UPDATED - At This Price It's Practically A Disposable (Minoka DVD 535)

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	Minoka DVD 535
Date:	01/02/02 (494 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see opinions

Disadvantages: see opinion

~ ~ Bear with the “mad cabbie” on this review, as I don’t particularly have a technical mindset, and so find it fairly difficult writing reviews on these types of products. But I’ll give it a go. Sure, the worst that can happen is that I’ll get a dose of poor ratings!!

~ ~ Many moons ago there was an old Sony DVD player in my household.
Unfortunately, it belonged to a niece who was staying with us during her first term at University, and so when she moved onto pastures new, the lovely DVD player went along with her. Ever since, I’ve been doing my utmost to convince the better half that a DVD player is an absolutely essential piece of equipment, but she kept wanting things like new curtains, carpets, wallpaper, doors, and so on, first. (spoilsport that she is!!)
But what she didn’t know about was my “secret” UK bank account, that I use to hide my wee earners here at dooyoo and Ciao. (VERY small at Ciao these days!)
So come the January sales here in Dublin, and I was off like a shot for our nearest Power City, and the DVD counter. Power City is a large electrical discount chain here in Ireland, by the way. (Opinion to follow)

~ ~ Not being a Scotsman for nothing, price came very high up on my list of priorities, as I do like getting value for my hard earned spondoolicks.
So all the top-of-the-range Panasonic, Technic, Sony, and other brand names were quickly passed over. I personally think that a lot of the time you’re paying for the name on the case, and that you get better value by purchasing the lesser known brands, as you get much the same quality and features for far less cash.
In the end it came down to a choice between a budget player from Philips at €179 (about £110 Sterling) and one from a manufacturer called Minoka, at €155. (about £95 Sterling)
As the Minoka (Japanese, as if you hadn’t guessed) had the better features, and could be
easily “chipped” to play DVD’s from other regions, (USA) this is the one I eventually went for, but not before dashing home and checking on dooyoo to see if there were any opinions written about it.
There weren’t, and not only that, I couldn’t unearth any further information about “Minoka” using Google. (the BEST search engine) So I quizzed the salesman further, and he assured me that it was made from Pioneer components. Now he could have been telling me “porky pies” just to get a sale, but at €155, and with a year’s guarantee, I wasn’t too concerned. Let’s face it, if I get a couple of years out of it at that sort of price, then it will owe me nothing! It’s practically the equivalent of a “disposable” razor.
And it looks damned good too, in its lovely shiny silver casing.
(500 words, and I haven’t even got into the opinion proper yet!!. OK. Here we go.)

~ ~ First thing about this DVD player is that it’s incredibly easy to install, even for somebody like me, who’s about as thick as they come when it comes to electronic and electrical jargon.
A very easily followed Instruction Manual, (solely in English) a scart lead supplied to plug into the back of the DVD player and the TV, pop in the plug, (also fitted) power it up, and away you go.
At this point I could reach for the manual, and simply give you a list of all the “techy” features, but that’s not really what you want to know, is it?? (I might give you a few later) If you’re anything like me, then you want to know how the thing works, and is it good to watch.
Put it this way. Anyone who has watched a movie on a DVD player will never want to go back to using pre-recorded VCR tapes again. The picture is totally astounding, and crystal clear, with none of the fuzziness and flickering that you can get with a video recorder. There’s a tec
hnical reason for this, which has something to do with the number of lines on the TV screen. (I think) But never mind all that gobbledegook. The picture clarity is simply GREAT, and that’s good enough for me.

~ ~ Now for some of the other features I like.
There is the fast forward button on the remote control, which allows me to go forward at any speed I like, at graduated speeds from 2x right up to an incredible 32x normal speed. This also applies to the rewind facility. So no more having to hang around for ages winding on the beginning of a tape to get rid of all the trailers for other movies I don’t want to watch in any case. (probably) Or vice versa waiting for yonks for a tape to rewind because some lazy devil hasn’t bothered their backside to rewind it before returning it to the video shop.
I can also watch a movie in either widescreen or ordinary mode, but as I haven’t got a widescreen TV yet, (that’s next on the agenda) I can’t really comment on how good or otherwise this facility is.
The slow motion facility allows me to go forward at anything up to 8 times slower than normal speed, or if I like, I can freeze the frame, and go forward at just one frame at a time.
Same thing with the zoom facility. I can zero in on any frame that takes my fancy, and increase the size of the picture anything up to 4 times its normal size. I can also toggle the frame from side to side, and up and down, to see parts of the picture that may be hidden because of the increase in size. If the disc has what’s called an “angle” facility on it, I can even watch the same scene from different camera angles. One little drawback with this that I’ve noticed is that the picture DOES lose a bit of clarity the more you enlarge it.

~ ~ Once I’ve watched the movie right through, I can go back to what is called the root menu. This gives me all sorts of extra features.
Every film is brok
en down into sections, or “Chapters” as the DVD calls them, in rather the same way as a book. I can select what particular chapter I would like to watch again, and simply press play. So no having to hunt for my favourite bits of a film anymore, as I have to with a VCR. I can even set the DVD to replay the same chapter, or even section of the film, over and over again.
Depending what movie you are watching, there are many other features available using this root menu. I watched “Stigmata” (review to follow) a couple of nights ago, and as well as the standard ending, the root menu also allowed you to view an alternative ending that was filmed and then discarded, and also extra scenes that were shot but which never made it into the film. You also get commentary from both the actors and the director, which is very interesting.

~ ~ I haven’t mentioned the sound quality yet. (very remiss of me)
The DVD has sockets on the back where you can plug in stereo speakers, and also a jack at the front where you can plug in a set of headphones.
I have mine hooked up to the speakers on my stereo system, and the effect is great. Not only this, I can play back my music DVD’s through the player as well, if I wish to do so.
This next bit is a bit technical for me, and I haven’t used the facility yet, but seemingly you can play your MP3 discs on it too, and any CD/DVD’s that you have burned (copied) yourself with a DVD/CD rewriter. (naughty, but nice!) I know this works, as I have an illicit copy of the movie “The Green Mile” starring Tom Hanks that plays just fine!!

~ ~ Well. That’s about it folks. (Phew. And I thought this was going to be a “quicky” opinion!)
Only remains to give all you “techy heads” a bit more information, and to sum up what I think of the Minoka DVD player.
Here’s the technical data first. Ignore it if you like, it doesn&#
8217;t mean a whole lot to me either! Which is why I left it to the end of the opinion.


· Compatible with DTS digital output
· Formats supported: DVD/ SCVD/ VCD2.0/ VCD3.0/ MP3CD/ CD-R/ CD-RW/ CVD/ DVCD/ OKO.
· 96 KHz/24-bit stereo audio DACS.
· 10-bit video D/A converter.
· Earphone output with volume control
· MTSC/ PAL/ AUTO Selectable
· Selectable screen aspect ratio (4:3 and 16.9)
· S-Video output
· SCART output
· 32 languages of subtitle and tracks of dialogue.
· Multiple-view angle discs supported.
· COAXIAL and OPTICAL digital output.
· Video horizontal resolution of 500 line or above.
· Wireless I.R. Remote Control
· FWD/REW.PLAY and SKIP functions.
· 32x speed trick play.
· Parental lock.
· Mp3 track program mode supported.
· Double bytes file name of Mp3 track supported.
· Universal power supply AC 100 – 240V.

~ ~ I don’t know what you think, but I reckon I got good value for my Euro.
Recommended by the “mad cabbie”.

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UPDATE (11/03/02)

~ ~ This DVD player just became even better value!
I was quizzed in my comments box by the Guide here in the Electronics Category about the possibility of “chipping” this machine in order that it could play DVD’s from other regions. (like the USA)
Well, now I’m happy to tell you that this can be done very easily, and at no extra cost whatsoever. I recently received an email from an Irish guy (don’t think he’s a member here at dooyoo) who was also thinking of buying this very same machine. He had come across my opinion, and noticed that I had mentioned about getting the DVD chipped.
He also went ahead and bought the same player from Power City here in Dublin, and was seemingly told a different story to myself. The salesman I dealt with had told me that it was manufactured from Pioneer compo
nents. His fella had told him that it was Philips components. (bloody vultures!!)
In fact, it now transpires it is in fact Daewoo who make the innards.

~ ~ Anyhow, he gave me the URL of a site where you can obtain a “crack” to enable you to play discs from ANY region on the player. Here’s the link.
“http://www.vcdhelp.com”
Look up the “DVD Hacks” page, and find the hack for the Daewoo DVG-3000N.
Follow the instructions given, which consists of pressing various buttons and controls on both the remote Control and the DVD player itself in a preset sequence, and you can make the player compatible with any region you wish, which means that you can purchase your films and DVD’s from anywhere on the Web, and from any country in the world.
It also enables you to turn of a feature called Macrovision, which allows you to tape from a DVD disc onto a VHS tape. Although quite why you’d want to do this is beyond me!

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