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What Do You Think Of The Delux DVD?
A suspicious (yet anxious) Anonymous Coward asks: "I've been researching a DVD player to buy myself for Christmas and am having a very hard time satisfying all of my requirements. Most of my requirements are to do with not wanting to support the MPAA and not throwing any money their way. I'm looking for the most anti-industry DVD player out there. I have no problem spending the money, but I sure as hell want my money to go to the good people. I have read the reviews of APEX 600A, and the Infinity and while these players have my requirements (Play MP3 CDR, region-free, toggle for Macrovision) their reviews seem to have a negative side to them that is offset by the geek factor. What I have found is what appears to be the godsend of home entertainment...it's called the Delux DVD." Update: 12/01 04:11 PM: Well, as it turns out, if something is too good to be true, it probably is. It looks like several of you have done further investigation (muchas gracias!) and it appears that this player may be a bit dubious and if the SPAM concerns were not enough, it appears that the games are not licensed from Sony. It looks like this one has turned out to be something to avoid.
"The Delux DVD plays about every media possible, and boasts a handful of features only found in high-end players. What makes this unit special is that it ships with over 720 classic arcade games that are playable through the unit. That's right, I will be able to play all my old favorites such as California Games, and Spy vs Spy. All of this at a cost of under $US300.
What am I missing? Is this possibly too good to be true? After spending well over an hour searching for reviews/FAQ's from 3rd parties on the system I have come up empty. Has anyone bought one of these blessed systems? Does anyone have additional info on the actual quality that I can expect?"
Yes. We'll all scurry off to buy HDTV monitors to play 15 year old games on.
*snicker*
You could always head down to radio shack and buy a $5.99 RF modulator. It will work just fine. Most macrovision protection schemes simply play with the max voltage coming down the line. Most professional systems will ignore the region between the sync pulse and the front porch (usually re-generated by TBC's) but for consumer VCR's this is where the AGC (auto-gain-control) steps into play. the AGC is designed to stablize input voltage to 1vPTP. Now, if your VCR gets 1.5V, all of the sudden, the active scanning area (which follows 1vptp) becomes 1/2 as bright, and can suffer from luma and chroma issues. Video processors which strip the front porch region and replace it with internal sync signals can help.
so you don't wanna support the mpaa, good for you.. all i have to say though is that the more "anti-whatever" way you go, the crappier whatever you buy will be. don't waste your time, get a real high end player.
1. buy a Windows machine with a DVD drive
2. set up a VNC-type connection to it
3. connect to the Windows box from your X session
4. Enjoy!
I don't mind emulation if it's non-profit, but making money off of it without compensating the original authors seems extremely icky to me.
These are all players made by a company in china called Shinco. The set top player is the Shinco 868 and the portable is Shinco SVP-980. Both of which can be bought for much less than the prices they are quoting. Don't expect any support from Delux when they play no part in the production of these devices. Look around online and I'm sure you can get better prices on both these items.
Although it says that it will block the playback when connected to a VCR and it won't when connected to a TV, I can't see how it can differentiate between the two.
It doesn't. The current crop of consumer VCRs react to a macrovision-scrambled input, and don't display it properly. This is by design, unfortunately.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
The only time there is a charge on pay-pal is if you sign up with their pro or business accounts. Then you get assessed a 1.9% + $.25 fee for every payment you recieve.
I used to use Kagi, and their payment rate is on a sliding scale - "Kagi charges 6.5% up to a maximum of $3.00 for our operational costs, plus 3.5% plus $0.50 for processing costs we incurr (credit card fees, etc)."
I'd recieve a payment for a low end hosting account (say about $60.00 under my old scale), and Kagi would take about 10% of that. Plus there's generally over a one month lag in recieving payments from Kagi.
However, Kagi does offer some customization features that paypal doesn't, as well as their registration code system for shareware. Each has there pro's and cons I guess.
Yes, there may be some fraud issues with paypal. There can be anytime you purchase something from someone you don't know. At least with PayPal and Kagi, you're not actually giving the person your credit card number. The reason the credit card companies won't get involved is because you've paid paypal and not the person directly. Paypal hasn't done anything wrong, so the credit card companies can't reverse the charges. If you run into, or suspect a case of fraud, let paypal know about it. And it might be a good idea to read paypal's security help on fraud issues.
If it were from the company, it surely would have said "I bought this and it is GREAT! you have to get one!"
Over the past few weeks I've received quite a few spams from dulux regarding this player. I've deleted each one. When a company resorts to multiple spams in order to promote their product, I become a bit suspicious.
/. in an attempt to stir up interest within the geek community. I'm not sure, but I am definitely staying away from them.
Perhaps it is a legitimately good product that has had absolutely no independent reviews. Or perhaps they're spamming
--Dan
This machine will have to change its name if it wants to sell in the UK where 'dulux' is a well-known name of household decorating paint!
Also, I'm slightly concerned about an anonymous coward posting this. It might well be someone from the company trying to get some publicity.
Listen:
I've been spammed by this company 3 times over the past few months, and I can't believe slashdot would advertise for such a low-life company (Anonymous Coward posts should be more heavily scrutinized/researched).
Assuming this product is real (which I highly doubt it is given its capabilities and low, low cost), its illegal use of un-licensed intellectual property from Sega is just plain unacceptable. Breaking patent laws is no way to start a movement against them - its how people get thrown in jail (or fined beyond belief).
I hope all of you (and slashdot ) will start taking these sorts of products with a grain of salt...if they were feasible, and legal, they would either (a) cost a hell of a lot more or (b) be developed by a larger company with more money to spend on R&D.
Besides, spamming companies suck.
ToiletDuk (58% Slashdot Pure)
ToiletDuk (58% Slashdot Pure)
looks very cool.. but . "large 7 inch display".. I see mention of an audio out but nothing about video - that would frustrate the hell out of me if it didn't.
btw, i have an apex 600a, and i've been basically happy with it, but it seems to lose sync slightly on longer titles......
'scuze me - too early, upon a second glance it does say that it has standard video out - so - cool! anyone play with one yet?
wow, that's not a bad idea - but does the refresh keep up?
Hmmm. Why is Sega getting cranky at the DVD companies copyright violations but not the ROM sites?
Could it be that Dulux DVD is a big enough company to bother suing, but the ROM site owners are pissants who don't have enough cash to make it worth the cost of the lawyers. If Sega were to go after the ROM sites it would be seen as them bullying the underdog little guys.
Microsoft and the BSA don't go after home users copying software for their friends, but if the local computer store is selling computers loaded with unlicensed software they cop a serious spanking. It's the difference between amateurs and professionals.
Correct.
I understand that studios are already releasing DVD's that won't play on region free equipment.
I tried connecting the video out on my decoder card to the video in on the TV only to find out that it feeds through the VCR part first (makes sense though). So this large-screen TV is rendered useless by the Macrocrap.
MPAA - Hears a nail. Sit and spin.
Digital Wokan
I wanted to spend 8 years defending the US constitution.
Dammit.
Here's a nail, MPAA. (Damn fingers working ahead of the brain's spell checking.)
Digital Wokan
I wanted to spend 8 years defending the US constitution.
This is incorrect. A region 0 player will potentially play ALL REGIONS, but not with the new protection scheme used in "The Patriot" and other movies. Here the software on the DVD basically checks if the player allows to play a different region than that the movie comes from and if it does - it will not play. So code free should mean that you can SET the region to 1, 2, 3, 4, .... so that it behaves like a single-region device, but you can change the region as often as you want.
----- On the requirements it said: Windows 98 or better - so I installed Linux
Forget it! Yesterday, I received two UCE's from either a company selling these DVD players or the company that makes them. Either way, I can't support these things.
You can get as political as you want about MPAA, RIAA, DeCSS cases or whatever, but when it comes down to spammers, that's the group at which we need to pay the most attention (or lack thereof) with our dollar votes.
-Chris
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
Ok Basically womever this is what they have done is they have most likely bought a bunch of htese and are re-selling them. I have seen them forsale in various super asian malls in the toronto area (aka pacific mall) and no I dont mean that to be a bigoted statement ... check your local china town or dragon city mall or pacific mall and I'm sure you will find a vendor carrying them as well as many other wonderful goodies.
There are many standard resolution TV's with Component input.
Progressive Scan is what they call 'line doubling'
No it's not. Progressive scan is the original format of a DVD, also called 480P (480 lines of resolution).
Svideo output runs at 480i (480 lines of resolution, interlaced) which only paints half of the lines in one pass of the electron gun. This makes a noticable flicker. Regular DVD players have to include the circuitry to step the output down to this format.
The Dulux website does not mention DTS audio, which is (correct me if I'm wrong) DVD disks with audio on it. The audio is much higher quality and I think it's also possible to have true surround effects
Nope. DTS is just an audio format competing with Dolby Digital. Personally, I think it is a better format, but it does require a more expensive decoder. The DVD-AUDIO format is a audio-onlu standard which is supposed to give much more lif-like reproduction of sound. It has even been rumored to satisfy people who are die-hard vinyl fanatics. However, I haven't actually heard it in person, so that's all second hand.
Nice principles. "I'm gonna onsell something I know to be shitty to someone who doesn't know better, so they can get fucked over just like I feel I was".
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
Magazine articles are prepared weeks before, often a couple of months before, the magazine reaches you. Getting a magazine review requires getting the device to a reviewer months before publication.
Since the general concensis is that this company is a fraud, can anyone actually suggest a *specific* *model* that supports:
DTS
Dolby Digital AC3
Progressive Scan output
Component video output
Unlimited Region SELECTABLE (not region 0)
DVD-R
Macrovision toggle
Quite frankly, I could give a rat's ass if it can play mp3 cd's, or even audio CD's (I have a good cd player, thanks.
Any suggestions?
Well, I don't want to imply that I'm an expert on the subject. I only said that the unit was missing (or at least it wasn't mentioned) DTS support.
I guess it's hard to believe that it wouldn't support it over the SPDIF outputs, but it's weird that they don't mention it.
I've heard DTS only once, a disc from the eagles, and it sounded awesome (and not because of bass). That would be compared to CD-DA though.
Thanks for the feedback.
I was going to do a side-by-side later when the TV arrives. My projector does support Progressive Scan, and at Circuit City they only had the Apex or a Pioneer.
The Pioneer has bad reviews regarding the PS, and since the 800A is so new, I can't find any worthwile reviews.
I think it's gonna go back anyways, because the newer Apex machines don't support the region-code menu anymore. (you simply can't change it, not even a couple of times...)
i'd bet dollars to donuts on it.
...dave
Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
Is this possible? I've been looking for some suggestions on that since I don't know much about DVD players myself. Especially: can any dvd player connect to a scart connector or do I have to check for that feature specifically?
IANAB (I am not a banker), but my understanding of FDIC insurance is that an individual is protected from losses if the bank goes under up to something like $100,000. However, I don't believe that FDIC insurance applies to fraud in anyway whatsoever. If you pay a repairman by check for shoddy repairs, your bank will generally not get involved. Credit card companies tend to get involved, but of course they are not FDIC insured, since it doesn't apply to them.
I'm not saying this isn't legit, but the apparent misrepresenation of FDIC insurnace casts considerable doubt on their legitimacy.
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
If you want a good MP3 device there is Audio Request with an excellent product.
At $800 is anyone buying this?
Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
If you click "Buy Now" you'll read the following:
"The below payment options are used to PROTECT you the customer. These are FDIC insured banks and will protect you against any type of fraud. You must register with one of them to place your order. We do not receive any credit card information, this information is kept secure with our payment processors. If you are not satisfied with the product for any reason you will have the product security from these Financial Institutions."
The Company has a point... if you don't get the product, or you're not happy with it.. you CAN get your money back!
Note the "#304" in the address. This is most likely a P.O. box, or a Mailboxes Etc. box (or similar) both of which are frequently used by scammers to look legit while remaining hard to trace.
No, stupid, we went over this in court, remember?
"We have to have DeCSS, because there are no Linux DVD players!"
"But what about that one from SigmaDesigns?"
"Uhh..."
Remember? It's quite authorized. Linux isn't an 'unauthorized system'. Such a beast doesn't exist. Windows is 'unauthorized' if you don't have a DVD card...
grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I've had my Apex 600A for a few months now, and I wouldn't exactly recommend it with a 100% guarente.
;).
Most of the time it works fine, but it's not what I would call a *quality* DVD player.
- Sometimes on long movies the audio/video will become slightly out of sync.
- Sometimes it has trouble booting DVD's and you have to "reboot" before it will read them.
- The MP3 playing feature works fine, but shows the filenames as 8 chars (ABCDEN01 ABCDEN02 ABCDEN03 etc), which makes finding a specific song very hard.
Other than those three quirks, it's been a dandy... but I do think you could do better for your money.
I wouldn't recommend the Dulux because of all the suspicion surrounding it. Do some more research before deciding what to get
Hope this helps.
I did call them. Or rather I called a different 800 number from a spam I hadn't deleted yet.
:-)
I talked to a charming young lady who answered the phone "E-commerce Incorporated, how can I help you?". She was kind enough to explain that they were a service house for the company out of Houston.
So... This is a company who spams under several names. The nice person at the 800 number is not the one to complain to, she is just trying to earn a living.
Take care,
Dan
Actually, you may be getting confused by the fact that many games (Sonic, Sonic 2, & Altered Beast to name a few) were released on both Genesis and the SMS. Of course the SMS versions' graphics weren't as good. If you go to the website and click on a game title, you'll see that the graphics aren't as good as what the Genesis had.
So it looks legit to me.
Really? Because I bought a JVC VCR a little over a year ago and it has an A/V line in on the front. Since space is a premium in my family room, I get the DVD player out of the closet and plug it into the front of the VCR. The DVD picture looks fine for something coming through A/V cables. Granted, I haven't tried recording anything from a DVD, but we're just talking about viewing here.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
My understanding is that the Raite players are still sold under the label Yamakawa (and probably other labels, too), at least in Europe. I got a model 780 for 500,- DM last week (that's less than US$250, they've been available for less than $200 before). It has an updated firmware (1.4) but is neither code-free nor Macrovision-free - but it's supposed to be not-as-bad-quality, because it's assembled in Germany.
I used the player for three days, then the power supply ceased to work. They told me it would take one or two weeks to fix that. Well, still in time for Santa... (as you can guess, I'm not much of a hardware hacker...)
I plan to downgrade the firmware to 1.2 which is available on the 'net in a hacked version that allows switching to regio-free (and, possibly, turning off Macrovision, not sure about that). BTW, the vendor offered to do that for me for $40.
Just FYI, I don't think this Shinco868 is the same DVD player featured at www.gamedvdplayer.com. And I do know that the titles listed on the gamedvdplayer site are Sega Master System games as I have played quite a few of them. A lot of the Master System titles were very similar to Genesis/Megadrive titles so I see how that mistake could be made (a good example being Golden Axe Warrior which was actually an RPG type game rather than the 2-1/2D side scroller platform).
Just to add my two bits about this player, I had actually come across it a couple of weeks before this whole thread was started, and the whole thing seems very sketchy to me. All the good features seem to be on this player, but I have a hard time believing that this is all legit. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure that the Master System didn't have more than a couple of hundred of titles published for it, overseas or domestic.
Buyer beware indeed.
I don't remeber the brand (I'll get back with that tomorrow), but this thing featured:
:)
-all regions
-plays audio-cd's, CD-R, CD-RW
-MP3 cds
it was something like Fl 900,- (450 euro), in one of my local hifi stores
looks like that's what you'll need for a standalone DVD player
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
It has SCART out option, wich is useless if your in the US, but no Componet or Digital Video out. No progressive scan either. What about buffering for the layer swap so you dont get teh anoying pause in video, this is a VERY important feature if you ask me and almost no player has it, are DVD makers insane, Id pay a lil extra for that feature, and yea DTS is important. I had an apex because it was the thing of the moment and I hated it, I wont be fooled again, Ill wait till I find the right DVD player, untill then Ill just use my PS2, it's quality is fine for now, and it has DTS and Componet out.
I bought a Raite DVD player recently from Computer Geeks. It came out of the box rattling and 3 screws fell out. I returned it for a replacement (I had to pay shipping) and was sent one that 2 screws fell out of.
Just for fun, I went and looked up their street address on Mapquest, and it shows their business location to be near to a golf course and right next to a park, in an area that appears to be all residential. Just my paranoia, but it would appear that either they're operating out of their apartment or their business location is very idyllic. Here is the map
I didn't get an Apex 600a when they were available with the loopholes menu. Though I've found a site that sells them (modified) for about $100 more than retail, this seems a bit ugly. Are there any commercial players out there that allow all regions and macrovision defeat? I'm a bit skittish about the Delux that's mentioned here - I'm not a gamer and it appears to be mostly pirated software at that.
http://drteknikal.blogspot.com/
I must say I'm VERY tempted to get one of these things... but I'm also worried about sending them $250 and either a) recieved a crappy quality DVD player or b) no DVD player at all. Other than a small review on The Daily Radar (it was more of a "WOW! Look what you can buy but we've never seen one for real") I haven't seen anything on it. And my searches bring up nothing. Can anybody find some "respected" information on it?
It doesn't mess with horizontal anything -- and certainly has nothing to do with timing.
Macrovision places a superwhite ("high voltage" as far as a video signal is concerned), high freqency pulse in the virtical blanking interval (VBI.) The pulse is designed to confuse the gain control circuits (the AGC - Automatic Gain Control) within the VCR. AGCs in TVs are slower to account for transient noise in the broadcast signal (modern TVs have macrovision "hardened" AGCs). VCRs are trying to record the signal so they have to adjust rapidly -- 30% too many electrons ("over white") fired at a phosphor pixel doesn't nothing; 30% too much voltage on a VCR R/W head is a magnetic disaster.
Things have changed since Macrovision was developed. Now, everything understands it and knows what to do with it. For example, the TiVo knows when Macrovision is present in the input video and (theoretically) stores that in the mpeg data to know to enable it when it plays it back. Almost all video codecs now support detection and reporting of Macrovision. Two of my VCRs don't care about macrovision at all -- they record is along with everything else without distortion.
Techtronics is another one. Bought my DVD player from them, with no problems (besides Pioneer's lame connector which can't hold the display board tight, that is :)
--
Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
Yeah, so am I a verified member. All that means is that you have a bank account.
--
Make Money on the 'Net
Sig broken, watch for
Go look at the list of games. Are you really going to tell me that with Phantasy Star, Shinobi, Sonic, Bubble Bobble, Ecco the Dolphin, and Alex Kidd, some guy is crapping his pants because he can play California Games and Spy vs. Spy?
Then again, maybe that should actually ease my suspicions - no sane person would attempt to promote this system because it has California Games. And if they had just picked at random, they probably would have been gushing about Cheese Cat-Astrophe and Global Gladiators.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
Would you really fork over hundreds of dollars to a "company" claiming to operate out of the following address?
Dulux Electronics
5773 Woodway #304
Houston, Texas 77057
Yes, that really doesn't sound like some loser running a scam out of his apartment, does it?
C'mon people, use your brains! SEGA obviously didn't license out the usage of the Sonic the Hedgehog logo OR all those old SMS games, and the picture of this "player" looks very clearly like an old VCR, not a new device.
Also, did anyone think to check the WHOIS entry for this dude? Take a look:
[rr-n1-tor.opensrs.net]
Registrant:
ecommerce inc
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
Domain Name: GAMEDVDPLAYER.COM
Administrative Contact:
roberts, scott carolbowman25@hotmail.com
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
713-785-1636
Technical Contact:
roberts, scott carolbowman25@hotmail.com
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
713-785-1636
Billing Contact:
roberts, scott carolbowman25@hotmail.com
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
713-785-1636
Record last updated on 30-Nov-2000.
Record expires on 08-Nov-2001.
Record Created on 08-Nov-2000.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SOG.NET 208.195.144.4
If this thing isn't a totally fabricated lie intended as a way to rip people off via PayPal, then it can't be much more than some single dude with some electronics knowledge who cannibalizes an old VCR, an SMS, and a DVD player and then jams all the parts together in an old Betamax player case.
I encourage everyone to call this loser and tell him to stop ripping people off!
- "It's just a matter of opinion!" - PRIMUS
Is anyone BUYING a sega master system? Anywhere? No.
So there is what..... zero market for it?
And this post about it being unethical - it came from a game emulation site! Why is it ethical on a pc, and not on a dvd player?
Since all these roms were lifted from a web site, it looks to me like Dulix has a good argument: the original copyright holders have stopped enforcing their copyright rights because there is no commercial market for these games, and have thus already forfeited them. There is also no loss to them by Dulux including the games, it's not like we're now buying games from Dulux that we would have otherwise bought from Sega. It's not like Sega even has these games to sell anymore. Intellectual property must be vigorously defended or it will eventuall become public domain. There are already many dvd players that let you play 3d0 games. They haven't been sued. Shinco has a player that plays genesis games. They haven't been sued.
Agree? Disagree? Why?
Why is it that ROM sites are ok? But putting roms in a dvd player isn't? Where is the pc ethically superior to a dvd player?
As everyone has been saying - the Master System is a dead console! There is no market for it! It is still covered by copyright law, but only because the law is bad. Can you buy a sega master system from sega? If not, then why not grab this?
try looking at the specs and the comparison chart buddy.
I've already counted you out.
Buying material that infringes on someone's copyright is not the same as buying stolen material. People get all caught up in this copyright infringement == theft mindset and get carried away. There are laws on copyright infringement. There are some VERY different laws on actual theft. One is a felony. One is not. And I continue to believe that if roms were acceptable to sega on the pc, they should be equally acceptable on another device.
Dvd players shouldn't require support, so support is not my first worry. And it makes no difference, really. I bought a completely legal Smart & Friendly cd burner, 2 months later the company was out of business and my warranty worthless. It looks like the machine that is the guts of the Dulux box costs the same as theirs, minus the sega games. So which would I rather have - tech support for my dvd player, or 721 sega games, given that the hardware will be essentially identical? It's up to Sega to protect their interests, I have no duty to help them out. Their army of lawyers I'm sure does a good job looking out for them without volunteer help. Did anyone actually post anything factual from Sega about this?
Sega had a console. They made millions selling it and the games they developed. Then they made a new one. They ditched the old one. They make no more games for it. They don't sell the old games anymore. The only place you can find games or consoles is from ebay or a yard sale - both places where sega will make no money from you getting the system. They have one page for 'legacy system support' on their site. Nowhere that you can buy the legacy systems or games. So Sega is basically refusing to sell me a genesis or master system. They have deliberately chosen to not continue making money from it.
...... nothing, and be out a chunk of cash. Or they can ignore it and not spend that money. The only sensible thing for them to do is offer dulux a license at a very modest cost - the only way they can get any money out of the deal.
This is a good example of why copyright should have to be defended the way that trademarks are. After abandoning a product for a certain time their copyrights should dissolve so that others can fill the very very small niche market that wants the retro games. Now Disney is still using Mickey Mouse, and making money off of him. They can make a case for continuing to have protection for that. But what case could Sega make for continuing to have copyrights on Genesis games? 'Well we refuse to sell them to the public but its our right. We dont want anyone to have these products so there, nyaa nyaa na boo-boo.' This doesn't affect the bottom line for sega at all. Why would they even WANT to try to defend their rights? Right now they're making zero from genesis. Tomorrow they can choose to launch an expensive legal battle, out of which they could get
Someone posted a link to other sites by the company, like this one: www.250dvd.com
Look at the rear picture. It IS an Afreey. I can't make out the model numbers, etc, but it is the same maker, and with all the same features i'm sure it's the same model. so if you'd be happy with it w/o the games (about half seem to be genesis games by the way) why not get 721 games thrown in?
If this is an Afreey ld-2060 as it looks like (you can see afreey on it on a rear pic on www.250dvd.com, and has same features, price) then the afreey ld-2060 does support svcd. It ALSO supports 'mini-dvds', cdrs burned with dvd authoring software to give you 15 minutes of dvd video on a cdr.
look at www.250dvd.com There's a rear pic where you can see Afreey. Look up reviews of the Afreey ld-2060, my best guess as to what this actually is. All the reviews are positive so farm
The rom sites are, however, for profit, advertisement supported web sites. Making money. Off of other people's games.
About your 10 year proposal - I think that's too long. Especially for video games. Why do you have to wait 10 years? The point of copyright is to protect the creators economic rights. Once they cease to produce the product, they cease to have any economic interest in that product, and their rights related to it should also expire. If you no longer sell the master system..... HOW are you hurt by someone else selling it? If you want to license it to others, fine. Sega made no initiatives i was aware of in that area. If Sega had a policy saying 'you can license old systems for x dollars' then they'd have a right to complain. But they don't. They never have. They abandoned the market. It's not like sanyo wanted to put these games in their vcrs and this blew the whole deal. As soon as a company stops making money off a product and abandons it it should become public domain.
They didn't care when millions of pc users could get access to roms of their games. Why are they then upset if 100,000 people can play THOSE EXACT SAME ROMS on dvds? They considered the market dead enough to not defend their rights when the roms were on pc. My question is why does the particular machine matter? Would it be okay if Dulux called this a pc with a dvd drive, but only tv support (no monitor output)? And no keyboard, no mouse? And no general purpose os? It would still be the same product. But it would then be a 'pc' running those same roms that have been up on the web forever.
There are a bunch of dvd players that let you play 3d0 games. Because the 3d0 is dead. What the hell do they care? Are they a company anymore? Beats me. This does suggest a good way for console companies to make money off old consoles in the future. Too bad they didn't think of it themselves. But I remain unconvinced that roms that are unthreatening to them on pc are suddenly threatening on a dvd player. How many people own pcs? Now how many own a dvd player?
Hmm. The rom sites i see often have big banner ads. Hmm. Do you think the people running the site get money for those ads? Do you think they might be .... (shudder) .... making money while giving away those roms? To a market that is thousands of times the size of the Dulux dvd player market?
I have no problem with being against both the Dulux dvd player and the roms sites. That's consistent. But the first post I saw about these being 'illegal' roms (is there another kind?) was from a post on a roms site. Now that made no sense to me. How could you like roms on your pc, but not think they should be sold in any other device?
On a side note, I played the dreamcast recently, the sonic game. IT SUCKED! It was sooooo bad. 10 minutes of video per one minute of play. It really made me wish I could go to a store somewhere and get a genesis for $20 or so. But Sega is no longer selling them. The only place to get them as far as i know, is from roms. But I really don't want to play sonic on my computer, I want to play it on the tv while I lounge on the couch. Imagine how happy I was when I saw this region free dvd player that included all those games.
Sega isn't selling these games. Where are you supposed to get them if you want them? Are you telling me that Sega should get to say 'No, no nostalgia for you, you cannot ever ever get any of those games you used to play from us or anyone because we refuse to sell them'. If they refuse to sell them..... how are they harmed by my getting them elsewhere? Is Sega licensing these roms to anyone? I haven't seen any sega sonic palms floating around, or any other evidence that they've licensed the games to anyone.
I don't know if it matters, but from a rear pic of the player you can see Afreey. Afreey makes a unit called the ld-2060 that i think Dulux is using as their base (same region stuff, mp3, etc). It also costs $250. So they are adding something to that unit, but it doesnt look like they're increasing the price because of the roms. They appear to be in essence giving them away.
DID YOU LOOK AT THE SITE? DID YOU LOOK AT THE SPECS? DID YOU LOOK AT THE FEATURE COMPARISON?
Obviously not moron. Or you would see that it has DTS. And it has composite video. Making your post offensive to me. Check out the material before you blather and try to show off your audio geekness.
Couldn't find any info on output! You're freaking kidding me! When it makes a big point of outputting in PAL or NTSC?
You forgot your login? Well try to remember it... and try to remember to read articles before commenting on them.
You have already decided that it is a good buy at $300. It going to play any number of formats that you recognize. And then theirs the added bonus of the video games.
This device was not made for Joe 'Normal' Consumer. It was made for people that see that it's not just another DVD player.
Buy It
"This must be a Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
Well I thought it was probably a spoof. But someone answered the phone. "E-commerce Incorporated, how can I help you?" I didn't feel like talking. Perhaps someone else will?
...are the best. Get a Pioneer DV-434. It does progressive scan, component video, CD/CD-R reading, etc.
Funnily enough, I got a SPAM in my Inbox about this very same DVD player. Although it isn't from this website, I thought it was a bit odd especially the timing.
http://www.branchlights.com/ - No-Tangle Christmas Tree lights
http://texusa.com/1a.htm - A domain name hosting
http://www.tppa.org/3h2l.htm - A photographer
http://www.kaleinvestigation.com/pi_tx.html - Private Eye
http://www.computechusa.net/mainpage.html - Computer consulting
So I'm assuming this is probably a small office building of some sort. That's better than if it was just an apartment, but I'm still not sure.
I purchased the AIWA XD-DV370 a couple of weeks ago and it works great. It supports mp3 cd's (including variable bit rate up to 320kps) as well as good DVD functionality. I considered APEX and others but decided to get something I could get at the Circuit City next door that was cheap and from a brand-name manufacturer. I have seen 2 skip artifacts on 'The Green Mile' dvd, but that could be because it was a rental dvd that was dirty. The mp3 doesn't display id3 tags but I have a catalog of all my mp3 cd's so it isn't such a big problem. The manual suggests constant bit rate of 128 but VBR seems to work fine.
You can set up your PayPal account to always carry a zero balance, and to charge your CC for every transaction and for only the exact amount of the transaction. Last time I used PayPal, they didn't charge anything for the transaction, although I heard it's different now.
--
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Damn, I hadn't realized that.
--
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
What about this model? It goes for $199 at buy.com. Anyone care to comment about it? M
I have a philips DVD player, it is no way touched or hacked and it is region-free. I am sure because I am not going to hack a deck for 2-3 movies. Keep that in mind.
Thank you for your very technical and utterly interesting arguments, we are all pleased to have such a litterate person on Slashdot !
"Naughty, naughty, naughty, you filthy old soomka !"
Dolby Digital does not mean 5.1 sound. Dolby Digital is a method of encoding. It even comes in a mono variety. While I wont claim that the SMS thing is legal -- it's entirely possible to have the game sound output to Dolby Digital.
jinkusu
maybe it emulates the SMS with the processor in the DVD player. It wouldn't need much ram for a small rom like that.
Why do the kids in West Side Story have to join a street gang if they can afford $70 Gap khakis?
IIRC the Beta machines never used Macrovision, if you look at thrift shops they can be had for about 10$. Whether the tape mechanism works or not is irrelevent if all you need to do is get the video signal from your DvD to the TV (but if it does, hey, Bonus!) I've been using my Beta to make backups of my movies and have never had a problem with a messed up picture.
Note that when you click "buy now", it takes you to PayPal's site, rather than asking you for a credit card number directly. From my limited understanding, PayPal makes it much harder than Visa or Mastercard to get a refund if you have problems with a scamming vendor. Can someone with more PayPal knowledge explain the tradeoffs of paying this way, with respect to refunds that circumvent the merchant?
How about Cliff or someone else at ./ post an addendum on the first paragraph of the main posting: "[BEWARE: Seems to be a total scam, read discussion]". I know you have to watch your wording to avoid a possible lawsuit, but you also seem open to lawsuits if you do nothing after the scam is exposed. While it's easy to justify inaction as "only a moron would click on the link and buy it without reading the discussion," with 100,000 readers (total wild guess), you have to figure a few would do such a thing. They'll be out $250 each, and that's exactly what the scam's perpetrator counted on. The longer you have a front-page advertisement and link on ./, the greater the perpetrator's reward, and the more encouraged other scam artists will be to pull these sorts of stunts. This is obviously a lot more pro than the "video game collection on eBay" hoax, and I'll be anything garners at least a few thousand dollars for the effort.
If you mean they would have to change their name because of trademark issues, I'd say probably not. They wouldn't be nabbed for trademark infringment, because trademarks are only applicable in a certain field.
For instance Dulux probably has the trademark in the area of paints and hardware, which nobody would confuse with a DVD player. There wouldn't be any dilution of the branding by this DVD player being available (or at least any sane court would say so).
Speaking of Terra Server, has anyone else noticed and/or been extremely annoyed with the "Clever Content" thing that they require you to use to view the images now? The only point of it seems to be preventing you from saving the image, and they go to some very stupid extremes to do so. For example, if you have vncviewer.exe running on your system ANYWHERE, it refuses to display the images. Nevermind the fact that vncviewer.exe is NOT vncserver, which could potentially be used to take "illicit" screenshots through another computer. I just thought that was excessively stupid, and a bit repulsive. I have not tried using it in Linux, and I have my doubts that they have even provided a viewer.
bastards.
Its made by Shinco in China or at least that is what it looks like.
The component version has the same features as one of their newer Shinco DVD players and the portable one looks exactly the same as the portable Shinco DVD player. Shinco seems deal mostly with OEMs outside of China (and Hong Kong). According to them, they supply parts to Sony for their DVD players.
I was recently spammed by these guys before they changed their website to show Dulux as a "brand name". I think I'll stay away from these guys and buy it somewhere else...
Sounds like the all-in-one scanner/printer/copier/fax things. I have a canon one and i barely works. I wonder if this will follow the pattern?
I am !amused.
Who is asking for a DVD player with POP3 and a keyboard? I kind of doubt there is a market for this...
Evan - needs to hit preview before submitting
I've got a 32" JVC D-Series with component ins.
-Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
Your likely to see this on many players. I've seen it Sony, Apex, RCA, & Phillips players. I assume it just happens sometimes.
:)
I usually just press stop/start and the problem is corrected. Worst case, open/close the tray. I've got an eject button on the remote, so this is the easiest 2nd try for me
On another rant, I saw an Apex 703 the other day, and noticed the lack of a power button on the remote. Although I actually like my 600a, I'd not buy a 703 for that reason alone.
-Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
Registrant:
So, what's wrong with this picture? It's registered to "ecommerce, inc," and the contact info lists a name and an e-mail addy that don't match up in even the vaguest sense. So, while this would be a truly sweet deal, it seems quite fishy. Even I don't feel great about it, and I don't give a toss if the Sega stuff is licensed or not....ecommerce inc
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
Domain Name: gamedvdplayer.com
Administrative Contact:
roberts, scott carolbowman25@hotmail.com
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
713-785-1636
Technical Contact:
roberts, scott carolbowman25@hotmail.com
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
713-785-1636
Billing Contact:
roberts, scott carolbowman25@hotmail.com
5773 Woodway #304
houston, tx 77057
US
713-785-1636
Record last updated on 30-Nov-2000.
Record expires on 08-Nov-2001.
Record Created on 08-Nov-2000.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SOG.NET 208.195.144.4
Which brings up another point. Surely Sega *knows* about this, right? Where's the lawsuit? The cease and desist orders? I also find that sketchy....
sig not found
Their page also says that they're coming out with a mobile DVD player (not nearly as embelished as their regular one, still plays mp3's but thats about it) but they're also coming out with a mobile Mp3 player combined with a digital camera... This is about the weirdest thing i've ever seen.... Who would want to play songs while taking pictures.... (well... I can think os some situations where some nice music would help make some pictures better ;) )
Anyways, here's the specs:
10 Mhz, 16bit CISC Processor
High-speed downloads by parallel interface (300k per sec)
MP-3 File Playback DSC Mode (Digital Still Camera Mode)
32/64 MB Embedded Flash Card (32MB stores 54 photos)
Voice recording by internal MIC
@ 32kbps = 2 hrs of stored music on MP3000 player
Digital Volume control (32 steps)
Digital Bass Boosting (12 steps)
Digital Trebel Boosting (12 steps)
DSP Modes (8)
Digital Telephone Directory (stores 250 #'s)
2 line LCD display
Only a 2 line LCD display?? Thats a little strange if you wanted a good digital camera... Telephone Directory???? Who needs that on a mp3 player or camera!
Here's a link to their page about it
------
------
zap.....
My guess is it's an apartment. That section of Woodway is mostly residential.
I don't care if it's the best deal on earth and it cures cancer. If it's advertised by spam, I ain't buying one.
If it cures cancer, I'll sell myself to buy their entire production run, spam or no spam. (I mean, c'mon... you gotta draw the line somewhere!)
--
"Give him head?"
It almost always means "Box 304".
0daymeme.com: Great stuff.
They are advertising it as "region-free".
:-)
This is the wrong way to go.
What you need is region-selectable.
THere is talk by the big studios about making DVDs that wont play on region-free players.
You DID know that DVDs are actually programmable things, right?
"A suspicious (yet anxious) Anonymous Coward asks"
/. discussiom... :)
Obviously they realized that this was pretty fishy looking....
I think they just posted this because a lot of people would be interested in something such as this, even if it is blatant PR more than one option tends to pop up in a
Jeremy
In theory if you don't run your DVD player through your VCR and pass it directly into your TV it should work. However some TV's apparently even have a problem with that.
So lets cut through the obvious sales pitch that started the thread and ask the real question. Is there a MP3,CD-R, No Macrovision, DVD player out there that has good outs, doesn't project an image that looks like crap, and can play all dvds without horrible layer changes or lock ups?
e x p e c t d e l a y . c o m
Or, better yet, make your own indie film.
Really. I'm serious.
Do what Cassavetes did 40 years ago -- say FU to the suits (and give a very special FU to Jack Valenti) -- and get a 16mm (or DV recorder these days) and do it yourself.
Of course, my guess is that the MPAA still makes money here, by charging the TV stations a fee for the rights to broadcast the movie. By tuning in, you reinforce the fact to the TV stations that it was a good deal for them to pay this licensing fee, since it got you to watch their station, and hence, their advertising.
Obviously the only real way to resist the MPAA is to not buy a DVD player, not go to movies, not rent movies, but to only watch, use, and endorse GNU/movies, on GNU/tv-stations, using your GNU/television and GNU/VCR.
Every player has its own set of flaws. The QA involved to make sure that the player complies perfectly with every portion of the spec and the ability to perform properly in real world conditions is fairly difficult.
This is why you see some discs that don't play properly on a Toshiba, Panasonic, etc. Sometimes all it is is a chapter hop on the layer switch, or it could be worse.
That being said, from what I have read in reviews and from what I have seen, models like the Apex and other cheap/non-mainstream models tend to have more of these types of issues. More than likely, this happens due to the fact that they do not have large quality assurance budgets/departments.
You may never have a disc that does not play or is pixelated with whatever model you choose, but due to the complexity of DVD (Compared to CD and other formats) this can always be a problem.
I can say that my Panasonic, which I know some people have had problems with, has not caused problems with any of my 150+ discs. So, it is all in the roll of the dice. Take the informed chance. Bill
[Note: I don't own one or anything, so I can't vouch for quality. I have bought some things from the company in the past though (PlayStation/N64 joypad -> USB convertors, which are very good), and they seem very efficient]
--
...or am I missing something?
No DTS? Count me out.
--
I have been trying to get more info on that player for a while. Ign has been trying to get a review unit for a while and haven't heard anything back from the company. There seems to be no reviews up on the web concerning it. Further more everyone in the home theater forum seems to think its a hoax. The unit does seem a little to good to be true and the list of master system games contain a whole lot of Genesis games. Anyone else find this odd. I sent an email off to the company 2 weeks ago just to see if they would aleave my fears (hell even if the unit had shitty dvd playback it would still be worth $250) but have yet to hear anything from them. At the moment I am leaning towards hoax myself, though if it is one, its fairly well thought out.
- WeaselGod
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet turbines
Now, if they would just get rid of the damn region coding on the discs themselves....Talk about your average comsumer pipe dream.
"See, we plan ahead! That way, we never have to do anything now."
The feature they promote most on their website is that... THE DULUX PLAYER HAS A SEGA MASTER SYSTEM IN IT! A Master System? Are we kidding? What they suppose I should do with a 15 year old console? Maybe they think that we don't really want to watch DVDs, but to play Sonic and Shinobi... Crap.
Playing DVD's you've made from all you're Leechster Downloads.
After what better use for DVD than looking at pron....
mmmm gigs of pron make Homer horny
I have the Netstream2000 from sigmadesigns, and yes it does do streaming video, but when you download the linux drivers, they come with a few apps to acually watch a DVD movie on your computer, the bunk part is to use it in linux you MUST buy the remotecontrol. The video overlay is very nice, and the tv out is very nice as well. The program miniplayer that comes with the drivers is the program that allows video overlay otherwise the default is tv-out. If you want DVD in linux and you want an awsome picture, this is defenitly the card to buy!
A few hours grace before the madness begins again.
Better yet! go buy a Netstream2000 from SigmaDesigns. It is fully supported in linux, hardware css, video overlay, tv out. This card rocks! The only problem is the price is $200
A few hours grace before the madness begins again.
Nice catch, yourself! Bwahahahahaaa.
Does anyone know of a hack to get past this thing? Although it says that it will block the playback when connected to a VCR and it won't when connected to a TV, I can't see how it can differentiate between the two.
From what I understand, Macrovision screws with the horizontal timing of the signal. I pulled some schematics off of a website a while back. It looks like the circuit filters out the horizontal timing signal and re-inserts a valid one. I have not built one yet because I am lazy.
(BEGIN semi-informed analasys)
A typical VCR just records the signal coming into it while a TV tunes itself to the incoming baseband signal. So when the signal changes, the circuitry in the TV is able to compensate, while the VCR just blindly records the signal. That's why DVD players do not come with RF outputs - the VCR's tuning circuit would work around the coding.
(END semi-informed analasys)
But keep in mind that IANAME (macrovision expert).
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
On the comparison chart on that site.. they say "Coaxial Digital Output allows for the DVD Player to interface with older televisions not supporting S-Video or RCA interfaces. This also ensures the highest quality with a coaxial system." which isn't true. Coaxial Digital Output is for sound, not video.
You'd determine this by the digital being there (UHF/VHF (which is what they're talking about) isn't digital), as well as the other players listed - the ones saying that they have "coaxial digital output" do not have the VHF/UHF, only coaxial outputs for sound.
One would think that if this was legit they would know what they're selling - but then again it could be some web guys screwing things up.
If you're talking about Digital Audio out (uh, SPDIF) they apparently have Fibre audio out and coaxial audio out.. only they don't know it (they say the coaxial audio out is for video and not audio.. go figure).
I don't know of any DVD player that advertises them having SPDIF output
It is NOT a sega master system which is included, its a sega MEGA DRIVE. The Mega Drive == genesis
DOH! You are right.The Shinoc868, from the reviews I saw on several sites has a MegaDrive/Genesis emulator, while the "Dulux" says it has a Master system...Sorry about that, just got a little confused:)
You can find a good review of this product at:. sh tml
http://www.cdrinfo.com/hardware/shinco868/index
yeah, yeah, before you flame me, the actual name of this Dvd/Genesis is the Shinco 868:)
I've also heard some people in the thread say that these dont sound like Master System games, they sound like Genesis games...Well...thats cause they are...this comes with a MEGA DRIVE. That was the name for the Genesis in other places than the US.
A lot of /.ers are saying "don't get this unit, because it doesn't support DTS"
and "don't get this unit because it doesn't support progressive scan"
and (most importantly) "don't get this unit, because it supports the MPAA"
Practically speaking, if you aren't a company slave, advertising under a thin disguise, you've done your research and know what you want.
You want primarily to play DVD, VCD, MP3, and have the ability to set region and disable macrovision.
Buy whatever lousy cheap player you want that meets those needs.
When you're ready to get a DTS capable amplifier, and a progressive scan monitor, go forth and drop loads and loads of cash on the fanciest box you can, but geez! We're talking about genesis games and such! WHY?!
Get what meets your needs now. If you're going to upgrade to something that can handle DTS or prog scan, get a player that can take advantage of those.
The safe presumption (a mistaken phrase if I ever spoke one) is that, you probably have more than one telly, and won't replace all of them with prog scan units at the same time. get a cheap dvd now, and get another when you get your prog scan screen and dts decoder.
and most importantly, research like all hell, and don't fall victim to buyer's remorse.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
That's not what that message is about. If you use paypal at all, and I do because I run a local band's website which takes orders on paypal for cd's & t-shirts, you would have noticed when purchasing when you go there the inital screen will sometimes say that the paypal system is busy, please refresh. Even for our small amount of sales we've had several customers ask us what that meant.
Note item (ii), not insured by any government agency (i.e. FDIC).
Second, they don't even guarantee protection themselves:
(Note the " Recovery of your claim is not guaranteed. ")The fact that they lie about the so-called "FDIC protection" and the questionable domain registration stuff is enough to make me not send my $250.
It's that "too good to be true" thing, which is hard to face when you really want it to be true.
SP
Well, they will get involved, but they don't make any guarantees: see my other comment with an excerpt from and link to their policy
Going to the site, and looking at the warrenty page you see they both have the same mailing address. E-Commerce Inc. - Repair Department 5773 Woodway #304 Houston, Texas 77057
Actually, it's been discovered that these games were most definitely NOT licensed from Sega or their respective manufacturer. So, (as I suspected), this thing, if it's real, would most definitely be illegal. At least, the games they ship with it are.
If you look on the comparison page, it lists both DTS and Component Video Out. However, I'm thinking this is a scam, although whoever is doing it is doing a fucking Class-A job. Nicely designed website, and a lot of information on their comparison and dictionary pages.
I totally agree. If I buy a DVD player (I already own one, but this is for example) and I don't have a digital television with component inputs (I don't, S-video is it), and my stereo that I hook up the audio to isn't AC-3 capable (it isn't, I have a 7 or 8 year old Sony reciever), why should I spend $200 more to make sure the DVD player has those features? I can always get a much nicer DVD (much cheaper) down the road (once I upgrade my receiver and my television), and retire this player to the bedroom for watching DVDs on the smaller tube. I have VERY few VHS movies, and about the only time I use VHS is when I happen to be out of the house during a show I'd like to see. That rarely happens anymore, though, since I don't watch much television.
There's some kind of new freak "Internet DVD Player" from Raite on their website! Check it out.
I didn't see any one mention it, so I thought I would. There is a great company in the UK, codefree.com. For the uninitiated, they take off the shelf consumer DVD players and modify them to disable the macrovision and enable all 6 regions (via adding extra some extra ICs)
/. tried them, I would be curious of any reviews as I have not tried them yet, but I am seriously considering it.
Obviously, this violates the manufacturers warranty, but they offer their own warranty for the same term as a replacement. The only downside I can see is that if you don't live in the UK, you have to pay for international shipping plus you may get killed on the monetary exchange rates depending on your country of orgin.
Has anybody here on
For the electronicly inclined, they also offer do-it-yourself kits for most major models.
What everyone should be or will be looking for in their second generation of DVD player is progressive scan out for 480p instead of 480i, DVD-Audio (up to 192Khz in Stereo or 24bit, 96Hkz in 5.1 channels). Added to this should be at a minimum the abillity to play most CDr's (sony dual beam) and HOPEFULLY mp3 CDs too. If santa can bring me that, I'll volunteer as an elf next year. -pjc
Broadcasting LIVE from a Bonus Room Over the Gara
It looks like a rebadged Shinco 868 player. There was an annoucement that it plays games in July, but they seem to have removed that information from the product information page.
Lik-Sang has had them in stock for months, and still lists them as Megadrive compatible.
While PayPal may not be happy, either their insurance or that of the bank which issued the card would most likely end up eating the charge.
Obviously, prevention is best.
Buy a DXR2 card on ebay, plug it in, compile the drivers from Creative's site, and play it with the included app. You can (at the moment) play via the VGA loopback cable (quality's not so hot), or pipe the Video-out to your TV or back into a video capture card, and use XAWTV or KwinTV etc to view it (good quality).
You can use the LiViD project's stuff for software playback, but it's not optimised at all and is quite choppy on a single-processor box. Should get better soon.
-- Sig Sig Sputnik
let's here from somone who as actually bought this product. anyone out there have one?
Visit the Mother Site !
lets hear from someone out there that has actually purchased this thing. anyone out there have this? anyone try to purchase this?
Visit the Mother Site !
Why stop there? Do what I do - don't spend your time watching TV and movies. My TV gets used for playing games and watching anime. And rarely that. I know a few people who don't own TVs, and don't miss 'em. If I lost mine, it'd be too bad, but hardly a tragedy. After about a year and a half of not watching TV, I turned it on one day. And you know what? I realized that, with very few exceptions, current television shows, and most current movies, are really, really dumb. Actually, I'm not sure my TV still works. I'm fairly certain my VCR doesn't....
Go read a book, or go for a walk, or go out and socialize. Don't sit around watching movies all day.
Yeah, if they have a /. user ID then that makes them legit, thanks to /.'s comprehensive screening process.
I am sorry but these freaks have been spamming me for weeks now about this DVD/Sega thing. I would hate to think that either Slashdot is advertising for these spammers or that they have been fooled into doing to by this "Anonymous" person, think about it!!!!!!
Yes. You're right.
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
Pesky varments! Do tell of your experiences, though. Did they have a light on in the window? Did you climb the fire escape?
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
A godsend wouldn't be so damn butt ugly. I didn't see anywhere on that website where the player defeats Macrovision. Also, there will be no doubt a way to do everything imaginable on the indrema. I mean no region encoding limitations, no macrovision (cross fingers), mp3 disk playing, sega emulators, new emulators, arcade emulators, gameboy emulators, psx emulators, etc. Of course the emulators will be do-it-yourself emulators of course, but who cares. That is a godsend. This is an ugly piece of crap. Of course that assumes it even exists.
So that's the key. New VCR's cause the problem. Good thing I have that 1997 Sony from back before Sony turned rogue.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
That said, here's some more info. I looked them up at Netcraft, which returns the following information:
The site gamedvdplayer.com runs Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98
Glancing down the screen, I find some more information.
IP Address: 63.196.55.66
Netblock owner:Interactive Telecom Network Inc
To be truly nosy, I followed another link, and found this information on the sites that Interactive Telecom... hosts. They have about 15 sites, but one more caught my eye - dvd8050.com. It happens to be running the same OS/Webserver as gamedvdplayer.com...
BTW, to get the information on what they're hosting, visit http://uptime.netcraft.com/hosted?netname=SBCIS990 913-196,63.196.48.0,63.196.55.255
DVD8050.com points right back to this Dulux site, which, BTW, looks very nicely laid out. If this was just something some guy was doing for amusement, I'd think that it would be something thrown together in FrontPage.
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
Well, it doesent support a DTS bitstream and it doesent have component outs, which are both pretty standard in most decent DVD players these days. This leads me to believe that this is as much a POS (qualitywise) as the Apex, which is basically a DVD-ROM drive slapped into a black case. That's why it plays MP3's, and has no region code. Plus, consider this: it is pretty cool that it plays Sega MS games (which, BTW, is probably not illegal- there are a ton of mainstream players out there that have Nuon, which lets you play 3D0 games on your DVD player), but you can do the same thing with an emulator on your PC.
Don't fiddle around wasting yer money on some cheap cr*p: get yourself a Sony DVP-7700 for $599 - do the research.
You might want to have a look at one of the Cyber Home models. I picked up the ADN 212 for less than 400 dutch guilders (converts to $160, a steal for Dutch standards, where $250 is the norm). The basic model features dolby 5.1 (optical) and a macrovision hack and is completely region free. It'll also play VCDs. The ADM 212 will play MP3s as well and goes for 500 dutch guilders.
I personally have the N212 and although it's not the smoothest machine I've ever seen, at this price it's quite acceptable. Sound and vision is good, the remote's a bit bulky and it does have minor synch problems from time to time.
I want the fire back.
The concept behind paypal is that you keep money in the account, and you get/pay while keeping a balance in the account. After all, paypal stays in business because they get the interest off of the $40 million people have in their accounts at any one time. If this concept is used, there is no credit card charge, or mabye not the same credit card charge, as used to purchase the DVD player. You might be protected in your charge, but I personally just use the existing balance for new purchases.
For more info, read this Digital Bits story - go down to the 10/19 post and below.
--
after falling for the troll-like link to the Homepage, i read the productdescription and found:
Availability:
12.01.00
so it wont be under the christmastree.
why even consider it........
... whenever a text is transmitted, variation occurs. This is because human beings are careless, fallible, and occasiona
Composite Video != Component Video.
The complaint is that the Dulux thing don't have COMPONENT video out, which is the preferred way to get the DVD Y/Cr/Cb NTSC signals to your TV/monitor via three separate shielded wires. COMPOSITE video is where all the signals are carried on one wire, with nowhere near as good picture quality. The step in between is S-video - to carry the NTSC signals on two wires, Y and C. This is typically used on S-VHS and Hi8 camcorders.
Don't call people names if you don't have your own facts straight.
Why don't you send that question to ASK SLASHDOT! ;)
Hey
Maybe this is old news, but I asked a support
worker at Sega about this. Here's what he said:
I saw that system. Sega has not issues an
official release saying that we ok the product.
It is up to the user and buyer to make the wise
buying decision. You will have to ask them for
warranties since Sega is not responsible for that
system.
**Computers never maek mistooks**
I wonder if the SMS games have been suped up to output true 5.1 sound? Of course with 2-d scrollers and the like it wouldn't do much, but if the sounds were figured, with what the character in the game would hear, instead of what the viewer would hear, that would be trippy and a tad helpful after a while.
Actually, resistance IS futile. When you send in that cable bill, and HBO gets it's money, what do you think they do with it? Yep, they pay the movies industry for the rights to the latest flicks. Same goes for broadcast television, only they are getting your support from the commercials you watch (well, technically, I guess this would be OK as long as you aren't a Nielson family). You're still lining the industries' pockets, you're just offloading the guilt to the cable companies/tv stations.
My temporary solution? I've been watching Troma movies and other indie flicks on vhs. Sure, with Troma you're not going to get the big stars and bigger special effects, but most of their movies are enjoyable, and you're supporting the oldest and most well established alternative to the MPAA in america. Hell, these guys don't even have SAG cards. Also, rent and buy these indie films from a local mom-and-pop shop, not MPAA buddies like blockbuster/suncoast/roadrunner/etc.
Have I been weak and given in to temptation? Yep. It's happened a couple of times, and likely will happen again eventually. The important thing is don't give 'em any more than you have to, spread the word (and not just to your fellow geeks who know the situation...the general public has no idea what is going on), and keep fighting the good fight.
/*Insert boring sig here*/
What a load of BS
Macrovision works (IIRC) by sending a signal saying that the video level is higher than it is no matter what it's plugged into. If the signal goes to a TV (or through a video for that matter), then there is no loss. But if you try and lay the video signal down on to tape the Signal Processor in the VCR determines that the incoming video signal is at a higher strength than it really is and lays down a very weak picture on the tape.
Macrovision can be eliminated by using a Sync Pulse Generator (or Time Base corrector, can't recall which) but as these are components of a professional video suite they aren't cheap. You can buy boxes that purport to get rid of macrovision, but I have never seen one working.
It may be the case that new VCRs have some sort of chip in, but the old ones won't work either.
Ben^3The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
I think that might be the catch.. it has no support for DTS sound ( they mention only AC-3 ) and it has only S-Video and Composite Video.. not component... That has gotta hurt...
As a rule of thumb for shopping on the web, I don't buy anything from anybody who's domain name is a collective of generic terms. (ie: GameDVDPlayer.com, SuperVacationGetawayPackages.com, CanineAnalCream.com, etc...)
-p4
(c) All Rights Released.
Check out Robshot.com to get their review on the Afreey LD-2060. It plays DVD/CD/VDV/Mini-DVD/MP3 and you can change regions and disable Macrovision!
While it looks like a sweet deal, I received roughly 25 duplicate spammed e-mail messages from an address at gamedvdplayer.com advertising this machine. At the time, I didn't go to the site because I was PO'd. It was enough to go beyond annoying to deeply disturbing. The toll-free number in the e-mail is exactly the same: 800-613-1611. Since this is my first time posting on Slashdot, I don't know if I'd step on any toes by posting the text of the e-mail, but I could upon demand. Sounds like a raw deal to me, but I wouldn't buy from a spam marketer out of more than just principle. If it looks too good to be true...
You don't have to enforce copyright, or patents. You only have to enforce trademarks.
That's BLAW 100 material. Perhaps 'twould be better to be well-informed before trying to speak?
But on a serious note, I am also looking around for a DVD player, making sure to get maximum features without undue MPAA influences. Price isn't that much an issue here, though I was aiming for something in the $200-400 range. I know that most of the APEX players out there are the most friendly in terms of regions, Macrovision, etc. I also want to make sure that it works with my current analog system as well as my "future" home digital theater system with surround sound, etc. Are there any serious suggestions on what systems I should look at? (As an example, there's an Apex one, 3 DVD changer, at CC for $199, but I can't recall the model number).
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
This just shows how people are finally deciding where the PC does and does not fit in their lives. Email and book keeping were the only two things readily accepted on the PC. With all the PC had going for it as a universal DVD, CD, and mp3 player, we're finally seeing the level of difficulty of configuration knocking it out of the game. Difficulty of configuration has become the deciding factor between where PC's fit into your life and what you're supposed to do on an appliance.
Were I buying a DVD today, I'd almost certainly go for a Samsung Extiva N2000, primarily because it comes with Jeff Minter's Virtual Light Machine, and can play his Tempest 3000. Plus, of course, Samsung have a long history of making DVD players that are easily converted to being region free (via a remote -- no need to take the machine apart).
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Yep DVD players are somewhat programmable (How else would those menus, etc. work?). All the production houses have to do is do up a script that checks to see if the disk is playable in some other region than the one the disk is intended for- if that is the case, the scripting prohibits playback.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I wish for an optical output that
strips SCMS, so that it's possible to
record the sound onto a minidisc.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Hey.
;)
I've got one of the AD-600's and it works GREAT!! But, it's my second one. The first one I bought had a broken back button. It's a very quirky device, and I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but it works very well, plays MP3 CDRW's perfectly, and the users manual alone is worth the price of the device.
Seriously, it's a VERY FUNNY READ!!
It's got smiley faces all over the place, has sections:
Enjoying Good Sound Quality
Enjoying Better Sound Quality
and
Enjoying Best Sound Quality
Hands down, the best part is in the Karaoke section where they refer to speaker feeback as:
"a Hauling sound: PI!!!!!!!!"
No, that's not a misquote. Seriously, I often take the book out at (geeky) parties. It's great.
Hmm, other miscelaneous notes:
1) My "Get Shorty" DVD insists on putting in subtitles
2) I have to clean my "Matrix" DVD before watching it most times
3) "La Femme Nikita" works perfectly and is worth buying..
4) Cannibal The Movie also worked perfectly and was great.
5) Crappy movies don't improve just by putting them on DVD
In short, the device works great, is cool with it's quirks, and I wouldn't trade it for any other player.
Satellite imagery confirmed our suspicions that his lipids are dangerously elevated and also detected the presence of hemmorhoids.
I can see the fnords!
Or, better yet, make your own indie film.
:-) I'm working on doing exactly that right now.
Really. I'm serious.
Funny you should say that.
The (very rough) first draft of the Novel is about 1/4 to 1/3 done, from which a movie script will be made (by either myself or one of the others who have expressed interest in the project). From there one or more movies may be filmed. Best of all, all my material is being released under a GPL-like Free Media License (comments and criticisms welcome) making it possible for anyone who wants to to take the material and incorporate it into their own work.
You are absolutely right, the best way by far to resist the Copyright Cartels and Media Empires is to create your own entertainment and share it with others.
BTW - I hope to have the first draft done by the end of the year, clean it up in the first two months of 2001, then start working on the script by spring (assuming the individual I'm in contact with hasn't already started that). Your guess is as good as mine on when/if filming will ever start -- I know at least one individual who is interested in making a student film, and some friends and I might take a crack at it just for fun as well. Between all of us something will probably get made in the next year or two.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
"Dubious DVD player? - I just received a rather urgent mail from Michael, over at GAG, regarding http://www.gamedvdplayer.com, a site that sells the DULUX DVD player that comes with a built-in Sega Master System and 2 cds with about 700 SMS games:
"According to Sega's legal people, they didn't license the titles out. Since this is only available mail order, purchasers could potentially be charged for buying stolen merchandise (if they live in the U.S.)"
Someone has also been spamming the URL on various console-related newsgroups on USENET. SPAM=BAD! Stay away from companies who don't know how to do business"
Just thought you all might find this bit interesting...
Plus, I'm leary of a company that uses PayPal. Why don't they take credit-cards directly?
Actually, I looked at the site, and it says credit cards are accepted from US residents. There are credit card processors currently turning down foreign cards carte blanche due to a high rate of fraud currently.
Besides, compared to what card processors want as a percentage of your transaction, Paypal is a godsend. (Something like 1% as opposed to 3-4% or even higher.)
Digital Wokan
I wanted to spend 8 years defending the US constitution.
well there's yer anti-industry player :-)
-------
Vidi, Vici, Veni
What is needed is a certification program, where units are certified as being not licensed by DVDCCA. That way, when the consumer sees the certification, he knows in advance that the unit is not pre-crippled with a bunch of arbitrary limitations and lack of features. He would still have to investigate the overall quality and feature set, but he'd know that he wouldn't have to worry about issues like Macrovision, for example.
---
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
1) Disable Macrovision
2) Be set to any region (to circumvent the new RCE technology
3) Play MP3s and VCDs (not an essential feature, but would be great
3) Ignore User Prohibitions
What is a user prohibition? It's what keeps you from skipping the FBI Warning or the four minutes of commercials at the beginning of your DVD. Call me retentive, but I like immediate access to my DVDs and some DVDs (like my anime DVDs) have tons of companies involved in the production that need you to watch their really flashy logo on the screen. technology.
So far, I've only been able to find one merchant that sells players that ignore User Prohibitions, and they're in the UK.
Does anyone know of any US merchants who sell them?
-- "I am disrespectful to dirt. Can you not see that I am serious!"
From the web site:
Whois on gamedvdplayer.com/250dvd.com:
Whois on dvd8050.com:
Newsgroup Spammer:
Also note that on all of the above domain names, he is listed as his own registrant: E-Commerce Inc or ecommerce inc at the same address above.
Anybody in Houston care to show up at his door?
Could someone explain /why/ they would include a Sega Master System on this DVD player? - Even if all the games are small and included ON the player the Sega Master System came out what more than 10 years ago? Not to mention, are any of these games legal? "Over 700 classic arcade games" may be cool but I'm not going to pay extra for something that isn't legal - it's like paying 20 bucks for a burned CD.
I don't anticipate being able to afford an HDTV in the next five years, so buying a $150 DVD player now and then another $150 DVD player (which supports HDTV) when HDTV actually happens makes more sense than buying a $400 DVD player with sexy features I can't use.
Not saying you're wrong, just another perspective...
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Out of curiosity, though, I hit the site again just to see what's in the popup. Have a look at what I saw:
As others have noted, a commercial entity that takes paypal (but nothing else) is a bit suspicious. But this? This is just... brazen... Might as well have said "Just to make sure you get your unit, pay us twice. Or three times. We don't mind. Four is ok too." (and so on).
All for a redressed Apex player... Nah...
Where the value of X-Mailer: is the true measure of a man...
There have been reports in the tech media that PayPal had some overloading problems during the recent big retail sales weekend. It's reportedly much faster now.
Although it says that it will block the playback when connected to a VCR and it won't when connected to a TV, I can't see how it can differentiate between the two.
It doesn't need to differentiate between a TV and a VCR. New VCRs in the US are required by law to acknowledge the macrovision signal, and delibrately screw up any picture they see coming as an input to the VCR which has a macrovision signal. This is why you can't play DVD players through the VCR. A solution might be to look for "video stabilisers". They usually won't advertise it, but they remove the macrovision signal. This is what they mean by "enhancing and cleaning" the signal. They are about US$60.
Another user here mentioned that Gamechoice Club had a good reputation... and check this out:
/AUTO /NTSC
Shinco-868 DVD/VCD/MP3 Player
- PAL
- DVD, SVCD & VCD, CD-R/CD-RW Compatible
- Built in Sega Mega Drive Emulator that plays the Mega Drive game's ROM data on CD
- 10 bit Video D/A Converter
- Horizontal Resolution : More than 500 lines.
Notice item #3? There's obviously something going on here, no?
It's bad enough to see people post within a thread without having read the full story, but it's far worse to see whole stories posted by editors who didn't bother to do any research. Just look at it. He didn't even follow the link to notice the fact that it's Dulux, not Delux. Oh, and the 700 SMS games are obviously pirated, not that he probably saw them. There's no way Sega would license 700 games for a reasonably small portion of the $249 price tag. Oh, and orders are placed through PayPal? I smell something here. It's obviously either a complete scam or a legitimately illegal piece of hardware. Plus, any player that deliberately touted region and Macrovision bypassing would be in clear violation of the DVD-CCA's contracts to license CSS and other technologies necessary to play DVDs. As much as I hate the MPAA, it might be fun to report these jokers -- well, before or after reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
No it's not. Progressive scan is the original format of a DVD, also called 480P (480 lines of resolution).
;)
Svideo output runs at 480i (480 lines of resolution, interlaced) which only paints half of the lines in one pass of the electron gun. This makes a noticable flicker. Regular DVD players have to include the circuitry to step the output down to this format.
You know what, I have a suspicion we are both right.
Some people have been complaining about the Progressive Scan of the Pioneer, and say that the Toshiba is great.
This made me think. Basically a normal DVD decoder would decode a stream and output it interlaced, because this is what the old TV standard wants. Thus 480 lines, interlaced. Or one odd field, one even field 30 times per second. I know of at least one chip that can only output this format.
Now, to implement progressive scan you could do two things to enhance the picture, of which only one is actually good.
The first way (and I suspect the Apex does that because the manual uses the exact terminology) is to use line doubling. So it basically outputs an entire 480 line frame 60 times per second by doubling the horizontal line. This is bad, but probably easier (cheaper) to implement.
The second way would be to use a different decoder that will do the actual full decode of the 480 line frame 60 times a second,- the way it was recorded and encoded. This is the good way.
If this is the case, it could explain the difference in quality that people see. I've seen line-doubling, and it _can_ make a picture flicker more instead of less, which is the complaint I heard about the Pioneer.
It would be really great if somebody could confirm/deny this lil theory.
Consumer Electronics have a very high rate of failure, compared to other consumables, if only because of their relative complexity. I wouldn't be in any rush to buy a non-trivial electronic device from a company I knew nothing about. I don't have any problem buying from Sony, RCA, or Mitsubishi, because I know the odds are exceptional that the company will still be around in 5 years. That's why I bought a HP cd-writer, not a Smart & Friendly. When my writer broke down, HP replaced it within a week. When I had trouble with a custom computer I bought from a low-profile company across the country, I had much less success getting adequate service in a reasonable amount of time.
I'm not saying "Don't buy from small companies". I'm saying "Don't buy from small companies that are inviting legal action." These guys are asking for a lawsuit. Regardless of how you feel about Intellectual Property (we obviously disagree), you can be very certain about how the entertainment industry feels, and you can be fairly certain that action will be taken against the producers of the Dulux DVD player.
Now, if the licensing is legit on these games, I stand corrected. I still wouldn't buy this player, simply because I've had bad experience with no-name DVD players in the past, but that's my own issue. I would be very cautious about these fellas though. You've been warned.
Uh, maybe over gigabit ethernet. I wouldn't count on it though.
I don't anticipate being able to afford an HDTV in the next five years,
5 years ago, you probably didn't anticipate being able to afford an 80G HDD, either...
-This sig intentionally left blank
why should I spend $200 more to make sure the DVD player has those features?
The idea is that if you're buying a DVD player today, to watch movies (ie: not to watch "Purty Pictures") then you will most likely have an upgrade path in mind that will eventually get you a DD/Surround Sound audio system, as well as a better quality TV. You _could_ move the cheapie DVD player to the bedroom, or you could get a channel modulator so that you can watch the DVD, Tivo, VCR, Security Cams, etc from ANY TV in the house...
-This sig intentionally left blank
I think one of the first questions you have to ask yourself is: Do you want to watch pretty pictures on the Tee-Vee, or do you want a real DVD player?
The world is moving toward HDTV, or at the very least, higher quality outputs. A Good DVD player should support DTS and DD outputs, have optical and coaxial digital outputs, and have component outputs. This unit should cost less than $250. Additional features (the ability to play MP3s, CD's, etc) are nice, but not required. A higher quality DVD player will have progressive scan outputs. Personally, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a progressive scan DVD player (I use a Panasonic DVDH1000 with a Panasonic PT56WXF95 Tv). Seeing the difference between 480i and 480p makes all the other gizmo features moot.
However, if all you want to do is watch pretty pictures, then a $150 DVD player will do you just fine. You'd be better off buying a half-way decent DVD player AND a decent CD/MP3 player for just a little more cash outlay (in the $300-$400 range).
-This sig intentionally left blank
They have pretty good FAQs about this whole issue too. Mentioning, for instance, things like the need to support PAL-* and NTSC for the multiregion feature to be of any value.
(8-DCS)
I managed to find (on Pricewatch) an 18 CD-ROM changer (Pioneer DRM-1804X) for $299, which uses 3 six-disc magazines...
Still, I would love to see a 100/200/400 disc CD carosel changer. Why hasn't such a thing come to market? Would it be too slow to use? Is there no demand for such a thing? Is there something on the OS end that prevents it (or SCSI or IDE specs)?
I have given thought to taking a cheap $100 audio CD carosel (like a 60 disc or 100 disc), and dropping in the drive electronics from some CD-ROM drive - just to see if I could get it to work. Does this even sound like a project that could be done? Has anybody heard of doing such a thing before?
Such a device should be possible, and it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I haven't supported the MPAA or their cronies for a long while now - I haven't bought movies, rented movies, bought any form of DVD or players...
Of course, here is a problem - I actually probably _have_ supported them in some way, without me really knowing it. I use Cox@Home for my broadband connection - I also have the digital cable package as well - with HBO and Cinemax - so I would imagine somewhere in that mix I am supporting the MPAA. Personally, I could drop the digital cable, but my GF is TV obsessed, so she wouldn't like that. These companies are so entrenched in so many areas, the only way to "opt-out" is to live in a box - and they would probably have made the box!
So, I do the next best thing - I buy VCD movies, from a company that drop-ships from Malaysia. Not the best quality, but still nice (and I was able to find a copy of Red Sonja!). I am not sure if these movies are licensed, rips, dubs from video tape or laser discs - whatever the case, many times I have seen movies pop up on the site before they were out of the theaters here (like SWTPM - it was on VCD long before video tape or DVD). Nor do I want to know...
I like VCDs - one can find a ton of anime, Chinese movies, regular movies and animation - anything. New movies continue to be released on VCD (like I said, most of the time before they are released here on video or DVD).
Anyhow, I would like to find a VCD player (hardware or software - any OS, but preferably Linux) that would play the disks without the "Remove 1, Insert 2" shuffle - just stick both in, and go. If it is software, then it should do it with two CD-ROM drives.
Does such a machine exist? I have seen many VCD only players, but every one had a single tray. Too bad Go-Video doesn't make dual VCD players.
On a side note - something else I have been unable to find: A CD-ROM carosel (sp?) - basically, I would love to find a 100 disk CD-ROM changer, at an affordable price (ie, $500). Does anyone make one of these (SCSI, IDE, USB, Firewire - doesn't matter)?
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I got a spam on this console a few weeks ago, so naturally I assume it's some kind of crap ripoff.
Ripoff or not, *now* I don't care. I don't care if it's the greatest DVD/VCD/MP3/BFD player out there. I don't care if it's region-free, macrovision-deleting, or bread-buttering. I don't care if it's the best deal on earth and it cures cancer.
If it's advertised by spam, I ain't buying one.
--
My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
It's already got CD and DVD support.....
So, why not hack it to have a Playstation and/or Playstation 2 emulator? Those games already come on the format this thing uses. There's been hacks (Bleem) to play Playstation on PC's, so it is possible.
To me, that would give this thing a bit more use... Just gotta worry about Copyright.
-----------------------
... I first heard about it when they spammed me. I refuse to give spammers any business.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
In case anyone else almost didn't use a search engine, the Raite player's website is raite715.com.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
In case anyone else almost didn't use a search engine, the Raite player's website is raite715.com, although it seems they've replaced the Raite 715 player with another.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
In case anyone else almost didn't use a search engine, the Raite player's website is raite715.com, although it seems they've replaced the Raite 715 player with another.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
CNet hardware has the Raite Player listed with user feedback comments as well. They don't mention some of the more interesting features like region bypassing, of course.
CNet's help.com has a list for user Q&A that mentions the Apex drive.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
On the Limited Warrenty page, it says (and I paraphrase) "If you want to get it repaired under our Limited Warrenty, pack it carefully, and send it back to us. If you want to return it...."
And yet I could not find ANY reference to what that warranty really is.
Plus, I'm leary of a company that uses PayPal. Why don't they take credit-cards directly?
I agree with the others... looks like shameless advertising to a 'captive' geek market.
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
lol.
/.
i hope for the latter. we'll see. i'm leaving late today so it'll be about 6:30 or 7PM CST before i get there...i doubt anyone will be home but i'll be able to see what kinda flim-flam operation he has going.
ah, the power of
/* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
i called the phone (i live in houston) and got a carrier tone.
i think i'll pop by the address on the way home tonight (wow - it is actually on my way home!) and see what's up.
i hate people who are scammers, esp. ones who live in my town.
/* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
But they're selling a new frogger game. Will they be hurt by the ready availability of the old frogger game in other platforms? Or will that actually boost interest in the new game?
I'm not talking about anything that a company is still selling. If I could buy sonic for the sega genesis (and a genesis since mine broke like 7 years ago) I would. If I could buy it from someone they officially licensed it to, I would. But there ARE no legal options. The ONLY way to get those games are roms, and yard sales. Sega makes no money when i buy a genesis at a yard sale. They make no money when I buy a Dulux. That is because they have decided that it's not worth their while to sell these games. I want the games. I'll buy them from whoever I can. If Sega won't provide, they're forcing me to buy from a non-approved source. Copyright shouldn't cover items that are not available commercially. Like a rare bootleg or demo track you find on napster - this is something that is not available commercially, and thus cannot hurt commercial sales. But it's something people want. If there is no legal place to buy it, what's the harm in letting people have it for free?
A little note - Region 0 != code free. A code free player either ignores the Region code totally, or can be switched to accept any Region. Region 0 is a special code which all players will accept. Therefore a Region 0 player (if one existed) could only play Region 0 discs (basically only pr0n) and would therefore be of little use to anyone.
Thinking about it, considering the average
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
.. what makes you think they won't rip off you?
Something to think about when considering "alternative" shopping exercises.
The SMS game binaries (commonly called ROMs) are still under copyright in the United States because Congress has recently followed a policy of perpetual copyright, using a loophole in the Constitution to extend all subsisting copyrights every 20 years or so. This policy is reflected in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act[?]. No copyrighted work created on or after January 1, 1923, will ever expire into the public domain.
Will I retire or break 10K?
But what case could Sega make for continuing to have copyrights on Genesis games? ... Why would they even WANT to try to defend their rights?
Because if Sega doesn't defend the copyright on Sonic the Hedgehog.gen, Sega also isn't defending the trademark "Sonic the Hedgehog®" meaning Sega won't be able to make money off Sonic games anymore. If Sony PS2 kills Dreamcast and the GAMECUBE console can't keep up, I'd bet we'll see some heavy cross-licensing (Super Smash Bros. 2[?]: Sega vs. Nintendo, anyone?) like we saw with the CD-i system.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I owned one and sold it. it was very unreliable in terms of video playback. its spdif (digital audio out) is VERY nonstandard - if you want to play regular 44.1K/16bit cd's and drive an outboard DAC, you better have one that understands the AC3 (dolby digital) format. huh? yeah, that's right ;-( even though you're NOT sending 24bit audio to the dac (the regular audio cd format is 16bits of course) the stoopid apex spdif circuit ONLY sends the newer spdif format; which older (and usually quite adequate) DACs don't understand.
otoh, the Raite dvd player (very very similar to the apex) DOES speak the proper spdif protocol so you CAN run an outboard dac (like a regular old audio alchemy used dac). the downside of the raite is that if you ever unplug or power it down (remove 115vac from it, wall switch, whatever) then to disable macrovision you have to key in a funky remote sequence. so I leave mine powered on all the time; its no big deal.
getting back to the apex, it also has problems with chips overheating. the raite does not (as much). oh, and the raite is programmable (flashable) with JUST a cdrom. that's right - insert a properly burned .iso cdrom with the right flash code in it and it runs new firmware. the apex uses prom chips and if you ever send it in for service, it WILL DEFINITELY come back without the macrovision-disable feature ;-(
don't buy the apex. its junk.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Folks, I've read through just about this whole thread, and didn't see mention of this yet. go to 250dvd.com, and check out the picture of the back of the unit. Yes, the Afreey logo is there, but conspiciously absent from any picture of this system is the location WHERE the two controllers would plug into. I mean, it includes two controllers (which look quite a bit like aftermarket PSOne controllers) but it doesn't show either the plug end of the controller, or a location on the player where they might plug in.
The below payment options are used to PROTECT you the customer. These are FDIC insured banks and will protect you against any type of fraud. You must register with one of them to place your order. We do not receive any credit card information, this information is kept secure with our payment processors. If you are not satisfied with the product for any reason you will have the product security from these Financial Institutions.
Just a thought -- what companies brag about this sort of thing?
Bad info... You can always dispute a charge on a Credit Card. PayPal can't circumvent the way credit cards work. You can make PayPal help you get what you paid for, or your credit card company won't pay them. Then PayPal has to go after the company they paid the money to.
wonder if that's suite #304, or apartment #304...
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I got a spam on this console a few weeks ago, so naturally I assume it's some kind of crap ripoff.
See here for the game titles that ships w/ this unit. Great find AC.
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I just bought an APEX AD-800A yesterday which does all of the above (and MP3's etc, reply if you want a full list) at Circuit City for 299$ (actually they gave it to me for 199$ because I also bought a digital 55" projector
;))
Umm... you just talked about superior video quality and purchased an APEX player? You should have taken a look at the Toshiba SD5109 if your projector (or future output device) supports progressive scan. If progressive scan isn't in your equasion, you should look at any of the Sony, Toshiba, or Pioneer players. They all look much better than the APEX ones."Evil beware: I'm armed to the teeth and packing a hampster!"
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
I heard that CD... I thought it sounded like crap... not because of the DTS compression, but because of the mix. They created a soundfield that made it sound like the varios musicians were set up in a circle around you, with added really silly procussive sound in the rears. Very stupid. Stereo makes more sense for emulating a concert performance. Do do music in 5.1 properly, one should ignore the LFE track, use the center only for directionality of vocals in some cases, and use the rear speakers for ambient sounds (like echos, crowds cheering, background noise, etc) ONLY. CD-Audio is superior in sound quality to DTS in every way, primarily, there's no loss. DTS is an inefficient lossy compression. Dolby Digital is more efficient, but it's dated... new standards like AAC and Vorbis should kick its ass. Remember always: the ONLY goal of audio systems should be to faithfully reproduce the audio signal, not to modify it, or make it better. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an uneducated fool who would be happy with a $50 boom box as thier home theater sound system, but got an expensive one to show off to thier friends. Having a live performance from the Eagles recorded in DTS mixed to sound like they are standing around you in a circle is NOT accurate reproduction. Having it sound like they are in front of you is.
"Evil beware: I'm armed to the teeth and packing a hampster!"
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
"The Delux DVD plays about every media possible, and boasts a handful of features only found in high-end players. What makes this unit special is that it ships with over 720 classic arcade games that are playable through the unit. That's right, I will be able to play all my old favorites such as California Games, and Spy vs Spy. All of this at a cost of under $US300.
If anyone can point out any paragraph anywhere on the net that looks more like it came straight from a company catalogue, I will be impressed.
The other paragraphs, IMHO, look like they are tailored to the target audience (geeks with money).
Is it worth the money? The debate will rage on, no doubt. Me, I won't be sending money to a company I believe spammed. It's just the principle of the thing
As a side-line, how long do you think it will be before we see spam which is sent by rival companies, simply to blacken the names of their competitors?
---------------------------
'No rational religion claims "supernatural" exists, that's an atheist slander.' - seen on slashdot.
No, it's not. Philips players (the models I know of) have this capability as well. I've upgraded my 825AT via flash.
Does anyone know of a hack to get past this thing? Although it says that it will block the playback when connected to a VCR and it won't when connected to a TV, I can't see how it can differentiate between the two. DMCA be damned, I don't want some Rambus-esque company controlling what I can and can't do in the comfort of my own home (no, I'm not "makin' copieeees!!", but I hate fumbling behind the TV when there's a Line In triplet on the front of my VCR).
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
I looked at their website and the player looks nice. I am actually going to try to research this more. But frankly since this comes from someone anonymous I am supiscious about the possibility that someone is using Slashdot to get some free advertising.
Another little tidbit from Paypal's website, on the info screen where you choose to purchase the product:
BUYER PROTECTION POLICY
If you pay a Verified seller who does not ship the promised goods, you may file a buyer protection claim under PayPal's Buyer Protection Policy. For purchases made on eBay using PayPal on or after 11/10/00, buyers who qualify for eBay's insurance policy (currently limited to $200) may recover up to an additional $200 of protection from PayPal. For non-eBay purchases, PayPal will investigate your claim, and attempt to collect any funds owed to you. You will be entitled to the return of any funds PayPal is able to collect on your behalf. Recovery of your claim is not guaranteed.
Pretty much this says that unless they can get your money back, you are SOL.
It looks like this device tries to be everything to everybody. But as a result none of the individuel functions is working well.
In addition there are several things looking 'fishy' to me:
If you want a good DVD you are better off buying a device dedicated to do a good job.
If you want a good MP3 device there is Audio Request with an excellent product.
I'd like to see now a DVD working the same way Audio Request works but for video. Add some Tivo-like features, with disks like the new 180GB Seagate this starts to be possible.
Markus
Most of my requirements are to do with not wanting to support the MPAA and not throwing any money their way. I'm looking for the most anti-industry DVD player out there. I have no problem spending the money, but I sure as hell want my money to go to the good people.
.avi or dv format via a capture board/digital video recorder).
With every DVD you purchase or rent you will be supporting the MPAA. With any player you purchase, no matter how "anti-industry" it markets itself, you will be supporting the MPAA (the manufacturers pay royalties for the CSS decryption license).
If you are serious about not wanting your money to support entities like the MPAA you should not purchase any DVD player whatsoever, but rather stick to movies you can pick up on cable or tv and record them on video (or onto your hard disk in
It is difficult to deny one's appetite as a consumer, particularly for ethical or moral reasons which seem abstract at best. However, it is not impossible.
I have not paid to see a movie in over a year. My DVD collection hasn't grown by a single DVD in as long (the player and DVDs were purchased before the DeCSS debacle). Any audio-visual entertainment of this kind I get from television, the sci-fi channel, and HBO et al. If a movie is so good I want a copy I record it -- soon I hope to be recording it in digital video format and burning it to CDR or archiving to tape in mp4 format, but for now Hi8 and VHS are adequate if not sexy.
In other words, resistence is not futile, but it is hard and takes some self control, and some willingness to deny yourself some of the instant gratification your consumerist appetites cry out for.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
The only thing I've seen problems with, though, is the lack of a random play feature for MP3s (and fastforward/rewind in MP3 files, but I wasn't expecting that).
Now if they would release the firmware source code...
The best hope for Raite is for another company to buy them and start making them again.
For more information on the Raite players (including firmware files), I recommend the egroups Raite group.
Take a look at Gamechoice Club's DVD page, found here. They sell, among other things, the Dantax 9001 (US$279) which plays DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, and MP3 CD-rs and CD-RWs. They also have a Sony DTS system ($460) that's rather small and sits upright. Mind you, all these DVD players are code free (Region 0), so you can play most DVDs on them, no matter what region they are from.
I haven't personally interacted with Gamechoice Club (which is in Hong Kong), although they seem to have an OK reputation and have some absolutely cool stuff, like a a handheld Duo R X for the PC Engine.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
When you click "buy now" on the site, it takes you to PayPal to finalize the transaction. PayPal lets you know that the real company you are buying the product from is called, "ECommerce Electronics," and that they are a "verified member."
The business web site listed for Ecommerce Electronics (just a mirror of http://www.gamedvdplayer.com/) is http://www.dvd8050.com/ and a whois search shows the company is from Houston, TX, and this site was registered in July. That doesn't make them seem much more trustworthy. Their servers are standing up pretty well to the slashdot effect, maybe that means something...
Here's the whois record:
Notice the administrative contact has an email address at 250dvd.com. This site was registered in June 2000 to the same company, Ecommerce Inc. There is more information on 250dvd.com about the product (different views, etc.) but still nothing about any licensing of the Sega games.
I submitted this a week ago and it got rejected, but aside from that...
I read over on Zophar net (also about a week ago) that "According to Sega's legal people, they didn't license the titles out. Since this is only available mail order, purchasers could potentially be charged for buying stolen merchandise (if they live in the U.S.)". So, needless to say, I'd be a little more than cautious with my $249.99.
Proceed with caution.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Have you tried this??
My Uncle paid the seller in an auction using PayPal, and the goods never came. Many email excuses came, from various email addresses but no goods.
My Uncle called the credit card company, who said that using PayPal means agreeing to pay whoever you paypal-send the money to. Because my Uncle agreed to use PayPal, the credit card company refused to consider denying payment or investigating fraud.
Next time you criticize some one for Bad Info, make sure your own is correct.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Anyways, to get a little more serious (but critical) of this machine, why does it have a Sega Master System? Why not a Sega Genesis? But, I will add that it does have more than what my DVD player came with. I looked at the specifications page, and it appears to have all the functions you would want, but I would want to see a demo first, and rent a movie (preferably with some scratches and dust) to play on it before committing to a purchase.
All in all, I check out sites like www.audioreview.com to help me make decisions about DVD players and stereo equipment. I've never heard of Dulux, and it is probably another brand that made this machine but Dulux put the case on it with their logo. I'd want to find out who really made it first.
Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
If anyone cares, I looked this up on Map Blast and Terra Server. What purpose this has, I don't know,but it was still kind of cool. I can't tell if the building is residential or commercial so who knows if it is a scam or running out of someone's bedroom.
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I don't know for sure if you need an HDTV(-ready) for this, or if there are 'normal' TV's with Component Video in.
Most higher-end TV's that are 32" or larger support component inputs.-
The Dulux website does not mention DTS audio, which is (correct me if I'm wrong) DVD disks with audio on it. The audio is much higher quality and I think it's also possible to have true surround effects. Although the player has analog audio outputs, the real way to play DTS is through the digital output and a DTS amplifier. There's not much content out there yet, but it does sound awesome!
Um... there are 3 sound formats supported by DVD players in the US: Dolby Digital AC3 (mono, stereo, or 5.1 surround, lossy compression), DTS (5.1 surround, lossy compression), or linear PCM (mono or stereo, uncompressed). DTS generally has a higher bitrate than Dolby Digital, but that does NOT mean it sounds better. Dolby Digital is a much more efficient compression algortithm than DTS, and can sound better. While Dolby simply runs the 6-channel analog master through an encoder to generate the DD bitstream, DTS makes the studio send the sound off to thier studio, and generally tweaks the audio, usually artificially boosting the rear channels and the bass. Since the average moron thinks more bass==better sound, it is preferred by consumers. The same effect could easilly be done by setting up one's DD reciever to boost the rear channels and the bass. This is not accurate reproduction of sound, so it is incorrect, and stupid to do so. It is equally moronic for DTS to do so.I suggest you read up on home theater if you are truly interested, or email me if you want more info.
"Evil beware: I'm armed to the teeth and packing a hampster!"
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
A quick cut and paste:
Dubious DVD player? - I just received a rather urgent mail from Michael, over at GAG, regarding http://www.gamedvdplayer.com, a site that sells the DULUX DVD player that comes with a built-in Sega Master System and 2 cds with about 700 SMS games:
"According to Sega's legal people, they didn't license the titles out. Since this is only available mail order, purchasers could potentially be charged for buying stolen merchandise (if they live in the U.S.)"
Someone has also been spamming the URL on various console-related newsgroups on USENET. SPAM=BAD! Stay away from companies who don't know how to do business.
I have received at least two spams advertising this unit. Which is one more good reason not to have anything to do with it.
1) Spammers should not be encouraged; the more people buy these units from spammers, the more spam you'll get in the future.
2) The whole Sega MegaDrive thing seems blatantly illegal; buying such a device may be "receiving stolen goods".
3) If someone is sufficiently dishonest to spam and to use unlicensed game ROMs, what's to say they're sufficiently honest not to steal your credit card number and defraud you? For all you know, there may not even be a Dulux DVD player, and the whole thing could be a scam to collect credit card numbers.
Check out Tokai/Raite
It has the usual DVD/MP3/ZoneFree/ToggleMacrovision capabilities plus a few others, and is the only one on the market with a upgratable ROM (you download the rom from the Net, burn it on a CD, start your Tokai with the CD in the drive, and BOOM, you have the latest manufacturer ROM)
If you go for the Tokai, try to find the 715S model.
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Why pay for drugs when you can get Linux for free ?
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
"I am an employee of the marketing department of Foo Inc, posting anonymously to ask a question that has no relations whatsoever to attempts to plug my company's product.
Just like any other geeks with large amounts of expendable income, I'm currently baffled as to what I should spend the money on. Then I heard about FooL-Slashdot, an excellent product by Foo Inc that has the following features:
* Plays MP3/DVD/DIVX/RM/MPG/AVI/Christmas songs on DVD/CD/CDR/CDRW/Zip/Floppy/CompactFlash media!
* Emulates PS2/PS1/Dreamcast/Saturn/N64/SNES/Genesis/Pentium VI, all at full speed!
* Wireless 100Mbps connection to FooNapster, where you can find ANYTHING - computer software, music, movies, console games, porn, and even dimpled ballots!!
* Comes in a different variety of colors of red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, yellow, orange, red, black, grey, pink, white, silver, and gold!
* Available for only $149.95, including shipping!
* available NOW at http://www.fooinc.com/buynow/order.asp!!!
So, um, anyways, is this product too good to be true? Please ask the other geeks with expendable income for me!!"
Hey, I'm not saying that REALLY is the case, but it seems very likely..
Maybe this is not an issue to you, but to get superior video quality on a digital (HDTV or HDTV ready) TV, you would want Component Video out, with Progressive Scan output. For superior audio output, you may want to get DTS.
;))
The Component Video seperates the Luminance and Chrominance into three components (hence three cables required) as opposed to two in S-Video and one in Composite Video. Seperation of components is a Good Thing(tm).
I don't know for sure if you need an HDTV(-ready) for this, or if there are 'normal' TV's with Component Video in.
Progressive Scan is what they call 'line doubling', which in effect doubles the horizontal lines (duh!) and gives a more steady, sharper picture. I'm sure you need a digital TV to handle this. Go to an electronics store to have it demonstrated to you.
The Dulux website does not mention DTS audio, which is (correct me if I'm wrong) DVD disks with audio on it. The audio is much higher quality and I think it's also possible to have true surround effects. Although the player has analog audio outputs, the real way to play DTS is through the digital output and a DTS amplifier. There's not much content out there yet, but it does sound awesome!
I just bought an APEX AD-800A yesterday which does all of the above (and MP3's etc, reply if you want a full list) at Circuit City for 299$ (actually they gave it to me for 199$ because I also bought a digital 55" projector
This player does NOT have the Sega capabilities though, and I don't know about the Karaoke (not my cup-a-thee).
So the question is, do you need/want the superior quality outputs, or do you prefer the all-in-one approach. If you don't have matching equipment, or are not going to get that in the near future, the additional outputs are not gonna do you any good.
Hope this helps, Breace
gamedvdplayer.com was only registered on 08-Nov-2000 to roberts, scott (carolbowman25@hotmail.com) so this isn't exactly an established site to buy from. Yes, that was a hotmail address on the company contact info for the domain. This question smells a bit like PR hype to me.
:)
Everything about this player looks to be 100% standard for a cheap OEM far east unit. I've seen lots in the UK. The ONLY new idea (or new to me) is the Sega Master System built in. I reckon you could intergrate a SMS onto a chip and make it for next to no cost.. but what about those 700+ games. I looked and couldn't find any details of the licencing arrangements. I couldn't find a press release from SEGA either, and they tend to announce everything.
Maybe I'm too cynical (can on be?) but I wouldn't buy one. Those games come from lots of different publishers and I bet some of them aren't even still trading, let alone doing deals with old IP.
When they claim you can play the games in digital surround sound I raise an eyebrow. When they give special thanks to Omar Cornut (Zoop) of http://www.smspower.org/ (A ROMs site) I raise the other
0daymeme.com: Great stuff.
I did searches for 'Dulux DVD' on Dogpile, Google, Lycos, and AltaVista. I came up with *no* relevant links at all.
I did a Deja USENET search and came up with the following results.
Looks like Scotty6004 crossposted a query to a bunch of groups (might be our AC), and ONE PERSON came back with a vague "Yeah, it's great," but of course, that sounds like a corporate shill to me.
I called their 800# just now and spoke to the help desk. They gave me an email address for questions that isn't listed on the website: info@dvd8050.com
I asked if there was any magazine or website reviews of the product that I could reference aside from the gamedvdplayer.com website, and she didn't have any of that information, she was just basically a message-taker.
I'm going to send some mail to the dvd8050 and gamedvdplayer address and request 3rd party info and I'll post my results.
It appears that this company takes payment via Paypal. I read an article a few weeks ago about paypal's dispute policy. Paypal stated that they do NOT get involved in disputes, and it is buyer beware. When you use paypal it is the same as using cash, not the same as a credit card. If you have a problem with the seller, you can't get your money back through paypal. I am thinking that some company out there invented this system that does not really exist, made it almost too good to be true, and then sent an email to slashdot to get the hits. Anyone who purchases this through Paypal is probably never going to see this system. Anyone remember that Seti@Home PCI card? I bet this is the same thing, but these guys are actually taking the money and running.