Archive for March, 2008

---

NEC MultiSync LCD5710 – 57″ LCD flat panel display – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – HD ready – black

The NEC MultiSync LCD5710 can display a 1920 x 1080 (WUXGA) computer generated image or the equivalent 1080p video resolution allowing outstanding reproduction in perfect HDTV quality of public television programs, output from high definition optical disks such as BluRay, video and computer presentations, and games consoles. An extremely high viewing angle of 178 degrees, 450 cdm? brightness, and a contrast ratio of 900: 1, ensures perfect picture quality from almost every angle. This makes the NEC MultiSync LCD5710 highly visible even within retail environments and brightly lit rooms.Amazon.com Price

Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player

Bring your audio and video to life with an excellent HDMI DVD player for your TV. When you use an HDMI port for connectivity with your 1080p capable TV. this Philips DV5982 DVD Player will upconvert an ordinary DVD to appear as if it were native to 1080p. This extremely compact player plays a wide variety of DVD discs as well as DiVX discs. It can also double as a CD player and will even play CD-R discs that have encoded MP3 files.

So when you add this component to your home-theater system, it delivers outstanding, versatile audio and video performance. Then there’s more! Somewhat unique to DVD players is the inclusion of a USB port at the front of the unit. If you use a USB-equipped media card reader or a USB Flash pocket drive, you can export images from your digital camera or card-based camcorder directly to your player for throughput to your TV.

Widescreen ready, this player is an ideal companion for your new widescreen HDTV in your home. DivX Ultra Certified for enhanced playback of DivX videos Plays CD, (S)VCD, DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW (Region 1) Plays DivX, MP3, WMA and JPEG digital camera photos DivX Certified for standard playback Signal to noise ratio – 90 Distortion and Noise (1kHz) – 65 dB Crosstalk (1kHz) – 70 dB Dynamic Range (1kHz) – 80 dB Frequency response – 30-20000 Hz Playback Media – CD, CD-R/CD-RW, Video CD/SVCD, DVD, DivX, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, DVD-Video Compression formats – MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX 3.11, DivX 4.x, DivX 5.x, DivX 6.0, DivX Ultra Playback Media – CD, MP3-CD, MP3-DVD, CD-R/RW, WMA-CD & Audio CD Compression format – Dolby Digital, MP3, PCM & WMA MP3 bit rates – 32 – 320 kbps Playback Media – DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD-R/RW, Picture CD, Kodak Picture CD Picture compression format – JPEG, TIFF Rear Connectivity – Analog audio Left/Right out, Composite video (CVBS) output, HDMI output, Digital coaxial out, Component Video out Progressive Di

Customer Review: Interesting feature set, but terrible menus and abysmal warranty service. Bought this from Amazon for the upconversion and the front panel USB port media player. 70 days after purchase, it has started to fail, but I’ll try to be fair: The Good: -Excellent video quality in 1080p upconversion (to my LG LCD) and component, to my AV reciever -Neat feature: USB port in front will play many (not all) media file formats from my cheapie USB drives -Reasonably well packaged when shipped from Amazon -Codes available on virtually all universal remotes in my house worked great on the first or second try -Optical audio sounds great The Bad: -Completely non-intuitive menu set. I’ve seen better menus on $15 generic digital cameras. Possibly the worst I have ever seen.

I WAS able to get advanced features configured, but it took an hour and was not described at all in the manual. -Coaxial digital audio and Optical digital audio do not coexist well -Poorly vented enclosure…too thin, feet too low to allow airflow underneath…see below. -Failed after 70 days of ownership (front panel is blank, overheats mid-playback despite being all by itself on an open shelf) -ABYSMAL warranty support from Philips.

READ CAREFULLY: THE WARRANTY IS ONLY 90 DAYS, and even then, they expect YOU to pay for insured, priority return shipping BEFORE receiving the replacement unit. If you return it non-insured or non-priority, they will refuse to replace it. I may wait until the 90 day warranty is expired, just to take advantage of my credit card’s warranty extension service. I guess I should’ve expected this from a $59 DVD player, but I guess I was spoiled by my last $59 DVD player: an Apex that played any horrible disc I threw at it and lived for 5 years.

Customer Review: Love It. This is a great DVD. I love the USB capability. I have used it several times to play avi files I downloaded and it worked great. I have not used the up converting feature yet. Great price.