AMW (Ronin Media Works) P80L Review

Overall Rating

Feature packed dvd player

Progressive Scan

Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 decoder

Dolby Prologic II and 2 channel virtual surround options

Compatible with a wide selection of formats

DVD drive is both fast and very compatible with media.

DVD Audio and HDCD compatible.

Low price!

No RGB scart output.

Multiregion may require a firmware upgrade instead of just a remote hack.

DVD Audio compatibility may be selective of titles it will work with.

I paid £35.67 plus postage for this player from dabs.com in the uk. I ordered something else so sharing the postage between the two items I paid about £38 for it.

The AMW (Ronin Media Works) P80L DVD player is fairly thin but covers a wide area. Build quality is good. Styling is very pleasant. It has the standard chinese cheap LED display which is single colour and has a segmented circle on the left that is animated while playing discs. On low cost players you either get this type of LED display or none at all it seems.

I've seen the internals and they are remarkably spacious. You can't imagine this player overheating. The dvd logic board is actually part of the dvd drive. Probably all the bits would fit into a standard 5 1/4 drive case if necessary.

The back of the player features a full 5.1 set of audio output sockets, seperate 2 channel audio outputs plus both optical and coaxial digital output sockets. Basically this player is well catered for with regards audio connections.

Video outputs are composite, s-video, component and a scart. However the scart only has composite, left and right audio and a switching voltage connection. There is no RGB or s-video possible from this socket. It is hardwired for only 4 connections out of a possible 21.

Therefore for most TVs s-video is the best output option. Which is ok for a lot of people as many tvs only have one rgb scart socket and this is used by either a skybox or games consoles. So you can leave this model connected to the second s-video scart socket on your tv if you have one.

Of course if you can make use of component you have the best possible picture anyway. This model features progressive scan in both pal and ntsc. Its described as advanced progressive scan with 3:2 pulldown detection.

Apart from divx/xvid this player plays everything. Its media compatibility is just about the best on the market and the drive is fast!

Mp3 playback is excellent and you can scan through files at upto 32x to get to the place you want. A rare but excellent feature. I was listening to mp3 cd and suddenly I heard music I'd never heard before from the cd. It had found 2 wma files on the cd I had forgotten about and played them in superb quality.

The player does play DVD Audio but people have reported some problems. I've only got one dvd audio disc and it plays flawlessly. But be warned there may be compatiblity problems in this regard.

As well as comprehensive audio socketry you also get a full Dolby digital and DTS decoder. You can even downmix dts to 2 channel and play it through scart to your tv. Great for prologic tvs. Not only that but there is a virtual surround option for 2 channel output. There is also a full Dolby Prologic II decoder to give you 5.1 sound from 2 channel sources via the 5.1 outputs. They haven't forgotten about DSP modes either, there all here. This player is jam packed with audio options.

Although lack of rgb scart is a disappointment. You do get comprehensive adjustments for video output and when I say comprehensive I mean it.

Options for everything are comprehensive. Even DVD Audio priority can be changed so the player can pretend to be a standard dvd player and play dvd audio discs with limited functionality and no high resolution sound. Just so you can see what the disc is like on an ordinary dvd player.

It has a full standards converter so you can watch a ntsc dvd in pal 50hz mode or you can watch a pal dvd in progressive ntsc mode if thats the only progressive signal your tv will take like some Toshibas.

The player is basically the same as the Ronin P80H without karoake features but has nicer styling. Its based around the mediatek MT1379 chipset.

Picture and sound performance are excellent. However in fairness on a standard 50hz tv with RGB input you would be better getting a dvd player with RGB scart output. My ratings are based on use with a Panasonic AE100 projector and Thomson 28WX411S television. I use DVD Audio/DD/DTS/DP2 output with medusa 5.1 headphones.