Page 1 of Female needs some buying advice....

Hi boys...i`m confused and seek some guidance!...i want to buy my first dvd player, i have around 200 squid to spend give or take a 50 and my priorities are picture/sound (obviously), multi region with minimal fuss (i want to buy films from the US so this RCE business is important to me too) and something that`s fairly quiet and doesn`t sound like a washing machine in my living room. Brand names don`t mean too much to me and anything with built in 5.1 or that can play mp3 would be a bonus.

There!....not asking too much am i?....i have tried to do my research myself...honest...but just as i decide on one i read a review on another site or someone`s posting slating it and i`m back where i started.

Players i`ve been looking at are the Scan 2000, Samsung 511, Cyberhome ADM512, LG 3350E, Logix 3000 and the Yelo 800 but i`ve looked at loads more that seem to fit the bill....choosing one is the difficult bit..

Please point me in the right direction??...i can see there are loads of people fully clued up on the hardware scene on this site...so what would they buy if they were just starting out now like i am??

Thanks for any help! xxxx

(sorry for the essay)

This item was edited on Saturday, 21st April 2001, 15:43

Hi Abby

If you`re not fussed with how the player looks, take a trip down to your local Tesco and pick up the Wharfedale 750.

Multi-Region and is excellent quality both picture wise and sound wise.

About £180 or something...could do worse.

Happy hunting.

Hi Abby.

Go for the Samsung 511. Firstly, it looks good. Secondly the sound and picture are excellent. It is multi region hackable and it will accept RCE titles as I watched Charlies Angels last night which is an RCE title.

If you look around this site , you will notice that machines such as scan, cyber home and even the LG are problem machines.

The 511 has been consistently reviewed ( average score 8 ) and honestly, I know 8 or 9 people who own a Samsung player, from the earlier 709 through to the 511 and the 811 who have not had a single complaint. This is why I bought mine.

It is RGB compatable, which means that if your TV scart socket one can accept it will give you an top notch picture.

I hope this helps, obviously one mans meat and all that.

all the best,

Pete.

ps, if you need any help just repost to this one ok.

Hiya Abby, welcome to the Reviewer Forums, mate

£200 gets you a lot of kit these days, and there`s two real schools of thought - do you go cheapo budget with all the trimmings, or go for the better known brands and maybe less of the trimmings.

The good thing about DVD (fastest ever rising format in the UK) is that the informal support structure on the `Net is infinite !

For example, the LG3350e has received plenty of rave reviews, as has the Aiwa 370 (both `better known brands`) - see Jimbo`s excellent site http://www.choosefirst.co.uk for all the advice you need about the Aiwa, plus link through to IT Troll`s site for the LG player. Multi-region remote control hacks (ie a load of numbers you press, usually to get to some sort of hidden menu or other) exist for both.

The Wharfedale 750 has pretty much gone from the shelves of Tesco now, and been superceded by a player called the Wharefdale M8, which is built in Taiwan by Sampo. There haven`t been too many reports on these forums yet, but http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk carry a lot of info about Wharfedale players, for some odd reason ! Anyway, again the 750/M8 can be hacked - you may be lucky and get a 750 at a knock down price of £99 if you`re lucky, tho` there have been some playback problems on certain discs.

The Scan 2000 has had its critics, but it seems the company are listening to the people owning this player. Toy Car runs a user group site - unfortunately I can`t recall the URL (just try typing in Toy Car into the search at the top of the forum - one of his threads will have the address.

The Samsung 511 has had good online reviews and I don`t think anyone`s had any bad things to say about it.

The CyberHome ADM512 is Home Entertainment`s new Best Budget Player, superceding my own Encore DV450. The Cyberhome retails at £130 and has everything that you ask, including a decoder. This is an excellent price, and again, early indications are good. Try http://www.richersounds.com, who stock the player.

Just a tad over £200 are players such as the Hitachi 505 - the Ironduke`s site http://www.theironduke.plus.com/HitachiSyndicate/ has some useful info, including the hacks.

Whilst a lot of the budget players are cheap, they aren`t necessarily nasty. If I were buying a player today, with £200 in my mitt, I`d be going for either the LG 3350e or the Samsung 511.

No doubt you`ll get more pearls of wisdom from other visitors, but have fun shopping for a player, and rest assured you`ll have all the support you need from us regulars here at Reviewer.

C`ya

Aiwa 370 (Black, in stock now at Comet with 3 free DVD`s) £199.99 Multi region hack still works, and picture quality astounding as always, no inbuilt 5.1 decoder, but digital out for offboard decoder.

LG 3350 (£189 to £250 from online to high street) has inbuilt decoder, not as good on VCD playback as the Aiwa, dodgy "shuttle" remote, but silver and picture quality exactly the same as the Aiwa (same Mpeg decoder!!)

I actually preferred my Aiwa, although I have now sold it. I still have my 3350, but don`t like the remote control.

Why did I keep the LG? Because it`s newer and macro disabled.
(I did consider moving the macro mod into my aiwa and selling the LG though!!)

Anyways, from someone in the trade (me) these are the only two sub FOUR hundred pound players I would buy myself.

Jimbo! :oÞ
(signaturless....no more Aiwa! :`( )

http://www.geocities.com/scan_group/

There are over 800 Scan users (or its clone`s) at this site.
if you have any questions, i sure some one will know the answer.

and if a had my choice again, i would buy a Scan.
I ran a poll of the members asking this question and about 93% of the those that took part said the same!

Ab`s,

LG everytime, customer service is second to none IF anything goes worng with it (which it don`t)

Thanks for all the advice....i went for the Samsung in the end, firstly because i have a Samsung TV in the bedroom with the same sexy finish and secondly because i`d read on this site that John Lewis were flogging it for £137 (i was gonna get Comet to price match). Alas, JL have stopped the offer now so i got it for £170 in the end.
Watched my first DVD on Sunday (What Lies Beneath) and i`m chuffed...picture and sound are superb. Am now waiting for Charlies Angels from the US to see if the region hack works....

Thanks again for your feedback....this site has already become invaluable to me!

Abby

dont buy from currys there exchange policy and dixions are illegal buy from comet or elsewhere