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Sunday 10 November 2002

Scans SC-440sl [spiro]

I have just bought Scans new Slim line DVD player the SC-440SL. So heres a quick rundown on my first days use.

Specifications

Multi-region

Audio: Dolby/DTS/PCM ready, 5.1 Channel True Sound, DTS output, Digital Audio outputs coaxial and optical.

Video: S-Video, Composite, RGB.

Supported Formats: DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD, MP3, CD, CD-R, CD-RW and Kodak Picture CD.

Now including the feet its only 50mm High which is one of its best features. Its finish is silver so works perfectly with my Panasonic VHS and Beej's Amplifier.

First thing I noticed was the remote control, this unfortunatley is no where near as sleak as the player, but I have to admit it feels well built and sturdy. Supplied with the player you have the remote, batteries, twin RCA cable, S-video cable and a Scart lead, so you have the basics to get up and running instantly. Well you would of though so, the scart lead was far to short so I had to place the player closer to my TV. For most people this isn't a problem, but I have no where close to put it.

After moving the TV a little on its stand I'm able to connect it up and move on to the audio. Beejs amp has optical so this is the obvious route to take and finally the power cable.

You are greated by a nice screen saver advertising Scan on your TV. The front panel display on the player is very clear and easy to read, offering information on everything from operating status to the angle indicator. The tray has a nice quiet sliding action and once closed blends in perfectly.

To test the players audio and picture quality I wanted to play Saving Private Ryan's opening sequence, but Beej has left it at work so next best choice is Golden Eye.

LOADING.........

Its very quiet, in fact I can't hear a thing. I check the connections between the player and the amp, I've made sure the volume is turned up and still nothing. I've checked the settings on the amp and everything is fine, but still no leet audio. For one of the first times in my life with this sort of equipment I resort to the manual. Sigh, the audio outputs ont he player have to be set in the DVD's internal menu, basically you have to tell it to output digital audio not analogue. Although this is very easy to do its also very lame, so whilst in there I check the other settings I.E. Language, Aspect ratio (gah bloody pan and scan shit), Type of TV (PAL/NTSC), captions and bloody parental control.

LOADING.........

YAY Sound, Dolby Kicks in shortly followed by the sub. OOOh now we're talking. This has taken me all of about 20mins (including the relocation of the TV), a bit disapointing to be honest, this should of been a 5min job no more. I have yet to find how to change region, how to set up the repeat or fine tuned the surround settings.

So far this DVD rocks. The problem with the audio would only effect people using digital outputs and to be fair it did work perfectly first time via the scart. As I play with it i'll add more to this blog.

4 comments:

  1. I'm in the market for a slimline player, so any comments on performance of this fella will be very welcome my little purple friend. Lerrus know how the mp3 player fares too eh?

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  2. After reading the manual from cover to cover I still haven't found out howto change the region. I sent a request to Scan's online technical supportthis morning at about 8 and received the answer just after 9, not bad. Youbasically enter a 4 digit pin on the remote and then select the region youwant, i.e. 12341 for region 1. To get the player to auto select regions youenter a 0 as the region code. The region 0 setting will not work for RCEprotected DVD's so you have to set those manually.

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  3. Noticed from Scan's page it's supposed to read both DVD-RW and DVD+RW, wich I must say is a great bonus!

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  4. MP3 Play BackFor this I burnt a CD with not only different quality MP3's but with alsoother generic file types i.e. jpeg's, TXT etc. After a short time of loadingthe screen saver is replaced with a basic explorer layout. Folders on theleft contents on the right. Navigation is simple, up and down arrows andenter to select.

    All Folders are shown, but only compatible file types are displayed. On theold scan DVD player you used to just get a numbered list of files, but inthe way that all things improve the new player displays part of the trackname. Only the fist 15 characters are shown so its useless if the titlestarts with the artist name. Its very easy to use and once you have selecteda track you can skip to the next or previous just like a CD player, but youcan't scan through the list whilst playing. Such a shame, I thought they hadit almost right. Still not a problem, you wouldn't have wasted your timeburning music you don't like so either stop it and search or skip through.

    Quality wise this is something all together different. As it reachesdifferent tracks the output varies drastically, if you are going to use thisfunction on a regular basis I would recommend using the same standard forall the mP3's you want to play.

    As for what you're hearing this is an age old argument. As far as I'mconcerned MP3 format does not remove the enjoyment I get from music. If youare a sound freak then use the proper equipment to listen to music.

    So far still really impressed. Non of the usual sync slips or grainyplayback you get from time to time with cheaper players. I'm unable to testany of the other playback options at the moment so this will be it for mycomments unless I have a stroke of luck in the next week or so. For theprice you can't really go wrong with this player. It looks good, Well built,vast playback options, easy to operate, all the audio options.

    I'll give it another week or so of hardcore playback and comment if I haveany problems.This morning Beej put a CD-R that he'd burnt into the player. The CD hadjust an MPEG file on it, nothing special was done. It played it perfectly.

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