schnuffi said:
unique, sorry to bother you again. I can't find an available 575 but have just seen the samsung 950 for £99. What are the niggles you hint at and would you say the pioneer 696 is worth the £20-30 more for my use which is basically, good SACD/DVDA playback, multi dvd compatibility and most importantly good picture quality for CRT?
if you do a scan on this site for both the 950 and 696 you should find a lot more discussion on them, but here goes...
i got a 950 which comes with hdmi-hdmi and hdmi-dvi cable, made multiregion by easy handset hack. connectiong via hdmi to tv and optical output to the amp, and setting to bitstream out audio means that you get a "hdmi audio not supported" type message that appears on the screen for a few seconds during each title set on the dvd (once the movie is playing, if you don't stop it, it will only show once). this is because hdmi audio wont accept bitstream, and there arent seperate output settings for the digital amp out and the hdmi out (the 696 does tho!). you can turn off the message, but it stops all on screen messages. unfortunately when you turn the machine on and off it loses this
likewise the front display (time etc) is very bright to say the least. again you can turn off, but it loses the settings when you turn the player on/off
and it doesnt auto switch pal/ntsc. no probs if you only play r2 or r1 only discs, but if you have a fair mix, its a pain as you have to turn the dvd player on, switch to pal/ntsc, turn off the warning messages, and turn off the display. which you have to do without a disc in the player and the tray closed, or whilst the disc is properly stopped and not showing a menu
these inconveniences are a bit of a pain in the ass, which many dont like. you can flash the firmware to remove the warning message, but not fix the auto pal/ntsc or front light
lastly, when the machine is off (or in "standby"), there is a blue light around the power button. it looks nice until you turn the lights off in the room and notice its extremely bright. it fills an otherwise pitch black room with light, thus no good in the bedroom, or annoying in some livingrooms
apart from that, the machine functions reasonably well. it wont play VOB files on the disc, but will play divx and mpg. i have a few discs of video clips and had raw vob's which played on an older cheapo player, but not this, which was also a minor niggle, and i found if you have avi files it doesnt like, it sometimes will refuse to play any files on the disc. stick an avi file it doesnt like on a properly authored dvd as part of a spare directory, and it wont play the disc at all. (ie. you take a dixv file, convert to dvd vobs and stick the original file on the same disc if there is spare space - ive done this in the past a few times)
the 696 on the other hand comes in silver and black (the rest of my gear was silver, with the 950 sticking out a bit), and is multiregion delivered for £130 (i got mine from KK electronics - the details are on one of the other threads). no hdmi cable tho, so thats another £10-£20. i used the cable from the 950.
the 696 plays everything the 950 plays, as well as vobs. it has no niggles at all. having a 575 with hacked firmware, i think its only a matter of time until there will be the same for the 696, as the hacked firmware on the 575 allowed long filenames to be displayed properly for mp3/divx etc, as well as the option of having movies start immediately when you put them in, instead of all the guff at the start, and menus etc, as well as other hidden settings.
as you won't be using hdmi, the price difference would be £30 more for the 696 for a delivered MR version (you might get it R2 only for £10 less, but unless you have the remote to MR it, you will need to wait for firmware which may invalidate warranty). i spent £130 on my 950 and a futher £130 on the 696 to replace it (the 950 still works perfectly, its now a bedroom set), so i thought it was worth it, particularly as it matches my pio tv and other av gear, so double bonus
if you think about it this way, spend £30 more and you don't have any annoying little things to worry about
the only downside to the 696 that some people have mentioned is some jaggies in r2 playback material when upscaled. on my 50" tv i can only really notice this if i sit up close (mind i play mostly r1/ntsc which doesnt have this). i don't think you will notice this on the crt however
soundwise, at the price range, i doubt there will be much difference between the two for sacd/dvda. i havent done a side by side comparison tho. as for compatibility, i did find a few discs the 950 wouldnt play, but the 696 did. i've had no problem whatsoever with dvdr's on either machine, whilst some people have reported problems with some sticking on the 950, i think thats bad discs or burning, as my only problems were due to the authoring. the pio's have always been well known for being able to play anything you could throw at em, oh and the 696 plays divx ultra, whatever that is (i think it allows menus), so it is a newer chip
hopefully that helps, but search for what other folks have said here