The link provided to nerd-out has tons of information on the "overseas" units. (I'd suggest that anyone considering buying a non-big name (e.g. Panasonic/Pioneer/Sony/Toshiba) DVD Player check that site out. Many different "non-big" brands use the same parts and menus and features.
I have recently tried the new Rowa3610 (Sears $99 this week), Daewoo 5000N (Sams, $99) and Mintek (BestBuy $99/$89 sale) as well as the good old Apex 600A. Sorry for the length that follows, but here is a good rundown on these new players.
(BTW--There *ARE* issues with this Mintek..specifically it could not keep up playing SVCD or ReplayTV burned MPEG2 streams of a high bit rate. It would not play the SVCD test disc I had. It also does not allow you to pause MP3's!)
Preliminary
First, I went to vcdhelp.com and downloaded all their VCD, SVCD, XVCD, XSVCD demo images and burned them on to CDRW to test the capabilities of each players.
Then I compressed wav's to MP3 using LAME with EVERY bitrate from 8 to 320, in both stereo and joint stereo, then a wide range of VBR's (e.g. 80-128, 128-320, 80-320, 112-192, 8-320, etc..)
I also burned JPG files from both net pictures and my digital camera onto a disc
I then burned direct ReplayTV MPEG2 streams to another folder
I also extracted the MPEG1 and MPEG2 streams from the VCD/SVCD test discs and placed those in a standard data disc folder.
Summary:
Apex 600A -- The original unit I bought in April 2000 from Circuit City for $179. Had macrovision disableable in hidden menu same with region code.
Rowa3610-- The cool thin silver & black colored unit at Sears this week for $99 (normally $119) No codes known to enter to get to hidden menus, always macrovisioned.
Daewoo 5000N - The big boat of a unit at Sams for $99 (Certain serial #'s have NO macrovision--EVER, region code accessable thru hidden menu)
Mintek 2580 - The tiny unit at BestBuy for $99 (Region code easily changeable on main menu)
I really want to try the Oritron 650 at target for $79 this week (not the older 600) but their new return policy (starting 11/1) stinks, I cant return anything open for satisfaction reasons..unopened refunds only, otherwise only even exchange or repair. (So I'd have to resell it on eBay if I don?t want to keep it)
(BTW--Apex has at least 5 versions available in most areas (most at Kmart)? Each one is made by a different company and has some different specifics, though all function similarily--so my info regarding 600a does NOT apply to say a 500A or 500W or 3201 or 1500 or 1000 or 660 or 703 or ?...)
All of these have coax digital out, some had optical, all had component out, the Rowa even had RF output!
Executive Summary:
- Apex 600a still shines for MP3s (not menu selection, but playback). No MPEG2 or JPEG capabilities.
- Rowa was HORRIBLY slow switching modes (play to pause to ff/rew). Didn't play above 192 mp3s or vbrs. Good SVCD support, no direct MPEG2 (ReplayTV streams)
- Daewoo had most promise, but mine didn?t play Joint Stereo MP3s[perhaps this unit defective]. Excellent playback of ReplayTV streams.
- Mintek even played JPG files but didn't have enough processor power to show 480x480 Replay streams (or SVCD's)? glitchy. Mp3's cant be paused
All but the Apex had new 11 character (not 8+3, real 11 character) filename display. Daewoo/Mintek looked most similar.
Gory details:
MP3:
Our great Apex 600A's have nearly the best support of all for range of formats, but offer a pretty lousy selection. Specifically, CBR 40-320, VBR (anything), Stereo and Joint stereo play fine. Amazingly the clock keeps up with VBR tunes (doesn?t run fast or slow). File name display sucks (8 characters, spaces and symbols become ZEROs). Can't scan intra-track, but can pause.
Rowa 3610: 80-192 CBR stereo/js ONLY. File name display kinda hard to read (transparent display over logo) and thin font. Doesn't scroll with tune (your selector stays where you STARTED playing. Can pause. Can't remember if I could scan intratrack or not. Shows 11 characters of file and spaces and symbols correctly. Box leads you to believe it shows the full filename as a scroll on it's LCD display. WRONG. Track 01. 🙁
Daewoo 5000n : 40-320 CBR stereo, any VBR. Note: Mine didn?t play Joint Stereo, but others say it does. Mine may have been defective. BEST display (folders/files, 3d like) Can pause. Can't remember if scan intratrack or not. Shows 11 chars/spaces/symbols. Note: Time ran VERY fast on VBR files (clock only song sounded fine) Time ran SLOW on 40 cbr files.
Mintek 2580: 40-320 CBR Stereo/JS, any VBR. Time ran fine if I remember right. Display similar to Daewoo, but transparent (no 3d) like Rowa, but used thick font so easier to see. Can NOT PAUSE! But could scan intra-song. 11 chars/spaces/symbols.
Winner: Daewoo 5000n **PROVIDED** mine was only defective. Otherwise, 600A vs Mintek (pauseability vs better filename display)
Looser: ROWA - no vbr, no high cbr is bad.
Remote:
Apex: Non phonepad layout for #'s annoying. Circular zoom cursors nice. Nice to have Stop/Play-Pause on bottom by thumb, and fast fwd/rew, track back/fwd/zoom on next row up. Very usable (amazingly---only as compared with the others below)
Rowa: THIN remote TINY buttons. Circular cursors, but some functions not in best spot. Pause paused, but then goes into FRAME ADVANCE if hit again. 🙁
Daewoo: Arrowed buttons in separate area worked well. Can't remember Play/pause. Stupid "VOUT" button next to #0? if you hit it you have to toggle thru video outputs to get your picture back.
Mintek: Rows and Rows of identical buttons. "Cursors" made out of buttons in middle of the mess?can't find in the dark at all. Pause paused but did not unpause..had to hunt for the play button.
Winner: Daewoo with Apex 600a nearly tying.
Looser: toss up.. Good layout: Rowa, regular size: Mintek
DVD:
Apex: I've run into problems in layer switching before, and seamless branching. Zoom is blocky (2x, 4x) Only 2/4/8x fast speeds. Doesn't "really" appear to be the speed it claims
Rowa: Locked up first two times I put Shrek in. Zoom is SUPER smooth (1.25, 1.5, 1.75x only) HUGE delays (1.5 to 2 seconds) switching between play and pause or Play and FF/FR. 2/4/8/16 fast speeds. Comes somewhat closer to speed it claims
Daewoo: No noticeable problems. Zoom is smooth to blocky (1.5, 2x,4x) 2/4/8/16/32x fast speeds. Comes close to speed claims
Mintek: Seemed to have some slight interlace jitter regardless of jitter setting, even on plain on-screen menus. Not pleased! Zoom is as blocky as Apex (same ESS chipset) 2x4x zoom. Only 2/4/8x fast speeds
Winner: Daewoo
Looser: Too close to call? bad annoyances with others.
VCD: [and xvcd]
Apex: Fine. PBC button easily located.
Rowa: Pic fine, could NOT get PBC to work (hit menu option, nothing registered other than digit on screen, no scene change)
Daewoo: Quite good.
Mintek: A rare skip. No PBC button that I cound find on the remote.(e.g. no interaction with VCDs then)
Winner: Daewoo, Apex runner up
Looser: Rowa
SVCD: [and xsvcd]
Apex: Fine. Had lockup with "random entry point" menu option on test disc.
Rowa: Fine
Daewoo: Played thru random entry points in a fraction of a second instead of 3 seconds on each.
Mintek: Doesn't play SVCD? Had to select MPEG2 file directly (like a mp3 file--no interaction/autostart), then it broke up due to too high bitrate.
Winner: Daewoo/Rowa, Apex close second
Looser: Mintek
MPEG2 stream: (e.g. from SVCD disc directly burned onto cdr as a PC file, or ReplayTV stream burned)
Apex: Can't see
Rowa: Can't see
Daewoo: EXCELLENT
Mintek: Skippy, can't handle high bit rate encoding or larger screen size.
Winner: Daewoo
Looser: Mintek
JPEGS: (burned direct on CDR)
Winner: MINTEK.. Resized ANY size from 4k to 300k to fit the screen (had to scroll if aspect ratio forced it off the screen on one direction)
Looser: all others can't see
Other:
Apex: It's showing it's age, but hey, it doesn't have macrovision on it! As in DVD section..layer/branching issues are big. It has 2 sets of analog audio output, none of the others have that. On screen displays were ROCK SOLID. All others showed some amount of shimmer, Mintek the absolute worst.
Rowa: It's small and sleek but doesn't look cheap (cept remote) Seemed kinda buggy with random "issues" (like loosing every other scan line on the menu items randomly, or thin horizontal white line in center of screen at Stop mode). Slowness of mode switching sucked. Indiglo? LCD dot matrix display kinda cool, but flourescent displays much more (separate logos for dts, dolby digital, etc.. This didn?t show any of it). Menu looked very good for feature spec (like where to send DVD, MP3, Audio outputs and what type of streams to play for each) Both optical AND coax for digital out.
Daewoo: Big and kinda cheap plastic front (cheaper than Apex). Decent remote, seems to have the most promise. (probably will get firmware upgraded for JPG's in the future?) Seems to have the most horsepower for MPEG2 decoding. (Note: You can't pause MPEG2 playback unless it's convereted to a real SVCD format)
Mintek: Display slighty more informative than the Apex. (Dimable or turn-off-able!) Felt like comparing a P90 to a P800 as compared to MPEG processiing power to the Daewoo? Just couldn't keep up with the stream directly burned. Menus look like Apex. Shimmer of menus annoying, and seemed to appear just watching directly. Small case nice, but felt VERY cheap unlike the rowa which felt very nice.
Winner: Daewoo
Looser: Any of the other three for the reasons listed?. Some could "save" the player some could make it unusable.
Overall winner: Fix the MP3 bug (again, my specific unit may just have been defective accd to others on the net), and wait until they get in a new batch at Sams with the right Serial numbers when they used a video chip that doesn't have Macrovision enabled, and you've got an Apex-killer in the Daewoo 5000N!
