Page 1 of The Dansai 852 - My Review

My Dansai Review

I bought my Dansai 852 last Saturday for £99.49. I had reserved it at Tescos but they would only hold it for 24 hours. The Lincoln store had 11 left after I bought mine.

When I got it out of the box I was pleased to see it was a nice silver colour and quite slim and looked very long. When I put it up against my Mico A980 it was the same length though. The remote is also similar to the Mico but has a lot more buttons. You can also switch to standby unlike my Mico. You also get a scart lead as well!

Looking at the back I see it has a RGB Scart , S-Video and composite video and audio outputs. It also has optical and coaxial digital outputs for a Dolby Digital amp or mini-disc. There is no on-board decoder.

I have set it up as follows because I wanted it connected to a VCR and also connected directly to the TV (so I can record on the VCR while watching a DVD).

DVD - Scart - VCR
DVD - Composite - TV
DVD(audio outputs) - Pro-Logic Hi-Fi

As I am only using a 25" TV I find that composite is normally good enough. I may set it up with S-video later and I have tried RGB but my TV will not allow you to watch another channel while the DVD player is on. I also have another VCR connected, so am short on scarts.

I have tested:

Region 1 DVD
Region 2 DVD
S-VCD (NTSC)
VCD (PAL & NTSC)
MPG Video
MP3`s
CD-R`s
CD-RW`s

Region 1 DVD - It came up wrong region at first. I then used the below hack and set to bypass. In the set-up you can also set to output as PAL 50

Press set up on the remote
then on the front panel press;
stop
previous
next
and up pops the factory set-up menu
go to region id and you have a choice of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and bypass (multi-region)

You can also turn Macrovision off (you can then record a DVD to VHS). It also stays off when you switch off and unplug.

Region 2 DVD - Plays fine. I still think my Mico has a slightly better picture.

S-VCD - I have a copy of Shrek and it looks excellent.

VCD - They can look good. It all depends on the quality of the mpg.

MPG Video - It will play VCD compliant MPG`s even if they are burned as data. You can only play them though, you can`t fast forward or rewind them.

MP3`s - I have lots. When you first put in a disc it brings up a list of the folders on the disc. When you open a folder it lists the first 6 tracks with names (the first 10 characters only). Most of mine are 192kbps and they sounded good through my hi-fi. I did have to lower the output from the Dansai as they were breaking up at first.

CD-R`s - The S-VCD/VCD`s and MP3`s were all recorded on these and worked fine.

CD-RW - I did have a problem with a couple of these not being recognised. I think you can get problems with them when they have been erased a few times. Most of mine worked fine though.

Problem?

I tried recording to VHS with DVD`s and VCD`s (PAL and NTSC) . It records OK but when I played it back I got some interference on the picture until I turned the Dansai off. It may be my set-up or it may be the player, I don`t know? I was not using the scart lead supplied. It must be outputting PAL 50 as all the NTSC films recorded fine.

Conclusion

I think the Dansai is excellent value for money. It would probably be not good enough picture quality if you are using a 32" Widescreen or above (I may be wrong? Has someone tested it?) but for me, it`s good enough. I will use the DVD player to play MP3`s and my home made VCD`s more than DVD`s and found the MP3 track names made it easier for me.


GOOD

Value for money
Picture for the money
Sound
MP3 track names
Macrovision off
Multi-Region

BAD

Picture could be better
Disc flap looks a bit flimsy
Annoying "PING" ever time you open the DVD tray. (has anyone worked out how to switch it off?)


Has anyone else got anything to add??

hi mico man

spot on review

try adjusting picture type in menu to hi-res from auto to improve picture quality - this worked for me - i have a 28" screen and definition/quality is no problem

agree needed to turn down dansai volume to playback mp3 cleanly (medium setting 8 is fine) plays 128k and 192k super - don`t think i use/have any other bitrates, most players don`t do more than 8 chars and some don`t support folders for mp3 - trust me, this player is good compared to some - get a PC if you`re an mp3 buff.... :)

there is slight picture interference when putting through VCR - i think this is more due to sensitive VCRs than a fault of the player, but yes it does disappear when DVD is off - however straight to tv is super with supplied SCART although tv does not pick up aspect changes automatically from my player (even though menu is set to tv type 16:9 ws), although it seems my tv could be at fault.........(see other posts)

my 7 year-old daughter loves the `ping`, it`s just like a microwave......one man`s meat is another man`s poison :)

more annoying is the `tesco` screen - someone come up with a picture flash firmware hack.....pls

regards

w

I`m finding 2 problems with SCART switching, using SCART 3 on my Tosh 28W8DB.

The Dansai forces selection of Ext3 even when it is in standby. I can override it, but it is a pain.

I get no aspect ratio switching at all.

Both functions work perfectly using my ondigi & sat boxes.

Does anyone have SCART switching working correctly with one of these, or is this a "feature?"

ac

Good reviews. I got mine last Saturday, and can`t fault it. The picture quality is spot on (32" widescreen). Haven`t noticed an auto switching problem. When I insert a disk the TV automatically switches to the right scart and playback starts. When I turn off the DVD the TV goes back to the channel it was on.

The only thing I`ve noticed (and now I think it`s to do with my setup not the DVD) is I sometimes have a faint vertical line about 4" from the left and 1" from the right. I took the DVD back thinking it was faulty, but this one does the same. Anyway when I unplugged the scart from the cable decoder to plug into the video to try taping a DVD the lines disappeared, so I`m thinking it`s something to do with a bit of interference from the cable box. I really could do with a 3rd scart socket on the TV I think so they are all connected directly (the cable box is connected via the video so we can tape).

I`ve got the DVD connected direct to TV scart2 with scart (and audio out to Surround Sound HiFi). Cable box is connected to VCR which is connected to TV Scart1. So if I wanted to tape a DVD I`d have to unplug cable box from VCR, unplug DVD from TV and plug into vacant VCR plug.

Mark.

Quick review, Due to Drink.

Picture ( Not as good as samsung 709 )
Multi region and Macrovision in hidden menu ( CEWL!!! )
Ability to read any colour of CD/CDRW , Black, green, Blue, Yellow ETC ( CEWL )
( any one know of good CDR`s that will work on more expensive players ( The fussy ones ) ??? As close to silver as pos...

Problems, with player, The word DVD on intro screen is destorted, Bright white in centre, this may be due to it running via scart through VCR, DIGI-SAT, AC3 JVC AMP, then to the telly, it also lock`s if I use the screen saver!!!

Other than that 100% value for money, because of what it can do!!!.

P.s. I too would like rid of the TESCO message and the PING!!!!! :0)

I tried a multi-session CD today on the Dansai and it works!

It played the second session fine.