HARMAN KARDON DVD-1, £450
DVD has become
established as a mainstream consumer technology far quicker than anyone
expected and that is due in part to an unusually wide manufacturing base very
early on in the format’s short and eventful history. In addition to all of the
usual consumer electronics companies there are quite a few new brands on the
shelves, slugging it out at the budget end of the market, and several names
that we are familiar with but had not until now associated with video. However,
the technical and mechanical similarities between CD and DVD plus the format’s
audio capabilities and compatibility means that it is a natural market for
serious hi-fi companies like Harmon Kardon to venture into.
The DVD-1 is
HK’s first player and it has started out with what appears to be a very basic
specification. This is not at all unusual on high-end audio products, where
less can often mean more by doing away with unnecessary sound mangling widgets
and fripperies. Products from prestigious hi-fi brands also command a higher
price premium so the £450 being asked for the DVD-1 doesn’t come as much of a
surprise either, but what we were not expecting was for the player to be built
in China, which until now has been mostly sourcing budget-priced DVD players.
Don’t get us wrong, in general there’s nothing wrong with Chinese made
electronic products – they’re getting plenty of practice -- you just don’t
expect them to be making kit for high-end brands like HK.
There’s no
indication on the feature list of where the money is going, indeed it’s hard to
find any additional features other than what is needed to play audio CDs and
DVDs. About the only things we could come up with was a 9-scene bookmark
facility and illuminated buttons on the remote handset. There is one other
feature we should mention, though you won’t find it listed anywhere, and that’s
the region lock. It can be disabled from the player’s remote control handset so
it’s classed as a firmware hack and doesn’t affect the guarantee. For the
record the player has to be in standby mode, with the disc tray empty enter the
following code: 3141592, followed by the region number. So if you wanted to
switch from Region 2 to Region 1, the eighth digit should be 1. If you get it
right ‘Hello’ appears in the display window and it’s set. Sadly there’s no Region 0 (region free)
setting and the video output will be whatever is on the disc, in other words if
you’re playing an American R1 disc you’ll get a raw NTSC signal on the player’s
video output. If you are thinking of getting one just make sure your TV can
handle it!
Some of the
price can be put down to the classy casework and cosmetics, which is designed
to match other HK AV products, both visually and technically with an integrated
remote control system. The design is very smart indeed and we particularly like
the illuminated buttons on the front panel and the headphone socket with level
control is a useful bonus. Set-up and day to day controls are very
straightforward; one unusual feature is the single button menu control that
access the set-up menu when the player is in stop mode (or no disc is loaded)
and the disc menu when it’s playing back.
The DVD-1 has
no picture controls but that’s not a problem since the video processing and factory
set-up are close to optimum. The image is crisp and well balanced with
comparatively little information lost in darker scenes and shadows. Resolution
is a better than average rendering lots of fine detail, colours are bright and
natural looking, even on skin tones and areas of high saturation. Trick play
options are limited (the fastest search speed is only x16) but it looks
reasonably fluid, we didn’t seen any processing artefacts – even in really busy
scenes – and layer change takes around a quarter of a second.
It is clear
Harmon Kardon has put a fair amount of effort into the machine’s audio
performance and audio CDs have an added depth and clarity that you rarely hear
on budget and even mid-market players. The mixed stereo output is also very clean,
background noise levels are kept in check and the response is flat and wide
enough to do justice to a good Dolby Surround soundtrack and decent Pro Logic
amp. Dolby Digital and dts data leaves the player in near perfect condition and
owners of top class equipment will find little to complain about.
Picture quality
is comparable with the better mid-market players and you can easily pay as much
for top-name CD player of similar capabilities, so maybe the £450 being asked
for this machine isn’t so bad after all? HK fans will need no further
convincing but we feel that it’s pitched a little high for the mass consumer
market. A few more convenience features wouldn’t have gone amiss either,
nothing fancy you understand, but a decent set of trick play options would have
been a step in the right direction.
Contact Harman
Kardon/Gamepath, 01908 317707
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
This is a
remote you can do business with. Press a little button in the bottom right-hand
corner and all of the buttons light up – great stuff! The main transport keys
are large and shaped and all of the other regularly used buttons are exactly
where you would expect to find them. The handset is ergonomically shaped and
the centre of gravity is well forward, so it points naturally in the right
direction. Knowing the way the industry works it’s probably all accidental, but
whoever designed this one got it just right!
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
Twin SCART
sockets are a bit of a luxury and it means less aggravation when trying to
accommodate more than a couple of AV devices on a TV with a single AV input.
The SCARTs are configured for RGB output and are looped-through, so you can
connect other devices with an RGB output. There are separate S-Video and
composite video output sockets and both optical and coaxial digital bitstream
(dts compatible) for good measure. The two jack sockets on the right side are
for Harmon Kardon’s proprietary integrated remote control system, enabling
other compatible products to be controlled via the DVD-1’s IR sensor and vice
versa.
THE HARD FACTS
Harman Kardon
DVD-1
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out Y
Component N
Optical digital Y
Coaxial digital Y
5.1 decoder N
EXTRA FEATURES
Region 2 (see
text), PAL/NTSC replay, multi-speed replay, dts compatible bitstream output,
9-scene marker, illuminated remote handset buttons
GOOD POINTS
AV performance,
classy design and easy of use, extra points for the remote
BAD POINTS
Basic
specification and highish price
Ease of use 5
Picture 5
Sound 5
Features 3
Overall 4
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £450
SCART 2
S-Video 1
Digital out optical, coaxial
Decoder none
Good Points
AV performance,
classy design and easy of use, extra points for the remote
Bad points
Basic
specification and highish price
Rating
4
---end---
COPY
LG DVD-3200, £200
Past experience
has shown that most manufacturers coming into to the DVD market really get into
their stride after the second or third model range. On that basis the next
budget DVD we see from LG should be a real cracker. Unfortunately the DVD-3200
marks only a relatively small improvement over its first entry-level machine,
the DVD-2330, which appeared late last year. The 2330 actually did fairly well
and came across as a decent enough machine selling for the then reasonable
price of £250, but LG’s timing was a wee bit unfortunate. The 2330 reached the
shops at about the same time as the floodgates opened with a wave of ultra
cheap decks, many costing less than £200, several of them with high-end
features like on-board Dolby Digital decoders. LG responded quickly and the
price of the 2330 has since fallen to around £190, but the arrival of the
DVD-3200, priced at just under £200 still puts them a step or two behind the
budget leaders, in a segment of the market that LG has traditionally been a
force to be reckoned with in other home entertainment technologies.
Although the
core specification has changed very little from its predecessor the new machine
has been given a facelift and it now looks quite smart in its silver livery and
slimmed down case. There are number of welcome additions to the feature list
and these include 3D sound and NTSC playback. The range of trick-play modes has
been improved as well and now provides four slomo speeds (x1/16, x1/8, x1/4 and
x1/2 normal speed in both directions) and four bi-directional picture search
speeds (x2, x4, x16 and x100). It also has a two stage picture zoom (4x and
16x) and a 5-scene bookmark but the question is, are they enough to make it
stand out from the crowd?
Many machines
in the sub £200 price bracket have easily hackable region code locks, or none
at all; as far as we are aware the 3200 is fixed on Region 2 playback. At the
time of going to press none of the usual web sites have any details about how
to change that situation. It shouldn’t matter but it does and for some this
lack of flexibility will count against it.
Operationally it is quite well behaved and easy to use; on-screen
displays are confined to a simple menu bar that appears on the left side of the
screen Available options include language and soundtrack settings and switching
3D sound on and off. One small bonus is the fact that you can switch to the
high-level deck set-up menu without exiting playback; the picture is blanked,
but once you have made changes you can return to the point where you left
off.
One thing that
hasn’t changed is the lack of an optical bitstream output, not in itself a big
problem, but some may find this inconvenient. The coaxial bitstream output is
now dts compatible though. A new remote handset is included with this machine
and it is markedly easier to use than the one that came with its predecessor.
Picture quality
hasn’t changed a great deal since the 2330, overall it is quite good though we
feel that skin tones are still a bit flat and it doesn’t fully render all of
the subtle variations in shade that some of the better players are able to
manage, nevertheless colour accuracy is fine and images look reasonably
natural. Resolution is generally okay but on our sample some fine detail was
lost when there was a lot of activity on the screen. The picture’s dynamic
range is fair to middling though shadows and dimly lit scenes manage to obscure
some picture information. We didn’t see any processing artefacts and layer
change is about average, taking just under a quarter of a second on most of our
test discs.
The mixed
stereo output has a wide and flat response with plenty of room for Dolby
Surround soundtracks. Background hiss is adequately well suppressed; low-level
sounds and dialogue are clearly focused and there’s sufficient bass to drive
big action blockbuster effects. It
stacks up quite well as an audio CD player as well, comparable with mid-range
players and systems in it ability to extract fine detail in most types of
music.
There is no
doubt that the 3200 is an improvement over the 2330 and we are pleased to see
new features like NTSC playback and the revamped remote, but little things,
like the lack of an optical bitstream output continue to irritate. Visually it
looks a lot better and it doesn’t look out of place alongside players costing
significantly more. However, whilst LG has done a lot to improve this machine
the fact remains that rival manufacturers continue to up the ante with cheaper
and better-specified players that will inevitably make them look like more
attractive propositions. The LG brand simply doesn’t have the same kudos as the
better-known Japanese and European brands, which is a shame because there’s
nothing intrinsically wrong with this player; it’s just not very interesting.
Contact LG
Electronics 01753 500470
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
The remote
handset supplied with the 2330 was a bit of a dog and we are very pleased to
see that it has been replaced on this new machine. As you can see it is on the
large size but the layout has been well thought out and all of the most
frequently used control and transport buttons are large, clearly labelled, easy
to identify and fall readily to hand. We even quite like the number shaped
buttons, though past experience has shown they attract crud like mad and
quickly become sticky, so don’t forget to wipe your fingers if you’re eating
pizza…
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
Although not a
huge problem -- and most users probably won’t miss it -- we reckon the lack of
an optical bitstream output is a bit short-sighted. Otherwise the back panel
has a fairly routine selection of socketry. The single SCART socket can be
configured for RGB or S-Video output, this option is on the player’s set-up
menu. There are separate S-Video and composite video outputs and the analogue
mixed stereo output is carried by a pair of phono sockets. NTSC output is
selected using a small switch next to the video output phono.
THE HARD FACTS
LG DVD-3200
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out Y
Component N
Optical digital N
Coaxial digital Y
5.1 decoder N
EXTRA FEATURES
Region 2,
PAL/NTSC replay, dts compatible bitstream out, multi-speed replay, 2-stage
picture zoom, 3D sound, 5-scene marker
GOOD POINTS
Average to good
AV performance, improved features and styling
BAD POINTS
Lacklustre
specification, no optical bitstream output
Ease of use 4
Picture 4
Sound 4
Features 3
Overall 3
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £200
SCART 1
S-Video 1
Digital out coaxial
Decoder none
Good Points
Average to good
AV performance, improved features and styling
Bad points
Lacklustre
specification, no optical bitstream output
Rating
3
---end---
COPY
ENCORE DV-450,
£230
Any thoughts we
may have had lately, that DVD technology might be getting just a bit predictable,
has been quickly dispelled by the recently arrived Encore DV-450. It looks
ordinary enough from the outside, in fact it is an unusually dull-looking black
box, but the first sign that it’s a bit different comes when loading and
unloading discs. When the flap opens you get a glimpse of cream-coloured
plastic inside. Instead of the usual drive DVD mechanism inside the box there’s
a fully encased 5.25-inch PC DVD-ROM drive. We haven’t seen one of those in a
home deck DVD for quite a long time. One or two players in the very early days
of DVD had them but we put that down to supply problems on purpose-built deck
mechanisms. PC drives almost certainly cost more and requires non-standard
interface circuitry, so it’s even more surprising to see one in such an apparently
well-equipped and modestly priced player.
The headline
features on this machine are an on-board Dolby Digital decoder and component
video output, both of which were regarded as luxury fitments as recently as a
year ago. Take a closer look at the features list and you’ll spot another very
unusual addition and that’s MP3 replay. MP3, in case you haven’t heard is a
data compression system that’s mainly used to send sound and music files around
the Internet, for downloading onto PCs. From there MP3 files can be transferred
to memory cards and downloaded into personal players or, and this is the
salient point as far as we are concerned, copied to CD-R or CD-RW discs on PCs
with a CD ‘burner’. If you are wondering where all this is going, CD-R/RW discs
can be filled with up to 12 hours worth of music, which can be played on the
DV-450. We’ll deal with the quality in a moment…
Back now to the
home cinema oriented features. One unadvertised facility is the player’s easily
changed or disabled region lock. It’s in the player’s ‘firmware’, so here’s no
need to remove the lid and risk voiding the warranty. The exact procedure is as
follows: put the deck in stop mode, select the Setup menu then General Setup,
tap in 38883 and a menu called ‘Loopholes’ and a message ‘You should not be
here’ appears with a listing of Regions and Bypass or all region playback. Use
the cursor buttons to make your selection and the deed is done.
Connections and
operation are both very good. The single SCART carries both RGB and S-Video (in
addition to normal composite video), Separate S-Video and composite sockets are
also provided and there are three component video outputs, for high-end TVs and
video projectors. It’s worth having since it clearly doesn’t add anything to
the price but be aware that Component video is the preferred video connection
system for NTSC material, on PAL discs you’re better off using S-Video or RGB.
On-screen displays show the usual time, chapter, subtitle and language info,
everything else lives on the setup menu, which can be accessed during disc
replay, without loosing your place when the picture freezes.
If our sample
is anything to go by the PC drive has no impact on picture or sound quality and
the DV-450 looks and sounds as good as any ‘normal’ DVD player, better in fact
than some we could mention. The image is filled with fine detail, colours are
sharp and well-defined, skin tones look okay and the contrast balance is not
too bad at all. Layer change is over in a couple of frames; blink and you’ll miss
it. Trick play is very good but slomo access is a bit clumsy forcing the user
to step through forward speeds to get to the three reverse slomo speeds.
The Dolby
Digital decoder works very well with all channels clearly defined and effects
tightly focused within the soundfield. The frequency response is wide and open
and background noise is at a very low level. The mixed stereo output is also
clean with no more than average noise levels. It’s fine for Dolby Surround
soundtracks. The added ingredient on this machine is MP3 replay. MP3 sound
quality is typical of what the format is capable of, which means it is okay for
undemanding applications – personal stereos and party music – but even the most
carefully coded files sound flat and uninvolving and it is not a substitute for
CD or even good quality tape cassette.
From the
outside the DV-450 doesn’t look very promising but AV performance is as good,
if not a little better than many budget priced players but the fact that it has
a built in Dolby Digital decoder and hackable region lock makes it an even more
attractive proposition. MP3 replay is an interesting extra but don’t let it
influence your buying decision, and the odd deck arrangement obviously isn’t a
concern. Encore is one of a number of new and unfamiliar brands, we suspect
many will fall by the wayside but if Encore can continue with this kind of
value and quality it could be one of the survivors.
Contact Laser
UK, (01895) 450450, www.laseruk.co.uk
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
The remote
control handset looks pretty much like a standard issue item, similar to ones
supplied with a wide range of AV components. DVD operation was clearly not its
original intended function nor has it been given a particularly high priority.
Important and frequently used controls, like Play and Stop are not defined by
size or shape, in fact the transport buttons are mixed in with the rest of the
keys so they’re not that easy to find by touch, if you’re watching movies in a
darkened room.
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
It’s an
impressive sight and there’s something for everyone here. The SCART socket can
be configured for RGB or S-Video and there are individual sockets for composite
video and S-Video signal outputs. The three video outputs on the far left carry
component video, which is now becoming a familiar sight on top-end players.
Component video works best with NTSC recordings, when shown on an NTSC or
multi-standard TV or video projectors; most users will find little difference
on PAL recordings. The audio outputs include separate connections for the mixed
stereo and Dolby Digital channels. By the way, the DV-450 also has a front
mounted headphone socket.
THE HARD FACTS
ENCORE DV-450
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out Y
Component Y
Optical digital Y
Coaxial digital Y
5.1 decoder Y
EXTRA FEATURES
Region 2 (see
text), PAL/NTSC replay, Dolby Digital decoder, dts compatible, MP3 replay,
multi-speed replay, 2-stage picture zoom, 5-scene marker, front-mounted
headphone socket and level control
GOOD POINTS
Price and
performance, Dolby Digital, the loose region lock, and MP3, for them as wants
it
BAD POINTS
Extra bland
cosmetics and unhelpful remote control design
Ease of use 4
Picture 5
Sound 4
Features 5
Overall 5
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £230
SCART 1
S-Video 1
Digital out optical & coaxial
Decoder Dolby Digital
Good Points
Price and
performance, Dolby Digital, the loose region lock, and MP3, for them as wants
it
Bad points
Extra bland
cosmetics and unhelpful remote control design
Rating
5
---end---
COPY
Panasonic
DVD-RV20, £300
As one of the
pioneers of the DVD format it behoves Panasonic to adhere strictly to the
specification, so you can forget any notions of an easily disabled region locks
on any of its machines. Fair enough, but there are plenty of other ways the
company can demonstrate its undoubted expertise, especially on a player with a
price tag that puts it slap-bang in the middle of one of the most fiercely
contested sectors of the market, or so you would think…
Panasonic is
going to have to trade heavily on its good reputation to get the DVD-R20
noticed. The price of basic entry level players now starts at £150, there are
several machines with built-in Dolby Digital decoders for less than £200, so for
£300 or thereabouts – which is what you can expect to pay for a DVD-R20 – you
might be forgiven for expecting something a little more exciting. Don’t get us
wrong, this is a fine little machine and as we’ll see in a moment, AV
performance is beyond reproach but you would, have to be a very big Panasonic
fan to include it on your shortlist when there are so many other
better-equipped players available for the same sort of money, or less.
In terms of
features it is very much in the entry-level mould; as we’ve already pointed out
there’s no 5.1 decoding, but why has Panasonic left out basic and we presume
relatively inexpensive features, like a coaxial digital bitstream output and an
RGB output option on the SCART socket? Apart from the standard playback facilities
there’s only a couple of extras, x100 picture search is one of them, the others
are 2-mode ‘Virtual Surround Sound’ (VSS) and it has a separate sub-woofer
output. Admittedly it is a very sleek looking machine with its compact case and
neatly presented front panel, but other manufacturers are going for the
slim-line look and DVD players don’t sell just on looks – at least they
shouldn’t.
Okay, so it’s
basic but surely it has other redeeming features? The fact that it uses the
same tried and tested on-screen display system as most previous Panasonic
players should count for something, but there again, even after all this time
it’s not without its funny little ways. For example take the way the operating
system handles picture format changes. On most other players it’s a single
option on the set-up menu, allowing you to choose between 16:9 and 4:3 in
letterbox or pan & scan mode. On the RV20 these options are split, on the
first menu page there’s 16:9 and 4:3 mode switch, the pan & scan/letterbox
option is on another menu page, under ‘other settings’, so instead of 3 or 4
button clicks to make the selection, it can take 20 or more actions to achieve
the same result on the RV20.
If the feature
list is disappointing then you’ll be glad to know that the RV20 makes up a lot
of lost ground with the on-screen performance. In short it’s one of the best
pictures we’ve seen on any player this year, and that includes some quite fancy
mid-market and top-end models. Resolution is impeccable, the smallest details are
crisply revealed and do not mush out, even when the video processing circuitry
is working overtime with lots of movement and rapid variations in brightness
and colour. Colours are accurate and lifelike and there’s none of the
blotchiness in skin tones that spoil the picture on a lot of players, and we’re
not just talking about budget models. The contrast balance is good, shadows and
moody scenes are crisply rendered and the fact that is doesn’t have any user
picture controls isn’t a problem, it doesn’t need them!
Trick play is
fluid and you get to hear the soundtrack at x2 normal speed, though we can’t
say it’s much use since it’s an unintelligible babble. There were no processing
artefacts to speak of though our sample didn’t much care for scratched or dirty
discs and layer change is only average, taking a quarter of a second or
thereabouts.
Background
noise on the analogue mixed stereo output is very low and it has a broad and
flat response, Dolby Surround soundtracks have plenty of room for loud and bass-heavy
dynamic effects – it’s well worth making use of that separate sub-woofer output
-- but it carries low level effects equally well and does a pretty good job
with audio CDs too, comparing favourably with mid-range decks and systems. The
optical bitstream output is clean but we can’t help feeling that leaving off
the coaxial digital output is a mistake since it is the more commonly used
system.
In the end
picture and sound quality save the RV20 from mediocrity and when it comes down
to it, this is, or should be the number one buying criteria. Obviously we would
have liked to see a few more bells and whistles and in the end we suspect a lot
of would-be purchasers will be lured away by extra knobs and buttons, and lower
prices, but for loyal Panasonic fans those who put performance first, the RV20
has to be worth considering.
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
Panasonic has a
bit of a chequered history with remote controls but the one supplied with the
RV20 isn’t too bad at all. Good points include the large four-way cursor
controls, sensible layout and clear labelling. However, several points are
deducted for putting the picture search and chapter skip buttons so close
together, this makes using the handset by ‘feel’ alone more difficult than it
needs to be and until you get accustomed to it, you can find yourself skipping
chapters, when trying to find the picture search buttons
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
Panasonic has
been a bit mean with the output connections, which is a pity considering that
it is capable of above average picture quality. The omission of an RGB
connection on the SCART socket is regrettable, it doesn’t have S-Video either,
though this is available on a separate mini DIN socket and it has a second
composite video output. In addition to the standard analogue mixed stereo
output there’s a line-level sub woofer output, just begging to be used with an
active sub. There’s only one digital bitstream output, it’s an optical type,
which is less common than coaxial bitstream connections and it’s possible this
could cause problems on some set-ups.
Contact Panasonic (08705) 357357, www.panasonic.co.uk
THE HARD FACTS
Panasonic
DVD-RV20
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out N
Component N
Optical digital Y
Coaxial digital N
5.1 decoder N
EXTRA FEATURES
Region 2,
PAL/NTSC replay, multi-speed replay, dts compatible bitstream output, 2-mode
Virtual Surround sound, sub-woofer output, 5-scene marker
GOOD POINTS
Outstanding AV
performance, compact neat design
BAD POINTS
Meagre
specification for the price, no coaxial bitstream or RGB outputs
Ease of use 4
Picture 4
Sound 4
Features 3
Overall 4
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £300
SCART 1
S-Video 1
Digital out optical
Decoder none
Good Points
Outstanding AV
performance, compact neat design
Bad points
Meagre
specification for the price, no coaxial bitstream or RGB outputs
Rating
4
---end---
Ó R. Maybury 2000, 0407
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