Fans of Xtreme DVD players rejoice. I went to Venus Electronics Enterprises this afternoon and purchased an SD-199, the latest model from Alfie's SD-166. I was informed by the owner that SM Appliances are now distributing their products but it is not available yet in all SM branches but only in SM Cubao and SM City. Sm's pricing for the SD-199 is around 2,900 pesos. They are seeking more retail distributors. She also assured me that they are in the market for good and will continue to support servicing their products. That was the reason I went to their T. Mapua, Sta Cruz, Manila repair office as after 4 years of service my 6500A is showing signs of pick up lens ageing. Hindi na makuha sa cleaning and fine adjustments on the focus and alignment potentiometers consistently.
Although the SD-199 only has Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding and not DTS, my disappointment on the audio side was surpassed by my delight on its video playing abilities as my preliminary tests indicate it is one of the best tracker with very smooth motion playback. I have not yet completed my full range of tests specially on divx burned discs but I am already pleased with my purchase. For me the old 6500A had everything for its time except divx and dvd-r compatibility but the sd-199 seems to have better error correction. It seem DTS decoding in inexpensive china brands is harder to comeby.
For those still looking for Xtreme or needing their service:
tel. 733-5075
Repair office: 509 Tomas Mapua St., Sta Cruz, Manila
email:
[email protected]They promise they will be bringing back their website after they finalize their update and visual makeovers. They also started to market new products like mp3 players in ipod appearances, portable small lcd screens, digital still picture frames etc.