Griffinator Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Champagne: Commercial VHS tapes fed through S-video to a DVD Recorder will copy just fine. I tested it out on a client system (Mitsi HS-U775, Phillips DVR-985) and it worked beautifully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Champagne, Oh, I get you. Well, it wouldn't be worth the money and trouble to buy a DVD recorder. Many or most of your store-bought VHS movies *would* be copyguarded anyway. You can buy them on DVD pretty cheaply and save yourself a lot of hassle. P.S. Griffinator, you mean ones with Macrovision will copy okay through the SVHS connector? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 PS: That's 10 times, now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Oh - and if, for some reason, you do have trouble with a particular tape, you can always get the Sima CopyMaster, which effectively defeats the Macrovision copy protection on ANY VHS tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 ---------------- On 3/4/2004 8:48:04 PM paulparrot wrote: P.S. Griffinator, you mean ones with Macrovision will copy okay through the SVHS connector? ---------------- I copied "Better off Dead" through the S-Video jacks with no trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champagne taste beer budget Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 paul: That's kinda what I figured. Thanks though. Griff: I've got too many $ bills floating out the window this year with building the new house to even think about buying any serious equipment i.e. DVD Recorder. These inexpensive combo units might be right up my alley though. BTY, as I recall, you are an installer, I invite you down to my thread in the Architectural forum for any advice you may have in that regard. Thanks. p.s. Any thoughts on the Yamaha/cheapo comparisons? I'm sure the guts of these machines have changed immensly since I bought my CD player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painful Reality Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 I got curious and bought one of these Toshiba SD3950. Talk about a nice little player, with a somewhat noisy transport in my case. Not sure it's noisy enough for me to go back in the boonies to enter in a Wal Mart again though. It's on a "liveable with" level. I was really impressed by the lack of harshness of this little player. Fro the price, it's already giving much more than one could expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBusa Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Thanks for the heads up! I've been looking for a DVD/CD/ player that would also do MP3's. I'm gonna grab one of these today. As for the noisy chirping transport ...I know what you mean. The Kenwood dv402 DVD player I have now chirps and chugs so loudly at times that it can be heard in the quieter passeges of a movie! I'm really not surprised that MH is impressed with a $49 CD/DVD player. I'm more surprised that he's touting such an inexpensive component. >:-) IMO opinion a CD player is a CD player. I could swap out a $3000 transport and dac with a $49 toshiba while you were listening and you wouldn't be able to accurately chose the cheaper unit. Just like interconnects. We want the more expensive items to sound better because we paid so much more for them ...but they really don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 ---------------- On 3/5/2004 12:52:38 AM painful reality wrote: a somewhat noisy transport in my case ---------------- How noisy is yours? If you have the volume all the way down, how many feet away can you hear the tracking mechanism or transport, as the case may be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painful Reality Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 I could hear it from about 10 feet initially with no volume. But I left it spinning with a CD on repeat for the entire night and the noise vanished. It's now pretty quiet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 That's about the same distance range of noise on mine. I will run it a couple of days before swapping it out to see if mine quiets down too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted March 6, 2004 Author Share Posted March 6, 2004 LOW COST CD PLAYER SOLUTION UPDATE Here are two shots showing the interior of the Pioneer DV-260 and the Toshiba SD-3950. It's very interesting to see the similarities and differences of these two low cost solutions to digital. Both units have the separate power supply boards on the far side with VERY similar output/DAC boards, component-wise. The Toshiba looks like it might have the edge with the cleaner DAC board layout with nice board constuction but both are still very close considering. The Pioneer has the edge on build ever so slightly and is in a larger case. The Toshiba has quite a long "Ribbon" cable that links the PS to the main board. The Pioneer looks more clean here. While the PS board in the Toshiba is larger, the Pioneer has more filtering by a slim margin with a few different part solutions. Both could probably be improved upon in the analog output and PS but then again, this takes away from the beauty of the $60 solution. The transport on the Pioneer looks a bit better to me with less plastic but not substantially so. The Pioneer transport is totally silent. Regardless of the minor differences, these two 24/192 DAC solutions are just amazing in that you are getting some VERY GOOD digital including nice detail and definition with one extremely important point: THE DIGITAL HARSHNESS IS MUCH LOWER while still retaining adequate resolution. This is a MAJOR advantage. The fact is, you are getting some nice detail without much of the edge that came along for the ride with many past solutions, sometime VERY expensive ones. Again, this is a huge difference from inexpensive digital, even just short while ago. Perfect? No. But everyman digital competence is now here for the price of five CDs! I got a slew of email asking whether this "Cost Cutter YEllow Dot Special" was going to displace my Rega Planet. Amazingly enough, it's the closest thing I have had in my system that has really got me considering when you factor in what is happening these days for so little. But the Planet still has a more full bodied sound with a nice lower mid drive. Still, you just cant believe how close we are here, and in some ways, this little $60 solution sounds every bit as good or better. It's really a major achievement considering. Of course, the build is on another plain. But I have never heard so much from so little. This reminds me of the great value of something like the EICO HF-81, which is why I think the EICO-Pioneer/Toshiba solution is one of the all-time best low cost quality bang for ducat systems mated with some quality speakers (I think quality monitors do GREAT in a system like this too). One could sub their lower cost tube amp preference here, vintage or modern. There is virtually no reason not to have a very musically engaging system these days and all without burning up your Visa card. On another note, Vinyl still wins out in a head to head in the musically engaging department. There is more information on vinyl. And these players still lack the ultimate in inner detail/resolution but this is splitting hairs territory to many. PIONEER DV-260 TOSHIBA SD-3950 kh ps - bigbusa, I have found there actually ARE differences in IC and a good system will reveal as much. Cost is not a good determining point for measure, however. And not all CDP sound the same at all. Again, price is not always the benchmark as seen above but I dont agree with your "all the same" take based on my experience. Sometimes the differences are small, though and the law of dimishing returns kicks in. Lastly, your system's resolution and synergy has a lot to do whether differences are more easily discernable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo33 Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Goodness grace! I never thought quality can be had for so cheap. My Toshiba SD-3950 is dead quiet right out of the box! The sound quality is amazingly analog for a digital player. Nothing like my Jolida JD-100 or Rega Planet but it blew away most if not all conventional digital players. Heck, I even throw my old DVD player away. Thanks Kelly! This el-cheapo recommendation is worth every penny and more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBusa Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I can see why they weigh in at 5.5 lbs! There's nothing there! They should have put some strips of lead or heavy gauge steel inside to make it appear to have more inside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted March 6, 2004 Author Share Posted March 6, 2004 Neo, try leaving it on repeat for awhile as well...as in a day or so. Glad the few that have jumped on this deal found some good results as well. One of the last questions left is how low these players will last over time with use. It looks as if the Pioneer might be built better than the Toshiba from causual observation. The Pioneer now has a number of machines running with this chassis. The Pioneer DV-363 is $98 and comes in BLACK, something that seems to be gettng rare in the cheap DVD market, sadly enough. Then again, $98 is starting to sound like some CASH and the EXCITEMENT factor of getting GOOD for mere peanuts is slipping away as ole Ben draws near. For you freaks in Canada, Painful Jeff got his Toshiba SD-3950 at a Wal-Mart there (and is still recovering) and for some odd reason, they stock BLACK. I couldnt find a single black model in the USA however. The little well-built DV-260 is only in silver with the DV-363 the only cheapo Pioneer in black. Looking to have the Battle of the Cheapskate Toshiba vs Pioneer face off soon. kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch RF7 Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Ill put the DV-563A against any of these players anytime, anyplace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted March 6, 2004 Author Share Posted March 6, 2004 You're missing the point, Maestro. Does the 563 cost $60? kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Kelly, Crutchfield has the Pioneer for $89 right now. They don't have any of the other models. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBusa Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 MH I picked up the toshiba 3960 today. Thanks for the recommendation! Manufacture date 1/2004. I believe it's the successor to the 3950. $70 at boscovs. It's really tiny and light! I chuckled at how small it was when I lifted it. One thing that's immediately apparent is that a CD played through it it louder than through my sony cd player. 2 clicks on the pioneer sa9500 volume knob and I'm waiting for the neighbors to ask me to turn it down. I have to put my attentuator on -15db and then turn up the volume to a listenable level. This is weird! It does have a pretty audible and constant high pitched chirping sound from the transport. Not as bad as my Kenwood dvd player (which I didn't use for music) but way more than my sony cd player. I can play mp3s now so I'm happy. If only it did sacd too! I'm still trying to figure out the best way to connect it to my 36" xbr400 TV for movie sound and also to my pioneer sa9500 int amp for 2 channel music listening. I think I need a pair of Y cables from the L & R analog outs on the toshiba ...then I can feed the signal to either the amp or the TV. Any better ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted March 6, 2004 Author Share Posted March 6, 2004 BigBusa, as seen with some of the other posters, like ole Painful Jeff, if you leave the player going overnight, some of this chirping and transport noise might be gone. Give it a few days. As for the output, I am surprised it has a high output as most CDP/DVD players seem to hover in the 2v range as standard. Did your older player have a different output voltage? Not sure how you are doing your setup. Ok, you have the Pioneer 9500? What have you tried? kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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