CyberHome CH-DVD 300B Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Black
Quick Review of Cyberhome CH-DVD 320S
OK, here's the sneak peak on the Target CH-DVD 320S, which I  assume is the same as the CH-DVD 300S that everybody else is selling, but with a different model number to protect those &quot;low price guarantees&quot;.  As you will see, the firmware for this unit clearly identifies itself as &quot;300&quot;.<br />I hooked up the player with the S-video output (it also has component), and the coaxial digital audio (it does not have opticial).<br />First, &quot;close tray&quot;, &quot;menu&quot;, &quot;1&quot;, &quot;9&quot;, does lead you to the screen where you can set region coding.  I don't know if it works or not, since I only have region 1 disks.  Also on that screen is a complete run-down of the HW and FW.  I would be interested in what a CH-DVD 300S reports here.  The CH-DVD 320S reports this:<BR>  <BR>    MPEG FW     300.B.20.A<BR>    MPEG HW     DB-B2-V01<BR>    SERVO FW    CB36260<BR>    SERVO HW    D07V1.1_<BR>    VEND        HYOP300U<BR>    VENDVER     208.F<br />I put Terminator II in, my standard dual layer test disk. Video quality seemed a tad poorer than I was used to, but not objectionable to this mere mortal.  I saw very very occasional minor tearing of the video, and the audio seemed just slightly (but no objectionally) out of sync.  It reminded me a lot of what I've seen from PC DVD players. Its going to be fine for the wife's bedroom TV.<br />Then I stuck a DVD-R that had been &quot;backed up&quot; using DVD XCopy.  As Arnold says &quot;No Problemo&quot;.  I don't have any DVD+R blanks, so I was unable to try a DVD+R.<br />Then I grabbed a CD-R that I had made that contained an MPEG-1 video stream.  Mind you, this CD-R is *not* in VCD format.  Its just a ISO-9660 data disk with a file on it &quot;dsdsads.mpg&quot;.  The player gave me a file browser menu, and when I selected that file it played the video.  AFAIK, this is great because its a lot harder to master a proper VCD than it is to just dump an MPG file onto a CD-R.<br />Then I grabbed a CD-Rwith some .mp3's on it that I got from a person on this list.  Again, I got the file browser menu.  But when I hit play, the audio played at 2X speed.  The MP3's on this<BR>disk were mastered at 64kbit/sec.  So don't do that.<br />Then I grabbed a commercial MP3 CD that I bought from BooksOnTape where the MP3's were mastered at 128kbit/sec.  No problemo.<br />Then I grabbed a homemade MP3 CD-R (Pink Floyd, the greatest band ever) where the MP3's were mastered at 128kbit/sec.  No problemo. I didn't have a VBR MP3 disk handy, so I did not test that.<br />Then I grabbed a CD-R full of .JPG's.  It gives you the file browser window and when you hit play it does a slideshow with those.  Nice.<br />The manual does not mention DiVX/MPEG-4 support, and I didn't have a DiVX disk handy to see if its there as a secret feature.<br />I ran out of time, and had to wrap this thing back up since its an XMAS present.<br />The only real question on these is &quot;how long before they go belly up&quot;?  I've had a high end Sony and a mid-range Philips DVD player die on me already (I was an early DVD adopter).  I came to the conclusion that its stupid to pay big bucks for a player that won't last anyhow.  If this one lasts 1 year, I will be happy.