Crystal Slimline DVD DivX Player--£40.54

[spiderman123]

http://www.aria.co.uk/specials.asp

The all new Crystal DIVX player is your all in one home entertainment unit!

Video Formats: CD-Video, S-Video, JPEG, MPEG-1,Pictrue CD, DivX 3.11, DivX 4.x, DivX 5.x, Xvid
Audio Formats: CD-DA,MP3,Dolby Digital,
Video Out: S-Video, composite Video, Scart
Audio Out: Stereo, Coaxial, 5.1 Channel Output

Not only is it slimline and fantastic looking but will play DVD, CD Audio, MP3, JPG, SVCD and VCD as well as DIVX movies!
This player is firmware upgadable - we will post any new firmare on here as and when updates are available.

No Scart cable supplied.

[Liggur]

Ive got one, its not too bad as a DivX player. Depends on the file you are trying to play. Its a bit tempremantal on my DVD+R disks, sometimes reads as no disk, re-insert disk and it read it fine.

[MetalGearAl]

Hmm.. Xvid + DivX and firmware upgradeable!

[vijay555]

wow. sounds amazing - I'd get one, but i still love my xbox ;)

V

[dvdric]

Multiregion instructions:

a. No disc status;
b. Enter to setup menu;
c. Press numeric button 0~6 (input you want region code); / [pls use your remote control handset to operate all these following up steps]
d. Press mute button;
e. press left cursor button;
f. press right cursor button;
g. Press ok button

P.s: Under NO DISC condition, you press 8 times of the 0 button then it wl appears the region code number before you set up to change.

[iceshock]

Gone for one of these cheers to the OP! :)

[jodennis]

wow. sounds amazing - I'd get one, but i still love my xbox ;)
V
Have you software modded it or hardware modded it? I've just got an XBox, but only recently found out about its DivX and XVid capability.

[rampantscot]

Have you software modded it or hardware modded it? I've just got an XBox, but only recently found out about its DivX and XVid capability.
Either will give you the capability to run XBMC installed to hard drive or from disc. There are also streaming capabilities too, which let you view all your media from your PC through xbox to be shown on yer TV.

[jodennis]

Either will give you the capability to run XBMC installed to hard drive or from disc. There are also streaming capabilities too, which let you view all your media from your PC through xbox to be shown on yer TV.

Cool, but does it affect XBox Live? I'm planning on getting Halo 2 and don't want to interrupt my gaming!

Do you tend to burn DivX to CD/DVD and then play through the XBox or do you stream it from your PC?

[rampantscot]

Cool, but does it affect XBox Live? I'm planning on getting Halo 2 and don't want to interrupt my gaming!

I dont want to get into specifics but sufficed to say "I" wouldnt go on live with any mod done to my xbox, but having another xbox for live isnt too much of an expense for me, as they can be picked up now with game bundles which can be sold on to bring the cost of the xbox down.

Do you tend to burn DivX to CD/DVD and then play through the XBox or do you stream it from your PC?

I either ftp them over to xbox hard drive or stream them, i have a media folder on my PC which is shared so as i can browse and play files from it on my xbox.

[StewartMc]

Bought this and arrived this afternoon, bit disapointed as 90% of my DVDs don't work, and those that do either have heavy distortion and/or no sound. Managed to get one disk with some Xvid movies on it working. Guess it's just a dud machine.

And after trying the multi-region code above, I seem to have locked myself out of the setup menu. :(

[Mark B]

Mmmm... sounds like a dud to me. I've had not problem playing DVDs with the one I got (present for my parents who've killed the last one I gave them :( )but I don't have any DivX...

Anamoprhic NTSC is output incorrectly on my standby 4:3 TV (no problem on the WS tho') but I managed to fiddle around with it so it would be correct. Another stupid thing - they set parental locking on it without giving you the code! Doh! So I couldn't check the THX setup on From Hell. Still I managed to guess the code (1234) after a few tries...

[Winner]

I actually ordered one of these the day before it appeared in the bargain forums last week (having been after a cheap DivX player for while and having bought from them another super special last week) and it still hasn't been delivered. Phoned twice and first time (yesterday) they said i should be recieving it today, second time (today) they said they'd no idea why it had been held up and would email me when it was going to be delivered later in the day. No email appeared and its still processing according to the site. Hope the appearence on the bargain forums hasn't led to stock shortages and mine getting 'lost' in the system. Another phone call tomorrow me thinks. :mad:

[Mark B]

Has it turned up yet mate?

[Winner]

yeah, turned up this morning. Not had chance to test but will post here later on with my findings. Seems there was a problem with my order getting lost in the system at Aria and after a couple of phone calls it was sorted and sent on its. Apart from this problem i've been impressed with the company and will still be using them in future. Maybe get myself a nice flatscreen monitor after crimbo :D

[Winner]

Quite impressed so far.

Only had chance to give it a quick test but its played most things i've thrown at. Set to multiregion using the info above (although to check pressing 0 8 times didnt work). Worked fine with a R2 Little Britain and R1 Star Wars for testing. Seems to be set to 4:3 as standard so isn't ideal when using on a widescreen TV (have to set the TV to auto to get the desired WS effect).

So far it plays MP3, AVI, DIVX and even MPEG files. Tried it with several. Noticed some loss of sound/pic sync on one 40 minute program but i'm not sure if its the file or the player (as i hadn't watched the program on my computer before). Picture seems pretty clear with no jerkyness, sound also seems fine from what i tried.

Played AVIs and MPEGs off both CDR and DVD-R with no problems or lock-ups.

Basically for the price i cant fault it, and seeing as its primary use is to play DIVX files it looks like it'll do the job fine. Also very light so easy to move around.

[Mark B]

One major blindspot is the lack of subtitle support for Divx. If you bung a divx with a sub file alongside it (something like wedding.avi and wedding.sub) it won't use the sub file at all and just play the file without it. Let's hope they act upon it with the upcoming firmware...

BTW, I've also noticed they've shut off the forums so you can't comment there any more. Strange approach to customer services guys!

Whilst I'm at it, here's the sole review I've found online:
http://www.micromart.co.uk/content/reviews/default.asp?Category=article&Type=&ID=1960

[iceshock]

Quite impressed so far.

Only had chance to give it a quick test but its played most things i've thrown at. Set to multiregion using the info above (although to check pressing 0 8 times didnt work). Worked fine with a R2 Little Britain and R1 Star Wars for testing. Seems to be set to 4:3 as standard so isn't ideal when using on a widescreen TV (have to set the TV to auto to get the desired WS effect).

So far it plays MP3, AVI, DIVX and even MPEG files. Tried it with several. Noticed some loss of sound/pic sync on one 40 minute program but i'm not sure if its the file or the player (as i hadn't watched the program on my computer before). Picture seems pretty clear with no jerkyness, sound also seems fine from what i tried.

Played AVIs and MPEGs off both CDR and DVD-R with no problems or lock-ups.

Basically for the price i cant fault it, and seeing as its primary use is to play DIVX files it looks like it'll do the job fine. Also very light so easy to move around.

What selection of buttons should you press then :shrug:

[Mark B]

What selection of buttons should you press then :shrug:
The pressing it 8 times was to make it "check" if it was working but it will be multiregion just by following the steps outlined. I've played RCE discs from r1 and r2s r4s and r3s with no trouble.

[pototea]

How is this compared to the WHSmith one? I took that back on Sunday as it was not so good. I did not like the flimsy try plus it did not seem to like the audio from my discs.

I am thinking of getting this along with the TFT which is now £149

[Mark B]

Not having seen the WHS one I wouldn't know. The build is acceptable but feels quite flimsy compared to my trusty Pioneer. The buttons feel a little fragile and the overall feel is plasticky. The drive is quite noisy when seeking things (nasty zip/gasp sound - probably due to the laser zooming backwards and forward between two extremities of the disc.

That said for playing stuff it seems fine (bar the problems I've complained about earlier on in the thread).

[Mark B]

Firmware update available:
http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=15247

Not tried it yet so I dunno if it solves the problems I outlined. Next time I'm home I'll check it out...

[Mark B]

Interesting - now that Aria are apparantly no longer selling this they have pulled the page meaning no more firmware available. Let's hope it's a short term mistake rather than them giving up on it now they've sold a batch of them...