Info and forum posts by 'Tim Read'

This user hasn't used our main site yet, so has no main account at present.

Joined on: Wednesday, 1st November 2000, 13:39, Last used: Wednesday, 1st November 2000, 13:39

Access Level: Harmless

About this user: Systems Administrator, Cambridge.

I am new to DVD hardware, but pretty experienced with PC hardware...!

This user has posted a total of 8 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0 messages a day, or 0.01 messages a week. In the last 30 days, this user has posted 0 messages, which is on average 0 messages a day.

Recent Messages Posted:

RE: Do you own a Scan Player and are happy with it?

I got my Scan at the beginning of November.

I am very happy with the features and picture quality for the price I paid (£175). It`s a solidly built player with great picture quality. I have only had one problem disk, which was a copy of Ronin from the local Blockbuster - it locked up on the menu. But it was a rental disk...

I`ve now got about 20 DVDs, all of them play.

I`ve seen in some threads people reporting problems on the Scan with `blocky` black areas and blue shadowing. I have v.164 of the firmware, and I won`t change it until there is a compelling reason to do so! My player does not exhibit any `blockiness` on black areas or blue shadowing. I have noticed a slight degradation in closeup beige/skin tones on my Gattaca disk (R2) but that`s it.

So, overall I`m a happy Scan customer. But then I`ve never had to resort to their legendary customer service!

RE: `new` Scan Sc2000

I watched American Beauty last night (which has plenty of dark/black scenes) and didn`t notice any artifacts in black shades. Neither did my mate who`s got a Sony player - who was also watching it.

I`ve got about 15 other disks, including Gattaca, Cube, Gladiator, Toy Story 2, Heat, Fight Club (2 disk version), Get Carter, Taxi Driver, Big Blue, Pi. No problems with any of these.

I haven`t got Magnolia.

RE: `new` Scan Sc2000

Don`t get me wrong, Duke - I`m not dumping on the Sony players - Sony make great pieces of kit (after all I have plenty of Sony kit myself: widescreen TV, MD walkman and full size MD recorder). I`m happy with the Scan coz` I couldn`t see any appreciable difference between my player and a mate`s costing almost 3 times as much.

I just didn`t want to blow £400 -£600 on a DVD player.

RE: `new` Scan Sc2000

Not really, bear - I just trust my own eyes and ears! I`ve seen several DVDs now on my mates` Sony players such as Gladiator, American Beauty - and I couldn`t see any difference between them and my Scan. I don`t know the model numbers so I can`t list them here. But I know that one of them was £500, the other £450 I think. So I don`t think the £175 Scan is at all bad.

In fact, one of my mates has exactly the same Sony 24" widescreen TV as me- so the only differences are likely to be down to the player.

But then your hatred of Scan is obvious to everyone reading your previous posts. Did they let you down personally or something?!

RE: `new` Scan Sc2000

First off, I bought a Scan back on Oct. 30th 2000 - one of the `new` batch with upgradeable firmware and new MPEG hardware card. There were problems with earlier batches, mainly before October last year. If you purchased recently, you should be fine. I haven`t seen any articles alleging that review models differ from Scan`s regular stock.

I`ve had no problems with my player, the picture and sound are good quality for the money, as are the extra features e.g. MP3 playback, region bypass . So I am a very happy Scan owner! I`ve got mates with far more expensive Sony players that do not beat its picture or sound quality!

You`ll find lots of opinions on these forums. That`s all they are - opinions!

I assume you bought the Scan because of its feature set, picture quality and value for money. If it plays every disk you throw at it, what`s changed?

RE: Scan DVD Player Any Good ??

I bought a Scan SC-2000 a couple of weeks ago. Having read about the various problems with the previous batch of players, I waited until the end of October, when the new batch arrived, before placing my order. I also confirmed with Nelly @ Scan that my player would be from the new batch. I have also bought PC hardware from Scan in the past and have been perfectly satisfied.

Having received the player and used it for 2 weeks, I must say that I am very happy with it, and would support what I read in the many positive reviews that the player has had. The picture quality is very good for the price, the menu system looks good and is easy to comprehend (as is the manual), and the player`s features (MP3, dolby dts ect) are also top notch for the price.

Yes, you can bypass the region setting. More importantly, you can specify the region to defeat RCE. The unit plays MP3 CDs (I haven`t tried this myself) and regular CD playback is good quality - I could hardly tell it apart from my (admittedly old, but still good) Marantz CD-52. As far as I know, Macrovision cannot be disabled at the moment although I suggest you look for Nelly`s posts about this (or e-mail him directly).

The only thing I would say is that the remote buttons are a little fiddly, but that`s really a minor criticism, and I can easily live with it!

My TV is a Sony KV24WX1 (24" widescreen) and DVDs played on the Scan look gorgeous on it!

That`s just my 2 cents.

RE: Another question on PC DVD

Check out the Firmware Page site at www.firmware.com.bi

They list the following info about your drive:

-Compaq SD-612B (12X/40X)
(Known firmware : BQ04 / BL10)
You can make your drive region free (RPC-1) by using this patched Samsung SD-612 firmware (patch by John Johnson). Note : Once flashed, the drive will be detected as a Samsung SD-612.

So yes, it sounds like you can make the drive region-free. I doubt you can make the drive region specifiable (for RCE) with a firmware upgrade - but you can use a utility like DVD Genie to fool Windows into thinking you are using a specific region, once the drive is region-free. You can get DVD Genie from http://www.inmatrix.com/files/dvdgenie_download.html

PS The www.inmatrix.com site should have lots of other useful info for you.

Good luck!

Good widescreen TVs for my Scan SC-2000?

Hello all.

A bit off subject, but I`m having a hell of a time finding reviews of decent widescreen TVs to go with my new Scan SC-2000 player (works fine :-). I`ve seen a few handy looking sets locally (Cambridge) like the Sony KV24WX1, which looked good, with vibrant colours, but with a slightly fuzzy picture which I didn`t expect from Sony... Also the Hitachi 24" C24W511TN widescreen range looks good, sharper picture than the Sony but the colours were more washed out.

Anyone got any glowing recommendations for a decent 24-28" widescreen set, with all the usual connectors like S-video, Scart, composite etc for a DVD player? Personally I`m leaning towards the reputation of Sony (great PC monitors, tube technology) or the Hitachi which also looked very good.

Thanks.