allowing people of different nations to enjoy the movie at the same time. I don’t really see the point in this but it might help for people who are learning languages.
The XL2 supports both PAL and NTSC playback (which means you can play pretty much everything as long as your TV supports it).
Parental control can be invoked on certain DVD discs, such as setting the rating level you want, therefore cutting out violent scenes etc. I’m not too familiar with this function as I am far away from having kids to protect, so I can’t really report back on whether this works well or not.
Volume can be controlled via the remote control as well as a mute function having been included. This gives you greater flexibility when playing DVD movies or CD Audio. The player has a built-in Screensaver, which activates after a period of rest.
Formats Played (9/10)
This little beauty pretty much plays all the formats out there at the moment. Noticeably it does not play Divx format disks, a format used to shrink the size of DVD quality movies without losing picture quality. Very few players do have this built in. I know Medion have been making some but these are around £65-75 and wont be much use to the general public to warrant the extra cost.
DVD – plays all your usual discs without worrying about region coding. The Multiregion aspect means you can buy your discs from anywhere in the world and they should, in theory, play on the XL2. So far I have tried both Region 2 & 3 and have had no problems.
VCD/SVCD – In effect a cheap way of sticking video files onto a normal CD (CD-R) with your CD Recorder so that they will play on a DVD player. I like this function as it avoids the more expensive DVD Recorders for your computer but it does remove the some of the quality you might otherwise be used to.
CD-Audio – Plays all your musicCDs without a glitch. Stick the CD in and it will play automatically, showing track number and time elapsed on both the screen and the player. You can then change this with the remote to show time remaining etc.
Kodak-Picture CD – Those CDs you get your photos put onto for safekeeping. I haven’t tried this function.
JPG-CD – Worked perfectly, allowing slideshows of your pictures as well as rotating them and mirroring them.
MP3 CD – Write your MP3 music files from your computer onto a CD and the XL2 plays them without a problem.
CD-R & CD-RW – The player had no problem playing copied CDs of any sort.
What I liked best was that when faced with a CD that included both Images and MP3s, the player threw up the usual on-screen menu interface allowing you to choose whether to view pictures, and then go back to listen to the music etc.
The Manual (9/10)
The provided manual contains all instructions in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Instructions are very clear and precise, perhaps too basic for my liking but do allow for first-time users to work out exactly how to set up and use their new purchase. General indexing is provided within each language section allowing you to roughly find the area you are having trouble with or need more guidance on.
Accessories (8/10)
The remote does pretty much everything you would expect from it. It looks all right save for the power button which looks as if they forgot to add it originally and had to make an adjustment. The buttons are pretty standard aside from that but laid out for ease of use. Two AAA batteries are included.
The XL2 comes with a Scart Cable, which all DVD players need to hook up to the TV as well as an S-Video cable, which many do not come with, and allows for the XL2 to be hooked up to a TV via this method also.
Conclusion (9/10)
Despite there being other DVD players available at a slightly lower price on the market, to have all the cables included as well as the ability to play Multiregion disks one cannot ask for more for £35. To be honest, even if you already have a DVD player, this one is perfect for sticking in another room with the spare TV, or even in a holiday home (if you’re lucky to have one, which I am not!!).
I haven’t fully explored the player as yet and would like to try some other Region DVDs on it to make sure it is fully multiregion. I certainly think it is worth the money and would highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t yet have one or wants to replace their existing Region 2 player in order to save some money on future purchases.
Advantages: Multi-region, good audio/video quality, very low price, lots of features, player seems well made Disadvantages: Remote control could be better, MP3 player a bit buggy
essoft 07.06.2004 (07.06.2004)
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