Zensonic Z300 DVD/DivX Player

[hastey]

I purchased this player last night and put it through its paces - No matter what AVI I put in there it played, DIVX 3,4,5 and XVID. No problems what so ever playing and moving through any of them. I'm loving this player.

The only problem is with anime fansubs, the problem being overscan and subtitles being cut out - I get around this by re-encoding in VirtualDub and slightly decreasing the screen size and added black borders. Get it right and the black borders are cut out in the overscan and all that is left is what you want. Solved the problem perfectly - it is time consuming re-encoding, but I don't mind

Features:

Based on the next generation MPEG4 Chipset --- MTK 1389EE, MTK1389EE is DivX™ Certified and supports raw MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG-4 Avi, DivX™* (all versions includes ver 3.11, 4, 5 and up), Xvid, VBR MP3, WMA, Jpeg, Photo CD, HDCD, burn your favorite PC format files into CDR and watch on big screen TV!

Offers the best MPEG4 playback quality and compatibility, supports high level MPEG4 features like Qpel (Quarter pixel), GMC (Global Motion Compensation) and advance noise reduction. 100% hardware based MPEG4 decoder -- supports up to 10Mbit bit rate, fast forward/back forward MPEG4 video up to 32X speed. 100% compatible with old DivX™ 3.11 version codec.

Built-in six 12-bit, 108Mhz video DACs, offers video quality which was only available in high end DVD players before. New MDDi ( Media Direct De-Interlacing) Progressive scan technology.

Supports all recordable media format -- CDR/RW, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. Put multiple movie files in one single DVDR/CDR and play them all!

Region code free. Supports manual region code switch --- no problems playing RCE ( Region Code Enhanced ) DVD!
DVD, DVD-R/RW , DVD+R/RW, VCD and SVCD playback.

Supports DVD Aspect Ratio 4:3 Pan Scan, 4:3 Letter Box, and 16:9 Wide Screen. Parental lock, Multi Language(Sound Track), Multi Subtitle and Multi Angle for DVD playback. Plays Pal 16:9 Anamorphic DVD on an NTSC TV without the "squeeze effect"

Supports Firmware upgrade. New firmware released by MTK and will support future new codecs.

PAL and NTSC S-Video, Component Video (YPbPr), VGA and Composite output. Plays PAL movies on NTSC TV or Play NTSC movies on PAL TV .

Optical, Coaxial S/PDIF and RCA output. Supports Dolby 5.1 and DTS digital output or 2 Channels analog stereo output. Built-in Dolby 5.1 / DTS decoder, 5.1 channel output.

Ultra slim and stylish design, weight 1.8Kg. Dimension: 17 x 9.8 x 1.45 Inch (430x 250 x 37 mm)
Package includes 1 DVD Player, 1 Remote Control, 1 pair of analog Video /Audio Cable and User manual. Power 100 ~ 240 AC/50 ~ 60Hz, Power Consumption 25 W

All for $143 (Australian) http://www.warcom.com.au/shop/flypage/divx_players/1118

[jliles]

Hi, hastey...

I own the NeuNeo player, which seems to be identical to the Zensonic. I also happen to be a fan of anime fansubs. I had issues with the subtitles getting cut off as well, and I sometimes resolve the issue the same way you do, by re-encoding with a border.

However there is another option, if you find re-encoding to be a pain. This player can zoom *OUT* as well as *IN*. (Just keep pressing the zoom buttom and it will start to zoom out). You can simply zoom the image out by 1/2, and that way the image will still be viewable (though obviously this depends on the size of your TV), and you will see the full subtitles. The one big catch to this is that the zoom icon stays on the screen and doesn't disappear. Annoying, but bearable for the sake of not having to encode.

For those of you that are interested, I wrote up a mini-review of the Neuneo here...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=214784

Enjoy your player!
Julie

[hastey]

hey Julie,

yeah I seen that function and explored it - its handy but it reduces it too much for my liking, shame there wasn't a step up from that, or a fine adjustment option hehe.

Depending on the fansub group and their placement of subs, I normally just get away with it as is without re-encoding. Widescreen series are fine, they might get cut off on the sides a little once in awhile, but overall doesn't pose a problem for me - subs are still readable.

So yeah, for the series where the subs are right down the bottom, I'll re-encode.

Apparently you can somehow get into a secret menu on your TV and adjust this to eliminate overscan, but I'd rather not play around with it.

[hastey]

Overscan in fansubs - this is the option I take even though its time consuming, but I set it up as batches to do overnight. I basically put a black border around the image, similiar to the black bars you get in widescreen DVD's, although not as pronounced. Plan it right and its not visbale, as its the black bars that get stretched out and not the image you want.

This is an example. Notice the black bars around the image, they are not visable in playback and the subs fall into the visable area.



I use VirtualDub's re-size filter - you need to know the AVI's frame size, VirtualDub can tell you this.

Load your AVI

Video -> Filters -> Add -> scroll to Resize



This is Get Backers and the frame size of the original is 640 x 480 - I've re-sized it to 610 x 450 and added a border up to 640 x 480.

When you play the file, it will overscan it as before, but what will fall out of view will be the black bars and not the image you want. You can paly around with the setting to get it to what you want.

I know its fiddling around, but its a way around it that I found

[absolutic]

Are you SURE it supports Qpel? A lot of players claim they support qpel but cannot deliver. I am yet to hear from someone that they actually were able to play a qpel file without choppy play.

Have you actually played an XVID Qpel encoded file on this player? Or you are simply reciting the advertised features? If you saw with your own eyes this player play a Qpel file that would be the first.

[supersonicl2]

And here's the million dollar question: Can it play fansubs using the XVID RC1 codec??? 8)

[offline]

I have ordered one of these units. They are not certified Divix but seem
to do a better job than certified players. Upgraded firmware seems
to be a bit of an ?

The newer Z330 may have built in networking and use the
certified MTK 1389DD chipset - other than that it will be identical
to the Z300 in terms of playability.

[hastey]

And here's the million dollar question: Can it play fansubs using the XVID RC1 codec??? 8)

No, its seems to have a problem with it - I've had to re-encode my fansubs using this codec to DivX unfortunately.

[vitualis]

My player arrived yesterday and I'm quite impressed at its capabilities. Not being a bleeding edge DivX/XviD buff, I don't care too much that it can't play the newest XviD codec with advanced encoding features flawlessly, but it seems to do Q-pel and GMC okay with DivX 5.

FFW and REW with DVDs is very nice as rather than doing the older "quick skip" sort of playback, the video actually just plays twice as fast (i.e., like VHS).

The build quality of this player is a little bit dodgy though and the CD tray is really rather flimsy. You have to treat this player with CARE.

Also, DVD and VCD quality is not as good as my Pioneer player (comparing both using component output). It's particularly noticeable with VCDs. The Pioneer player just has better post-processing/filtering than the Zensonic.

If you live in Australia, this is one nice player for a bargain price. It got mine for $AU 154 which included overnight next day delivery from http://www.warcom.com.au/

Also, this player uses the MTK 1389GE chipset which (contrary to some adverts) is NOT DivX certified. There seems to be some negative reports in the doom9 forums as well on this chipset but none with any specific detail. However, with my limited experience with this player, everything seems to work well enough.

Regards.

[hastey]

Yeah, apart from minor issues I've had with playing some XVID's (I'm just encoding in DivX instead) this player has played everything I've thrown at it without any problems.

I agree the tray is very flimsy and the remote design sux - apart from that, for the price its unbeatable IMO.