Dixons (UK) selling Grundig 550 + dvd stand alone writer

[sirwalter]

bought the unit and so far so good works well it is annoying that channels can not be reneamed ie ch33 to bbc1 but at the price a good item anyone got a hack for this yet?

[bobt9999]

Found one at Curry's for £179.99 - couldn't resist it! (Manager's Special)

Works pretty well so far, but certain PC proggies don't seem to like the RW DVD's that I've made. DVDShrink refuses to read them, but DVDDecrypter will read and dump to hard drive. TMPG Author then creates a respectable menu and vob files etc.

Only problem with this method is that the lip-synch is a bit out

Probably a TMPG setting somewhere.....need to work on it.

[KDH]

How many were there in stock?
Was it a one off or does there appear to be a new supply in Dixons/Currys?

KDH

[clayts]

The dreaded words "Managers Special" means it'll have been a returned item which was fixed (Dixons have been pulling this stunt for years), so I wouldn't get too excited - I think the 550 was very definitely a limited release.

Off topic

Mind you, I shouldn't complain about Managers Specials - on Monday I paid £30 for the now-defunct (and definitely made by Grundig) GRP6000, which is a Freeview digital TV receiver and DVD player all in one - I don't think they realised it was a DVD player as well (lettering only stated it was a digital tuner). There was no manual, no remote, no power lead and no carton.

The last two were no problem, a quick check on a few review sites confirmed the box would auto-tune into the digital TV channels upon switching it on, and the menu buttons on the facia were very intuitive (I've spent too much time around DVD players) so no manual was needed and finally, my £8 Aldi 8-in-1 remote control had a code for Thomson DVD players (they took over the production of Grundig set top boxes in the UK in 2003) which works flawlessly.

Bargain

[bobt9999]

The "Managers Special" I bought was the only one in stock at Currys. However, the main Dixons in Cardiff City Centre does not appear to have any trouble with stock - there have been plenty in there since before xmas, and they still have loads, all at the normal price of £199.

BTW....it's still working fine and Currys did offer a 12 month warranty even tho it was a "special"

I'm happy with it so far!

[KDH]

Back on the topic of Grundig's ownership, it transpires that the trademark was bought by a partnership of Alba and Beko in late January.

Alba is a UK company that owns the Goodmans and Bush brands and Beko are Turkish

Both Alba and Beko have already signalled their intent to launch +RW recorders (under Bush,Goodmans and Beko brands)so we should see more in the way of Grundig +RW recorders later this year-although they may be different models?

KDH

[KDH]

Saw a big pile of these in my local Currys today-so back on sale at ................£269!!!!

They also had the virtually identical Mustek DVR1000A on sale at £259.
(And the Philips DVDR70 at £279)

KDH

[rhegedus]

Currys are rip-off merchants staffed by morons! I wanted to buy a DVD player a few years back and took along a few VCDs, SVCDs and DVDRs that I'd made and asked them if they could hook up the DVD player to a TV to check it supports the formats.

The reply?

'We don't do that.'



I think Currys, Dixons, Comet and PC World are owned by the same company, and Currys is by far the worst. They could all be next door to eachother but Currys will sell for more.

[RabidDog]

Acorn Computer man re dvdram -- dont rule it out so easily.. Dvd-rom drives are very cheap £10-£20 and quite a few WILL read dvd-ram for instance NEC.. so if it fits in every other dept, spend the extra for a new dvd-rom drive eg nec dv5800c

I think dixons currys pcworld are one group.. comet is different..agree they are overpriced and under-knowledged..

[rhegedus]

....and then spend a little bit more when you buy a DVD-RAM disk instead of a RW

I've already got 5 DVD drives of one sort or another so spending more for another drive just for -RAM didn't really add up.

Bought a Pioneer DVR5100 8)

[clayts]

I think Currys, Dixons, Comet and PC World are owned by the same company, and Currys is by far the worst. They could all be next door to eachother but Currys will sell for more.

Comet are not part of the same group (they're owned by Kingfisher, I think), the other three plus The Link are part of Dixons Retail Stores Group. It's very rare that Currys and Dixons charge different prices to each other, but Dixons do seem to have more offers on, that's true.

[andyp1]

I purchased a Philips DVDR75 from Richer Sounds on 30th Jan for 239.99 I believe they have been upped in price a little as they decided they were being sold too cheaply. However they are still cheaper than any DVDR70 being sold in any high street store in the UK. (I don't include Makro it is not High Street) .

As for comet and curries I believe 'braindead Morons ' is not a strong enough term for their sales staff.
I purchaced a set of 4 Digital cordless phones in a pack I only went to curries as the price was so good , but the obviously uninformed salesman tried to sell me some telephone extension kits.
An older lady I know purchased a DVD for 39.99 and the salesman tried to sell her a 39.99 scart lead when there was a perfectly adequate scart lead supplied in the box.
I believe they prey on peoples naivity and wouldn't use them unless I had no choice.