Aldi $99 divx player

[pepito]

And another one hits the market

[snip]

Premium DVD Player with 6 in 1 Card Reader

Compatible with: Compact flash card (V1 & V2), secure digital card, multi media card, memory stick card and smart media card. 5.1 Channel output, video out, S-Video out, coaxial/optical out, component out. MPEG4/DiVX readable. Includes remote control and RCA cable.

Image here:

[snip]

[maccie]

sounds ok

[scottTV]

My question is does it play divx & Mp4 16x9FH as I have the tevion 4000 and it plays divx & Mp4 in 4x3 (16x9LB) only, This causes me ploblems on my 16x9 TV, DVD Video discs ore ok.

[andw]

Originally Posted by scottTV

My question is does it play divx & Mp4 16x9FH as I have the tevion 4000 and it plays divx & Mp4 in 4x3 (16x9LB) only, This causes me ploblems on my 16x9 TV, DVD Video discs ore ok.

Depends on the chipset.
Hopefully someone who buys one will open it and tell everyone what chipset is inside it.
If it is Mediatek or Zoran, you should be fine.
It sounds like the player you have is ESS chipset.

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by andw

Hopefully someone who buys one will open it and tell everyone what chipset is inside it.

I'll have one next week, I'll post details once I have opened it up as to what's inside.

[bac]

Originally Posted by jok11n

I'll have one next week, I'll post details once I have opened it up as to what's inside.

jok11n, whachoo doin' with a Tevion player - I thought Aldi were the only outfit bringing them into Oz?

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by bac

jok11n, whachoo doin' with a Tevion player - I thought Aldi were the only outfit bringing them into Oz?

It is their product, I'm just buying one to tear it apart .

[bwg]

Originally Posted by jok11n

It is their product, I'm just buying one to tear it apart .

hmmmm...sounds like a case of corporate espionage! getting info on the opposition's product. Or is it just Sun Tsu; "know your enemy" :P

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by bwg

Or is it just Sun Tsu; "know your enemy" :P

Correct, go to the top of the class

[yepyepyep]

I just bought one of these players tonight.

The video options has 16:9.4:3 letterbox and something else.

I did not open the unit up as I was very careful not to do anything to it aside from plug in and test it (as I was somewhat sceptical regarding its compatibility).

I tested a number of files on the player. Several did not work. Infact enough of them did not work that the unit is now in the box awaiting a return.

Aesthetically it is quite pleasing if that counts for anything.

I found it to be somewhat buggy. Often when opening a file it would take absolutely ages to start the file, sitting there with a black screen. Infact the only thing that seemed to get it to start sometimes was to put it in double speed and then back into normal.

[jokiin]

I'm going to pick one of these up in the morning, I'll open it up and see what chipset etc it uses, I kind of suspected that it might be a bit buggy, the price seems to suggest it's more about moving boxes than providing a good experience.

[pepito]

Originally Posted by jok11n

I'm going to pick one of these up in the morning, I'll open it up and see what chipset etc it uses

so jok11n, what's the verdict?

I've been asked by an EYO lurker to buy him one player if it has a Mediatek or Zoran chipset, or none if it contains an ESS one

[jokiin]

I haven't been to pick it up yet, couldn't go on the way to work as they don't open until 9am, I'll get it later today and post details of what chipset etc it uses.

[thomasteo]

The player uses a zoran chipset. I can post some photos if people want.

Other information that may be of interest:

* The card reader doesn't appear to be USB, so alternative usb devices can't be connected

* It's played (so far) all of the divx files I have (v3, v5, xvid)

* Movies can be played from the memory cards

* Yes, divx files can take a couple of seconds to start playing (but I don't think it's too excessive)

* No syncronisation problems so far, video quality seems fine.

Unfortunately, my player has to go back to the store - the remote no longer works.

[bac]

Originally Posted by thomasteo

The player uses a zoran chipset. I can post some photos if people want.

Photos would be nice, esp. pics showing the main chip and circuit board with connectors

Oh, and the model number and info on the video/audio outputs as well, please.

[yepyepyep]

Originally Posted by thomasteo

The player uses a zoran chipset. I can post some photos if people want.

Other information that may be of interest:

* The card reader doesn't appear to be USB, so alternative usb devices can't be connected

* It's played (so far) all of the divx files I have (v3, v5, xvid)

* Movies can be played from the memory cards

* Yes, divx files can take a couple of seconds to start playing (but I don't think it's too excessive)

* No syncronisation problems so far, video quality seems fine.

Unfortunately, my player has to go back to the store - the remote no longer works.

Its not the couple of seconds delay that I was talking about, some files seemed to almost "freeze" the player for a long time until it received remote input (ie, speeding up play).

I have found quite a number of files that it could not handle. as I have not returned it yet I'm more than willing to post the details (regarding encoding parameters) if someone can let me know what program can tell me this. I will endeavour to try a different media based copy of the same file to see if its just compatibility with discs too.

I watched a couple of things on it and found that when it works, it works quite well though. I am still musing on the possibility of returning this and getting something else but I'll wait for more qualified opinion on this player.

If anybody can link me to the divxtest cd I would try it and post details. I have followed links from here to them and they all seem to be broken.

[pepito]

Originally Posted by yepyepyep

I have found quite a number of files that it could not handle. as I have not returned it yet I'm more than willing to post the details (regarding encoding parameters) if someone can let me know what program can tell me this.

Download a copy of Gspot v2.52 from here.

[bac]

Originally Posted by yepyepyep

If anybody can link me to the divxtest cd I would try it and post details. I have followed links from here to them and they all seem to be broken.

If you're having trouble locating the Russian CD, try the French one.

Here's some links:

ftp://divx@213.84.169.53 (password: kiss)

ftp://pluridis.net

[thomasteo]

Here are some images:
1
2

[steve lamb]

I bought one of these units today to replace my dead XMS888. While I haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet, my first impressions after getting it out of the box was of a superior quality of construction to the XMS.....and I'm not sorry to see the last of those damned LED's