Super Cheap DVD players

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Jump to Latest
F

Freddie

Member
Joined 2000
I recently bought a cheap DVD player Eltax DV-100 ($80). And it works really good, for the price I think it's a bargain. Sounds good, picture is fine too. Of course there are other more expensive DVD-players that are better. I previously owned a cheap Yamakawa DVD-player, which for the price also was very good.

I would definitly buy a cheap DVD player instead of a cheap CD player:) And I do think it's worth to do some tweaking (clock, analog stage) to improve its performance. Although I haven't got time for that yet. I wouldn't be suprised if it's just as good as a "well known brand" DVD-player for $150.


/Freddie
 
M

millwood

Disabled Account
Joined 2003
carlosfm said:
From experience of several people I know and stories I hear everyday.
Click to expand...

if I had a dime for every story I heard about malfunctioning brand name DVD players, I would have been a millionair by now, :)

the only DVD player that died on me is a Toshiba, after about a year of light use. the only CD player that died on me is an Onkyo 5-disk type. The only DVD player that didn't quite work is a Denon.

One of the DVD players that worked really well for me is an Apex.

I just don't know what conclusions you can draw from that.
 
F

fcserei

Member
Joined 2002
hifiZen said:

No. In fact, every DVD player I've encountered reverts to plain-jane 1x playback, just like an ordinary CDP. Sidenote: most DVD players have a separate laser just for CD, but cheap players skip this, and use one laser for both DVD and CD. Of course, it won't be the proper wavelength for one or maybe even both types of disc. Back to the point: the reason nobody does higher read speeds is that CD discs don't have any kind of physical data addressing built in, like HDDs or DVDs do. This makes it hard to realign the data streams if there's a jump during playback... you don't know where you are, or where you were in the data stream. Hence, when a CD skips, the playback can resume from just about any random point in the adjacent data. Yes, there's a timecode in Q-subchannel, but that's not very reliable or useful, so it's just ignored. At the root, CD playback almost always relies on a servo loop controlling the spindle speed, in order to keep the RF signal locked to a PLL, and the data flows at exactly 1x... straight to the DACs (or maybe through a buffer).
Click to expand...



I've checked my dvd players at home and all of them except a first generation Sony is spinning CDs more than 1x speed in spite of the CD discs don't have any kind of physical data addressing built in. Even on newest cd decoder chipsets 2x and 4x playback is widely supported - to make time available for skip protection buffering.
 
C

carlosfm

Banned
Joined 2003
millwood said:


if I had a dime for every story I heard about malfunctioning brand name DVD players, I would have been a millionair by now, :)

the only DVD player that died on me is a Toshiba, after about a year of light use. the only CD player that died on me is an Onkyo 5-disk type. The only DVD player that didn't quite work is a Denon.

One of the DVD players that worked really well for me is an Apex.

I just don't know what conclusions you can draw from that.
Click to expand...

What can I say, millwood?
My advice to you is that you run to the first supermarket an buy one of those all-in-one AV packages with amp-dvd-tuner in one box and "portable-radio" style speakers.
They even have a sub.
All this for 250 Euros.
Then, THROW AWAY YOUR MAIN SYSTEM.
Watch your films and LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC on this crap.
:bawling: :bawling: :bawling:
 
C

carlosfm

Banned
Joined 2003
LG Electronics... why?

fdegrove said:
Hi,
O.K., I'm pulling...:)
Cheers,;)
Click to expand...

There was a korean brand called Goldstar.
This was in the 80's, to the beginning of the 90's.
Nothing special, cheap TV sets, videos, hi-fi.

Things got bad finantially, and then one big american company took it.

That big american company is the tobacco brand LUCKY STRIKE.:eek:

LG was born.
In around 10 years they made a huge company, a monster that has everything, from fridges to air-conditioned, to LCD displays, to DVDs...
Impressive.

So... LG = "Lucky Goldstar"?:clown:
 
M

millwood

Disabled Account
Joined 2003
carlosfm said:


What can I say, millwood?
Click to expand...

what can I say, carlosfm?

mortgage your house and your retirement and your kids' college tuition funds, go rush to the rip-me-off "high-end" dealer, load up on $5000/channel chip-amps, $50,000 moon-rock based speakers, and $1 million super-high-end one of a kind dvd players and listen to your music on that so you don't have to deal with those super-cheap DVDs, :)

if you can actually hear the difference is irrelevant, :)

You are trying to prove your point with an (unscientific) approach and when the exact same approach is used to refute your conclusions, you got mad at your own approach. isn't that the big picture here?
 
C

carlosfm

Banned
Joined 2003
millwood said:


what can I say, carlosfm?

mortgage your house and your retirement and your kids' college tuition funds, go rush to the rip-me-off "high-end" dealer, load up on $5000/channel chip-amps, $50,000 moon-rock based speakers, and $1 million super-high-end one of a kind dvd players and listen to your music on that so you don't have to deal with those super-cheap DVDs, :)

if you can actually hear the difference is irrelevant, :)

You are trying to prove your point with an (unscientific) approach and when the exact same approach is used to refute your conclusions, you got mad at your own approach. isn't that the big picture here?
Click to expand...

I'm not one of those "high-end means expensive" guys millwood.
My humble Yamaha CDP (tweaked, including clock) with my Audio Alchemy DDE v3.0 (tweaked, regulated PSU and OPA627) makes a Sony SCD1 seam like a cheap portable CDP.
Anyday, anywhere.
I only need to test two CDs I have to evaluate a system.
This saturday I've just disgraced a system on a store with a CD I took with me.
I inserted the disc and the disgrace was complete.
The guy was demonstrating the system with soft music with birds and few instruments.
I went there because a friend of mine asked me, he needed some advice.
The complete system I'm talking about costs more than 15,000 Euros.:eek:

millwood, I don't want a discussion here, I just think that super-cheap DVDs is not the way to go.
My advice is buy a low range big brand DVD if you want one.
THE DIFFERENCE IN IMAGE QUALITY CAN BE HUGE.
The sound is crap too, but it's a better machine to tweak.

Nuuk, I've just thrown a number, it was an example, not a statistic.
I meant that a big brand can't afford to have so many unsatisfied customers.
 
M

millwood

Disabled Account
Joined 2003
Re: LG Electronics... why?

sounds like your reporter needed some serious work, :)

carlosfm said:
There was a korean brand called Goldstar.
Click to expand...


Goldstar was established in the 1950s as a division of Lucky Chemical. The two (and others in the Lucky family) were consolidated into today's LG in the mid 1990.

carlosfm said:
Things got bad finantially, and then one big american company took it.
Click to expand...


LG bought Zenith (a US company that makes TV) and as part of its financial crisis in the late 1990s struggled quite a bit. the restructuring was done by the late 1990s and Zenith remains as part of the LG family.

carlosfm said:
That big american company is the tobacco brand LUCKY STRIKE.:eek:
Click to expand...


Lucky Strike is a brand owned by American Tobacco Company (ATC and now part of BAT). it never had anything to do with LG.

I cannot believe you guys fall for this kind of stuff so easily.
 
M

millwood

Disabled Account
Joined 2003
carlosfm said:
I'm not one of those "high-end means expensive" guys millwood.

millwood, I don't want a discussion here, I just think that super-cheap DVDs is not the way to go.
Click to expand...

I find that thought process interesting. On one hand, you are saying that price isn't an indication of quality (high-end doesn't mean expensive). On the other hand, your objection to those dvd players is that they are super cheap.

You have never articulated any linkage between being super cheap and being bad in quality. The discussion would have been far more objective and helpful if you were made at those players because of their bad quality.

Instead, you focused on their prices, which by your own admission isn't an indication of quality.

Just some inconsistencies.
 
jean-paul

jean-paul

Disabled Account
Joined 2002
uh oh Carlos

Never seen so many BS in one post concerning the history of LG ( Lucky Goldstar ). Why posting such crippled info when you can Google for facts ??

As a sidenote: I consider LG one of the more reliable brands. I have bought quite some LG stuff and nothing failed till now.
 
hifiZen

hifiZen

Member
Joined 2001
Well whatever their history, they're definitely a HUGE company... if you've been to Korea, you'll know what I mean...
 

Attachments

  • lg_gas_sm.jpg
    lg_gas_sm.jpg
    26.8 KB · Views: 286
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Top Bottom