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The price of DVD players is dropping all the time, highlighted and a new sub £100 player made by ‘Himage’. But do you really get what you pay for ? Despite previous year’s price drops, there are still large differences in prices between players. For instance, the Sony S335 is twice the price of the Encore DV450 that I own and yet the Encore has several more features including multi-region playback, a macro-vision disabler, a 5.1 decoder and the ability to play MP3's stored on CD-R. So why do Sony feel they can charge twice as much for a poorly equipped player ? The only points I can think of are size and reliability. Size because the Sony is about 4cm thinner than the Encore and reliability because sometimes the Encore can be a bit temperamental with discs such as ‘The Beach’ or ‘Fight Club’. However, they still feel they can charge 200% more than a player, that specifications wise, blows the Sony out of the water !
I don't think you do get what you pay for with DVD equipment either. A lot of the time it seems that some manufacturers are prepared to put time and effort into producing a good player for a relatively low price, where as other may cut corners or produce inferiour equipment and hike the price up.
Having said that, Sony, Philips and other firms will use top quality components in their players while others will use cheap taiwan stuff that comes in bulk from a factory they may never have visited, and all the company do is put the things together and write the firmware. It's the same difference(?) with computers, go to most mail order bulk resellers or some companies, and they will offer you a cheap computer with better specs than all the others. Go to a more reputable dealer, like Special Reserve, PC world or anyone like that and you will find the prices slighty higher, but the components are a better quality and are often badged.
In the end, you choose what suits you. If you're happy gambling with unbadged components and lack of after-sales support, then you don't have to pay much to get a good spec DVD player, but if you want the peace of mind over the technical options then you go for a good name and pay a bit more. That's the way I see it anyway!
Having said that, Sony, Philips and other firms will use top quality components in their players while others will use cheap taiwan stuff that comes in bulk from a factory they may never have visited, and all the company do is put the things together and write the firmware. It's the same difference(?) with computers, go to most mail order bulk resellers or some companies, and they will offer you a cheap computer with better specs than all the others. Go to a more reputable dealer, like Special Reserve, PC world or anyone like that and you will find the prices slighty higher, but the components are a better quality and are often badged.
In the end, you choose what suits you. If you're happy gambling with unbadged components and lack of after-sales support, then you don't have to pay much to get a good spec DVD player, but if you want the peace of mind over the technical options then you go for a good name and pay a bit more. That's the way I see it anyway!
The price of DVD players is dropping all the time, highlighted and a new sub £100 player made by ‘Himage’. But do you really get what you pay for ? Despite previous year’s price drops, there are still large differences in prices between players. For instance, the Sony S335 is twice the price of the Encore DV450 that I own and yet the Encore has several more features including multi-region playback, a macro-vision disabler, a 5.1 decoder and the ability to play MP3's stored on CD-R. So why do Sony feel they can charge twice as much for a poorly equipped player ? The only points I can think of are size and reliability. Size because the Sony is about 4cm thinner than the Encore and reliability because sometimes the Encore can be a bit temperamental with discs such as ‘The Beach’ or ‘Fight Club’. However, they still feel they can charge 200% more than a player, that specifications wise, blows the Sony out of the water !