Info and forum posts by 'Dan Rees'

Joined on: Tuesday, 5th December 2000, 08:42, Last used: Tuesday, 5th December 2000, 08:42

Access Level: Mostly Harmless

About this user: http://www.ally-mcbeal.co.uk
http://www.thesopranos.co.uk

An Aiwa XD-DV370 owner thanks to Jimbo...

This user has posted a total of 32 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0 messages a day, or 0.03 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: Bad Experiences/Incompetent Retailers...name and shame time!

Just to balance things out - I received my order for CTHD within a week of placing it, despite the distribution problems.

I agree, they do need to sort their e-mail system out, but I personally had no problems in changing delivery address for my Spartacus Criterion order.

They can be hit and miss for some people, but I personally haven`t had any bad experiences with them.

RE: Guess what,Techtronics Strikes Again!!!

Techtronics apparently cause more problems than any other company:
http://www.thedvdforums.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=000031

And their staff are known plagerists:
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/getstory.cgi?story=956

Overall, not a very kosha company. :(

RE: Aiwa XD - DV170 REGION FREE IS POSSIBLE BUT HOW ???

Try the hack for the XD-DV370, which you can get it www.choosefirst.co.uk.

RE: lg dvd-3350E

You might like to take a look at this:
http://www.thedvdforums.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=000031

RE: Non-Widescreen Version Of The X-Men

In fact, just take a look down any Tv listings mag at how many programmes have W/S beside them, and you`ll see that we`re moving in that direction.
Films are being shown in W/S on TV, albeit chopped to a smaller ratio from their usual aspect.

RE: Why are DVD`s so expensive???

I`m not bothered about spending an extra couple of quid for decent interviews or behind the scenes footage etc, that takes time to produce, but a simple biography/filmography + trailer will not cost anything more to produce.

RE: BUDGET PLAYER

If you`re looking for a simple player to hook up to a TV, the Wharfy should be fine. But if you`re going to be using surround sound systems (DD or DTS), then the Aiwa DV370 or LG3350 are ideal, because they have more sound output options (AFAIR). Then again, if you`re using DD or DTS, you should be asking yourself why you`re buying a budget player...

RE: V.Shop offer

As a former employee (had to leave because I`m moving to St. Andrews):
If you take it back with the receipt they will give you half of the offer, so a 2 for £25 would land you with £12.50.
If you take it back without the receipt, but still have the stickers on showing that it came from VShop, they`ll give you full price vouchers.
So for a 2 for £30 deal, you could get £40s worth of vouchers if you took the discs back seperately.

RE: How many dvds do you all have?

About 40 when my current orders arrive, with boxsets counting as one disc:
See http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=danrees

RE: AIWA XD-DV370 MACROVISION?

Btw - www.dvdreview.net have reviewed the Aiwa in this month`s issue of DVD Review (a bit late!).

RE: futureent.com

I think Future have a habit of being very inconsistent.
Luckily I`ve been ok with them - ordered T2:UE, Toy Story 1+2, and both arrived within a few days.
I`ve got Almost Famous on pre-order, so we`ll see if that turns up on Monday. They`ve already taken out the £15.99...

RE: Movietyme update

giarC[at]emyteivoM frequently visits http://www.thedvdforums.com, and recently had this to say:

---- quote ----

Latest info of CTHD is good and well not bad but unbelievable!!
We have had more stock shipped that we will get Monday (at last!!) so look out for credit cards billed over the weekend as a quick way to tell if yours is in this wave (orders after Jan 16th approx will not be in this wave as we had our quantity cut, sorry)

Now to the intersting thing and this is only rumour from our distributors but (direct copy & paste from mail):

"For the current situation of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the
supply is still very limited and we encountered difficulties to get the
stock. Moreover, there is rumour that the distributor in Hong Kong will
release this title on a new version without English sub-titles! All these
things causes a sharp increase in the price of this title."

Is this a move to protect sales of the R1 version??

I have never ever encountered such a terrible distribution of a title in this maner before ever, as you can see... what happens next is anyone`s guess.

---- end quote ----

RE: Woolworths accepting all unwanted DVD`s

I know for a fact that in VShop, if a CD comes back scratched and the person says "it doesn`t work", rather than "I don`t want it", we`ll simply mark it as faulty and send it to our faulties warehouse, where I believe it gets sent back to the supplier.

Obviously we only do this with receipts...

It`s an interesting point though - I know at VShop we`ll accept most saleable condition items back without receipts, as long as we have that item in stock at that moment in time, or have done very recently. Obviously with DVDs VShop tend to stock quite a large range of R2 titles, so you can usually get away with it.

It`s the guys that come back with some obscure VHS title that get foiled...

Dan.

RE: 50% off dvd`s @ www.etoys.co.uk

Got Tarzan CE for £25. Useful to take back sealed as unwanted xmas gift - saves £12.50 on something in Woolies or VShop (I work there, so will get discount too).

Dan.

RE: CAN ANYONE HELP

Don`t be fooled by the good review for the Alba model - although it is useful to check out reviews for players, the reviewers only test using a couple of discs, so often don`t really push players to their limits (probably the case with the Alba model).

I`ve owned an Alba 103 and now own an Aiwa 370 (thanks Jimbo). I have to say that the Aiwa model is definitely worth the 40 quid extra.

Dan.

X Files for cheap? Yes please...

Don`t know if you all know about this, but all I can say is:
http://www.thedvdforums.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/001724.html

Enjoy if you can get a copy (I haven`t been able to - even though I bet they had copies under the counter).

Dan.

RE: Will Di$ney face up to responsibilities

So how do we go about starting some pretty heavy action on them?
Somebody has got the number for Beuna Vista on thedvdforums.com - we could get people to phone up and pester them...

I`ve e-mailed Watchdog about it in the hope that although they screwed up the Gladiator feature, they might be able to put the same pressure on Disney.

Dan.

RE: Will Di$ney face up to responsibilities

It`s bloody shocking isn`t it?
I got my R2 boxset for £30 because I get a 25% discount for working in V.Shop, so it is cheaper than me getting TS1 + TS2 seperately. Even so, I`m taking it back and ordering the R1 version which ironically has no problems on R2 players.

If I have picked up correctly, the same is true of Gladiator - R1 has no problems but R2 does? And the studios are trying to discourage UK buyers from purchasing R1 discs? They`re certainly not doing a very good job of it...

Dan.

R1 Toy Story Boxset same/better than R2?

I can`t get the frigging 3rd disc of the R2 Toy Story 1+2 boxset to work on my Aiwa 370, so I want to know if the dropped frames will make much of a difference on my Aiwa 370 with a PAL50 only tv? If not, I will return the boxset and order the R1 set from dv-depot.com.

Jimbo?

Dan.

RE: Bought an Aiwa 370! Now for Toy Story Disc 3...

Just read this on dvdtimes:

--------
Comment: Toy Story problems abound - and another problem disc?
Posted on Wednesday, 13 December 2000 at 12:21 GMT

I have an AIWA 370 and although the intro plays, the disc stops as soons as it finishes
John
---------

Looks like I`m not the only Aiwa owner having problems.

Dan.

RE: Best Excuse for Alba-Asda Return

Yeah, got a refund no questions asked.
Bought an Aiwa DV370 and it does indeed rock.

But my Toy Story Disc 3 won`t work - taking it back tomorrow to exchange for a newbie, and hope it is the fault of the disc...

Dan

RE: Bought an Aiwa 370! Now for Toy Story Disc 3...

Hmmm...
I`ll take it back and get a new disc then... :-)

RE: Bought an Aiwa 370! Now for Toy Story Disc 3...

I own the Region 2 boxset, not Region 1.
And it`s not that the disc is dirty (it`s brand new yesterday) - it boots me to the default screen like it has been reported with other players on www.dvdtimes.co.uk.

I genuinely think this is a problem with all R2 Toy Story extras discs - why would it do exactly the same to the Aiwa as other machines if it wasn`t?

So although it isn`t the Aiwa`s fault, it can no longer be said to play all discs. I`m not really bothered because I only paid £30 for the boxset, when Toy Story 1 & 2 retail in Region 2 at £20/£23 each.

Dan.
(and Aiwa does rock...)

Bought an Aiwa 370! Now for Toy Story Disc 3...

Just because Jimbo said I should (and I didn`t want everyone to think I was an utter scab), I returned my Alba and shelled out a little more for an Aiwa from Comets.

Results: excellent - the fuzziness that plagued my Buffy discs on the Alba is reduced significantly, and I just get the overall impression of professionalism.

R1 discs are playing fine, even with a PAL50-only TV (I`m using High Fidelity to test).

Only problem is the brand spanking new problem of Toy Story Collection Disc 3 (Extras) chucking you back to the default screen after the intro. Any suggestions Jimbo?

Dan

RE: Best Excuse for Alba-Asda Return

Lol. :-)

I`ve checked the 3 year electricals guaruntee slip they gave me and it clearly says:

"If anything goes wrong with your product within the next 3 years, we will happily repair it, exchange it or give you a refund."

Potentially they could pull the fast one of saying that this "or" indicates that it is an option for them, and not something I can simply choose myself. Seeing as nowhere on this guaruntee slip does it refer to any other terms and conditions, I`m not leaving the store until I get my £148.71 back. :-)

And before I shell out an extra £30 on the Wharfdale 750S, can someone please tell me if I am going to have any major problems?

Dan.

Best Excuse for Alba-Asda Return

After watching Chicken Run I was impressed.
After watching American Beauty I was impressed.

After watching Buffy S1 I was p***ed off. The picture throughout is crap. And after reading back further threads to find out that most Columbia discs probably won`t work, I`m taking my Alba DVD 103 model back to Asda.

Now what`s the best excuse for me to use to get my money back?

Dan.

DV-Depot & Customs

On their website (http://www.dv-depot.com) it says that they have ways of getting around Customs on import to the UK.

Can I order the Sopranos boxset (~ $70) in complete confidence that it will arrive:
a) just arrive
b) arrive on time
c) arrive without being charged about £20?

Any other cos that are good for R1 boxsets (Play247.com don`t have the Sopranos on their site)?

Dan.

RE: NTSC -> PAL conversion

>Easier solution for you David. Set the "Pal/NTSC/Auto" switch to Pal instead of Auto.
Should cure your problem, Quasi Pal is not enabled on mine, my telly`s crap and I get no jerking whatsoever!!

Is that standard for most players?
I`m using the Alba DVD 103 with an old tele and it has exactly the same option.
I`ve just ordered a R1 disc to test it - I`m thinking it should work because I can watch R2 discs in NTSC (b/w) if I want, so the region has neglible effect on output.
I hope it works anyway. :-)

RE: Alba Dvd 103 - widescreen on non-widescreen tvs

Yeah, I did a bit more reading and apparently only widescreen films with Pan and Scan can be set as 4:3 without stretching. Even then you will obviously lose the side edges.

On a similar note - I noticed Gladiator has a very high widescreen ratio - can this be PSed to the equivilant of the Gladiator VHS?

RE: Region 1 titles playable in PAL output mode? (for Alba DVD 103)

OK, basically I own R2 American Beauty and obviously this plays fine in PAL mode. The Alba player lets you switch between NTSC and PAL signal outputs from the player. It will let me watch a R2 disc (American Beauty) in NTSC mode, but obviously my ancient tele only displays black and white. My reasoning is that if I can technically watch a R2 disc in b/w NTSC, then surely I can watch a R1 disc in colour PAL?

Dan.