Portable DVD Panansonic or Cyberhome

[poony]

I was planned to buy the Panasonic DVDLA95 for around £600 but someone said Richards Sounds sell the Cyberhome LDV710 just under £300. Is it worth paying the extra for the Panasonic, the quality is great but not sure of the Cyberhome one, the price is attractive

Please help !

:confused:

[mjwhitehouse]

I have the cyberhome. It is multiregion (with a code), prog scan and looks great. No problems with it and far cheaper than the panasonic. :smashin:

[poony]

Thanks Mark, I will get the Cyberhome since it is only intented for my son.

[lurcher]

Dixons/Curry"s are selling the same player as a Newman Imp DVL 7 (its a rebadged Cyberhome 710). But is £50 cheaper and easy to make region free.

[poony]

Guess what, no one seems to have the Cyberhome in stock, I will try Dixons/Curry today, thanks. You saved me £50.

[poony]

Thanks Lurcher Got the Newman from Dixons today, they called it MP man, it's great, £20 cash back as well, offers finishes on the 14/12/03.

Manage to change it to multi region as well, the picture and sound are fine. Thanks again.

[Jon Weaver]

Just been pointed to this link:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ARR-PORTDV

Its another 'rebadged' Cyberhome and it only costs £233+£5 delivery.. For that price, I am getting tempted!!

My colleague has just bought one from 'Firebox' for £299, and I should have chance to have a good play when I see him tommorow.

If its good, I might just buy one!

[poony]

Your colleague is very lucky if he got his from Firebox already.

I did order from "firebox" on the 2/12/03, they didn't delivery the Cyberhome to me. When I phoned on 5/12/03, they claimed I will get it either Tuesday or Wednesday but they called me on Wednesday saying that none is available and they are expecting delivery from manufacturer around 16/12/03.

Thanks to lurcher, I got mine from Dixons.

[Jason S]

I've just picked one up for the wife from Novatech today.

They're only around the corner from me, but they've still some in stock and a good company to deal with mail order.

Also, I can't believe how much stuff comes in the box with it though, it's very well equipped.....

[Jon Weaver]

I had a little look at my colleagues Cyberhome today and was VERY impressed.

A few months back I picked up the Bush model from Aldi for £200 and it was awful.. It did a remarkable job of making 'originals' looks like poor quality VHS pirates.

In contrast the picture on Cyberhome is sharp and very impressive. For £233, I think that I will pick one up from Novatech myself...

[Squiffy]

I've just ordered one from Novatech... Thanks for the link Jon.

Can anyone let me have the code to make it multi-region?

Cheers.

[andy572]

I kept looking at this yesterday, but still have my reservations - particularly as it is a very large amount of money for me.

However, it does appear to be a near-ideal little piece of tech to carry during my occasional stays with a friend. The somewhat surprising inclusion of an input option is a really enticing aspect to the player for me, too.

So, as these little machines don't appear to be flying off the shelves, I'm still keeping it in mind for my pre-Christmas tech-buy and would love to hear the thoughts and experiences of those of you with the player. I'd particularly appreciate comments relating to the screen and of any problems with or failings of DVD playback (audio sync issues, for example).

Thank you :)

[Jason S]

Here's the region hack link

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/full/cyberhome710.asp

1. Press the Setup button on your remote control
2. Using the arrow keys on your remote control, highlight the General Setup page
3. Press the buttons 1, 3, 6 and 9 on your remote control, in order, one at a time
4. You will now be in a new setup page where you can change the region to 1 for Region 1, 2 for Region 2, and so on, or 0 for multi-region playback
5. Press the Enter button on your remote control
6. Press the Setup button on your remote control

[Squiffy]

Thanks Jason! :smashin:

[Jason S]

Squiffy,

any chance once you get the player you can try a test with an RCE disc and the player set to region 0 please.

The player I bought is wrapped up under our tree at the moment so I've not tried it yet, and since it's for Mrs S I'd like it to be as simple as possible.

Cheers

[Squiffy]

Yeah, no problem.

Once I work out which of my disks is RCE! :clown:

[Jason S]

There's a list of them here...

http://www.dvdcompare.org.uk/rce.php#titles

[Squiffy]

I ain't got any of them on R1.... :zonked:

[Jason S]

No worries, after looking at the list, it's unlikely that she'll watch the ones we have.

But, in a couple of weeks I'll post the results of our Xmas test....

[Squiffy]

What great service.

Ordered on the 15th, delivery attempted yesterday (wasn't in, so actually got it today).

A nice player - screen quality is excellent (for the price) and the unit seems pretty sturdy.

And the multi-region is working fine so far, thanks Jason.

Now if only I had a RCE title to test with it.... :rolleyes:

[Jason S]

Finally got the player out of the box, and here's what I found

Multiregion out of the box, no hack required

RCE Capable!! Tried with Charlies Angels and Hollow Man,

so a real bargain player :grin:

[Jon Weaver]

Got my DVD player from Novatech.. Its NOT a Cyberhome! Until I see my colleague in the year and get chance to compare it, I won't know if its any better/worse.. But its certainly not the Cyberhome unit.

For example:

-The top half it plastic.
-Its got an analogue volume wheel, where as the Cyberhome has volume 'buttons'.
- The battery connects to the player via a little cable, rather than an edge connector.

not sure if the fact that its not a Cyber-home is a good or bad thing, but to be honest, I am a little disappointed!

[Jon Weaver]

Now I am confused! The player that is shown on Novatechs site, IS the Cyberhome.

But its different from what I have.

The obvious difference is that on the Cyberhome, when you eject the disk, the ENTIRE top of the player (including the buttons) opens.

On my player, only 1/2 of the top opens, leaving the buttons attached to the unit.

Also, my unit has cursors where the middle buttons is 'play'. On the Cyberhome, yuo have a play buttons AND an 'enter' button in the middle of the cursor keys.

Has anyone bought a player from Novatech which is the same as the picture:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ARR-PORTDV

[Squiffy]

:confused:

My Novatech jobby has buttons, and not an analogue volume control.

The top half is not plastic.

And the whole panel opens when I put a DVD in.

Mine is definitely the one pictured in the link.

[Jon Weaver]

Weird.. Where as I was more than quite impressed with my colleagues Cyberhome, I am less than impressed with mine. I can't do any direct comparisons at this point, but the Picuture quality on my unit doesn't exactly blow me away.

The one I have certainly not the same as my colleagues Cyberhome unit... The one I have is made by Actron and has a model number of "AE-P710".

Its completely different from the picture on their web site and from what I can recal, doesn't come close to the picutre quality of the Cyberhome varient!

When did you get yours? Was it from the 'current' batch of players that Novatech are selling??

There clearly are 2 types of players out there..

One is the 'Cyberhome' clone which has an all metal shell and 'buttons' to control the volume.

The other (like mine) has a metal bottom, but plastic top, and has an analogue volume control

There are countless other differences, but these are the most obvious!

[Squiffy]

I ordered mine on 15th Dec, and delivery was attempted on 17th.

Picture quality on mine is pretty impressive. It's not the greatest picture ever, but for the price paid I'm more than happy.

[Jon Weaver]

And yours is exactly like the one in the picture??

Can you confirm if:

1. When you press 'eject' the WHOLE of the unit opens up (including the buttons)

2. Does your DVD gets its power from the battery via a little cable?

3. Do you separate PLAY and ENTER buttons

4. Is yours an "AE-P710"

[Squiffy]

Yes, mine is EXACTLY the same as the one pictured.

1. Yes the whole unit opens up, including the buttons.

2. It does not get its power from the battery via a little cable.

3. Yes there are separate PLAY and ENTER buttons.

4. Model no on the bottom is ADP-700

[Squiffy]

If yours isn't the one pictured, and you are unhappy with it I suggest you use your rights under the distance selling act to return it and get your money back. Or give them the option to replace it with the advertised model.

[mjwhitehouse]

Mine is identical to the picture as well. No little cable for the battery. Looks like you were done.

[Squiffy]

Hi Jon.

Just wondering if you got anywhere on this?

[Jon Weaver]

I didn't want to reply until I got back to work and compaired it to my colleagues 'Cyberhome'.

His Cyberhome still impresses me where as what I have does not.

The build and picture quality are poor in comparison and there is no way that my unit can be compared with the Cyberhome.

I actually had 2 of them from Novatech due to one being damaged in transist and they were BOTH the same (i.e not Cyberhome).

Quite simply they are going back.. Novatech say that they can only sell what THEIR supplier send them, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of their stock IS the Cyberhome version

Idealy, I would like someone to go into the warehouse and pick out a Cyberhome version.. But I don't think that they are going to do it..

Looks like I will have to wait until Dixons get their stocks in and buy one from them instead.