For £130 this machine actually has quite a lot of functionality. Progressive Scan, DivX HD playback, DVD upscaling to 1080P, CD-R/RW support, and a USB input into which you can hook digital cameras and MP3 players for MP3, WMA and JPEG playback are all included.
This machine really delivers when it come to DVD usage. The unit isn't the quietest ever. When you're jumping around the sections of a disc, there's a definite whirring noise, but the machine makes up for this by being very quiet in playback.
There's a built-in stand if you don't want to hang it on your wall
We decided to really give the unit something to get its teeth into by loading up Iron Man with its fast-paced action and sumptuous production values. Spinning up a disc in the first place is quick, and jumping from one scene to another is more or less instantaneous, as is calling up the main disc menu. The machine's processor can select the best format to suit the screen you are using, from 576i - regular interlaced DVD definition - all the way up to 1080p full HD.
All-round picture quality is good, driven along by the machine’s Progressive Scan technology, delivering natural looking colour and flesh tones. The unit handled the Iron Man action scenes accurately with really smooth image transition and the right amount of depth for the slower paced narrative and character scenes. Gwyneth Paltrow hasn't looked this good in years.
Picture freeze and fast-forwarding within a scene are both of good quality, with fast response times and little loss in terms of image quality. There are other features, like choosing camera angles and expanding a selected area of the playback by up to 400 per cent, but these are mild amusements only and don't really add too much to the proceedings.
COMMENTS
Ornamental Electronics
I don't care for them. If I'm concerned about the appearance of my entertainment center, I want everything hidden as much possible; not displayed like a painting on the wall. There's no getting around it with the TV, but I don't want this principle applied to things that don't involve looking at them for their primary function.
I wouldn't mind having something about the size of a portable cd-player that sits on the end-table with wireless ability to transfer raw data to a receiver somewhere out of sight for processing/display. That would be best.
Oh, dear...
"...picture quality is good, driven along by the machine’s Progressive Scan technology, delivering natural looking colour and flesh tones."
You *do* realize that sentence makes absolutely no sense at all, right? It's like saying 'the car's handling is driven along by its Automatic Transmission technology, delivering neutral cornering response'. WTF?
specifically speaking...
It's not exactly what i was looking for....i require some kind of large sheet of fabric material assembled in a large open funnel design above the player, then i can frisby my media through the air across my high end executive apartment, whereby it then slides softly down the material into a media slot which then recognises which way the disk has come in and either flips the disk or the read/right head (i'm not fussy) so that it can be played. Ejection shall take place from a slot below into a removable bucket that can be carried to my library for re shelving.
thanks santa.
What's the use?
It cannot play files from NFS or SMB network shares. OK you might say it's a DVD-Player it's just made to play DVDs. But then you have the problem of the machine beeing non-stackable. With hardware based media, it is crucial that you can stack the individual devices, as you will need lots of them, one for every format, unless try to buy everything for one standard.
I guess all those companies will be dead-meat once the chineese find out that they can just sweep the market by making high quality cheap devices which, for example, just playing stuff from NFS, SMB or HTTP streams.
Pardon?
"the unit is 430mm high "
Can I have a peek at that tape measure?
