a123slonky

Was thinking of buying this from Buy-Rite. Has anyone purchased this? Any problems with the system? Or, better yet, has anyone purchased this from Buy-Rite and was there any problems? Thanks in advance guys!!

darkside

Buy-Rite is a terrible place to buy things from. I would recommend trying to find another place to get one from. There are many people here on the forum that can tell you some horror stories about them. Items never getting shipped and the worst customer service I've ever talked to. You might get lucky and have no problems, but god help you if they screw up your order. Once they have your money they could care less about you.

Kellehair

Until now I had never heard anything bad about Buy-Rite. If you're worried I suggest you use a credit card with good custumer support and fraud protection. As for the Q, I've heard good things about it. IGN did a comparison between it, the Xbox, and the PS2. The article might be in the IGN Gear section.

Trigger

It says it'll play DVD from region 1-6... does it convert PAL to NTSC properly like the Xbox does? It's pretty expensive too. 500 bucks. That's 350 bucks just for DVD playback capabilities. Crazy - is it even progressive scan? Should be, right?

Kellehair

Here's IGN's review: http://gear.ign.com/articles/356/356908p1.html

The conclusion says:

Trigger

Thanks for the article... I'd still like to know if it converts PAL to NTSC. Anyone know?

Josh H

Buyrite is terrible. Do not buy from them under any circumstance. They have the worst customer service I've ever seen. You call them and they'll hang up on you. They lose orders, charge people twice, ship stuff to the wrong address etc. I've heard tons of stories about them. I ordered an import game once from them, and it took me over a month and a half to get it and get my bill straightened out as they lost my order, and then charged me twice when I called and had them send it out again, even though I only got one copy. It took several more calls to get the double charge credited back. It was a major pain in the ass.

Chris_D

I've heard that the dvd playback is pretty poor compared to the equivalent DVD player (purchased for the cost of the Q - cost of GC). Although still better than an xbox obviously...

No progressive support to my knowledge.

Chris

Trigger

How could it be better than an xbox "obviously"? Especially since you say it's poor. The xbox has excellent DVD playback and it also converts PAL to NTSC properly. Was that just a stab at xbox or have you heard somewhere that it's a poor DVD player? I think you were misinformed.

darkside

I wouldn't call the Xbox an excellent DVD player. Its an entry level player at best. If you compare it side by side with a mid to high end DVD player there is no comparision. That being said, from what I have read the Q player is an entry level quality player as well. It will do the job just like the Xbox or PS2, but the image quality will not be up there with most good standalone players. Is the Q better than the Xbox? Since I don't have one I can't compare. I doubt it will be much different from the Xbox and PS2 though.

I think you would be better off getting a regular Gamecube for $149 and spending the $350 you have left over from the price of importing a Q on a good progressive scan player.

Trigger

Having done a side-by-side comparison of a progressive scan player (Malata), a non-progressive scan entry level player (Sony), the Xbox, the PS2 and another non-progressive scan entry level player (Toshiba 2109) all on a 61" Hi-def TV using several different DVDs (from Superbit to HK imports to PAL DVDs and anamorphic and non) - I'd say the Xbox is near the top of the list and the PS2 is at the bottom. A huge difference between the two... the Xbox outperformed everything except the Malata (and with the Malata I had to make several adjustments to get optimal picture quality)... I'm sure if I were to spend 500 bucks or more on a DVD player, I may notice a difference - but to say that the Xbox is equal to the PS2 is slanderous. PS2 has terrible DVD playback. I'm not trying to brown-nose Microsoft or anything - there's plenty I don't like about the Xbox... but I don't think it's fair to say that the DVD quality is sub-par or even less than good. I mean - it's at least tops for a player in the price range of the Xbox (even when it was 299). I doubt that this Panasonic cube is as good as a high-end player of that price (or even one that costs 350 bucks). I'd be happy with it if it was as good as the Xbox and if it converted PAL to NTSC then it would be something I'd consider owning. It's sure cool looking anyhow.

Kellehair

That's for sure.

Chris_D

Hardly...

Its more of an assumption.. The Q DVD playback is essentially equivalent to a standalone panasonic dvd player I assume, since the dvd hardware is seperate, it's not done by software on the GC chip or anything.

I haven't seen the xbox dvd playback myself (I have a pioneer, no need for it), but your spiel above is by far the most +ve take I've ever seen on it. Other reviews I've seen rate it equivalent to a bottom end player (with a PS2 obviously rating somewhere below that).

Back to the Q, well it doesn't have progressive support, and couldn't you get a Malata for the xtra amount you'd need to spend on a Q anyway?

Chris

Trigger

I own a Malata, but I got an early model that has DTS dropouts and I'm still searching for a replacement - this unit looks so cool and if it did a proper PAL to NTSC, I'd be interested.

joltaddict

I find it hard to believe it can play region 2-6 without proper PAL to NTSC without the review stating something about it.

Trigger

Well, there's currently only 3 players that do proper conversion - the Malata, the Xbox, and a JVC unit that uses the same chip that the Malata does.

MrPink

Do you have to have a mod chip for the X-Box to convert PAL to NTSC?

Trigger

No - it does it out of the box - it doesn't play DVDs from other regions out of the box though... I have a few PAL Region 0 releases that look great on the Xbox.