Insignia NS-VDVD1 vertical slot loader w/HDMI

I picked one of these up tonight to try it out. So far the only problem I have is one of my DVD+DL discs would not play, but the others were fine. The slot loading drive seems to be a little less tolerant to uneven discs, and I could hear that disc vibrating a lot. Other DVD+DL discs play fine.


The Best Buy web page states that it does not have an optical digital output (in addition to the stated coaxial output), but it does. It also plays MPEG-4 and so far that feature has worked flawlessly on a few XVID and DIVX discs I have made.


My only issue is that @720p (60Hz) the image is slightly letterboxed on the top and bottom of the screen. @ 1080i (60Hz) the screen is filled as it should be. I mention 60Hz because there is a setup option where you can select 720p (50Hz) and 1080i (50Hz).


My initial impression is for $69 this is a very nice deal. I am not a full AV Enthusiast so I cannot answer macroblocking, crushed blacks, or other technical questions. To my laymen's eye, the picture quality is quite excellent though.


The build quality of the player is decent. Honestly it is very light and almost feels like it is a demo unit with no internals. The remote is usable, although not as fashionable to look at as the case design of the main unit. The buttons are very responsive...no problem with having to point it directly at the unit to get it to work.


The big question a lof of people will undoubtedly have is does it upconvert over component? From my tests, the answer appears to be "no."


Only time will tell if any hacks appear for allowing that, but for Region Free do the following:


Push Setup

Push the right arrow to go to "Preferences"

Press "1379."

Push the down arrow to change the current setting of "1" to "0" for All Regions.

Push "setup" or "enter" to save.

I have turned off the HDCP through the Setup menu and the unit will still not upconvert over component.


I tried 480i over the HDMI and my tv goes blank, although the display of the Insignia says it is outputting 480i.


This unit does not include an HDMI cable; I tried a few PAL discs on it once I set the region to 0 and they played fine.


The unit also has more advanced settings for HDCD: HDCD Filter: OFF, 44.1K or 88.2K is available in the setup menu. If you leave it at "OFF" HDCD's are played as reqular CD's.


Whenever I buy an electronic item I always look at it to find a reason to take it back. So far with this unit, I can't find any good reasons to do so.


$69 seems to be the regular price. Hopefully Best Buy will have a sale on it soon and the price would go even less.

Quote:


yes. I have no problem feeding a Pio 1120 plasma.


The UI looks very similar to the Oppo.




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This player went on sale again, so I decided to pick up a unit and give it a whirl. I'm using it with an older Sony HD CRT (34XBR800) via DVI with a Philips HDMI->DVI adapter. A few observations/questions...


480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i all seem to work via DVI, but it does not appear to pass BTB via DVI or Composite. Maybe there's a switch I've missed somewhere in the setup menus that would enable this? Or perhaps BTB is not supported with the RGB 4:4:4 color space via DVI. Not a big issue for me, but still curious if it's possible.


The Gamma adjustment doesn't seem to do much via DVI or Composite on my TV. Or the change is so subtle, I can't detect it. Anyone have different results with this?


So far it don't look too bad via DVI @1080i, but my CRT isn't the best for assessing detail, macroblocking and other such PQ issues. So take that w/a grain of salt. Wish the gamma control was working though, cuz my set can definitely use some assistance in that area.