[Touring]

Hey guys

Im looking at buying a DVD player for christmas, but I really dont want to spend a lot of money. One thing i would love the player to have is Divx compatibility because i have a few films in avi format and would like to watch them on the tv rather than the laptop.

I have been trying to spend no more than £25 for the player, but it will be going into a bedroom so i dont want it to take up too much space.

So far I have found this one which is only £15 on tesco direct but it is unbranded so dont know how much to trust it. Plus it lists DivX support in the description but not the features.

Tesco Value DPA08 DVD Player - Tesco.Direct

Or do you guys think i should just stretch that extra amount and order this toshiba? Only thing about this is that it is £25 and it seems a bit big.

Toshiba SD-185E-K-TB DVD Player with DIVX - Tesco.Direct

If anyone can help me out or have advice for me then please let me know.

Cheers guys

[sazzle15]

I bought the Toshiba one for a friend and this definately plays avi/divx files (thats why i bought it) and it looks good and not to big - cheapest about

[T0MMYB0Y]

Get one with Divx plus (or equivalent) and a USB port. Divx plus will display all material as widescreen (pre squished!), whereas a normal cheapo divx player will display the content as a small letterboxed image in the centre of your TV screen, and you will have to use the TV zoom to blow it up, so it will look pixelated. And get one with a USB port so you don't have to burn DVDs all the time, you can just pop them on a keyring (save you money in the long run). But make sure you can play Divx files off the keyring first, because even though lots of dvd players come with usb ports, for some reason you can't play a divx file off them – go figure!

I use a HD LG that upscales to 1080 (even though I have it hooked up to a standard crt), and it's great, but for some reason the USB port only plays some divx files off my keyring… I got mine in Ireland for €70. hold off till Jan and they'll be giving them away.

Good luck with purchase.

[Touring]

Originally Posted by T0MMYB0Y

Get one with Divx plus (or equivalent) and a USB port. Divx plus will display all material as widescreen (pre squished!), whereas a normal cheapo divx player will display the content as a small letterboxed image in the centre of your TV screen, and you will have to use the TV zoom to blow it up, so it will look pixelated. And get one with a USB port so you don't have to burn DVDs all the time, you can just pop them on a keyring (save you money in the long run). But make sure you can play Divx files off the keyring first, because even though lots of dvd players come with usb ports, for some reason you can't play a divx file off them – go figure!

I use a HD LG that upscales to 1080 (even though I have it hooked up to a standard crt), and it's great, but for some reason the USB port only plays some divx files off my keyring… I got mine in Ireland for €70. hold off till Jan and they'll be giving them away.

Good luck with purchase.

This is a christmas present so I cant wait till January im afraid!
Does anyone know if this issue with the DivX only being in the middle of the screen is an issue with the Toshiba? If it isnt I think i will order it

Cheers Guys.

[DrugstoreCowboy]

Originally Posted by Touring

This is a christmas present so I cant wait till January im afraid!
Does anyone know if this issue with the DivX only being in the middle of the screen is an issue with the Toshiba? If it isnt I think i will order it

Cheers Guys.

I doubt it will be a problem. I have a 3, maybe 4 year old £30 (WHSmiths) DVD/Divx player and all movies are played back at the correct aspect ratio. Would have thought any correctly set up modern player would do the same.

[Ely_Ellis]

Hi,

Just bought the Toshiba SD-185E from Tesco.
First thing to mention is that try the store first rather than Tesco Direct.
I almost bought it from direct but noticed that at £24.97 I was 3p under the free delivery and there was a charge of £6 odd just to get it to the store.
Called in my local Tesco and low and behold, there were 3 on the shelf and at the same price. (actually got a little bit off for new tax but....whatever).

Anyway, not put it through its paces yet but can confirm that it is a DivX certified player, which will also play subtitles for DivX files.

As for the aspect and the small letter box, well it has on the settings menue the ability to display in several formats, Original, height fit, width fit, auto fit and pan & scan.
This is not a zoom feature and not an aspect feature as the aspect is set seperatly as either 4:3 or 16:9.
In original, yes you do get the very small letter box image that does not even reach the sides, but in "width fit" the picture is correct.

I am viewing on a Panasonic 42" plasma set, so would be very critical of artifacts etc, however the picture quality is superb, very supprised myself as I have been using an E-buyer £20 unit for over a year until last week I tried a firmware update in order to enable DivX subtitles and I killed it.

The only down side I can imediatly see is that it has a coaxial digital audio output rather than optical and as my home theatre system is optical, I have now lost the capability of AC3 5.1 audio from DivX. (I may be able to get round this though).

Also, it does NOT have a USB port, but don't consider that to be a loss. I would asume that anyone who gets a movie on their PC would probably burn them to CD / DVD disc anyway, rather than to watch on USB stick and then do what... store the USB sticks?
So don't worry about no USB support.

So, for just under £25, its appears to be a cracking set.

Cheers

[T0MMYB0Y]

Sounds like you got a bargain

[wallsendmag]

Bargain