Sylvania HDMI DVD Player with Faroudja

[I'mListening]

Anyone have any experience with this unit sold with Sylvanias name, but manufactured by Funai?

I have a client wanting an inexpensive Up Converting DVD player, so I ordered this particular model; DVL-1000 I believe it is. Arrived today, but haven't had a chance to run it through the motions yet. After reading the manual, it indeed has the Faroudja Genesis chip. It is new enough that it is not listed on the Sylvania website as of yet. I believe MSRP is $139.99

[squonk]

Originally Posted by waltchan

At Amazon, it retails for $99.99 plus $10 shipping. I may buy one.

If Funai makes cheap products, why would you want to buy one? walt, you are a walking contradiction.

[Venom5]

Any idea what mpeg decoder it's using? is it a MT1389, if it is, great bargain, since the MT1389 got no chroma bug

[Patrick TX]

Originally Posted by waltchan

This Sylvania DVL-1000F works very similar to the $30 Magnavox MSD125 progressive-scan DVD player from Sam's Club I had before. It worked very well. I like the small-size and weight. According to the latest Consumer Reports on DVD players regarding reliability, Funai-made DVD players are rated more reliable than Apex, Cyberhome, Denon, Go-Video, Philips, RCA, Samsung, Toshiba, and Zenith. I was surprised. Look under the Hitachi, Magnavox, Mitsubishi, and Sharp brands in the graph. They are all made by Funai.

I wonder why is this not out in major retail stores yet? I would have bought this instead of the crappy Toshiba SD-4980 in the first place.

LOL, the reason that those players are not repaired is because they are disposable! Nobody fixes a throw away player.

[Venom5]

Anyone done or planning to do a review on this player? Some photos of it's insides would be great!

[Chris Gerhard]

I read about this player a few days ago and agree it looks like it could be a good value. Funai is surviving despite having made some real junk and who knows, the company could start making good products from the profits made selling junk. Maybe this will their first good DVD player.

Chris

[yarrumc]

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard

I read about this player a few days ago and agree it looks like it could be a good value. Funai is surviving despite having made some real junk and who knows, the company could start making good products from the profits made selling junk. Maybe this will their first good DVD player.

Chris

Unless it was built poorly, how bad could this be with the Faroudja processor. For $100, it's almost worth getting for a present or a backup player. If someone gets a hold of the firmware and can tweak it, who knows!

[Bud-man]

Anyone find it local?, might be worth checking out for $100

[squonk]

Originally Posted by waltchan

This Sylvania DVL-1000F works very similar to the $30 Magnavox MSD125 progressive-scan DVD player from Sam's Club I had before. It worked very well. I like the small-size and weight. According to the latest Consumer Reports on DVD players regarding reliability, Funai-made DVD players are rated more reliable than Apex, Cyberhome, Denon, Go-Video, Philips, RCA, Samsung, Toshiba, and Zenith. I was surprised. Look under the Hitachi, Magnavox, Mitsubishi, and Sharp brands in the graph. They are all made by Funai.

I wonder why is this not out in major retail stores yet? I would have bought this instead of the crappy Toshiba SD-4980 in the first place.

better than Denon? You don't really believe that do you? I'd take Consumer Reports "ratings" with a big grain of salt. As pointed out above, no one bothers repairing a $100 DVD player. Denon equipment is universally of much higher quality. Consumer reports is not really geared to comparing sound quality on high end equipment.

[rwestley]

Buy.com also sells this unit.

[NoThru22]

A certain member posting to this thread always buys junk that he assures everyone is great and then complains and whines when it turns out to be crap.

[squonk]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Look at the K-Mart ad every week. There is always a Sylvania TV on-sale. I bought my Sylvania 13" TV from K-Mart two weeks ago.

That pretty much sums up the carnival ride that is the waltchan experience in a nutshell doesn't it?

Its definitely from Kmart

We have to go to Kmart to buy a Sylvania TV.

Kmart definitely has Sylvania TVs. 5 minutes till Woppner.


I have news for you walt....."KMart sucks".

[Paul Bigelow]

BB carries some Sylvania but I haven't seen it on their website.

Paul

[Bud-man]

Wonder if this player will have the "infamous" macro blocking problem the panny s77 has?
If it can play PAL and Xvid i would like to try it out....as long as it sell's locally....C'mon K-mart!!

[BillP]

Originally Posted by Bud-man

Wonder if this player will have the "infamous" macro blocking problem the panny s77 has?
If it can play PAL and Xvid i would like to try it out....as long as it sell's locally....C'mon K-mart!!

If it has the Faroudja chip, then I can guarantee it can show MB (with some displays).

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by waltchan

If this Sylvania DVL-1000F uses a Faroudja DCDi video chip, is this the same one found in the Panasonic DVD-RP82 and DVD-XP30?

No, that would be the Faroudja FLI2200. The Sylvania will likely use the FLI2310 or FLI2301.

Chris

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Is it better or worse if you compare the Faroudja FLI2200 together?

I don't know if the FLI2200 does a better job of de-interlacing than the FLI23xx chips but it does not have the macroblocking enhancement problem based on what I have read. The FLI2200 is 480p only, no upscaling.

Chris

[rwestley]

I would expect to see this player on sale for way under $100 soon. The Toshiba with HDMI is way under that already and Funi players are usually priced much cheaper. I would also suspect that by next year nearly all non-hd players will have HDMI output. I think we can all rember that progressive scan came out it was only available in expensive models and now one can find it in $30 players. The big question is what chipset will be used in the cheap players that is why the Sylvania is somewhat interesting. I still would recommend the Oppo or the Panasonic 97S. The Oppo is a great buy and has wonderful customer support. I guess we get what we pay for. Having said that I would probably be sucker to try it if the cost was really low. If it is not too bad it might work as a second player.

[BillP]

The Faroudja chip in this player is almost sure to be the same one as used in the Denons, Oppo, Pannys, Yamaha, Samsung 941, Zenith, and all other Faroudja upscaling players. Where differences occur is in the MPEG decoder, build quality, power supply isolation, etc, etc. All Faroudja players using the same chip do not provide the same PQ, due to these other factors. Is it worth checking out - yes. Is it going to be as good as the Denon 3910 - hell no. Will it be similar to the Oppo or Panny - maybe, maybe not. Has anyone actually tried it yet?

[Patrick TX]

I would tend to agree that Funai is crap. Funai "Limited Edition", now that is another level all together. It compares to Pioneer Elite I would guess.

[mpjohnst]

Pics from Amazon...

[mpjohnst]

By the way, it is up to $123 on Amazon. Buy.com has it for $99.99 still.

Here are specs from Buy.com... looks like no Divx or Xvid.

• 480i / 480p / 720p / 1080i Up-Conversion Video Output

• HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) Incorportaed

• Faroudja, DCDi Technology

• DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-R/RW, CD-MP3, CD-WMA Files Playback

• Still, Frame Advance & Slow Motion (FWD&REV, 1/2x, 1/8x, 1/16x)

• 5-Step High Speed search (2x, 8x, 20x 50x and 100x)

• Zoom (2x and 4x)

• Skip and Pause Play

• Resume Play

• Repeat Play · All DVD: Title / Chapter / A-B

• CD: All / Track / A-B

• MP3: All / Track / Group

• Title/Subtitle ON/OFF

• 99 Program Play and Random Play (CD)

• 10 Points Marker

• Parental Lock

• Black Level Shift Control

• Angle Change

• Screen Saver

• Virtual Surround Audio System

• DTS Digital Audio Output

• Terminals; · Component Video Output 1set

• S-Video Output 1set

• Composite Video Output 1set

• Audio Output 1set

• Coaxial Digital Audio Output 1set

• Optical Digital Audio Output 1set

[dsmith901]

Looks like a poor man's S77? Anyone seen the remote? Lousy, hard to use remotes are usually the downfall of cheap DVD players.

Something called Fadfusion.com has it for even less than Buy.com.

[Bud-man]

I dont think any faroudja player plays xvid/divx, Fadfusion is 94 bucks with 15 shipping, i e-mailed sylvania about this player, waiting for a reponse.

[Ja Phule]

Oppo is a faroudja player that plays divx. It all depends on the mpeg chip on the dvd player.

[Bud-man]

At lunch i went to my local K-mart, there isnt many here left in the N.E., they do sell a dvl700, your right about being all plastic!!, very very light, kinda big also.
I wont chance this player from the internet, only when "local" i would buy it, dont need a $100 paperweight!!

[mapson]

This has me interested, tagging along to hear more about this one.

[mapson]

Originally Posted by rwestley

Buy.com also sells this unit.

Is it my understanding that one would not be able to return to Buy.com and have to deal direct through Sylvania on this player?

[Patrick TX]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Not all Sylvania DVD players are made out of plastic. The Sylvania DVL1000F is made out of steel. See the photos in the previous page.

I'm glad it's made of steel. I was hoping that Funai would continue using quality components. I read somewhere that the "Limited Edition" Funai is made of Magnesium. It must be the bomb.

[rwestley]

Fuai may be a Japanese company but their machines are not made in Japan.

"Funai's plants in Asia (excluding Japan) have been integrated into its Chinese and Malaysian plants. Three major Chinese plants in Dong Guan, Huang Jiang, and Zhong Shan manufacture products for Funai Electric (H.K.) Limited, Funai's Hong Kong"