DVD Players. ?30 / ?80 player difference.

[buster_broon]

i've got 2 poineer dvd players

the one in my room is my original 525 player from years ago that still works fine

recently bought a new silver poineer one from richer sounds for ?69 multi region and its the business

[VR46]

I got a ?40 multi-region one from Richer Sounds last year (plays SVCD's etc as well), great machine, no problems, they're even cheaper now, well worth taking a look.

[Lyris]

It may be worth paying for the Toshiba or Pioneer entry-level priced models. A cheap one's build quality is sure to give up sooner...

[Magnakai]

If you have the cash, I'd plump up for the better one.

[muddy]

i have a ?30 Yakumo off Amazon and it's the bomb. Admittedly, I don't have a full sound set up to really test it, but it connects to my TV via SCART and the picture is so crisp. It also doesn't look too bad under the tele either. ok, so it's no Apple product, but its certainly more attractive than an Xbox

and contrary to what some people here are saying, it plays EVERY type of disc i put in it. CD CD-R CDRW DVD-R etc. It seems to be the cheaper they are, the more they play. Remember, the big companies will be shackled by the correct DVD rights and will try and inhibit copying etc., so as to please the movie powers that be. Take any Sony DVD for example, in my experience, they won't play copies with chipping/modding. My mates can't watch some of my discs on their players that are upto 10x more expensive.

to be honest, for ?30, you can't go wrong.

[mid]

the Yakumo will indeed play practically everything you throw at it; Muddy is right that its actually the more expensive players that tend to have the most problems playing things like CDRWs, DVD-Rs, MP3s and other silliness.

The Tosh will indeed cope with all of the above, but rather than concentrating on ticking every stupid feature for what it can do other than play proper DVDs, you get picture quality that makes the Yakumo look like a VCD.

As with pretty much all AV equipment, the more you spend, the more they concentrate on doing their core features well, rather than everything poorly. I wouldn't touch the Yakumo with a barge pole myself.

[djjimbob]

Definitely go for the ?70 Pioneer model: http://www.richersounds.co.uk/index....l.php&p=301149

I've had my fair share of 'bargain' DVD players and here are some of the drawbacks:

Build Quality - sh*te
Drive Noise - loud
Remote Control design - appaling
On Screen Menus - shocking
Upgradeable firmware - a joke - the compnay will shut down in 2 months, guaranteed.

Playback of some kinds of special features - impossible

I had one player that could not do seamless branching discs - so long Matrix, so long Alien Quadrilogy.

A lot of these players operate within the bare minimum DVD specification so all the good processing and features of DVD are lost.

Audio and Video synching (ie lip-synching) - way out!

IMnotsoHO - stick with main brand and spend 70 quid and upwards.

Jimbob

[ThoseOfTheUnlight]

Go with the Toshiba, that Yakumo is a piece of crap with a horrendeous remote!

[RLench]

That Pioneer is a good bargain That's probably a better option than the Toshiba model

[buster_broon]

Definitely go for the ?70 Pioneer model: http://www.richersounds.co.uk/index....l.php&p=301149

thats the pioneer model i bought from richer sounds as stated on page 2 of this thread

and it does the business - multi region, region enhanced encoding but it doesnt play SVCD's too well to be honest

[ThoseOfTheUnlight]

Doesnt do progressive scan etc though... the toshiba does. May as well keep your options open!

The ?70-?120 range of Pioneers are good though.

[Crisp_Rapper]

You might be interested in this - multi region and divx player, for your home movies.

Regards
Marty

looks like a good deal, but then so did the ?40 portable cd/mp3/vcd player i bought off them 2 months ago, first one didn't read anything, second one read for about 2 minutes then broke.

awaiting a refund on both the product and 2 lots of postage they owe me.

so from a personal stand point, i believe it's worth spending the extra cash. you DO get what you pay for (i knew it, but had to try it out anyway).

[Ginza]

Rightio. It looks like its either going to be the Tosh SD340SE at ?79.99 or the Pioneer DV360 at ?69.99

Is the Tosh one worth the extra ?10?


TOSH -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002I8VTC/qid=1090859320/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_27_1/202-5185282-4407014

PIONEER -

http://www.richersounds.co.uk/index.php?f=itemdetl.php&p=301149

[mid]

I've not seen the new SD340, but the previous Tosh, the SD330 did have a slight (very slight) edge on picture over the DV360 to my eyes. The new Tosh does Prog Scan as well, which would make it an even bigger bargain should you ever reach a point where you can use it.

[RLench]

The Toshiba has more (better) features, but it depends if you'll ever use them or not. I'd still go for the Toshiba one though, just so you don't have to upgrade again in 6 months time (I didn't know the Pioneer one didn't have component out or prog. scan)