Philips DVD 724 vs. Akai DVPS-760 & Nero vs. Ulead

[csb]

I bought a Philips 724 (based on recommendations here) and then found the local Sam's Club now had the Akai 760. So I have bought them both and am trying to evaluate them side by side. One must go back!

Akai 760: Sleek black player. Much better looking menus and file trees. Better remote. Doesn't have digital optical output. Problem: Will play VCDs and SVCDs created with Ulead DVD Plug-in but won't play VCDs and SVCDs created with TMPGEnc and Nero as outlined here.

Philips 724: Silver, slightly larger unit. Older looking menus and fonts. Has digital optical and coaxial output! Problem: Will play VCDs and SVCDs created with TMPGenc and Nero as outlined here but won't play VCDs and SVCDs created with Ulead DVD Plug-in.

I can't get the two machines to agree on a "good" home made VCD or SVCD!! I can't tell which is more tolerant and should be kept. Any idea why this is happening? Or which is the better standard? Is there a definitive test I can run? (Just testing CDRs at this time.)

Other points: Philips has options for brightness adjustment but very poor panel display. Akai hasn't brightness but has nice scrolling display of filenames. Philips has better slideshow, can set delay between pictures easily. Philips also allows pictures/mp3s to be played and scrolled with directory structure removed. (Directory traversal vs. flat file list can be changed any time.) Akai has much better directory browsing. The Akai box is printed in two languages, the non-english side claims PAL compatibility etc. wheras the english side never mentions it. Pal doesn't appear on the Akai's options but it does on the Philips. Both have progressive scan.

My preference is the Akai based on looks of machine and menus. Will need to add coaxial to optical external converter. But which one is interpreting VCD, SVCD correctly? Help! Thanks.

[csb]

Ok, here are the results of my tests.

In the end both players (Akai and Philips) were very capable. Both converted PAL to NTSC. Both played VCD and SVCD. I burned all the tests on this site and tried them. I also borrowed an assortment of DVDs and VCDs that friends had trouble with (wouldn't play on their Sonys). Almost everything played. The Akai came out ahead by perhaps one CD.

So I returned the Philips. The drawbacks to the philips were:
1. Annoying default screen. (A soft focus pic - on a dvd player??)
2. Limited remote control. (It could be replaced, Best Buy was using another Philips remote that was much better on their display unit.)
3. Ponderous time to examine the CD and determine how to play it.
4. Its a bigger unit, and its silver.

The drawbacks to the akai are:
1. The remote receiver on the player is very direction sensitive. You CANT operate it from the side. (A very silly design flaw.)
2. When it can't play a CD it dumps you in browse directory (MP3) mode. This isn't bad just annoying it only plays music and pictures in this mode. You can't select MPEG files.

I never did figure out what the problems were with my early test CDs. In the end most everything worked.