[pteittinen]

Hi folks!


My search for new PAL progressive scan players continues. I've got the Denon 2800 which is still giving me a headache, and Skyworth 1050P is annoyingly sluggish, poorly built and has its problems even with the new cap.


I bumped into the BBK DVD-BBK919PS while browsing Hivizone's website , which at the time mentioned that the player has a C-Cube ZiVA 4.1 chip. (The page has now been revised.) The page also claims that the player is capable of PAL progressive scan.


I couldn't find any reviews of either the player or the chip, but for $265 the BBK sounded like a bargain so I bought one.


This morning I checked my e-mails and found one from Hivizone. They had queried BBK further about the player's alleged MPEG2-decoder. What they got back was a shock to yours truly: it seems that BBK's website is, to put it bluntly, a pack of lies!


The 919 has, in fact, an ESS VideoDrive chip in it, as Kwokyan from this forum had already found out (and had already posted his findings). BBK admits that their website has false information on it. Searching the net for information on the VideoDrive didn't make me a happy camper, check out these two articles:

http://www.whatvideotv.com/testbench...DV-P505E.shtml
http://www.whatvideotv.com/cgi-bin/n...for=videodrive


According to the ESS' website , none of their current range of chips does progressive scan. There's a new chip (link's to a PDF-file) in the pipeline, but something told me that BBK wasn't using that just yet.


I sent Hivizone another e-mail, asking about the player's de-interlacing chip. The prompt reply said that the 919 uses the nDSP NV220 for de-interlacing. You can find more info on that chip here .


So, now what? I'm not angry at Hivizone, it's obvious they copied their information directly from BBK's website and were very quick to tell me about the false info once they found out. I'm in two minds about whether to cancel the purchase or not.


I suggest all who are outraged at BBK's actions drop them a line at [email protected] .


Cheers,

.-petri

 

[Brian Dickie]

Petri,


Yes the Skyworth 1050P IS annoyingly sluggish, poorly built and has its problems.


However, in general terms, it does the job...and it does that job very well !


Now, I'm not sure if there are other reliability issues with the 1050p but after fixing the cap problem my Skyworth gives me a great performance when it comes to simply playing a movie.


I'd just settle for the Skyworth and get on with playing movies.


Brian.

 

[pteittinen]

Brian,


you ever so slightly missed my point there.


I love my Skyworth. If it were a woman, I'd ask her to marry me... and then dump her sorry, whining butt when a better one came along. (No, I wouldn't do that to a real-life woman!)


I use Skyworth for most of my viewing, but every now and then, along comes a disc that won't play properly in it, or crashes the player totally. I'm not 100% happy with it, to say the least, so is it somehow wrong to keep looking for a better player? =)


cheers,

.-petri

 

[Brian Dickie]

Petri,


Yes, I did miss the point..... I hadn't realised that you actually have a Denon and a Skyworth.


I think that my reaction would be to wait (and to put up with the Skyworth and Denon) until the next "cycle" of innovations comes around. That might not be for 6-12 months or so.


I haven't a clue as to how far off pal progressive is ! The ability to play ntsc progressive is linked with progressive capable tv's in the US. In europe there is nothing like HDTV to drive the "need" for a pal progressive capability.


Brian.

 

[VU]

Petri,


I've also got a Skyworth 1050P. The first one lasted a month, the second one a week. However, I told the local importer about the cap. problem and he arranged to have the cap. replaced. When I got it home, everything seemed fine but Dvd's started crashing randomly. This was the one thing I hadn't had any problem with before!


Anyway, I opened it up again and checked the cap that had been fitted (it was a good one) but noticed it was close to another cap. so I moved it slightly. Luck or otherwise, the unit has been flawless since, playing every disc without a problem (PAL and NTSC).


The remote is ok but not a major problem for me. I really like this player, and for people that need Prog. PAL and NTSC I do not believe there is anything better around (granted, not much choice either!).


I considered the DENON 2800 but it was twice the price here in OZ (not really a big deal if it was better) but after reading some of the problems people were having with it on this forum I decided to take a punt on the Skyworth.


Maybe if you let me know what Dvd's are causing problems I could try the disc on mine (if I have it).

 

[pteittinen]

Brian,


you're right, without HDTV there isn't much drive for progressive scan in europe. A shame, definitely. That's why I'm forced to keep an eye out for Chinese manufacturers, they don't seem to give a toss about DVD Group's regulations =)


Derek,


Criterion's Beastie Boys Anthology crashes my Skyworth completely; I can't even get the disc out without yanking the plug and "re-booting" the bleedin' thing. Another good test disc is R2 PAL Underworld "Everything Everything". It's got two separate video tracks running all through the show and this appears to be a problem for both Skyworth and Denon 2800.