Looking for Dirt Cheap DVD Player

[XGol]

Am looking for backup DVD player and have my eyes set on those china-made players. My intent is to use this for discs that don't play on my Philips DVDP. Per experience, Chinese-dvdP plays these "sensitive" discs where Philips failed. .

Great sound would be a bonus. Clear image and true 5.1 decoding would be minimum reqts. (I need one with built-in 5.1 decoder so i can use it with my 5-channel amp.)

Recoms most appreciated.

[avphile]

Nextbase or Kebao. Promac, Rainbow, Ganzklar are also good. They're around 3T to 4T depending on stall location. I think I saw a Union or Mamiya DVD player at less than 2T at SM.

[XGol]

Thanks, Avphile.

Any experience with any of these in terms of playing non-original materials (taboo word yata e ;D)?

Someone also recommended Orange and Nextbase. Don't have time to test all of these so I'd go for endorsements na lg.

At their prices, kahit 2 years lg operation, sulit talaga.

[avphile]

I've owned a Promac and a Rainbow two years back. They're still working fine with the fellows I've sold them to. Picture quality may not be as sharp and bright as what I have now, but for their prices, I 've had no problem especially with the Rainbow. It's jpeg viewing is so much faster than many Pioneer DVD players. But these are relatively older models that may have benefitted from more robust parts and more quality assembly line. Newer models may not be as good as I've heard horror stories from them. Then again, perhaps I should expect more horror stories as there are now more generic players in the market and more homes using them these days.

Rainbow is made by the Changhong company which is reputed to be the largest DVD player manufacturer in the world. There's also a Changhong brand which are quite few and are more expensive than most generic brands.

It can be difficult choosing which generic brand to get, especially with so many coming out from China at dirt cheap prices. Union, American Home, Magnum, etc, also come to mind. I'd suggest you arm yourself with familiar DVD titles when buying. Have one that wouldn't play on your current player but plays on others. Also, most tiangge stalls may not have the bigger screens to test their players. Automatic and SM appliance carry generic brands as well and they can test them on their large screens.

[XGol]

...just to share that after testing my "difficult" dvds, cdrs, home movies etc I picked up Rainbow 604 over various models of Nextbase, Kebao (didnt like it with its fan), Fukuda, Optix and LG. All tested under 5.1 analog out setup. It's better looking too being thin, simple and elegant black accent.

Rainbow hurdled all tests esp the Serpico dvd which i never got to watch in its entirety since a year or two with my Philips. Same thing happened with the other brands mentioned except LG -- smooth sailing, even better than Rainbow. BTW, LG, tho' most expensive at 5k++ should have been my pick but NO dig vol control (needed for my monoblock-based setup). Strange that even with its built-in decoder, it doesn't have a vol control. Tried playing with the DB setting per channel but can't get the desired total quite. The sales guy was sorry . The image was very good and its rich menu and remote have a nice feel.

Complaints with Rainbow: tray is like a thin biscuit ready to crack any moment; RCAs (for analog outs) are too closely spaced for my 5.1 chubby RCAs. But at P2.9, am happy with it and am hoping it will last .

[avphile]

XGol said:

BTW, LG, tho' most expensive at 5k++ should have been my pick but NO dig vol control (needed for my monoblock-based setup). Strange that even with its built-in decoder, it doesn't have a vol control.

A volume control or more accurately, a playback output level control, is not standard for DVD players. If you noticed, among branded DVD players, most if not all have no output level controls that can serve as a master volume control. Seems to me that it is only found in most generic DVD players.