So my trusty JVC DVD player crapped out on me again the other week. Okay, so it wasn't so "trusty" after-all. This was the third time in a couple years it failed, so I just said screw it I'll try something new.
I've long, um... longed for a universal changer -- something that'll hold five or six discs and play DVD, DVD-A, and SACD, along with displaying photos and handling mp3 and WMA files. Unfortunately most of those seem to be several hundred dollars, and for even longer I've longed to not spend a bunch of money. So I poked around for a cheapie and stumbled into this one at crutchfield. It cost me $95 and change -- that includes shipping. I read a couple reviews online and was a little leery: most of them were filled with words like "POS" and "garbage" and "DO NOT BUY THIS DVD PLAYER". Being a show-me kinda guy despite living in Michigan, not Missouri, I was lured by the low price anyway (not to mention crutchfield's relatively painless return policies), and decided to give it a shot.
I've had it about a week now, and no troubles. The things that the online user reviewers were waxing psychotic about haven't been issues at all -- either they've been fixed, or I just got lucky, or the bottom just hasn't fallen out yet. But I listened to several DVD-A's from my collection (Fleetwood Mac; Linkin Park; Rob Thomas; Stone Temple Pilots) and found the sound to be just as good as the JVC, if not better. I bought my first SACD ( Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon) and was quite pleased -- sounded good, and the actual content of DSOTM is spectacular. And watched a few DVD's with good results, too. Sin City looked so frickin' good I think I wanna marry it, and the dts sound was so good I want it to have my babies. Be Cool looked good, and the DD5.1 was surprisingly good. Field of Dreams didn't look real good, but looked as good if not better than it did on my old player. One Night in Paris looked pretty bad, but I blame that on the disc itself -- and besides, Paris Hilton was doing such spectacular things on this, um...movie, that it gave me a good excuse to test the slow-motion, and frame-by-frame, and pause, and A-B repeat. All passed the rather rigorous testing workout with flying colors. As did Miss Hilton. :shocked House of Flying Daggers looked pretty darned good, and had demo-quality spectacular surround sound in several places, and with the music throughout.
Overall, I've been pleased as hell with it -- although I do realize that it hasn't exactly stood the test of time at this point. But what I was thinking of as being a stop-gap temporary solution to my universal player desires may just end up being something more permanent.
I've long, um... longed for a universal changer -- something that'll hold five or six discs and play DVD, DVD-A, and SACD, along with displaying photos and handling mp3 and WMA files. Unfortunately most of those seem to be several hundred dollars, and for even longer I've longed to not spend a bunch of money. So I poked around for a cheapie and stumbled into this one at crutchfield. It cost me $95 and change -- that includes shipping. I read a couple reviews online and was a little leery: most of them were filled with words like "POS" and "garbage" and "DO NOT BUY THIS DVD PLAYER". Being a show-me kinda guy despite living in Michigan, not Missouri, I was lured by the low price anyway (not to mention crutchfield's relatively painless return policies), and decided to give it a shot.
I've had it about a week now, and no troubles. The things that the online user reviewers were waxing psychotic about haven't been issues at all -- either they've been fixed, or I just got lucky, or the bottom just hasn't fallen out yet. But I listened to several DVD-A's from my collection (Fleetwood Mac; Linkin Park; Rob Thomas; Stone Temple Pilots) and found the sound to be just as good as the JVC, if not better. I bought my first SACD ( Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon) and was quite pleased -- sounded good, and the actual content of DSOTM is spectacular. And watched a few DVD's with good results, too. Sin City looked so frickin' good I think I wanna marry it, and the dts sound was so good I want it to have my babies. Be Cool looked good, and the DD5.1 was surprisingly good. Field of Dreams didn't look real good, but looked as good if not better than it did on my old player. One Night in Paris looked pretty bad, but I blame that on the disc itself -- and besides, Paris Hilton was doing such spectacular things on this, um...movie, that it gave me a good excuse to test the slow-motion, and frame-by-frame, and pause, and A-B repeat. All passed the rather rigorous testing workout with flying colors. As did Miss Hilton. :shocked House of Flying Daggers looked pretty darned good, and had demo-quality spectacular surround sound in several places, and with the music throughout.
Overall, I've been pleased as hell with it -- although I do realize that it hasn't exactly stood the test of time at this point. But what I was thinking of as being a stop-gap temporary solution to my universal player desires may just end up being something more permanent.
