Targa DP-5100x (Lidl) - some new questions

LIDL will be selling this DVD player again this year (though a tenner cheaper I think).

By searching these groups, I know it can be made multi-region (link to firmware anyone?) but was hoping if somebody could answer the following questions:

1. Does the DVD player automatically switch between NTSC/PAL mode? (i.e. If a region 1 disc is put in, will it be played in NTSC as opposed to PAL by default).

2. Is it possible to select between PAL/NTSC for whichever disc is in the player? And if so, does anybody know if it can play a Region 1 NTSC disc (for example) in PAL60?

3. Is it possible to disable macrovison?

4. Is the drive fairly quiet? (My current player has a noisy drive. Argh!)

5. Can it play Region 3 discs quite well too? My current DVD player is multi-region and plays R1 discs fine but is jerky playing R3 discs.. pretty sure it is the players fault though as I have tested them on another player.

6. How good is the image and audio quality? Any blocky effects etc.

Phew. That will do. I'm hoping this player will be a nice replacement for my current player. The DivX capability will hopefully be the icing on the cake, mult-region and good playback is pretty much essential though.

 

3, No. It uses a mediatek chip which has macrovision built in.

6, As soon as as other mediatek player...which is pretty good.

 

Hmm.. the Cello DVD player which they sell at Sainsburys sounds really nice too. Awkward thing is I don't have one near me. Can anybody else recommend a similar player to the Cello and the one at LIDL that is fairly easy to get for under £50? (online order etc.)

Decisions decisons!

 

Aria.co.uk have some cheap dvd/divx players. I'd try and get the Lidl one if you can as I'm sure its a LG 8900P really. Per the EYO forums its a cracking divx player, can even do packed bitstream. I'll test this out later ;-)

 

Targa firmware trick

Turn player on, on the "No disc" screen hold down the pause button, toggles between NTSC and PAL

Same thing, hold down STOP and toggle Progressive scan and Svideo, you manually have to set RGB when the screen goes weird or green.

Make sure you get the latest firmware as it supports packed bitstream