well yesterday afternoon, i finally bought the NEXTBASE dvd-9000 in quiapo for 5,000pesos.
this is a short initial report of what i saw after installing it in my room.
but before that, my impression with regards to philander's posting:
1. yups, sast aep-816 remains to be the sleekest among the china made players, rivaling only PHILIPS which is the design i think it "copied" from.
2. aesthetically, nextbase is not pangit naman. it is maganda na rin actually, compared lets say to MASTAR, SAMWON. No contest ang mga Atecs, even Promac is not as "beautiful" as NextBase, in my honest opinion. Of course medyo subjective na. But suffice to say, hindi mukhang generic ang design ng chasis. At least, hindi TABINGI ang logo ng Nextbase, di tulad ng lahat ng ATECS. ahahhaha....
(ipagtanggol ba naman ang nextbase? ahahhhaha)
now for the report:
1. the remote control is color black, not like promac which is white. sast is greyish. my impression is people with eyesight problem might not like the remote control design of nextbase (from this on, NB na lang ang type ko, haba kasi ahahahaha) because THE WORDS PRINTED ABOVE THE KEYS ARE SO SMALL AND PRINTED IN VERY LIGHT WHITE COLOR!!! I HAVE TO REALLY MOVE THE REMOTE CONTROL CLOSE TO MY EYES BEFORE I CAN SEE WHAT COMMAND TO PUSH. Advice: wrap it in plastic supot otherwise, constant use might BURA the prints and if you arent adept, baka makalimot mo ang functions ng key na iyon.
2. NO DING SOUND DURING EJECT. I kinda miss that bigla, having been used to it in both sast and promac. ahahaha...
3. Power button on chasis; power on/off button also in remote to put it on standby. during standby, a small red led is lit, similar to promac. I wonder why sast did not incorporate such feature.
4. no karaoke control to make higher/lower pitch. there are mic1 and mic2 input jack and mic1/mic2 volume control though on the chasis. promac dvd2002 has karaoke full function key up/down kasi.
5. the cd tray to put the dvd disc seems a bit "wide" that when you put a disc on the tray, feeling mo parang "ay, tama na ba ang pasok ko? parang lawlaw?" pero actually its also "good" kasi you dont have to really put the disc perfectly fitted in the tray (which is the case on promac and sast)
6. plays all region. plays pal disc in full color and sound to a dedicated ntsc tv. that is my current set up and tested to work perfectly.
7. MACROVISION TO BE TESTED TONGIHT SO PLEASE WAIT FOR IT.
8. DTS MAY KONTING WEIRDNESS. to be discussed on a separate posting. suffice to say, my NB is attached to my stereo 21" samsung using the provided yellow/red/white audio/video jacks. When i place a DTS disc (behind enemy lines), and hit the audio button to switch from the default AC#/5.1 sound to DTS, NO SOUND COMES OUT FROM THE SPEAKERS OF MY SAMSUNG TV. I DONT KNOW WHY. I wonder aloud kasi if i installed my SAST into my samsung tv, and hit DTS audio, THERE IS SOUND COMING OUT AND THE SOUND IS DIFFERENT PA NGA FROM THAT IN SAST'S NORMAL 5.1 AUDIO OUTPUT. I will discuss this further kasi it has something to do with the SETUP/AUDIO control of the NB's user setup interface (which btw is NOT the same at all from promac or sast; iba ang NB setup on screen display, the nearest i can think it appears to be the same are from that of PIONEER BRANDS)
And finally, also the best feature of all..........
....IT PLAYED ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL THE DISCS THAT BOTH SAST AND PROMAC DID NOT PLAY. ALLLLLLLL!!!! KAYA STARTING LAST NIGHT, WALA NA AKONG DVD NA NAKALAGAY SA KAHON KASI DATI, ALL UNREADABLE DISCS I BOUGHT, KINAKAHON KO NA LANG. PERO LAST NIGHT, NILABAS KO LAHAT NG NASA KAHON AND LAHAT TUMUGTOG SA NB!!!! YIPEEEE!!!!!!
NEEDLESS TO SAY, NB ALSO PLAYED ALL THE DISCS THAT PROMAC AND SAST COULD READ.
SO, AS OF NOW, I THINK I HAVE TO REPOLISH THE CROWN I ONCE BESTOWED UPON SOSING DVD PLAYER, AND I HAVE TO FIND A MEAN TO SNATCH IT SO I MIGHT/CAN CROWN NEXTBASE DVD9000 AS THE "NEW" KING OF THE GENERIC PLAYERS!!!!
sincerely,
bestbuy88
july 26,2002
CONCLUSION PALA: RECOMMENDED. (i will have to do further tests, particularly the DTS audio and macrovision before i can revised my current "recommended" position to "highly recommended")