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Nice and timely review, as I need a new general purpose DVD player. However, I'm not sure what good HDMI and high definition connectors are when it can't actually play any high definition content.........

What's interesting to note here is the fact that the player not only is region free, but also it allows HD upscaling via component, which actually is not very legal.

I would imagine that is a condition of playing any high definition content, such as from BluRay or HD-DVD, which this device can't do. It's basically a legal licensing requirement when you sign up to play back high definition discs, just like region encoding is, and there are many players around that ignore that. I'm not sure why people think that it's automatically illegal, but I suppose that's the impression that's created.

Now, if it were a Myth front-end box then that would be something.

Is it really that hard putting your cam on a tripod or if that's to expensive, a chair or something? I had the impression there was an earth quake when the video was shot...

This thing doesn't seem to top the Oppo DV-970HD, which does a great job with various XviD/DivX files, and which will also upscale over component with a simple firmware hack.

If i buy a video gadget in 2007 it has to play all DivX/whatever formats i can get my hands on.

Otherwise i will stay with my Xbox Media Center ( that thing even plays video files WITHIN .rar files. Amazing stuff )

So basically, they couldn't even reach the Oppo in feature, so I won't even dare to guess how it does image quality wise. I hope all of this is made up with its price, though the Oppo are cheap already.

Outputting HD through component is not illegal, and never was. That's just that 1080p through component is not in the norm, so it's wise not to do it. Because as it's not in the standard, most HDTV don't accept that through component, but all accept 720p through component, as it's in the standard.

The purpose of the HDMI connection is obvious : when the player upscales the DVD signal to 720p or 1080p, then of course, you need a HDMI or a component connection to your TV.

The HD Divx/Xvid not working is perfectly normal, as these are not official formats, and mkv isn't either.
These upscaling progressive DVD players are NOT HD players as well, they are just upscaling SD resolutions to HD resolutions. They have chips specialized for that. So no, they won't play any HD format, even official MP4 (AVC-1, H264, ...). Lots of people have problems understanding that.

Finally, this review lacks the basics, which are the tests of the upscaling and deinterlacing quality.

Edited 2007-10-24 12:29

By WIPO rules, region coding would not be an enforcable portion of a contract with regard to playback devices. WIPO countries are prohibitted from enforcing laws or contract terms which might restrict access to works on the basis of geographical region. In some WIPO signatory countries, region coding is more explicitly a prohibitted anti-competitive practice.

When Region Coding does exist, it's generally their as a concession to the media industry to foster good relations and cooperation in other parts of the business.

North America (region 1) is the only region where honoring region codes on media is still commonplace.

Unfortunately is doesn't play SACD's.

I'm looking for a DVR device. Ideally it could take digital (I'm quite confused about this part ) and analog signal, have output with HDMI (with upscale), use Electronic Program Guide, play DivX, XviD and h.264 encoded videos. Am I asking for too much? Pionieer DVRs look quite good but are limited to DivX videos, does anybody have experience with such hardware that he/she could share?
Building custom MythTV / Windows Media Center computer is too much of a fuss.

Im wondering if you get to keep all the stuff you get to review, great job if you do .. even half of it would be nice, why would the company want this cheap upscaler back after its used ..

:-)

why is it not legal to upscale standard definition to higher resolution and output via component?

Just a quick note: DivX and Xvid are not file formats. Xvid is a software library that encodes and decodes MPEG-4 ASP video (which is then put into file formats, aka containers, such as AVI or MP4). DivX is a company and a brand name of their commercial products such as the DivX Pro Codec, which, again, is a software product that encodes and decodes MPEG-4 ASP video (which, again, you put into file formats such as AVI or the DivX Media Format, which is a container created by the DivX company, based on AVI). If the device cannot play a particular MPEG-4 video encoded with Xvid, DivX or other MPEG-4 compliant codecs, it's not because it's a different format, it's because unsupported features (Qpel, GMC, multiple B-frames...), resolution, bitrate or an unsupported container format were used.

Edited 2007-10-25 05:30