Just got an LG DK 9723P DVD player for SGD$139 and so far it looks quite good. I have to say, DVD players have certainly plunged in price.
The 9723P is touted for maximum playability. Played almost all the DivX files I threw at it except those using Ogg sound. One of my anime series had the subtitles cropped off below (discussed here), but I semi-fixed the overscan by changing the aspect ratio on my TV to 16:9. The rest of my anime played ok.
Yeah yeah, I know DivX 6 is round the corner, but I figure what the hey, when it becomes the standard, then time to change the player. For now, the ability to play my DivX files on my TV without having to hook up my Powerbook is worth the price of admission alone. And you don't want to have to teach the wife over the phone how to hook up the laptop to the TV to watch her favourite series. Now I can say, "Switch to the AV channel, pop in the disc, and hit play, dear."
An Aussie forum has a thread on this model.
Video and Audio supported include DivX, MP3, SVCD, VCD and WMA. Media supported includes CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD+RW. A/V Connections: Coaxial Digital, Component Video, Composite Video, Optical Digital and S-Video.
And yes, it is multi-region, a concept very alien to my New York colleague when he was visiting. Apparently, it is very hard to find multi-region DVD players in USA. I remember telling him, "Dude, don't worry about your player, no shop sells region-coded DVD players here. NOBODY would buy it otherwise."
Also nice, the progressive scanning and the component video outputs come at the right time now that my Panasonic Tau Giga can support it. The old Philips Matchline workhorse of mine only supported S-video, so it did not matter. The 2004 Appleseed movie looks absolutely fab with progressive scan and component video (and sounds great in Japanese DTS too). Here is a link to the Appleseed movie site.
