Match

Anyone ever heard of this dvd player?
Is this any good?
This seems to have a lot of stuff built in for the price.
http://www.barrel-of-monkeys.com/gra.../dvd8208.shtml

zeitgeistsfo

Yes, I just bought one off eBay ($115 shipped). I think the actual company making them is called Amiosonic or something like that. They sell under various brand names such as Conia, Sungale, etc. Very good player so far (no weird glitches/freezes like previous region-free player I was using).

Pros:
- region-free, of course
- perfect anamorphic PAL to NTSC conversion
- decent ergonomics/build-quality for a Chinese player, good remote
- macrovision can be turned off permanently
- pretty good on-screen menus
- lots of features, including karaoke CD+G support; every format I've tried so far has worked flawlessly
- pitch control, meant for karaoke but also very useful for lowering the pitch on PAL DVDs where voices & music are sped-up

Cons:
- no power key on remote, must be turned on & off manually from player
- on-screen display partially obscures karaoke text, and can't be turned off

Hope this helps.

Hannibal

zeitgeistsfo,
Is there x-y scaling like its described?

Match

Thanks for the reply, zeitgeistsfo.
Looks like a good dvd player.

How is the layer change and picture quality on the Sungale?
What chip is inside this player? Zoran?
Have you tried out the pitch control on any pal dvd's.

pro-bassoonist

I would like to know how does one go about correcting the pitch? This has got to be the first time I hear this....please explain.

Thank you.

zeitgeistsfo

Answers to a few questions...

X-Y Scaling

When Sungale talks about x-y scaling in their marketing info, I think they're referring to the player's ability to correctly convert anamorphic PAL to NTSC. You can't control dimensions down to the pixel like you can with the Malata. Nevertheless, I think the most important thing is that the player does a good conversion. I would probably seldom use true x-y scaling since my TV doesn't have a whole lot of overscan to start with.

Pitch Control:

On the remote, there are Pitch + and Pitch – keys (I think there are about 15 steps). They're intended for karaoke use, but work when playing back anything. Slightly lowering the pitch when watching certain PAL DVDs (some are already pitch shifted in disc production) means actors and music sound natural again. Note that action in the movie still runs 4% faster than NTSC, but to me that's a lot harder to notice than the sound. This works over the analog outs; I've yet to try whether it does the same thing for audio on the digital (optical & coaxial) outs.

zeitgeistsfo

Answers to a few more questions...

Picture Quality:

It's very good, noticeably better than the two players I had hooked up to that TV previously. For comparison, the Cyberhome CH-DVD 500 had a much softer picture and the color balance was off. Another Chinese manufactured region-free player that I got for free from Macy's for buying a bunch of kitchen stuff (and have since gotten rid of) had a very undersaturated picture, along with occassional split-second freezes during playback.

Note that this is not a progressive scan player, so if you want that feature look elsewhere.

Another nice thing is that the player lets you adjust video settings (brightness, sharpness, luma delay, etc.) in on-screen menus.

Layer Change:

Haven't actually measured it, but it doesn't take longer than any other player I've tried. It's not completely unnoticeable, but not too distracting either (maybe a second or so).

Chip Set:

Not sure, and sorry but I'm not inclined to open it up at the moment (would require moving a bunch of A/V stuff). I'm sure there's info on the web somewhere about what chipset Conia players use (same company, different nameplate), and it's a good bet this player uses the same (though it is newer and it's always possible they changed chipsets). Or you could contact Amoisonic's U.S. office in Southern California to find out.