Alan says:-
I know that Steve (and potentially some other list members) were teetering
on the brink of taking the plunge into the digital waters of DVD, so I thought
I'd recommend a couple of players. Whilst I don't own either of the players
work colleagues do and recommend them highly - in particular they don't
exhibit any of the problems certain players have with certain discs (including
my trusty Samsung 807's refusal to play bits of "The Red Shoes").
Player One is the Wharfedale 750, an exclusive to larger Tesco stores and
priced at £170, and is the ideal "Bargain Basement" option. It can
be made region-free easily with a few keypresses of the remote control and
has all the basic functionality you need, bundled up with an unattractive
remote control and case. It may be a little lacking in outputs, and only
has one SCART socket which will cause problems if you want to daisychain
it with other AV kit. It is currently out of stock in most Tescos, but
Wharfedale will be shipping another 10,000 units before Christmas.
Player Two is the Pioneer 525, available in region-free form from
http://www.techtronics.com
for just under £300. This has all the build quality you would expect
from
a major CE manufacturer, and benefits from a "smart-card" style modification
which does not void the players warranty. If I was buying a new player this
would probably be my choice - it has a good range of outputs and all that
you need from an AV perspective. Techtronics are also a reputable supplier.
Later
Alan said:-
As to buying R1 (American) discs, I recommend
http://www.dvdexpress.com - I've
bought all my R1 stuff from them, and discs typically take seven
working days to get from LA to my door in Reading, using standard
international airmail.
Later
Alan wrote:-
I had a chance to compare the Wharfedale and Pioneer side by side
today, and to my surprise the Wharfedale wins hands down - the remote
is much better to use, sound is perceptibly better (not sure how that
happens - I guess its down to how well the player deals with
outputting the Dolby Digital bitstream to the amp, but being digital
it shouldn't make any difference). The picture is a closer call, and I
think I marginally prefer the Pioneer to the Wharfedale, but not to
the extent that it warrants an extra 120 quid. The Wharfedale also
handles layer changes better - no interruption to the picture unlike
the Pioneer, and only a marginal effect on the soundtrack (brief
dropout). Whilst talking about layer changes it turns out that the
Pioneer is noisy on layer two and the Wharfedale on layer one, overall
the Wharfedale is slightly noisier, although even my low end Dolby
Digital solution was powerful enough to mask the noise. The Wharfedale
also seems to be getting quieter, which points to the drive mechanism
bedding in over time.
Where the Wharfedale loses out is in poor (slow) response to commands
(menus, remote commands, button presses, etc) and the occasional
glitch with disc menus - my Criterion Third Man refused to play from
the menu screen and I had to start it manually from the Chapter
selection page, which is no great hardship. I've also read of similar
problems with the Criterion edition of Rushmore which suggests to me
that possibly Criterion's method of DVD authoring is slightly
incompatible with the player, although as I mentioned its nothing
really serious.
All this means is that the Pioneer will shortly be finding a new home
and I'd recommend that you go and and buy a Wharfedale, unless you
need to loop it through your video to the TV (the Macrovision
circuitry which is disables on the Pioneer will cause problems). If
this is going to cause problems then there is 2 month old Pioneer 525
for sale, complete with the balance of the suppliers 2 year warranty
and free delivery within the London area - yours for 250 quid, and it
comes already accustomed to playing AMOLAD, TRS and PT on regular
rotation...
Remainder of FAQ Section 2
