Elite DVD9200DVD-Video Player

Just how muchshould you bepaying for aDVD-Video

player?

By Nic TathamAudio & Video Lifestyle Magazine

68

auditionequipment review

In the past three or so years,the price of DVD players hasdropped to almost disposablelevels. It’s now moreeconomical to replace someDVD players than have themfixed. This throw-away pricing

is good for your bank balance but, aswith most things in life, you tend to getwhat you pay for.

Many manufacturing businesses thatweren’t in the DVD player market,jumped on the bandwagon, eagerlyswitching production to the machines tomeet with the ever-increasing consumerdemand. The DVD-Video formatcrossed boundaries too, as a consumerelectronics format as well as becoming aperipheral device on the vast majority ofmodern personal computers. Thecomputer industry is notorious for pricedrops as it’s such a volatile and forever-changing technology-led market andsome of this has undoubtedly rubbedoff on the latest breed of very affordabledomestic DVD-Video players.

They have become ludicrouslyinexpensive. I’m still waiting to see oneadvertised for under $70, but I won’thave to wait too long. What this sort ofmoney buys is a very basic DVD-Videoplayer and one with a brand nameyou’ve never heard of before, or evenno brand name badge at all. And to beperfectly frank, if you get 12 months useout of such a machine, then you’ve donewell. Anything more than that is simplya bonus.

The number of these ‘no-name’branded machines is plentiful. At thisfestive time of year, there seems to bemore than ever adorning the front ofjunk mail and piled high in electricalretailers, plus stores that don’t normallysell such goods. Everyone, it seems,wants a piece of the inexpensive DVDplayer action. One such company, is theElite Technology Group, a company thatwas established in 1993 and has beeninvolved in various aspects of digitalvideo technology and lately specialisingin computer and automated security

Reproduced with permission from Australia’s monthly AV magazine, Audio & Video Lifestyle • Issue: AVL-134

Audio & Video Lifestyle Magazine

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T e c h n o t a l k

Product Type:DVD-Video playerDisc Compatibility:DVD-Video/CD/VCD/CD-R/(W)/CD Audio/Super VCD/Horizontal Video Resolution:Over 500 linesSystem Signal:PAL/NTSCDVD Frequency Response:4-44,000Hz (96kHz)4-22,000Hz (48kHz)CD Frequency response:4 - 20,000HzDynamic Range:>95dBTotal Harmonic Distortion:0.0010%Signal to Noise Ratio:More than 95dBAudio D/A Conversion:96kHz/24-bit

Technotalk specifications and recommendedretail prices are supplied by the manufacturer

Vital Statistics

Dimensions:430 x 48 x 261mmWeight:4kgPrice:$149Distributor:Elite Technology Pty Ltd22-24 Bridge StreetRydalmere, NSW 2116Telephone:(02) 8845 3021Facsimile:(02) 8845 3088Website:www.elitetechnology.com.au

systems. The chances are that whileyou’re waiting for the 7.55am toSydney’s Town Hall railway station, thevideo streaming system on the station’splatform was supplied and installed byElite.

What’s all this got to do withwatching DVDs at home, you may wellask? Well, for some years now, thecompany has also been supplying DVD-Video players and other domestic AVequipment. The player in question hereis the Elite DVD9200. It, like 99.9% ofDVD machines these days, is a slimlinedesign and finished in silver.Construction quality hardly sets any newstandards of workmanship, but is stillpretty good and a lot better than someI’ve come across for the same sort ofmoney. Internally, the DVD9200 uses aDVD-ROM drive sourced, as are all theparts, from China. This is a genericDVD-Video player, badged andimported by Elite and is typical of thesort of affordable designs coming out ofthe prodigious Chinese factories.

Sticking on the inside for now, thedesign layout’s good and the player hasa reasonably substantial power supply.All of the video and audio processing iscontained on a main single PCB.There’s all the video and audioconnections you’ve come to expect of a

DVD-Video player, regardless of price,although the DVD9200 does containonboard Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1decoding. It’s becoming a rarer featurethese days at this price level and if youstill own a Pro Logic AV receiver with adiscrete 5.1 channel input, it’s easily themost affordable upgrade route into 5.1surround audio.

The remaining audio connectionscomprise single coaxial and opticaldigital outputs, while on the video sidethere’s the usual suspects - namelyComposite, S-Video and ComponentVideo connections. Quality-wise, it’sbest to use the latter, although theplayer’s factory default setting has itswitched off, which means you have tohook it up first by either Composite orS-Video in order to enable theComponent Video.

The supplied remote is also ageneric handset and provides allcontrols in a reasonably well laid outfashion. It’s then into the player’s setupmenu, again a typical and frequentlyused GUI. There’s a lot more videocontrol though compared with ChineseDVD players I’ve tested in the past. Thesettings include adjustable sharpness,brightness, contrast, gamma, hue,saturation and even luminescence delay.And if you’re going to use the onboard5.1 decoding, there’s plenty of audiocontrols too. The audio setup allowsyou to choose large or small front,centre and rear speakers as well asselecting a subwoofer if connected.There’s a built-in test tone and equaliserwith numerous settings such as Rock,Pop, Live, Techno and Dance, if this isyour sort of thing. Another take-it-or-leave-it feature, but one that adornsvirtually every Chinese-made DVDplayer is the good old Karaokefunctions. Still almost a way of life inAsia, it’s a pastime that becoming morepopular here thanks to TV programmeslike Australian Idol, so who am I toquestion what you get up to in yourliving room?

One of the audio preferences letsyou choose between DVD-Video andDVD-Audio formats, although this isn’tmarked anywhere else as a DVD-Audioplayer. Out of interest I loaded up aDVD-Audio disc to see what happened.If it played to the format’s full extent, itwould certainly make this the mostaffordable player of this type on themarket. I set the priority to DVD-Audioin the setup menu and had partialsuccess in playing back some titles. A

Warner demonstration disc started toplay, but then did weird things andeventually the machine resorted totrying to find a nonexistent disc titlemenu. The Corrs In Blue fared worse,with a messy distorted image on screenand locking up the machine entirely.From this, all I can assume is that theplayer’s GUI is the same as that usedon some actual DVD-Audio compatiblemachines, which this one definitely isnot.

What it does play is the usual gannetof formats, including multizone DVD-Video, music CDs, MP3 encoded discs,VCD and Super VCD, plus CD-R andCD-RW. It didn’tmanaged to read andplay DVD-R and -RWdiscs. First andforemost though, thisis an inexpensiveDVD-Video playerand as such offers afair bit ofperformance forthe money.Hooked up to anOnkyo TX-SR700 AVreceiver via theElite’sonboarddecoder, theaudioquality ofthismachineis prettygood.Withboth

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“The Elitehandles the

dynamicrollercoaster

well, riding thebig highs ofthis actionmovie withimpressive

ability,especially

consideringhow little it

costs. It alsodoes a fine job

with lessexplosive

moments andduring the rarerquiet moments

of the film,there’s a good

degree of detailretrieval andthe player is

able toconvincinglydeliver ample

levels ofsurround

ambience andinvolvement.”

O p i n i o n

The ‘Opinion’ expressed here is thatof the reviewer, summarised in theform of a 5-star rating system, andshould be considered as an integralpart of the full contents of thisAudition Equipment Review. Assuch, each category should bejudged on its own merits and notnecessarily used as a comparisonwith other equipment reviews in this,or other editions of Audio & VideoLifestyle magazine.

� � � � � Shocker�� �� �� �� �� Average��� ��� ��� ��� ��� Good���� ���� ���� ���� ���� Excellent����� ����� ����� ����� ����� Perfection

“The player in question here isthe Elite DVD9200. It, like 99.9%of DVD machines these days, isa slimline design and finished in

silver. ”

Performance� � �� � �� � �� � �� � �Build Quality� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ½Compatibilty� � � �� � � �� � � �� � � �� � � �Value For Money� � � �� � � �� � � �� � � �� � � �

For non-stop action, few films offer as much DVD player testingdemands as the latest Bond outting - Die Another Day. Costingjust four times as much as the DVD itself, this Elite machinehandles the onslaught well.

Dolby Digitaland DTS 5.1moviesoundtracksthere’s plenty ofdefinition acrossthe frequencyrange. The full,powerful bassthumps outthose actionmovie explosionsand a clarity inthe midband andtreble means youwon’t miss a lineof dialogue. Onefilm that is packedwith both is thelatest Bond flick,Die Another Day.The action’srelentless, visuals impressively overthe top and of course James Bonddelivers more than a few of histrademark one-liners. The Elitehandles the dynamic rollercoaster well,riding the big highs of this action moviewith impressive ability, especiallyconsidering how little it costs. It alsodoes a fine job with less explosivemoments and during the rarer quietmoments of the film, there’s a gooddegree of detail retrieval and the playeris able to convincingly deliver amplelevels of surround ambience andinvolvement.

What isn’t so impressive about thismachine though is the image quality.Sure, on a more forgiving typical 68cmTV it’ll look good in the average livingroom. Hooked up to my Toshiba rearprojection LCD though, the Elite’simage is a bit soft and lacks edgedefinition, especially compared to myusual Onkyo DVD player. Okay, sothere’s a tremendous difference inprice, although just $50 more will getyou a better looking DVD player thanthis.

All in all, there’s a lot of DVDplayer here for the money and thisElite machine is far better than somesub-$200 bits of DVD gear I’ve comeacross. Given the state of the DVDplayer market and the price war thatcontinues unabated, it’s got its workwell and truly cut out in order to standout from the seriously madding DVDcrowd. It’s a good buy nonetheless,especially if you’re looking at anaffordable upgrade route from ProLogic to Dolby Digital and DTS. AVL

Ancillary Equipment: KEF QSeries AV loudspeakers, KEFPSW3000 Active subwoofer,Onkyo TX-SR700 AV receiver,Onkyo DX-SP800 universal DVDplayer, Toshiba 38D9UXA LCD rearprojection TV