Okay, the "el cheapo DVD" thread brought some excellent insight from hifizen, CarlosFM and others but what I think would be useful is a thread that identifies the DVD players that are actually worth a modding effort. Here is a shortlist of the desired mechanical qualities:
dual head (CD/DVD OPU)
smooth and durable transport
sufficient rigidity and room to mod
durable controls and switches
and a shortlist of desired components:
24bit 192kHz DAC or better
good audio chip-amps
decent quality decoder chipset
and finally, a shortlist of playback features
SACD
DVD-A/V
DiVX
MP3
region free and copy protection switch or IOW firmware upgradable
The first two categories will be much more important than the last for us seeking audio quality only but I thought I would include it in case the "cheapos" are evenly matched. Feel free to add any features that you think I left out.
Okay, put forward your candidates and be specific about the model. There may be situations where there is a build variance but we will assume for the purpose of this excecise that these cheapos have been manufactured with the same parts. Let the name dropping begin
dual head (CD/DVD OPU)
smooth and durable transport
sufficient rigidity and room to mod
durable controls and switches
and a shortlist of desired components:
24bit 192kHz DAC or better
good audio chip-amps
decent quality decoder chipset
and finally, a shortlist of playback features
SACD
DVD-A/V
DiVX
MP3
region free and copy protection switch or IOW firmware upgradable
The first two categories will be much more important than the last for us seeking audio quality only but I thought I would include it in case the "cheapos" are evenly matched. Feel free to add any features that you think I left out.
Okay, put forward your candidates and be specific about the model. There may be situations where there is a build variance but we will assume for the purpose of this excecise that these cheapos have been manufactured with the same parts. Let the name dropping begin
himanshuraval
Please don't post unrelated topics in this thread. If you do this kind of thing again, I will report you to the moderators.
Bricolo
From what I understood reading hifizens posts in the Super Cheap DVD thread, SACD is actually written in DVD format and only the logic decodes it differently so I believe a dual head OPU wil do the job.
Please don't post unrelated topics in this thread. If you do this kind of thing again, I will report you to the moderators.
Bricolo
From what I understood reading hifizens posts in the Super Cheap DVD thread, SACD is actually written in DVD format and only the logic decodes it differently so I believe a dual head OPU wil do the job.
I haven't seen SACD or DVD-A on any of the cheap player in norway.
Do the cheap players in the us have that? i'm talking about players like 40-50 bucks.. the dollar is quite low theese days, so things are cheap for the rest of us in the us.. it would not kill me to have something sendt overseas..
Do the cheap players in the us have that? i'm talking about players like 40-50 bucks.. the dollar is quite low theese days, so things are cheap for the rest of us in the us.. it would not kill me to have something sendt overseas..
demogorgon
I guess we should qualify the term "cheap". I'm thinking sub $150 so I guess our task may be somewhat challenging. Who knows, if we come upon an acceptable candidate that is slightly out of our range, we may be able to bring it back under with an organized buy. February is an excellent time to find inventory loaded suppliers who are eager to move stock to make way for the newer models. You should also note that I placed the playback features on the last list and gave them the lowest priority. Many people on this forum will bypass the DACs on these players so the greatest weight went to the mechanical attributes of the player.
I guess we should qualify the term "cheap". I'm thinking sub $150 so I guess our task may be somewhat challenging. Who knows, if we come upon an acceptable candidate that is slightly out of our range, we may be able to bring it back under with an organized buy. February is an excellent time to find inventory loaded suppliers who are eager to move stock to make way for the newer models. You should also note that I placed the playback features on the last list and gave them the lowest priority. Many people on this forum will bypass the DACs on these players so the greatest weight went to the mechanical attributes of the player.
The cheapest universal player that I know is the Poineer DV 575A.
I haven't tried it out so far, so i can't coment on sound and ease of use (some players need the TV for the user interface, even for setting up audio reproduction !) I recently saw it at a German dealer, where it cost approx 180 Euros.
It makes quite a cheap impression from whaight and looks. OTOH the price makes it a suitable candidate for tweaking.
And it should be upgradable to code-free, since some dealers sell it in a code-free version at a slightly higher price.
Regards
Charles
I haven't tried it out so far, so i can't coment on sound and ease of use (some players need the TV for the user interface, even for setting up audio reproduction !) I recently saw it at a German dealer, where it cost approx 180 Euros.
It makes quite a cheap impression from whaight and looks. OTOH the price makes it a suitable candidate for tweaking.
And it should be upgradable to code-free, since some dealers sell it in a code-free version at a slightly higher price.
Regards
Charles
phase_accurate said:
The 575 hack seems to be accomplished using a Palm and a downloadable software. Look here:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=Pioneer+575&hits=50&Search=Search
Looks a bit complicated, but probably is not if you have the tools, particularly the right Palm.
What I wonder is if this hack also disables Macrovision. I am not interested in copying, but I feed my DVD player through my S-VHS recorder, which allows to switch between different sourcers. To go into any recorder there can't be any Macrovision in between.
My present Pioneer (DV525) was alraedy modified when I bought it, but I think it's time to update it.
Any of you has this portable Polaroid decks?
Carlos
I got this one from an overstock sale: 12 euros
I'm going to rebuild the case so it matches the style of my gainclone (as soon as I get that working http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47075&highlight=
The transport is from asatech (www.asatech.cc) and is used in toshibas and sony so I guess it won't be too bad
As for the rest, the transformer is miniscule, and I don't really know what is what on the audio board
I'm going to rebuild the case so it matches the style of my gainclone (as soon as I get that working http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47075&highlight=
The transport is from asatech (www.asatech.cc) and is used in toshibas and sony so I guess it won't be too bad
As for the rest, the transformer is miniscule, and I don't really know what is what on the audio board
Attachments
revell
Thanks very much for the inside pics. The Pioneer DV575A is a sub $150 player here in the states but without SCART. This brings another interesting wrinkle since SCART would probably be important only to our non-US members. Has anyone played with the transports and if so, how do they feel? Do these players fit the mechanical criteria? Perhaps revell can tell us the model number of this player and what he may have noticed about the gears on this transport.
Thanks very much for the inside pics. The Pioneer DV575A is a sub $150 player here in the states but without SCART. This brings another interesting wrinkle since SCART would probably be important only to our non-US members. Has anyone played with the transports and if so, how do they feel? Do these players fit the mechanical criteria? Perhaps revell can tell us the model number of this player and what he may have noticed about the gears on this transport.
The transport is almost completely made of plastic (the gears are white. Nylon?) I think the tray itself is the weak part
So I was thinking of converting my player to toploader and using some 5mm plexi to mount the transport
But I'm not sure how to remove the tray. has anyone experience in that area?
So I was thinking of converting my player to toploader and using some 5mm plexi to mount the transport
But I'm not sure how to remove the tray. has anyone experience in that area?
revell
The player transport does indeed look flimsy but at that price, I wouldn't complain. Please tell us the manufacturer and model number of this player. This will help us identify if it has the components we would like in our desired mod candidate. At first glance, I don't think the members would put the money and time to mod this player but there may be some good stuff on the circuit board. Vinyl gears can be quite durable but when too soft they can be sloppy and when too hard they break. It's hard to find the right polymer formula that remains stable too. Many plastics get brittle with time. A good thing to look at is the gear mounting. Is it spring loaded or rigid mount? How beefy is the mount relative to the gear?
The player transport does indeed look flimsy but at that price, I wouldn't complain. Please tell us the manufacturer and model number of this player. This will help us identify if it has the components we would like in our desired mod candidate. At first glance, I don't think the members would put the money and time to mod this player but there may be some good stuff on the circuit board. Vinyl gears can be quite durable but when too soft they can be sloppy and when too hard they break. It's hard to find the right polymer formula that remains stable too. Many plastics get brittle with time. A good thing to look at is the gear mounting. Is it spring loaded or rigid mount? How beefy is the mount relative to the gear?
"This Panasonic DVD-S35 DVD player was to replace an older Toshiba which did not play JPEGs or CD-Rs. The picture and surround sound was OK for the money but the CD sound was disappointing. If you are looking for a one box solution for DVD and CD playback then this is not for you. However, build quality and overall performance can not really be faulted at the price. I have now upgraded to a NAD T512, which has excellent CD sound and electrical digital output but no JPEG viewer. The NAD costs three times as much so the Panasonic gets full marks for value for money."
it looks as if the audio part isn't very good on these players..
not something i would go for really.. the sound is described as thin, i dont know if that's something that can be fixed easily..
it looks as if the audio part isn't very good on these players..
not something i would go for really.. the sound is described as thin, i dont know if that's something that can be fixed easily..
demogorgon
Do you remember anything about the mechanical qualities of the player. Did the transport seem quiet and firm? Did the switches feel flimsy or sticky? If the only thing that ailed this player was the audio quality then that may not be a detriment for after all, aren't we here to improve just that?
Do you remember anything about the mechanical qualities of the player. Did the transport seem quiet and firm? Did the switches feel flimsy or sticky? If the only thing that ailed this player was the audio quality then that may not be a detriment for after all, aren't we here to improve just that?
I just saw a test of it.. i have not seen it in reality..
I had a panasonic DVD once though, built like a tank, but there was a lot of noise and artifacts in the picture. Increadibly bad audio as well. sold it for 1\4 of what i paid for it, and that was half price of what is originally cost!
the worst hifi\HT buy i ever did.
I had a panasonic DVD once though, built like a tank, but there was a lot of noise and artifacts in the picture. Increadibly bad audio as well. sold it for 1\4 of what i paid for it, and that was half price of what is originally cost!
the worst hifi\HT buy i ever did.
yldouright said:
seems right
http://www.superaudio-cd.com/technology_explained/sacd_in_plain_english/pagina9.php
does this mean that with the appropriate software (maybe driver too) I can read SACDs on my computer's DVD drive?
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