Sumvision Phoenix Premium HDMI DVD/DivX Player Review

Overall Rating

Highly recommended. Good quality upscaling 1080i and 1080p High Definition DVD player. It upscales your normal DVDs to High Definition to a noticable degree.
The player also will play DivX files, Video CDs, will play photo CDs at high def too. It will read direct from either a USB stick, DVD, CD Rom or SD memory card.
The player has outputs for Dolby 5.1 surround sound, Video Composite, S-Video, Scart and HDMI (1 output). The HDMI output is the only way to get good quality high definition. The upscaling really works and it breathes new life into your old DVD collection.
The price is awesome. I paid £35 inc. Vat, from E-Bay (40 quid altogether with p&p). The unit comes with a remote control and batteries also. I expected very little for the money and got a lot. It's easily worth nearer to the £100 mark. It has compact dimensions (not much larger than a DVD disc) and decent build for the money.

The DVD drawer is a little flimsy, so keep the kids hand off of it. Doesn't come with a HDMI cable, but hey, at this price, I'm just being cheeky. Can't fault it otherwise.

Well, I have to say that this player is an absolute bargain. It's extremely versatile and decent build quality for the money. I have only had it a week, so we will see what the longevity is like, but it has a 12 month warranty.
I play mine through a Panasonic Viera 32" HD Ready LCD, using a Nyko HDMI cable. I have played a few Div X formatted movies on it and they are surprisingly good quality. You have to bear in mind that a Div X movie will have been compressed to about a 1/6th of it's normal size, and is meant for play on something like a 7/8" screen that you would find on a portable digi video player like an Archos, so you are going to lose some quality. But this isn't why you buy this player. It does a great job of upscaling normal DVDs and will have you digging your old ones out to watch in High Def.
The sound is also very good through HDMI. You will find many overpriced HDMI cables, which generally start around £30 and go up to nearer the £100 mark.
However, I found one manufactured by a company called "Nyko", whom I believe specialise in manufacturing cables. It is good quality with 24k gold plated plugs housed in a good quality and sturdy rubberised casing. The cable is 9ft long and around 1/2 - 3/4" thick. This cable cost me £20 with P&P from Gameseek.co.uk. There may be other suppliers out there, so do shop around to find the best deal you can. I have used the cable and find it very good quality, although I haven't compared it to any other HDMI cable. It's a massive improvement over the supplied Composite Vid and Scart cables supplied.
I am sure that if you spend a fortune on a cable it will be even better, but whether or not it is worth spending over £50 on a higher end HDMI cable on this player I don't know.
Buy it now if you haven't bought a Blu-ray player.