Limit 9900SE Review

Overall Rating

Nice looking player, will play almost anything. Fantastic price (£149 from Richer Sounds) for the features included.

Bit noisy when loading disks; no standby.

I bought the Limit 9900SE on the recommendations from this site, I was not disappointed when I got this player home. Setup was easy, plug in and play, and the mannual, although a little on the minimalist side, was good enough for me to get going.

First up, would it play all region DVD's? The answer, an emphatic yes. Unsurprisingly it handled region 2 DVD's (UK) flawlessly, but region 1 (USA) DVD's played well on an old telly with no scart socket! Because of the frame-rate difference, the picture did jerk slightly, but it was definitely watchable. On an NTSC compatible TV the picture is as good as region 2 DVD's.

On the subject of picture quality, through a good quality 21" TV the picture is excellent. It has a nice crispness to the screen, without being too hard on the eye. On a plasma TV (sadly not mine, I saw the limit playing in Richer Sounds when I bought it) the picture quality really is stunning. I guess that progressive scan was on, and although I have not tested it personally, it looks amazing, believe me.

As for the other features this player has to offer, audio CD's played great, no problems. Then I burnt my entire MP3 collection to CD and shoved it into the limit. Within 3 seconds the file system appeared on screen (directories and everything) and allowed me to select tracks, make playlists, etc. So far so good. Then I decided to shove my entire JPEG photo collection onto CD, and I must admit I was not too optimistic, there not being a great deal in the manual about this. But, to my delight, the file system popped up within 3 or so seconds, and I could browse through the directories, play the photos as a slideshow, and even generate thumbnails for easy viewing. On the subject of audio DVD's, I haven't had chance to test this yet, but the player is supposed to handle them fine. I also tried a DVD-r in the player last night, and it played with no problems.

So, any bad points? Well, it would be nice to have a stand-by button, but what the hell, I'd trade it in for all the features offered in this player! Also, it is a little on the noisy side when loading disks, but if you sit a sensible distance from your telly you won't notice it at all.

Overall, great stuff. I did extensive research before buying this player, and rather than opt for something that would set me back 60 quid or so, I decided to get something that offered far more features and that was also way more future proof than a bargain basement model. I would reccomend this player to anyone who wants loads of features for a great price.

PS. The Hacks work great (including the macrovision) - I will post them when I can lay my hands on them. I haven't tried copying my DVD's to video yet, but will post the results when I get round to it.

Members' Comments onBassman.'s Review

• Daz. on 14th Mar 2003

  A very detailed and concise review, but I don't believe there is a Macrovision hack for this machine. As I contacted richersounds about DVD players that macrovision can be removed and especially mention that I was interested in buying the limit 9900SE, but only if macrovision could be disabled and the reply was that this machine doesn't support macrovision removal.
  
  I don't know who to believe as no-one has posted or verified a macrovision hack for this machine. Can anyone clear up this issue.

• jeremy. on 14th Mar 2003

  Good review. I have just purchased this DVD player, and I agree it is a great machine. However I can not get it to show my own JPEG files taken on my camera and saved. I have managed to save them as a VCD and show them.
  Anyone out there help me with my own JPEG. A freind of mine have a CD sent to him by his son and it showed as JPEG files and produced a very clear picture
  Help!!

• The Walrus. on 14th Mar 2003

  Ok Folks , here are all the hacks for this marvellous, if noisy, player !
  
  open drawer
  
  press the 10+ button
  
  enter 536751
  
  choose region 1-6 or 9 for multiregion
  
  press 8 ( for vcd enable )
  
  if the display on screen says cd0 then press 8 again . this should change the display to cd1 .
  
  cd1 means vcd playback is enabled !
  
  press 7
  
  press 7 again and B1 should appear on screen .
  
  Macrovision disabled !
  
  Thats all I can tell u , but ive just done it all and it works a treat !!!

• Bassman. on 16th Mar 2003

  I don't think the player supports JPEG files over 1 meg, so that might be the problem?

• bigandyb. on 22nd Mar 2003

  I have just bought one and i was wondering if you could explain what macrovision is.
  PS I think it is a fabulous bit of kit.

• Bassman. on 22nd Mar 2003

  Macrovision is a system which is designed to stop you copying DVD's to VHS. Apparently some sort of code is transmitted to your VCR which causes nasty things to happen to the picture if you try to copy. But... we have the hack, and it's posted somewhere above this comment. Enjoy!