Techtree hardware reviews suck!

[Keith Sebastian]

I could pick a 10 year old off the street, give him/her a piece of tech hardware and ask him/her to review it. I bet the end results will be better than Techtree's amateurish reviews. I've been following Techtree's reviews for quite some time now and always had the same low opinion. The only reason I read them was to find out what was available in our slow Indian markets and at what price.

I was looking to buy a Divx player. After reading Techtrees review on Philips DVP642 DVD + MPEG4 player I almost didn't buy it.

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp...id=3676&upto=1

But I had no choice. Either this or some c**p yum-cha Mitashi. Got the Philips yesterday after local dealer gave assurance of "return if not satisfied".

I also downloaded that German DivX test CD from here - ftp://ftp.mtu.ru/pub/horgi/outdoor

This beauty played almost everything. Everything except -

DivX5 1000 Mbps QPEL
XviD 1000 Mbps GMC
XviD 1000 Mbps QPEL
XviD 6000 Mbps GMC BF 3

In fact it has played everything I threw at it from my 700+ xvid/divx collection. I don't know what to make of Techree. "India's Technology Daily" ??? why drag an entire nation down to your sorry level.

Keith

[khandu]

u r damn right

i have never relied on them..

[magnet]

they r biased i guess.........as if they get payed by rivals to come up with a review........i jus read it as a feature guide.....never follow it............if they mention cons i do a google research on that thing

[grinning_devil]

npithub is also in the same level.....
cr@p !!!!!

[mamba]

even tho the techtree reviews r crap , they r never on time !!!!! eg. the philips player Keith is talkin bout , has been out there 4 months n they reviewed it just a week ago

@grinning_devil , npithub is even crappier, they havnt updated in ages

[yogi7272]

this is for Keith Sebastian,

i have few questions regarding the player ,

1. does it plays wmv as suggested by techtree
2. does it have both dolby digital and dts decoders built it and have 6 channel connectors on back
3. how is the picture clarity of divx movies on tvs on this player
4. does it have both coaxial and optical out
5. does it plays divx and mp3 on dvds

hope you will answer as you are using it and i am considering to purchase it

[Keith Sebastian]

Originally Posted by yogi7272

this is for Keith Sebastian,

i have few questions regarding the player ,

1. does it plays wmv as suggested by techtree
2. does it have both dolby digital and dts decoders built it and have 6 channel connectors on back
3. how is the picture clarity of divx movies on tvs on this player
4. does it have both coaxial and optical out
5. does it plays divx and mp3 on dvds

hope you will answer as you are using it and i am considering to purchase it

1. Don't know. I have no WMV's. I think it is possible. I read somewhere that it is also capable of reading files in MP4 container. Will try XVID+Mp3 in a MP4 container instead of AVI.

2. NO. Only direct pass through. So you need seperate DD, DTS reciever.

3. Excellent. I can't compare as I haven't used other players. But heaps better than PS2 with PS2Reality Media Player.

4. Yes

5. Yes. I tried DVD-R, +R, +RW


I does not do DivXviD with GMC and Q-PEL. Most encoders do not use these features. I have a very few (< 2%) files that will not play. Check your file using this utility -

AVICHECK - http://fer.peque.org/descargas/avicheck.zip

Keith

[yogi7272]

keith , thank you very much for your help .

but , are you sure abt the dolby digital and dts decoders as the site says it has both the decoders bulit in .

i am planning to use the player with my creative inspire 6700 speakers .

the address is www.philips.co.in and check in the audio/video department .

[Keith Sebastian]

Originally Posted by yogi7272

keith , thank you very much for your help .

but , are you sure abt the dolby digital and dts decoders as the site says it has both the decoders bulit in .

i am planning to use the player with my creative inspire 6700 speakers .

the address is www.philips.co.in and check in the audio/video department .

Sorry mate. My bad. It sure does have built in DD, DTS decoders. Had a look at the connections behind and it does have 6 audio jacks for 5.1 sound. Manual says it has built in DTS+Dolby D decoding.

I was too engrossed with it's mpeg4 capabilities and currently have it plugged into a stereo TV. Hence the oversight.

I just wrote a DVD-R (MBI) in ISO/UDF mode. The player takes almost 15 secs to show disc menu. And the lens sounds like it'd trying to read a scratched disc. May be it better to stick with plain ISO structure.

Keith

Keith

[drgrudge]

I am much interested in cell phone reviews and saw a guide (best phone buying guide under 5k) and it sucked bigtimes. There was comparison between just 2 phones and that was sendo and LG only!!!!

[yogi7272]

ok keith , I have just purchased the philips dvp 642k dvd player.

I have checked the following

1. it playes divx on cd and dvd
2. it playes mp3 on dvd
3. it playes .dat files from vcd on dvd
4. it also playes combination of all three on dvd
5. i haven't checked the wmv format , have you ?
6. it doesn't play the .avi -- i have captured a few tv programmes in this format with pinnacle studio 9 .
7. also playes jpeg files on dvd .
also what other audio / video codes it playes , i mean unofficially.

now have you tried to update its firmware and is it that helpful .

waiting for your reply,

[premrajeev]

hey keith...

what was the purchase price of this marvel ?? I'm also intending to buy a DVD player , was waiting to take a decision.

Hope this will come home at around 5k ???

[yogi7272]

premrajeev,its 4.5 k

location is navi mumbai

[premrajeev]

thanks man....and I'm definitely gonna buy it this week only..

will have more posts after my reviews.

Creative Inspire 5.1 spkrs can be paired with this one I think..Pls suggest.

And i think for 4.5 K, this is a best-buy.

[Keith Sebastian]

Originally Posted by premrajeev

Creative Inspire 5.1 spkrs can be paired with this one I think..Pls suggest.

What do the connections look like (Inspire 5.1 inputs) ?

Keith

[magnet]

well i read there powersafe reviews of 400watts and 500watts that was okk....i guess.......ppl gives the reviews not the staff of techtree

[Keith Sebastian]

Originally Posted by magnet

well i read there powersafe reviews of 400watts and 500watts that was okk....i guess.......ppl gives the reviews not the staff of techtree

No it's the same author/s all the time. I think it's staff, not users.

Keith

[magnet]

nope

check this 2 topic
1 of psu...1 of graphic card they r diff

may b for only psu or only graphic card they may b same


/http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=56485


/http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=53044

[Keith Sebastian]

The PSU guy does most/all new hardware reviews. About whether the reviews are user submitted - the fact that they acknowledge hardware sources (Test Unit Sourced From: Kunhar Peripherals Pvt. Ltd.) points to the contrary. Also there's no option on their pages to submit reviews, only comments. Pretty sure reviewers are Techtree staff.

Keith

[yogi7272]

hey keith ,

have you checked the wmv format on 642k

also what are the other codes it plays besides mentioned in the manual,
i mean unofficially ,

[Keith Sebastian]

Originally Posted by yogi7272

hey keith ,

have you checked the wmv format on 642k

also what are the other codes it plays besides mentioned in the manual,
i mean unofficially ,

No. I think I'll encode a wmv myself and check sometime soon. I have no wmv's except a few homemade p0rn clips and that's not something I'd want to play in my living room on the 642

Will post wmv results soon. Check back on this thread.

Keith

[yogi7272]

what about other unofficially supported codecs if any?

also,


1. it playes multiple divx files on cd and dvd
2. it playes mp3 on dvd
3. it playes multiple .dat files from vcd on dvd
4. it also playes combination of all three on dvd
5. it plays the mpeg files of all three types - vcd , svcd , dvd profile.
6. it doesn't play the .avi -- i have captured a few tv programmes in this format with pinnacle studio 9 .
7. also playes jpeg files on dvd .

have you tried any different stuff?

[Keith Sebastian]

Originally Posted by yogi7272

6. it doesn't play the .avi -- i have captured a few tv programmes in this format with pinnacle studio 9 .

avi is a container, not a codec. use gSpot to spot the codec you've use for this file.

PS: I'm starting a new thread on codec compatibilty for dvp642. Any contributions are most welcome.

Keith

[wisdom]

Hi keith
how to download the divx test cd, u hv gvn this ftp link but it is not working now.

ftp://ftp.mtu.ru/pub/horgi/outdoor

Originally Posted by Keith Sebastian

I could pick a 10 year old off the street, give him/her a piece of tech hardware and ask him/her to review it. I bet the end results will be better than Techtree's amateurish reviews. I've been following Techtree's reviews for quite some time now and always had the same low opinion. The only reason I read them was to find out what was available in our slow Indian markets and at what price.

I was looking to buy a Divx player. After reading Techtrees review on Philips DVP642 DVD + MPEG4 player I almost didn't buy it.

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp...id=3676&upto=1

But I had no choice. Either this or some c**p yum-cha Mitashi. Got the Philips yesterday after local dealer gave assurance of "return if not satisfied".

I also downloaded that German DivX test CD from here - ftp://ftp.mtu.ru/pub/horgi/outdoor

This beauty played almost everything. Everything except -

DivX5 1000 Mbps QPEL
XviD 1000 Mbps GMC
XviD 1000 Mbps QPEL
XviD 6000 Mbps GMC BF 3

In fact it has played everything I threw at it from my 700+ xvid/divx collection. I don't know what to make of Techree. "India's Technology Daily" ??? why drag an entire nation down to your sorry level.

Keith