Bargain DVD Player

pinkonion

I've bought 5 from Amazon so far, 2 for my house (at that price I have one in the bedroom ) and 3 for friends and relatives. They do indeed play any region dvd's which is great at the prices you can buy from abroad.

I buy my dvd's from Canada - see this thread for details

zcaprd7

Cheap refurd dvd players on this thread (£20 including delivery):

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=33875&page=1&pp=10

dave2986

They use mass mass mass fully automated production, if you have ever seen what is inside a dvd player you will see its all very basic and only one/two moving parts are needed, hence why their cheaper then most video recorders, with lost of mechanics and assembly needed

Its like balck and decker drills they only design then to work for something like 10 hours (tot up how long you use it for every year and i think you see why)

samnmalc

Macro have a DVD player for £19.99......I think it was Alba.
They also have a DVD Recorder for £109 !!

seth

timmo44 wrote:

Isn't it amazing how the price of DVD players has plummeted over the last 2 years? Not so long ago (about 4 years) we bought a Wharfdale one from Tescos for £180 and it was then, the bargain of all time!

I saw a Toshiba one the other day for £30 in Richer Sounds and they had a Panasonic for £40 - how can they even make them for that amount?

Chips set $2 or $7 for the divX (the DivX players use Linux so there is no licence fee) the DVD player have no OS. The DVD drive is a stock item $4 or $6 for the IDE version for the divX players that use the SOC (system on a chip).

Then add a case $3, remote $1 and power supply $5. Finally box and packaging, boolets conformance testing $3 so the unit cost is low.

Remember patent and licencing costs are high after these run out or a replaced with no cost open source licencing the unit cost plummets.

The dyes used in recordable DVDs etc costs 1p but the patent licence is £1 but as patent free dye enter the market the price tumbles.

I work on chip design so please feel free to ask questions, or and the next big thing is the DivX Recorders (read that last word again) the chips are out now so a they will be in a player near you by Xmas!!

seth

dave2986 wrote:

They use mass mass mass fully automated production, if you have ever seen what is inside a dvd player you will see its all very basic and only one/two moving parts are needed, hence why their cheaper then most video recorders, with lost of mechanics and assembly needed

Its like balck and decker drills they only design then to work for something like 10 hours (tot up how long you use it for every year and i think you see why)

Not the DVD Player! If not remind me not you buy a player you designed

You are right it is good production design, there are only 3 motors, a spindle motor, a stepper to move the head, and a tray eject. Gears are simple and controllers are simple. PSU and remote are cheap as is the box and shipping.

China has a state subsidy on workers cost of living so that keeps labour costs down, but the plants are massively automated. The purchasing power of the big retailers is also a factor. Lets not forger "free" econonies in the west like the USA and Germany have MASSIVE state subsidies often spun into somthing with another name.

Did you know the US Department of defence pays for the cost of building the interstates and dredging the waterways in Florida. For troop transport of course, no impact on the local economy.

In the old day the big companies were the manufacturer (Proctor and Gamble etc). Today they are dewarfed by a new breed of MUCH larger company the retailers, Walmart, Sainsbury et al. The manufactures of the players make insides of the branded players and the unbranded ones. Sure the grade A+ chips go in the Yamaha and Sony players, and the unbranded ones get the lower grade chips, but as die yeild improves the low grade chips are as good as the grade A+ (but not tested to that level).

Child labour is a serious issue, not ideal material for jokes in some peoples view. There are many products like footballs from Pakistan where this is a real issue. To Quote Unicef "

An estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labour. Of those, almost three-quarters (171 million) work in hazardous situations or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or working with dangerous machinery. They are everywhere but invisible, toiling as domestic servants in homes, labouring behind the walls of workshops, hidden from view in plantations.
Millions of girls work as domestic servants and unpaid household help and are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Millions of others work under horrific circumstances. They may be trafficked (1.2 million), forced into debt bondage or other forms of slavery (5.7 million), into prostitution and pornography (1.8 million), into participating in armed conflict (0.3 million) or other illicit activities (0.6 million). However, the vast majority of child labourers – 70 per cent or more – work in agriculture.

Regional estimates indicate that:

• The Asian and Pacific regions harbour the largest number of child workers in the five to 14 age group, 127.3 million in total. (19 per cent of children work in the region.)
• Sub-Saharan Africa has an estimated 48 million child workers. Almost one child in three (29 per cent) below the age of 15 works.
• Latin America and the Caribbean have approximately 17.4 million child workers. (16 per cent of children work in the region).
• Fifteen per cent of children work in the Middle East and North Africa.
• Approximately 2.5 million children are working in industrialized and transition economies.

"

The retailers like Sainbury have check to ensure their products do are not made with child labour.

IF YOU KNOW OTHERWISE PLEASE LET ME KNOW I WILL TAKE UP YOUR CONCERNS ASAP
http://www.globalmarch.org/
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html

slinks

got my samsung dvd p244 player from electrical world - amazing bargain - plays everything i need (avis included) - and is a nice, slim design too. recommended!