Acoustic Solutions DVD-451 Review

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Acoustic Solutions DVD-451
3.2 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.2 out of 5

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iceburn.'s Review of Acoustic Solutions DVD-451

19th Aug 2002

Overall Rating

5 stars
  • Value for money
    5 stars
Good Points

Cheap price.
Multi-region and works with RCE disc.
Macrovision removeable.
NTSC / PAL 50 selectable.
Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder built in.
Very good image
Plays MP3, VCD, SCVD, etc.
Screen saver built in.
Keep my wife off my back :-)
It is very light to carry and very slim. (good for transport.)


Bad Points

Remote control is not as forgiven as Sony controllers when not pointing at it.
First one stop working after a day. (Hence take out warranty care.)
Top of DVD player feel a bit warm.
Does not have a sleep mode.
Does not have a resume mode after turning off a DVD (like my father Sony DVD player have.)


General Comments

My father got a Sony CX850D from richer sounds last year which is multi-region, macrovision remove but it does not convert from NTSC to PAL. Hence the tv we have upstairs would not work with it. Also since now move back home do not have computer in bedroom anymore. we therefore decided we needed to buy our own player but because of recorders coming out now, did not want to spend a fortune only for it to drop drastic in a few months time.

I saw the Acoustic Solutions 421 at Richer Sounds for £69.95 and this caught my eye. I than decided for the extra £20 I will go for the 451 model which is the same except has Optical output + DD 5.1 decoder built in. (Could not see the difference between the 451 and 551 except the looks of it.)

Even though it is a rebranded Mustek, I decided I would still get it from Richer Sounds cause of the warranty and after sales they provided. Which was a good thing since after the first day on the first player I had, it decided not to power up. Richersounds was very helpful, gave a new one and even took the old one completely apart to get the DVD that was stuck in there.

The replacement one is now working and stable fine. The image quality is actually very good, and nearly as good as the Sony DVD player downstairs. I have not tested the surround system yet cause do not have the necessary speakers / Amp to do so. The remote control is a bit more unforgiving than the Sony DVD player in that you do need to point to it more accurately than other players I have used. But it is not that bad to be a real problem. At least on my two players.

The main thing which surprised me though, was that macrovision can be turned off which is becoming rarer option these days. But the biggest one of all was that the PAL converter does not output in PAL 60 format but in PURE PAL (Pal 50.) This makes it possible to record NTSC DVD's. This alone when taken into account the price makes it worth getting.

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Members' Comments oniceburn.'s Review

  • Mark_L. on 22nd Sep 2002

    Hi, can you or anyone else confirm that the Macrovision can be disabled on the 451 player? And is there a hack for the 551? Thanks.

  • ddd. on 17th Oct 2002

    yes it can

  • Renegade. on 12th Dec 2002

    Please could someone send info on removing 'macrovision'...on Acoustic Solutions 451 DVD/MP3/VCD player... My TV doesn't have a scart input, so playing films through VCR.. Need to remove Macrovision to view films... Any help, gratefully recieved. Thx

  • Nitram. on 17th Dec 2002

    a quick search on Google brought this: http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/full/Acoustic421.asp (actually for the 451)