Argos Alba DVD 108 player £69.95 multi R and svcd out of the box...
Gary Lightfoot
these for my gfs birthday, and I've just finished trying it out...
It's multi region out of the box - no hack needed. (I read of one
though, but maybe it's for an older model).
It doesn't mention DTS, but I tried Titan AE (cos it was handy) and
when I selected the DTS track, I got a message saying something like
'DTS - no sound switch sound format', but the sound was coming
through, and the DTS lamp was glowing on the Sherwood receiver. I
switched to DD, and the light switched over to DD. So, first
impression is that it does DTS.
I tried some SVCDs (Spider-Man then AOTC), but it rejected the disks.
I read of a handset over-ride though:
Insert the disk, then as it spins up, pressing menu and left arrow key
simultaneously, then press 1, and it brings up an svcd menu, and
starts to play. A bit fiddly as I had to try it a few times for it to
work, but it does work.
Not tried mp3s yet, but apparently they work too.
Picture and sound seem pretty good on my manky old Sony KV32FX60, so
quality may vary on a good tv.. :O)
HTH
Gary.
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DMC
so that hack is quite interesting.I just can't understand why they made it
multi- region straight out the box but then make you do that to play svcd's.
Do you have to do this every time you spin a svcd ?
"Gary Lightfoot" <g.lig...@btnosmeginternet.com> wrote in message
news:nBb79.172$fy2.2...@news-text.cableinet.net...
ViNNY
news:102960555...@iapetus.uk.clara.net...
> I got one of these from Argos and took it back because it didn't play
svcd's
> so that hack is quite interesting.I just can't understand why they made it
> multi- region straight out the box but then make you do that to play
svcd's.
>
> Do you have to do this every time you spin a svcd ?
I work at Argos - and almost every one of these we sell comes back because
it won't play VCDs. If this tip works I'll start giving it out, but at the
moment I point them all at the Akai for £99.99 - VCD 1.0/1.1/2.0, SVCD, XVCD
and MP3 from CD-RW handled with ease.
-Vin
Gary Lightfoot
> play svcd's so that hack is quite interesting.I just can't
> understand why they made it multi- region straight out the box but
> then make you do that to play svcd's.
>
> Do you have to do this every time you spin a svcd ?
Unfortunately yes - so if you're have 3 disks per movie, I can imagine
it'll be a real pain. Having to eject/reinsert the disk, then do the
menu/left arrow and button 1 press 4 or 5 times before you get it
right will be something to make you not want to watch SVCDs..
Apparently someone 'phoned up Alba, and they were told there is a hack
for it, but they wouldn't give it out. Sounds a bit odd as the machine
spec specificaly states cdr, so I would imagine being able to play
SVCD/VCD and mp3 would be part of the spec. Even stranger is the fact
it's multi-region without a hack, so the SVCD thing seems the more
legal/allowable of the two features.
I found this info after doing a search, and the hacks were mentioned
on a forum. Can't remember where it was right now, but I'm sure you
could find the same info if you looked around...