Rys
If it's just the source video's fault, I'm not quite sure how comments about that quality is relevant to the performance of the deck.
It seems like you're hinting that the blocky playback of MPEG-4 video was the fault of the DVD deck rather than the source video itself. Is that actually the case, or at TV resolutions on a computer monitor, played back via a PC, are the block artifacts still present?
Obviously different resoltions of displays will give you a different quality of output, I tried it on three different sources, firstly the DVD player in an old 21“ Toshiba regular TV, then in a Sony 28” WEGA widescreen and both returned slightly blocky results, yet when playing back the source file on my home PC (24" widescreen display) with the very latest codecs the performance was not as blocky, obviously this render improvement could be put down to an improvement of codec quality since the player was built, but with non-upgradable firmware it means the deck itself is going to be poorer incomparison to latest codecs, thats not necessarily a fault with the hardware of the deck, but is reflected in the firmware loaded for the ESS chip to use during decoding.
Rys
Why wasn't the sound quality as good? You were using analogue output I take it? Can you describe the differences in human terms so I can get a feel for what the sound quality is actually like?
Incomparison with my Panasonic DVD player the sound produced from the nissan deck lacked an element of definition, the bass line of the output really wasn't the pulling a great deal of punches, it certainly lacked depth on the Nissan DV-100B. Analog output was used for this, it was also hooked up to a creative Dolby surround sound system to try and emphasise the bass line of the sound produced, this aided it, but I was not reviewing the speakers so didnt't really comment on that, but on relection, maybe I should have.
Rys
You mention that the card reader is a bit of a wash, but that “the DiVX playback and other capabilities of this player mean that it’s a recommended overall package”. Apart from the DivX playback and card reader, I'm not quite sure what other capabilities you're basing your recommendation on. It doesn't seem to actually have anything else to sell it, although RGB output is nice to see. So what do you mean with that statement?
The available connectivity is somewhat rare in the lower to middle end market, take the cheap decks sold on amazon for example, the two scarts are there, at a push, a while back Asda sold a very well respected Pacific branded deck that was in the price range and offered very similar specifications to this without the DiVX play back, but where the Pacific model lacked the crucial Region unlock hack, Nissan Technology have openly supplied this meaning multi region nirvana is only a few clicks of the remote away, hence the other capabilities line.
Rys
You mention the 10 second wait time as being a hindrance. Is that really the case? If it were 10 minutes I'd be annoyed, but a wait of 10 seconds while it gets itself ready is surely acceptable? I've got a very expensive DVD Recorder that's even worse in terms of time waiting after power on, but I don't mind. Is your own DVD deck really quick?
I suppose I may have been a little harsh in this aspect on reflection, I would deem it just about acceptable, its actually sometimes worse than 10 seconds, so I took the median as its seems to vary for no apparant reason.
The deck I usually run is quicker, yes, by a country mile (it should be at the price I paid lol), as are the other two DVD players I have in the house, I guess this is where the critism stemed from, but with our first venture into this sort of review, comparisons outside of those I directly own personally is quite difficult, over time this will most likely change the outlook though.
Rys
Cheers for the review, it's nice to see us do something outside of the norm!
Its ok, glad you questioned me, being somewhat of a n00b in comparison I appreciate the inquisitive questions you posed :)
m@
