Page 1 of £200 to spend - what DVD player can you recommend?

I`m a comparative novice in all things DVD, so I thought I might seek a bit of advice from you helpful people on here.

I`m looking to buy a DVD player for my brother as a birthday present. Rough budget of £200. Initial thoughts are to go for the Wharfdale M5 which Tesco do for £180 - it seems to have got favourable references on here, judging from the quick search of the archives which I just did, save for an issue as to quality control which appears now to have been sorted.

Anyone got any further thoughts on the M5? Or can anyone recommend an alternative sub-£200 player instead of it? Preferably one which can be hacked to make it region-free, but other than that no real "must have" features.

All advice gratefully received!

the wharfedale m5 or the minato g1(if you can still find one!) are both fine machines for the money and are both multi region hackable.
alternatively(this`ll please clayts)you could hunt down the Encore dv450 which you can get for £199 now.also multi region.

cant go wrong with any of the above.

westy

Blimey - an Encore plug !!! Nice one Westy !

For the `inside story` on the Wharfey, and indeed the M5 try my homage to Sampo DVD players at http://www.area450.co.uk - the M5 is unavailable online at the moment, and is only available in a few Tesco`s stores around the UK (i.e. not all stores will stock it, as they only have limited supplies).

The quality control issue seems to relate to a dodgy shipment of players that may have been damaged in transit. The majority of M5 owners have been very pleased, and as it`s a Sampo player there is a lot of added functionality.

There`s no Macrovision hack, but the unit can be easily made into a multi-regional player, without any RCE problems (RCE relates to an encryption system found on some Region 1 discs that attempts to block hacked players playing the disc). Also, the unit will happily play every format you chuck at it - VCD, SVCD, CD-R, CD-RW, CD and of course DVD. The unit is also MP3 compliant, although the file names are a little short in length (8 + 3). Most Sampo players also have the added functionality of being able to playback home made miniDVDs too, although I have not heard of an M5 owner who has managed this yet.

The Encore player (my baby) is still around, despite the UK company folding earlier this year (only to be resurrected by Escapi later on), and the cheapest ones are £180.

Of course, there are probably better players for £200, so you really need to have a thorough read through of the threads. Other worthwhile contenders in my opinion are the Samsung 511, and the LG3350e. Ooh, and better mention the Aiwa XD-DV370 to keep Jimbo happy.

It really depends what the main function of the player is to be. Let us know if we can help you any more !

Cheers Clayts! Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Very much appreciated.....

Don`t get too wrapped up with it being a "budget" player - that`s not what £200 will get you these days.

You can pick up the Pioneer DV-340 region-free for £189, or the Panasonic RV20 for £195, or the Toshiba 210E for £190ish - quality !

Cheers

Dan

id recommend the samsung 511 which you can get at 128.99 at www.mortek.com which is way below its £220 rrp most shops seem to sell it at . it is really easy to hack and the picture quality is very good

Im in same stage m8, I would recommend the M5 if u can get hold of it, Iv had 2 from tesco but both had faulty drives :( Im now looking at either the toshiba Sd210 or LG 3350e. You can get the LG3350e from dabs for just £175 inc delivery.

Personally I would avoid the sammy 511 as it wont read CDRs or play MP3`s. The LG has even a dolby decorder built in & playes RCE disks with no trouble. If CDR, MP3 or on board Dolby decorder aren`t a issue then Sammy is a decent choice at that price

Stone

I`ve just bought a Wharfedale M5 today and am extremely pleased. Tesco are having a vat free promo so the player is £153 !!! instead of £180. Got Dolby dig/ DTS p*** easy to region hack + played RCE Charlies Angel no sweat !. For an entry level player I think its pretty hard to beat what with the spec + promo price. They are a bit like the proverbial rocking horse do do to get hold of, but the Tescos in Goodmayes where I picked mine up had twenty of them if your anywhere near there !. Hope this helps

Rich

p.s if you get one and ever have any probs with the Pssw function. Once you reset it the factory default is 0000. Had to tell the Helpline that one myself !!!!!.

Blimey,are the M5s that hard to get hold of!
The Tesco where i work(mind you it is an Extra format store,i.e.MASSIVE), we have literally hundreds of the buggers!Ive checked the batch numbers as well so these are not the faulty initial shipment.
I had one,but decided to swap it for the minato g1 as there was no need for the dolby decoders etc.Plus with my discount it was only £100!I bought some discs with the extra money of course and took my girlfriend for a meal so she didnt moan!)
So bearing in mind that not all Tesco`s have the above players,then the Encore,LG,or Samsung players should fit your bill nicely as they`re all hackable too.

Amen

Westy

What a load of top blokes you lot are! (And maybe lasses too, just in case........)

Many thanks for all the input and advice. Very much appreciated.

Cheers!

Mark