Replacement DivX Player - very cheap please!

[clemenzina]

My brother's Yamada 6700 has given up the ghost, won't recognise any discs whatsoever He's very upset as he's totally skint and the 6700, following a couple of firmware upgrades, was very versatile.

There seems to be a dearth of cheap DivX players at places like Amazon, eBuyer, etc, where there used to be loads of Chilis, Eltaxes, etc. Any ideas please? Sub £40 if poss.

clemenzina

[thearrowmaker]

I have'nt got it myself but this would seem to be what you are looking for;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/H-B-DX-3255-...&s=electronics

Alan

[stevo707]

I've got that H&B player, albeit rebadged as an E:max. No problems in terms of DivX playback, but the build quality is very poor. Mine developed a loud whirring sound on playback, the buttons on the unit itself are not very responsive. And now, not much more than a year after purchase, it randomly freezes when turning on.

I can recommend this though having bought one as a replacement recently. Better build quality, DivX playback and Prog Scan for £35.

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/stor...ory_oid=-30719

[clemenzina]

Too late Steve

Just ordered it, what a performance too! Pixmania dump extras (VIPix membership and some other guarantee thing) into your shopping cart which it isn't immediately obviously how to remove And you think you'll save delivery charge by picking up, but that costs £6.70 whereas standard delivery is 'only' £8.

Plus your 'review' is the first I've seen citing bad build quality. Oh! Oh! Oh! double-suicide

I had looked at the Toshiba but I used to have a VCR/DVD/DivX combo and they didn't do firmware upgrades for it and it wouldn't play quite a lot of discs that were fine on the Yamada (that's why I bought the Yam 6800x, now I will give that to bro and keep the H&B - aren't I a saint?).

clemenzina

[clemenzina]

Originally Posted by thearrowmaker

I have'nt got it myself but this would seem to be what you are looking for

Sorry Alan, I didn't thank you (fer nuthin', by the looks of it ). I was half-way thru doing so but got sidetracked, as usual.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

clemenzina

[thearrowmaker]

Hi Clemenzina

I don't know why but people occasionally forget that Amazon offers free delivery on anything over £15. In this case it sounds like it would have been cheaper to purchase from Amazon. I would suggest contacing Pixmania and cancelling your order as soon as possible before they begin to process your order. You would then be free to reorder from Amazon themselves or go for an alternative model.

Alan

[stevo707]

Perhaps some consolation, but when I first looked at the H&B it looked very similar to the e:max, almost like a clone. Namely the orange display, square feet, clear top-mounted buttons and thin tray (behind a flap on the e:max).

You'll see what I mean here..

http://www.e2max.at/index.php?site=p...rod=68&lang=en

But there are differences with the button spacing and design that suggests it could be an updated version? Like I said, absolutely no problem on playback (it played all the divx files I threw at it) and I could have been unlucky with the whirring sound, which I did eventually fix by opening the box and dampening the thin tray with rubber stops - as I found it was resonating on the disc spinning.

The only thing I found on the web suggesting similarities, was here - although it suggests similarities to the H&B 3220 not the 3255 you've purchased.

http://board.softpedia.com/lofiversi....php/t357.html

Let us know what you think of it though. I know what you mean about the Pixmania site - not so much a case of adding the one item to your basket but removing the half a dozen options you dont want

[clemenzina]

Originally Posted by thearrowmaker

I don't know why but people occasionally forget that Amazon offers free delivery on anything over £15. In this case it sounds like it would have been cheaper to purchase from Amazon.

No Alan - it was only offered by Amazon on behalf of Pixmania, they don't stock it themselves, so the free delivery doesn't apply. There was another seller there shipping used ones from Germany, but the cost wasn't clear (UK rate was £4 per half kilo?!). I wish Amazon would get their site organised more clearly, it's a mess

Steve, I did see one user review saying 'don't be put off if you've had other models, this one's great' - so here's hoping. To be on the safe side I decided to give my Yamada to bro and keep the H&B, he's the one who does the downloads/converting/burning etc, I just watch 'em (if it's not junk, which it mostly is ).

I shall report back.

clemenzina

[clemenzina]

Update - Pixmania delivered very quickly and included a UK plug converter. Setup was straightforward, you have to change language from French to English but it's simple in the menu.

The list of tracks on a DVD has rather short titles, and the icon to the left of the titles has quite a bit of tremor, but the actual picture quality is good.

I would not say that this is particularly cheap build quality, but I've never had a high end player so I can't compare. I think that this H&B is better than the Yamada in that respect.

What I need now is a 'fan forum' where I can find firmware revisions to sort my titles out and other exciting mods that I don't even know I want yet

clemenzina

[steve69]

hi clemenzina,
im hoping that this is the player for me too as i have just ordered it yesterday myself from pixmainia. i too had the wth with the vipix or what ever it wad but got it for £36 in the end which i thought was great.
can you help me in as much as the audio digital, which connections does it have please,is it coaxial or optical for the dts. thank you.
and i hope this will help you too but u will have to go to page 8 or 9 to help with the models we will have but its just a case of renameing the fireware if your model has the 601 or 610, i just cant remember at the mo.
http://board.softpedia.com/index.php?showtopic=714
hope this helps you m8,
all the best
steve.

[clemenzina]

Steve, I've been thru that firmware thread and am about to collapse with my head reeling and my eyes melted You did tell me to look at the end of it but I didn't realise how long it was.

You're going to have to be my guide from now on (assuming all goes well, hope your player arrives today in A+ condition). Decent subs will be great.

clemenzina

[steve69]

hiya,
right if you go here im sure this is the link for the download http://mtz.softpedia.com/index.php?o...id=76&Itemid=4
i just downloaded it and scanned it and its seems ok so i unzipped it.
if i was you i would download this and then go to page 9 on that other link and you have to rename it to .bin or something.(sorry cant remember right now what its called but its on there about 3 or 4 posts up from urs.) burn it as a data and then just follow the instructions on the 1st page.
but please only do this if you feel upto it as i wont myself be doing it as i will not be using subs so i will not be doing the upgrade myself, so if anything goes wrong please dont hold me responsible.
i dont like doing this with other peoples hardware as i worry like hell just incase it goes wrong. but by the looks of it theres been plenty that have done it and it goes ok.
anyways i hope this helps a little
steve.

this is what it says
What's new:
1. DivX subtitles supported. White, outlined with black and centered !
3. Full width file browser and now you can see long filenames. (only 3220)
4. New amazing backgrounds and fonts for subtitles made by Mtz.
5. Lowered subtitles, so you can see more action from the movies.
6. Added support for the following Language Code Pages: 1250, 1252, 1253.

[clemenzina]

But this is the file they're using: H&B3255A_v1[1].4_bitmapbrother_CP1253 and it's not there

Don't spend any more time on it Steve, hopefully someone will come back on the Softpedia thread with a direct link.

And don't worry about 'being responsible' for a disaster here - it'll be my own fault if I mess it up but I'll be very careful Thanks for the help so far, much appreciated.

clemenzina

[steve69]

ok m8 cheers.
hope you have luck with it.

[clemenzina]

I can't believe I could have been so dizzy (well, I can, actually, it's par for the course when I get over-awed). I was saving the SoftPedia DivXpert page in my links and I suddenly noticed the paperclip icon by the H&B thread title and clicked on that... and all was revealed

If anyone buys an H&B serial 3255.601.xxxx, I HIGHLY recommend that they use the upgrade* firmware on Softpedia. It is quite simple as long as one is methodical and if anyone wants assistance I'll be happy to help.

*There's no other word for it, it improves the appearance and subtitles so much.

clemenzina