Trio DX-628 mini-review.

[DJ iFusion]

Hi guys,

I picked up the Trio from Strathfield car radio last night. Thats it on the bottom looking inconspicuous, I hooked it up to my TV last via a VGA cable and started comparing it to my $1300 Toshy player.



It was progressive scan vs interlaced, and man my Toshy is a good unit for an interlaced source. Such natural colours, and such a deep natural picture whereas the new player seemed a bit over-colourful but I was able to find some interlaced stepping (like jaggiez!) on my Tomb Raider NTSC DVD intro which werent there on the new prog. scan player.

After about 45 minutes of tweaking the picture and calibrating it to the new DVD player and I'm convinced that this $199 player now beats my old expensive one.


So I threw a few discs at it, some divx, some xvid, some quicktime, some mp3. I tried it on CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW bloody just about every type of CD and video compression imaginable and it played absolutely everything flawlessly.

Best $199 I've spent in yonks, 9/10 and check out the funky blue CD caddy! Everyone should have one of these.

[V205]

Anything you'd like to request for next version's bios?

Is the OSD on or off by default when playing mpeg4?

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by V205

Anything you'd like to request for next version's bios?

Is the OSD on or off by default when playing mpeg4?

It's on by default, this will be requested to be off by default

[andw]

Sounds good, I'm going to have a play with one today.
Will be taking a bunch of test discs with lots of 'problem' samples, to see how it goes with them.

[DJ iFusion]

Yeah, for avi files the timer is is on by default, but after setting "save last memory" to yes, it seems to remember that I dont want the timer displayed for avi files.

Also, I have some problem discs that I tested last night:

My SWAT Divx wont play sound without the tag2000 audio codec and it worked perfectly.

Also, my Bruce Almighty wont play without the FFDshow video codec and it worked perfectly too.

More tests tonight!

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by DJ iFusion

Yeah, for avi files the timer is is on by default, but after setting "save last memory" to yes, it seems to remember that I dont want the timer displayed for avi files.

Also, I have some problem discs that I tested last night:

My SWAT Divx wont play sound without the tag2000 audio codec and it worked perfectly.

Also, my Bruce Almighty wont play without the FFDshow video codec and it worked perfectly too.

More tests tonight!

I have tried all of the samples that were submitted for the testing of the xms888 and so far only about 10% of what was originally a problem for the xms has not worked in the Trio. I have a contact at Trio that will be looking at firmware issues, if you are interested in your problem files getting sorted let me know.

[fat_boy]

Great mini-review...

So this is currently $199 @ Strathfield Car Radio / Brisbane Car Sound?

[andw]

$249 at Cannington WA.

[fat_boy]

Originally Posted by andw

$249 at Cannington WA.

Thats what I thought.

$249 On the Gold Coast at the moment.

[andw]

Originally Posted by DJ iFusion

Hi guys,
....
So I threw a few discs at it, some divx, some xvid, some quicktime, some mp3. I tried it on CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW bloody just about every type of CD and video compression imaginable and it played absolutely everything flawlessly.....

Have you tried multiple files on DVD discs?
e.g. .avi's, mp3's, jpg's etc
What DVD+R and DVD+RW discs did you use?
I had trouble in store reading TDK 4x DVD+RW, TDK 2x DVD-RW, and Strathfield 'silver-topped' cheap DVD+R's, all of which the XMS-888 read fine.

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by andw

Have you tried multiple files on DVD discs?
e.g. .avi's, mp3's, jpg's etc
What DVD+R and DVD+RW discs did you use?
I had trouble in store reading TDK 4x DVD+RW, TDK 2x DVD-RW, and Strathfield 'silver-topped' cheap DVD+R's, all of which the XMS-888 read fine.

I have also found it to be a bit fussy as to what brand of DVD media is used, Princo and Laser seem to be ok but some others that I have are not. All the cdr's I tried were no problem though. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has trouble with certain types of discs. I would also be interested in confirming that Quicktime files will play as quoted by DJ iFusion, I haven't seen them play and the chip is not licensed to play them either.

[andw]

I went to Strathfield today with my arms full of discs, to try out the new Trio DX-628.
My main initial problem with the DX-628, was that I could not get it to read my DVD based discs (except original DVD's).
The XMS-888 beside it read them all fine.
My TDK DVD+RW and DVD-RW, both with exactly the same files on them came up on the screen with 'DVD-VIDEO', for a few seconds, and then dropped back to the main 'wallpaper' screen.
There were decrypted DVD VOB files on the disc, however, they were under a directory like \ettest\etsmall\AUDIO_TS and \ettest\etsmall\VIDEO_TS. They were on there as I wanted to see if it could read VOB files directly.
It may have scanned the disc, seen the DVD directories buried down deep in the directory structure, and thought for some reason it was reading a DVD, gone back to the root directory, and then got all confused, but it seemed more that it was a case of not reading the discs.
I also took in two discs that were made with DVD Shrink, to see how well it would read these. (Strathfield silvertop $1.68 DVD+R).
It thought about these for about 10 seconds, whilst it displayed 'DVD-VIDEO' on the screen, there was a few nasty crunchy sand-in-the-gears sounds whilst it retried, and then it put up the stop sign (filled in square), and dropped back to the 'wallpaper' screen.
Again, the XMS-888 beside it read them fine.

Unfortunatley, a lot of the extra files that I took in to test were on the DVD+&-RW discs, so I couldn't test QPel, GMC etc.
However, at the last minute before I left for the store, I threw in a CDRW disc that I had with all my old test files on, so that was fortunate.

DISC FORMATS
No trouble reading VCD's or SVCD's or original DVD's, or overburnt 90minute CDR's.
Does not display CVD subtitles on SVCD discs (although not all players do, so this was a little to be expected).

CODECS
It does not support Quicktime, RealAudio/Video, or WMV (did not even list them).
It does support, 3IVX, XVID, DIVX4, DIVX5.11, RMP4, not sure about DIVX3 (as my samples were on a disc it wouldn't read).
It does not support .ogg (not listed).
It played mp3's and wma's without any problems.
It had no trouble playing the sound on mp3's, or avi's including mono, 22khz, and low bit rate, or for that matter PCM encoded.
(my 48khz files were also on a non-readable disc)

SUBTITLES
I could not find anyway of displaying subtitles on avi files (I only had .srt on the cdrw disc that worked).
It does not support China Video Disc subtitles on SVCD's.
(no problems on DVD discs)

WIDESCREEN (with avi files)
(Unfortunatley I only had a 4:3 screen to test this on, but I knew what I was looking for)

This worked as I expected a DIVX player should.

- When the player was set to 'letter box' mode, it letterboxed all the samples that I had that were 16x9.
These included 480x272, 640x352 and 656x368. (unfortunately, other sizes again not on that disc.)
In 'letter box' it filled the screen on 4:3 and one file I had that was 352x240 (almost 14:9).

- When the player was in 'wide screen' mode, it filled the screen with all the 16:9 files I had, that is that the X-axis stayed the same on the picture, but the Y-axis was stretched to make the image fill the screen top to bottom, thereby making a 16:9 image fit properly on a 16:9 screen.
In 'widescreen' mode, all 4:3 formats I had were pillarboxed (black bars on the left and right sides of the image) to produce a correct aspect ratio on a 16:9 screen. The 352x240 (almost 14:9) was also pillarboxed.

OTHER PROBLEMS
I had some problems playing some files that had been converted to avi from quicktime.
These files played ok on the XMS-888 (although most without sound).
They were however only 15 frames per second, and it played some of them very jerky, some of them with the sound out-of-sync, and one of them with the sound going very sllloooowwwllllyyy, while the video played ok.
(can't tell how the XMS handled the sound, as it doesn't play the sound on all but the 44khz one)

BWG's FILES
The test files that BWG sent up as problems on the XMS-888 all played with sound, no problems at all.
20kb/s 16khz, 32kb/s 24khz and 64kb/s 48khz

THINGS I LIKED
- I liked the ability to FFWD at 2x 4x 8x 16x and 32x, however I missed the 'goto' function on the XMS-888. (Although it is rarely used, the kids have used it to go to a favourite song in a movie).

- Multiple zoom levels (although I didn't think that 4x in the avi file I was playing with was actually 4x, but then why would you want to zoom at 4x, particularly on a lossy mpeg-4 format)

THINGS I DISLIKED

- I found the remote having the 'flip-down' front very annoying, particularly as the OSD is on by default, and I had to keep opening it to turn off the OSD. (I can see that being intentionally removed very quickly).

- I found the remote very unresponsive, I had to press keys multiple times to get it to do anything.
(I think though that it could be that it was caused by the excessive amount of flouro lights they have just above the TV and DVD player display in the store I was in. It worked a lot better when I shielded the display area from the flouro lights with the manual)
Also, I don't think the almost mirror finish on the front across the display area helped.

- I didn't actually like the 'clear blue' DVD tray, it just looked a little like 'cheap plastic' to me, it probably isn't, but I must admit I was very careful putting discs in, especially with the large silver 'thing' sticking out from the front of the tray.

THINGS I COULDN'T FIND
- I could not find how to turn on the 3d virtual surround sound, although I may have just been looking in the wrong spot.

- The 'virtual remote', despite looking in the manual, I couldn't see how to operate it, or why you would want to.

THINGS I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO TEST BUT COULDN'T (due to it not reading my DVD discs)
- .mpg files
- .jpg files (particularly the ones that the XMS-888 thinks are corrupt, but the PC displays fine)
- QPEL and GMC in xvid format
- more resolutions for avi's
- ac3 encoded avi files
- reading decrypted vob's directly
- multiple directory mp3's

CONCLUSION
It seems like a very good player in terms of codec support, audio support, and widescreen support.
The player seems to have a good 'finish' about it (outside appearance).
I didn't like the remote control (mainly because of the flip-down front panel), even the subtitle button was hidden under this.
It seems a pity that it doesn't have subtitles for avi files (although I may have just missed them).
It was good to see 'proper' widescreen support for avi files.

If it had read my DVD discs, I would have been very happy with it. (although subtitle support would have been good.)
But I must admit, it not reading my DVD discs had me worried. (I didn't have any DVD-R discs with me, which was my fault, but it did not read DVD-RW either).
My DVD+RW disc was multi-session (with only one session on it), and it was not closed, but if this caused it a problem, it shouldn't have as you should be able to read all sessions on a multi-session DVD+RW.
My DVD-RW disc was a direct copy of the DVD+RW disc, using Nero's disc copy function.

If you can convince me that it was just my discs, I would probably give it an overall of 8/10, (the XMS would sit at about 6/10 with the current firmware), but with the inability to read the DVD based discs, and the lack of subtitle support, 5-6/10.
Hopefully it's just the discs.

[jokiin]

I think the chipset used in this player looks to have good native support, it will be interesting to see what other player manufacturers might do with it. It's nice to see that the format is at least gathering some momentum with more units appearing all the time http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/Ge...opyto#products

[black6]

Best $199 I've spent in yonks, 9/10 and check out the funky blue CD caddy! Everyone should have one of these.


was $199 the RRP or did u bargain with them? cos in Brisbane...they told me $248....has the price dropped?

[V205]

I've had my DX-628 for a day, so I'll do a quick review. I'll post back here when I have more comments along the way.

The fit / finish is definitely better than than the XMS-888. Disc loading mechanism is not as harsh. Buttons are nicer and more user friendly.

The flip remote is a bit of a nuisance to access commonly used items like OSD, ZOOM, SEARCH.... might be better to just remove the cover.

It plays a movie properly that shows as ghosting / mosaic'ish on the XMS-888 (Firmware 1.2). Other than that, I don't have any other file formats that doesn't work on either players. So it's pretty good in terms of the format support I require. (most stuff are downloaded from internet)

Now for the important bit... how things look. The playback of DVD compared to my Toshiba SD-1300 (Made in China, bought few years ago for $475) is not as good. The image looks harshers. The best way to describe this is edges are more jaggered and not as natural. And fast motion scenes are not as smooth. But hey... I'm not using this primarily as a DVD player. 90% of the time, it'll be playing mpeg4 clips.

There's nothing much to compare to other than the XMS-888 for mpeg4 viewing quality. The first thing I noticed was the picture is more anti-alias'y and blocky. And most importantly, MUCH more playback jerkiness / stutter in motion scenes. Like as though it's doesn't have enough processing power. However, I believe the issue lies elsewhere with design as even a movie title moving across a screen has jerkiness when it's smooth on computer and presumably on the XMS-888 as well as it has never stood out to me after 3 weeks of ownership.

(As a side note: I noticed this motion picture jerkness / stuttering to also be present in a LG DVD player when playing a VCD that plays smoothly on a Pioneer and my Toshiba.)

I think the overall playback of the XMS-888 was better but it was let down in the fit/finish quality.

It'll be interesting to see if anyone else here also noticed the same about the DX-628's playback issues.

[pepito]

Interesting mini reviews.

Surprisingly it doesnt look like this new player is as good as one would expect considering the later chipset.

Will be interested to read any more reports on it.

[maxxed]

Seems the new MTK chip is a good one. Ive heard great things so far.
Has anyone noticed that the picture on the Trio website shows a green on-unit VFD display, whereas the posters pictures show orange?

Very cool blue loader tray

How is the QPEL/GMC support? What about Divx Pro?

[andw]

Originally Posted by maxxed

Seems the new MTK chip is a good one. Ive heard great things so far.
Has anyone noticed that the picture on the Trio website shows a green on-unit VFD display, whereas the posters pictures show orange?

Very cool blue loader tray

How is the QPEL/GMC support? What about Divx Pro?

QPEL & GMC are supposed to be supported by this chip.
I ran a DivX pro 5.1.1 file through it no problems.

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by maxxed

Seems the new MTK chip is a good one. Ive heard great things so far.
Has anyone noticed that the picture on the Trio website shows a green on-unit VFD display, whereas the posters pictures show orange?

Very cool blue loader tray

How is the QPEL/GMC support? What about Divx Pro?

QPEL and GMC are no problem, the stock we have are orange display

[V205]

Anyway of turning the standby orange 'OFF' off competely? It's very bright in the bedroom when sleeping.

Originally Posted by jok11n

QPEL and GMC are no problem, the stock we have are orange display