Saw the Extreme HDMI 1080p upscaling DVD player at SM MOA selling at P2575.77 to be exact. It has a USB input. Check this out!
I was able to purchase one yesterday and tried it out. Here is my mini-review:
Box
Front View (doesn't look cheap and looks Pioneer-ish)
Back View
Free HDMI cable (yes!) and
Remote
Video OutputI connected composite, component and hdmi all together in my daughter's Panasonic 32LE7. If you have activated HDMI, there would be no signal in both composite and component video and vice versa. The problem here is that if you accidentally pressed 1080p when using HDMI and your display doesn't accept 1080p signals, then there would be a blank display. There won't be any display also in both composite and component video. If you try to access the menu by just rebooting the dvd player or your tv it wouldn't work this way. I had a hard time getting a display until I found the HDMI button in the remote. If you pressed this, the display would show on both composite and component na. There is one feature that some of us would like in an affordable DVD player-
upscaling through component video. This baby can do that in both 720p and 1080i.
BTW, there is also a VGA port where you can connect it straight to your PC monitor. There is a separate button in the remote (VGA/AV) that you would press just in case you use the VGA port. This could also come in handy if ever you accidentally pressed anything weird and no display comes out.
Video quality in composite was acceptable as like in any other DVD player. In component video, un-upscaled video was very good but when I tried upscaling it to 720p the black bars in the top and bottom became thicker and I find the video more grainy than just using 480p. Also, colors seem to be more pale in upscaled compared to the vibrant colors of the 480p setting. Personally, I choose 480p than 720p in this aspect. I also tried it in my AX100 PJ and 480p in component video was amazing. I didn't expect this from a generic dvd player. I would even think that it was an HDMI connection. I think the video output still varies depending on the display that you have.
In HDMI connection, I find 720p also grainy in the LCDTV but on my AX100 there is no noticeable grain but upon switching it to 1080p...WOW! I said to myself "Bang for the Buck" DVD player!!! Maybe I just lowered my expectations in all aspects on this player because of the price I paid but IMHO, it performed more than what I paid for.
There is also an option of low, medium or high sharpness in the HDMI color settings which I haven't really tinkered yet.
AudioThere is 5.1 channel analog, Optical and Coaxial audio outputs. There is only onboard DD and no DTS decoding in this player. Its output through 5.1 analog connections.
PlayabilityThe following are the media that I tested:
R1 & R3 DVDs
Tagalog Jack Sparrow DVDs (these DVDs are really hard to play on some players, I dunno why)
Bluray Jack Sparrow DVDs
Burned DVD-RW with mixed Divx, AVI, Xvid files
Flash drive with Divx, AVI, Xvid files
-all played flawlessly!
Note: I didn't try badly scratched/encoded DVDs. I do not usually practice playing these discs in my players anyway.
-BTW, there are also front mic inputs and access buttons just in case you lose the remote.
