ALBA DVD-103, £150
Whoops, someone
seems to have forgotten to enable the regional coding lock on our sample of the
Alba DVD-103 since it played R1 discs straight out of the box, and the word on
the street is that they’re all like it… Even if that wasn’t the case and it
only played Region 2 discs this machine still looks like an incredible bargain.
It’ll set you back just £150, setting yet another low price benchmark for
entry-level players without on-board 5.1 decoders, but if you’re expecting a
boring feature-stripped machine with indifferent AV performance the you are in
for a bit of a surprise, and a very pleasant one at that. The bottom line is
the DVD-103 has the kind of specification and picture quality that wouldn’t look
out of place on a player costing another £100 or so.
True, it’s not
much to look at and the styling is a wee bit unimaginative but at that price it
would be churlish to complain. It has 4-mode picture search and 3-mode slomo
(forward only), a 2-stage zoom and here’s the really good bit, chapter digest.
This is almost identical to a headline feature on JVC and Hitachi players; it
creates a visual menu of stills from the start of each chapter by splitting the
picture into 9 sub-screens. The next cheapest machine to be able to do this
very impressive and useful trick will set you back £300. There’s lots of little
extras too, like the fact that you can skip through title and copyright screens
without having to watch them and the set-up menu is accessible from play mode,
so you can change picture format, video output (PAL & NTSC) and switch
audio settings without having to exit playback. It has volume and mute controls
on the remote handset, and a headphone socket on the front panel, with a level
control.
Sooner or later
we had to get around to the DVD-103’s shortcomings, and yes, there are a few,
but there’s nothing you can’t live with. The most annoying one was our sample’s
tendency to lock up for no apparent reason, usually after issuing a series of
commands in quick succession. There seems to be a bug in the control software
somewhere but if you are patient and try not to confuse it, it usually behaves
itself. The clanky menu system can be quite irritating and it is compounded by
the careless layout of the remote handset. Once again it is something you can
get used to it but it may take a while, thanks to the poorly presented
instructions and Pidgin English translations. Some of them are quite funny and
we suspect most people will be able to work out what ‘Press number buttons
orderly according to title’ and ‘Set the following functions for the player to
obtain the best playing status’ actually means… There’s no on/standby function
on the remote – just an on/off switch on the front panel – and occasional howlers
from the on-screen display like ‘Next Pag’, but they’re all liveable.
Rear panel
connections are adequate, it has a single SCART socket configurable for
composite, RGB and S-Video outputs, there’s a separate S-Video out socket, two
composite video outputs and two sets of mixed stereo output for some reason,
plus optical and coaxial digital outputs for good measure.
Layer change is
remarkably fast, typically it drops just one frame, in fact it is so quick that
you barely notice it on most discs, and that is something very few other
players – even top end models – can manage. Video quality is mostly
satisfactory. The amount of fine detail in the picture is just a little down on
mid-market players and a lot of fast movement can sometimes appear a little
smeared or jerky, especially on in bright areas of the image. Error correction
is fairly relaxed and dirty finger marks and scratches on the disc produce the
odd processing artefact but the picture is generally clean. Colours look sharp
and well defined and whilst most shades are faithfully rendered skin tones can
seem a little harsh in close-ups, especially in the highlights. Contrast
balance is okay and dark areas contain a fair amount of information though deep
shadows tend to be quite murky. The trick play modes are reasonably steady,
though with a top-speed of only 8x normal play it can take a while to get where
you want to go.
Background
noise on the mixed stereo output is at a low level and the response is wide and
flat; Dolby Surround soundtracks are very lively, effects are focused and
there’s a good bass content.
Forget the dull
cosmetics, iffy remote and occasional picture hiccup when playing grubby discs,
in fact we’re inclined to regard that as a positive feature as it will force
owners to look after their discs... Focus on the fact that the DVD-150 has the
kind of features that were previously only available on players costing twice
as much. Video performance isn’t going to set any new records but it’s still
twice as good as VHS with potentially ten times better sound, and what’s more
it will play Region 1 discs without any hacks or modifications (though we
didn’t tell you that), and it also just happens to be the cheapest DVD player
on the market, and you can take it as read that we’re rather impressed with it!
Alba 020 8594 5533
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
Too many small
and similarly sized buttons spoil an otherwise neat looking remote handset. The
main problem areas are the four-way cursor control buttons, which are bunched
in with other functions and the awkward menu control arrangement which requires
the user to press the play button to access selections. The placement of the
picture search, slomo and pause/step keys is rather haphazard since they’re a
couple of rows up from the main stop/play and chapter skip cluster. Not having
an on/standby function is also a bit of a nuisance.
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
Rear panel
connections are a favourite place for manufacturers of budget DVD players to
save a few bob but that hasn’t happened on the DVD-105. The single SCART socket
can be configured from the menu to output composite video, S-Video or RGB.
S-Video is also available on a 4-pin mini DIN socket and there are two
additional composite video outputs on phono sockets. Two pairs of phono sockets
carry two sets of analogue mixed stereo outputs, for no good reason that we can
see, though it does give users the option of routing the audio output into a
tape deck for recording from CD audio discs, without disrupting the connection
to an AV amplifier. Bitstream outputs are handled by standard TOSlink (optical)
and coaxial (phono) connectors.
HE HARD FACTS
ALBA DVD-103
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out Y
Component N
Optical digital Y
Coaxial digital Y
5.1 decoder N
EXTRA FEATURES 20/30
Multi region,
PAL/NTSC replay, dts compatible bitstream output, multi-speed replay, 2-stage
picture zoom, chapter digest, volume and mute control, display dimmer/off,
headphone out
GOOD POINTS
Features,
performance, value for money
BAD POINTS
Remote handset,
quirky control system
Ease of use 3
Picture 4
Sound 4
Features 5
Overall 4
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £150
SCART 1
S-Video 1
Digital out coaxial, optical
Decoder none
Good Points
Features,
performance, value for money
Bad points
Remote handset,
quirky control system
Rating
4
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Ó R. Maybury 2000, 1206
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