My VCR just broke, and I feel its time to upgrade to some newer technology, and since the prices of DVD players are now pretty affordable, I am interested in picking one up, but don't really know what the difference is between them... I had a PS2, which came with the DVD, but sold it recently... any suggestions for something good, but not too pricey??

Thanks.

 

Based upon a favorable review in the January 2003 issue of Sound and Vision today I checked out and bought a Toshiba SD-4800. List is like $280; I paid about $200 at Best Buy. Might be able to find it for less over the net or at a discount retailer.

 

There's a fairly new company called APEX Digital that has been coming out with some feature packed DVD players for very low prices. I bought one a few months back, and it's been working great. The thing that I like about it is that it's sort of a "hackers" DVD player. The firmware is upgradable, you can create custom background images, etc.

I picked up the AD-800, with many features found only on higher quality features such as Component Video Output, Optical Output, MP3 and SVCD playback, and Progressive Scan for about $150.

http://www.apexdigitalinc.com/default.asp

BTW, you can find APEX players at Circuit City, Fry's, Sears, WalMart, etc.

 

Toshiba or Sony are the only dvd players I would buy. Panasonic specifically (as well as other brands) are known to not play certain dvds (I don't mean certain regions, just certain dvds!).

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TepEvan
[B]Toshiba or Sony are the only dvd players I would buy.

 

If you're ever going to use a large screen or HDTV system with it, spend the extra $$ for a progressive scan player.

I tend to agree with the Toshiba/Sony camp in terms of brand.

Tim

 

ditto on APEX

i have the 1320(?) and it works great for me.

and i can pretty much put into any disc or any country code DVD and it will play it

 

I have had my Sony (DVP-S7700) for about 3 years nows and had no problems with it. I would recommend Sony.

BTW, the Sony player was the STANDARD to measure other products against.

 

I just bought the New Sony (5 disc) DVD,CD,Mp3,VCD (actually i think it plays everything!) changer w/Progressive scan....it's way kicks Ass!

 

I recently purchased an Apex 3201 from amazon.com

Here are the advantages.

1. It is Hackable -

a) You can disable the Macrovision so that you can plug it in thru a VCR if you have an older TV that doesn't have SVIDEO or RCA Composite video inputs.

This also allows you to record the DVDs without the annoying Macroivision Distortion of the Picture and Sync problems with the sound.

B) It is multi region aka Region Free so you can use movies purchased in other countries continents

2. It also plays CDs and MP3s and VCDs and SVCDs.
VCDs and SVCDs are lower Res videos you can make using regular CD-Rs with your Easy CD Creator or Nero Software

3.) The price is right ,69.99 at Amazon when I purchased it.

Make sure you check the unit for proper operation though.

My first one was broken. The Coax Digital output produced extremely low volume that was inaudible but Amazon replaced it with postage paid. I have heard of many failures but if you get a good one its well worth the money.

My previous Player was a Raite AVPhile 715 which had all of the same features but the Power supply failed after 3 years. I replaced the Power supply and still use that one too.