May 29, 2008 11:57 AM
11286 Views
(Updated Aug 05, 2008 04:16 PM)
I had a Philips DVD player (727K) for over 4 years now and though it works fine, there are times when it fails to even read an original DVD or an original Audio CD sending me in a fit of rage. I had the lens changed at the authorized service center and it was still the same. Even the service center could not identify why this was happening. So I said, its time to dump this player.
Lots of research on the net and various reviews on mouthshut suggested the following models:
1) LG 192H (support for USB, DivX and HDMI) price Rs 3500
2) Onida DFX 8500 (support for USB, DivX but no HDMI) price Rs 3800
3) Mitashi DHD 911 (support for USB, HDMI and DivX) price Rs 3000
I hunted for LG and Onida in the whole of Navi Mumbai, right from Vashi, Nerul to Panvel. But no one had the models of LG and Onida that I had shortlisted. They had various other models of LG and Onida though. Mitashi was available at the Croma stores. But I was a bit reluctant on buying a brand that was initially selling gaming devices.
Since I had little choice, I decided to test Mitashi. I took some MP3, DivX movies and a USB stick with movies and music along with me for the test. I even took 2 audio cds full of scratches that were not even reading on my PC just to see if they work. I was shocked to hear these cds play after a gap of 2 years that they were lying in the corner of my house. I found that this player could read all the formats thrown at it and was quite happy with the tests.
Croma was offering a discount of 1000 bucks on this player. So I got this player for 3000 bucks with all the features. Here is a brief description of the features it has:
1) Supports DivX, MPEG4, HDCD, DVD, VCD, MP3
2) Has USB and Flash card reader ports
3) Dolby 5.1 surround output
4) HDMI, Component Video and S-Video out
5) Co-ax digital output only. No Optical out.
6) 6 months warranty
I had to buy a new Co-ax digital cable as I was using an Optical cable before. So I had to shell out another 1000 bucks for a gold plated Co-ax cable. You get cheaper ones for 500 bucks too.
Its been a month since I am using this player and I hope it goes a long way. I am fully satisfied with this player and I am also thinking of gifting one to my dad. At this price and features, I feel its a great deal.
Update: 4th Aug 2008
Noticed two small issue with the player.
1) If your USB drive contains files like doc, pdf and some other unsupported formats, the player just does not read the USB drive even if he has a couple of AVI and MP3 files. It goes in some sort of reading mode madness. For some time I thought the player is on its way for repairs, but when I erased all the junk from the USB drive and left only the AVI and MP3 files, it read the drive faster than a DVD....
2) If you pull your USB drive directly while it is playing/reading files, the player hangs. So make sure you stop the read process and then pull out the USB drive.
