A DVD player for £59.99? I could hardly believe it either, but I bought it at Superdrug in our local High St not 2 hours ago. I've been testing it out.
Slim, solidly built, attractive, modern, plays the field. A lot like me as it happens.
It's made in China - has a good display, nice remote, lots of cables including a fully wired SCART, instructions and so on. It has a metal chassis and is screwed solidly together.
Silver finish. No maker's name, but there's a badge on the front with the
letters ECC stuck on upside down. I kid you not. You can zoom up into the picture, you can go into any number of slo-mo or fast-mo modes, it plays audio CDs beautifully and there's masses of menu items you can access.
Best of all it plays my home-burnt DVDs (E20 and 104)perfectly, which is number one reason to get it. It doesn't seem to like VCDs but then that format must die out as DVD no-name blanks have come down to under 50p.
What more can I say? It's difficult to find a bog standard CD player at that price, let alone DVD. Love it.
tom.
And for one day next week they have a 10% off offer on too.
Looks like a good xmas pressie for the relatives to be bored by my film making
Should warn you that it refuses to play Region 1 discs. Anyone know of a hack - preferably done with the remote?
don't say i'm not good to you.
=======================================
Region code and Macrovision hack
1.open the tray- press set up
2.press the next key
3.press the prev key
4.press the next key
5.press the prev key
ver 255 = region free
ver 1= region 1
ver 2= region 2
press left and right to change
press down key once:
ver 3001=parental control enable
ver 3000=parental control disable
press left or right key to change
press down twice:
ver 4001= macrovision enable
ver 4000= macrovision disable
press left or right key to change
press down key three times
ver 5001= vcd and svcd disable
ver 5000= vcd and svcd enable
change to ver 5000 to play vcds or svcds
That's interesting - the hack is the same for my Acoustic Solutions player from Richer Sounds. Must be based on the same machine.
Attack of the Clones 
Nice thread this!
Having just bought one based on Toms find and got the 10% one day special discount.
And now Gary has turned it into an incredible buy.
Thats what these forums are all about - Thanks.
Look out Superdrugs, here I come.
Blimey Gary, where do you get your information from ???
Paul
Gary, I can't say you're not good to us. I was about to dump this player on my kid sister and upgrade (Ha!) to a Tesco machine, but you've turned the ugly duckling into a swan song.
tom.
Oh, another thing for those that know. Although the Superdrug player comes with a fully wired SCART it doesn't appear to output RGB. Leastways when I switch the Sony telly to the RGB input I get a predomininantly blue picture with slight herringbone distortion. Any thoughts anyone?
tom.
quote:Originally posted by fisherman:
Look out Superdrugs, here I come.Blimey Gary, where do you get your information from ???
Paul
me , i cheat , i use google.
quote:Originally posted by tom hardwick:
Oh, another thing for those that know. Although the Superdrug player comes with a fully wired SCART it doesn't appear to output RGB. Leastways when I switch the Sony telly to the RGB input I get a predomininantly blue picture with slight herringbone distortion. Any thoughts anyone?tom.
come on , at this price , i wouldn't expect rgb ....... you can't copy from dvd to video using rgb , so what use is it. ??
remember that this is a chinese player , possibly don't have rgb on their tv's.
havn't bought one yet (and can't all sold out , no more coming in where i am), but are you claiming cable is 21 pin fully wired ? or socket is fully wired ?
BIG DIFFERENCE
[This message has been edited by Gary MacKenzie (edited 08 November 2002).]
Just returned from trip to Superdrugs Milton Keynes. No sign of DVD player. Unfortunately, it's a fairly small branch.
I'll keep looking.
Paul
Looks like you've had it Gary, I just rang Head Office and they said "once they're gone, they're gone." They did phone around my locality just to check and so have I but everyone's sold out.quote:Previously posted by Gary MacKenzie:
...havn't bought one yet (and can't all sold out , no more coming in where i am)
At least I've got my Kiro X5 to keep me going.
BTW, there's a Superdrug store finder here if you want to check for yourself.
David
quote:Originally posted by David Finch:
Quote:
Previously posted by Gary MacKenzie:Looks like you've had it Gary, I just rang Head Office and they said "once they're gone, they're gone." They did phone around my locality just to check and so have I but everyone's sold out.
[b]...havn't bought one yet (and can't all sold out , no more coming in where i am)At least I've got my Kiro X5 to keep me going.
BTW, there's a Superdrug store finder here if you want to check for yourself.
David[/B]
i watched the apex units arrive in asda , i said i'd think about it
i watched the above decks arrive in superdrug , i said i'd think about it
next time i see a good deal i promise to buy it
next time i see a good deal i promise to buy it
might just have to buy a kiro .....
p.s. all the info i found above is available from
http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/hackable.asp?Page=1
Ah yes, it has a fully wired scart cable - I don't know about the feeding socket. Good point Gary. But the thing about RGB is the much better picture quality I can expect over the S cable, surely.
I went into a huge Tesco at Chelmsford today, so big the other end of the store disappeared off into the mist. They had no more of their Densai players. They did some phoning around and told me they'd "all gone". They do PCs this week, DVD players the next, VCRs after that and so on.
tom.
Not checked out my local superdrug yet, but will this VCD play mini-dvd format. I've yet to invest in a decent DVD burner, but as most of my videos are 10 mins or less can burn to mini-DVD with nero.
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just checked out their web site which advertises this VDC at £65 (http://www.superdrug.com/index.php?go=grabit) - there are 8 shops with in a 20 radius of our town so hopefully I may be able to locate one
Suggest you phone round first - the good news is that you have 8 shops locally - the bad news is that they will probably be empty.
This fix for the ECC player was great mine now even plays XSVCD's which none of my other units would touch. I even put a Cd in that contained a bunch of still JPEG pics from my still cam and it proceeded to play a slide show (quite amazing). Like Tom's my DVD player has been transformed into a swan.
I had previously tried a Kiiro x5 which would not play SVCD, VCD and some of my own DVD's and I sent it back. With hind sight maybe that could have been cracked the same way and converted into a great little unit.
Brian Roberts
I've just come back from the NERIAC weekend in Scarborough (and what a nice place!). As part of my four hour presentation I held aloft the colourful Superdrug A2 advertising sheet with the ECC player taking top billing, so I can guarantee there won't be any left in Scarborough. Pity I'm not on commission.
tom.
Can someone burn a mini DVD (ie DVD format on a CD-R) and let me know if it works in one of these players
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Don't forget the Acoustic Solutions players at Richer Sounds. Same hacks as above - the DVD421 is £69.95 - RGB out, coaxial digital out etc.
I've got the DVD451 which also has the onboard Dolby Digital decoder (i.e. phono audio outs for each channel) at £89.95
Not always in stock but there are lots of branches to try.
http://www.richersounds.sv01.net/index.php?f=itemlist.php&c=1201
Cheers
Paul
Paul,
Will that DVD play mini DVD format ?
I have an Awia DVX370 and this only supports VCD as an alternative to DVDs and until I get a DVD Burner finding a DVD set top box that plays mini DVDs may be the cheaper option.
I'll give it a try Malcolm. I've not really given it a good workout yet but it has happily played a variety of VCDs & SVCDs I had knocking about. The multi-region etc. hack suggests it's from the same source as the Superdrug player so I'll check the jpeg thing as well.
Cheers
Paul
The Times today has an advert from Richer Sounds and they have what looks like the same "Superdrug" player (it's a tiny picture). £59.95
It's not on their web site (I've just checked), but here it is anyway.
www.richersounds.com.
Interestingly they charge a tenner more for the region free version, but as it's a simple remote hack, go for the cheaper model I'd say.
tom.
So do they play mini DVDs !
The Acoustic Solutions 451 and 421 both play Mini DVDs.
Bought the 421 last week for a gift (and had to try it out for DVD-Rs/SVCD and VCD.
Bought the 451 today, and this time also tested it for Mini DVDs. They are both basically the exact same players, only difference being the 451 has DD.
Highly recomended.
Dunno what the macine is in the offer at Super drug, but Richer Sounds also have a cheaper model listed at the same price (Think its 321). Dunno what the difference is on that one though.
Regards
Les
I just tried the Jpeg thing with my AC451 to see what that was about.
Plays back the images in folders or in root.
My "old" player - "Raite 715" had an MP3 facilty to show pictures (though thought it was .bmp) so it may be to do with that perhaps? Anyway - a nice unknown extra I guess!
Just put an MP3 disc in the drive. Plays back from any folder (and quick change too!), but only displays 8 characters (which is a shame!)
Les
Anyone found the website for the Acoustic Solutions range?
I have tried Google etc to no avail!
I wanted to check the specs of the various models and download manuals as appropriate!
http://www.acousticsolutions.co.uk would you believe?
Not worth looking though as the site is virtualy under construction. Has a phone number listed though, but the monkeys on the other end dont seem to know much!
Les
Friend of mine has just bought the latest Acoustic Solutions DVD651 from Richer...£120
Picture quality looks good....I've tried Region 1 & 2 disks, DVD-R, VCD, SVCD and MP3 on it....they all play fine.
The Richer guy told us they had only just got hold of this model so it doesn't figure in their brochure or on their website yet.
I reckon it will sell very quickly.
All the hacks mentioned by Gary earlier in this topic work as well.
Hi Les
Doh!
Most of the refs on Google pointed to the likes of sound proofing and studio productions etc.
I suspect that there is some Taiwanese site of the original manufacturer?
What sort of support do the UK distro offer?
Cheers
Do the Acoustic Solutions 451 and 421 cope with miniDVD menus properly and what mpeg bitrate can you get away with?
Dunno what support they offer in the UK. I did ring them to ask specifically about DVD-Rs and the guy I spoke to was pretty clueless!
Mini DVDs. What do you mean by "menus properly"? The disc I used had a simple title screen and buttons to play different clips. It navigated fine. As to bitrates - dont know. The disc I tested (and now cant find) was recorded at a very high bit rate and played back perfectly. Sorry cant provide the statistics. (Wife cleaned up all the dvds etc on the top of the tv etc and havent a clue where she put it! Doh!)
Les
Thanks Les for all the info - I never did get chance to try out all these things on my AS451 (sorry Malcolm )
Definitely cracking little players.
Cheers
Paul
Looks like it's time to treat myself to an early exmas pressy then
Thanks guys for posting your test results
Which lead do we need to buy to use with it
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June
Is the Tesco Dansai DVD 1010 player the same
as the Richer Sounds item.I bought one for my son`s christmas present and,being intrigued by the playback of mini DVD`s,opened the box and started playing with it.It plays mini DVD`s through a smart navi system but I get no sound.Anybody else
experienced this?.