Lidl DVD Player with USB for £30

Lütz_Pangaloo

Just looking at the latest Lidl newsletter for next Monday's (29th) bargains and saw this;

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20071029.p.DVD_Player.ar3

Doesn't mention USB on the spec but it looks like a USB port at the bottom left of the card reader.

Very likely to be the same Zoran Vaddis 888 chipset as the recent Aldi Tevion at £35, but no mention of a HDMI port - I'm not sure it's worth getting a new DVD player without one, but if you aren't bothered then it's good value.



EDIT: From what I can gather it's a Silvercrest DP-5300x, and you can get the manual here;

http://www.service.targa.co.uk/dokumente/en_DP5300x.pdf

which confirms that it does have a USB 2.0 port, but no HDMI. There is a component output, but there's no mention of any upscaling, so probably not the perfect partner for a HD Ready TV. Shame. The upscaled 720p picture on my new Tevion is lush!

nickswift

This one is under £30 delivered from Pixmania.. i dont know much about them but it has a card reader and plays DivX.. there are lots of codes for pixmania, but you have to spend £70 to get £7 off.

The XS-520 Pro DVD player is a complete living room unit with an interface that is compatible with a number of external multimedia devices.The XS-520 Pro is equipped with a USB port and a 3-in-1 memory card reader which supports SD, MemoryStick and MMC formats.

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/5305...vd-player.html

philhuff

Lütz_Pangaloo wrote: »

no mention of a HDMI port - I'm not sure it's worth getting a new DVD player without one

I might be missing something here, but why would you need an HDMI port on a DVD player? It's not like they're pumping out HD images...

Sounds quite a good deal for those in that market, though.

System

philhuff wrote: »

I might be missing something here, but why would you need an HDMI port on a DVD player? It's not like they're pumping out HD images...

dont you need one for upscaling DVD players?

gromituk

philhuff is correct: Upscaling DVD players are pointless. Your TV does the "upscaling" and knows how to much better than the DVD player.

Lütz_Pangaloo

punkrjb wrote: »

dont you need one for upscaling DVD players?

I thought you did, but I've just bought a Freecom Mediaplayer 3 off Ebay (£55 for 250GB version - looked like a good deal but the fan in it sounds like a buzzsaw!), and it upscales to 1080i via it's component video output. I actually use it on 720p and the picture does look good, even with Divx movies.

Now this Lidl player does have a component output, but looking in the manual there are no options to upscale the output, just have it either interlaced or progressive. From the pictures the style and structure of the menus look almost identical to the ones on my Tevion I've just bought from Aldi, but while my player has HDMI and upscaling options, this one does not, even via it's component output. So as I said, there are probably better players for use with HD Ready tellies.

I know there are people who argue that upscaling is bogus, isn't true HD and can't increase picture quality. Well sorry, but the upscaled pictures via both HDMI and component do look better than standard on my 32" LCD - comparing them is a simple enough job.

gromituk

Well we'll just have to agree to disagree. The fact is, you are seeing two cascaded rescalings (one in the DVD player and one in the TV), and this is A Very Bad Idea from an engineering point of view. But if the result looks pleasing to your eye, then you're happy!

Lütz_Pangaloo

gromituk wrote: »

Well we'll just have to agree to disagree. The fact is, you are seeing two cascaded rescalings (one in the DVD player and one in the TV), and this is A Very Bad Idea from an engineering point of view. But if the result looks pleasing to your eye, then you're happy!

I don't follow your logic here.

If I set the HDMI output on my DVD player to an upscaled 720p, all the TV does is rescale that to it's native resolution (in my case 1366 x 768) so the picture fills the screen - just as it would with a true 720p HD source. Unless you've got a 1080p panel and matching source, 'cascaded rescaling' (up or down) is unavoidable. It can't be that bad an idea, or virtually all LCD panels would be unwatchable.

I have read that it's far better from a picture quality perspective to do all this mucking about with resolutions in the digital domain, rather than take a standard resolution analogue component image and upscale that in the TV - that makes perfect sense to me anyway.

HDMI connectivity is also preferrable as a cabling solution - just one cable for digital picture and audio running up the wall rather than five seperate RCAs for analogue component video and stereo sound. Not everybody has or wants a seperate surround sound system.

I think not having HDMI marks this player down, and wanted to highlight the fact before somebody bought one in error. I recall Lidl as having a pretty strict returns policy, and I wanted to save people the hassle of trying to get their money back.

gromituk

Lütz_Pangaloo wrote: »

If I set the HDMI output on my DVD player to an upscaled 720p, all the TV does is rescale that to it's native resolution

So it rescales, just as it would if you were feeding it a standard definition signal. However, using the HDMI output, the DVD player has to rescale too; using an SD output, it doesn't - it is simply passing on the native resolution of what's on the disc (after uncompressing, of course).

I have read that it's far better from a picture quality perspective to do all this mucking about with resolutions in the digital domain, rather than take a standard resolution analogue component image and upscale that in the TV - that makes perfect sense to me anyway.

I think you might be mixing up analogue/digital conversion with rescaling. All rescaling goes on in the digital domain. If you are using the analogue output from the DVD player, there is a double conversion going on - from digital to analogue in the player, and from analogue to digital in the TV. The TV then upscales the signal it has already converted to digital. These conversions (and the possibility of problems in the analogue cable) do have an impact on quality, but assuming nothing is grossly wrong, greater degradation is much more likely to occur from the two upscalings. Just because there are no analogue signals involved does not mean that signal cannot be impaired when it is processed. There is a widespread misconception that anything analogue is to be avoided at all costs, and everything digital is transparent - it ain't necessarily so.

The best way to go would be for the DVD player to send its native resolution out through the HDMI cable; then you'd avoid the analogue step and one of the rescales. I would be surprised if the HDMI standard didn't support this.

HDMI connectivity is also preferrable as a cabling solution - just one cable for digital picture and audio running up the wall rather than five seperate RCAs for analogue component video and stereo sound.

I agree with that practicality, yes.

I think not having HDMI marks this player down, and wanted to highlight the fact before somebody bought one in error.

Well I think you are exaggerating the problem - I just wanted to point that out!

lewt

if its the dvd that was out a while ago i would highly recomend it. i have 2 and 2 4gb sticks which i transfer film that i download too its never not played anything and it also was made multiregion easylt. my dad uses his for slide shows from is sd card which the one i have also takes. a bargain. the ebuyer equwilant is cr ap. im sending that back at the mo. i wouldnt vother about this upscaling lark. if a dvd is hd then get a hd dvd player id not then just stick with a normal one and scart. you wont see the differece

mrsscrooge1

Speaking as one who doesn't know alot about dvd players can anyone tell me what sort of dvd player do I need to record from Sky plus planner and how do I do it?? I tried it once to video with no luck. Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but it might be the right place to get an answer. Thanks