Yamada DVR-8400X DVD Recorder /DIVX Player £99.99 or less :)

bleugh

dont forget to sign up to the maplin newsletter so you can get vouchers off.
I believe its something like £3 off orders for £45 and 6 for orders around £100, so its a worthwhile saving (the maplin vouchres server is down at the moment so cant tell exact numbers sorry)

bleugh

oh, may I add, yamada seems just as good as the other no-name brands out there
, personally i'd buy yamada over that sh@te currys sell called Matsui, now thats total crap if i've ever seen any, the returns rate on some matsui items is around 50% over the 4 months i worked for currys a while back

mad.dog_7

Re the problem with DivX movies playing back juddery, its all to do with the bitstream being packed on the movie.

What you need to do is nownload the MPEG4 Modifier

http://www.moitah.net/

Then open your file in the programme. If the packed bitstream box is ticked, un-tick the box and save off the new file

Problem fixed - 100% of the time!

tim_n

it's £10 off £100 if you buy something with it. So why not add a http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=371&TabID=1&source=100&added=y&oc=WW17T&worldid=&doy=10m8

at only 4p, it's worth an extra £3 (£7 off £99.99)

unless someone can find something worth 1p?

Just to re-iterate

£90.03 :- )

I bought a DVX machine when they first came out - no DVDR functionality but DIVX rocked (obviously just for playing 'thebroken' (http://www.thebroken.org)) but unfortunately support stopped six months after my purchase (no new codecs). But on the whole, it still plays 99% of my collection and has never had any problems with DVD's. Since I moved 6 times in the last couple of years it has unfortunately resulted in a damaged scart port, but it's still useable.

Off to the penny shop to buy a DVR ;- )

kev_middleman

A handy review / discussion link:
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=247925

buggu

I guess it doesnt allow an external usb hard drive to be connected ?

tim_n

seems to suggest that it does - I noticed http://gameloaded.co.uk/UK_Umax_Yamada_4081.htm which says

# Front mounted DV link digital input - for recording directly from camcorders
# Front mounted USB port for direct file transfer from PC or M mobile storage device

tim_n

nice view of the back panel on there too.

lmpd

I got one of these when they were £30 more from ebuyer. The main reason I got one of these was so I could conect my USB storage device to it, but was a little dissapointed to find out that it does not play movies from it (it suports pictures and mp3's).

I will go into a little detail over this now, but don't shout at me if I talk crap as I'm no expert. I have a 250 Gig external hardrive, which I had to format to fat32 as the player does not suport NTFS. I also had to partition the hardrive as it still would not read it. Giving the primary partition 100 gig, which sorted out the problem (should also note that the player will only recognise the primary partition).

I hope that helps some of you out as I know that was the area I was most intrested in.

I have had no problem playing back any divx videos I have used yet, and the quality is much better than what I got from my laptop when I used to connect it to the TV. I have had no problems with the recorder, I use it on the 4hr mode for evey day use and the picture has a slight blure but the sound is excellent and altogether much better than using VHS (shame it has not video plus though). I have also used the DV input and worked well with my sony camera, but have not used any DV link thing before so have nothing to compare it to.

hugorune

I bought one of these from EBuyer back in May and for a time was very happy with it, it played DIVx movies with no problems recording quality was fine and it was reasonably tolerant of various DVD+r media. The remote control was a bit tempermental (had to be in exactly the right place for it to work!)

About three weeks ago it suddenly started to have problems reading discs making some very disturbing seeking sounds resulting in it making a fizzing noise (assume the head motor burnt out). After this happened the tray would not even operate to load discs... FYI I'm not a heavy DVD writer user so had probably burned about 5-10 discs over the time I had the writer.

I searched a few forums and other people have had the same problem with the 8400, something about Yamada using too short a ribbon cable to the laser if I remember correctly. Also saw some scary stuff about peoples experiences with Umax/Yamada's repair/returns service - getting obviously used machines sent back as replacements for example.

Anyway EBuyer were great, they actually gave me a refund instead of a replacement (I had considered giving Yamada another try but was wary about whether I'd get a second hand machine). I'm now glad that I got the refund as I found an H&B model for a little more and am very happy with it - feels more substantial and better built (fingers crossed it'll be a lot more reliable too!)

Anyway, just thought I'd relay my experiences with the 8400 in case it helps people to make up their mind. £90 with the discount is a good price for the machine, I'd suggest checking Maplins returns/refund policy before going for it though!