written by femartin on 23/09/2003
Price wise the Dansai 852 is the best buy i've ever made, believe me! I paid £79.99 and i am enjoying every penny of if. This DVD player can only be matched by more expensive models of DVD players.
written by Gum ^Alter. on 23/12/2002
This is a very cheap player. Paid less than 100 Euro. It plays EVERYTHING on ANYTHING. I have tried all kinds of CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW on all kinds of colors. Black, Silver, Green, Blue whatever. I takes it all. Plugged the player to my Sony widescreen tv with a SCART-connection and the picture quality rocks. (Okey it is not THE VERY BEST thing in the world but for less than 100 Euro it is damn good!) I brought a DVD-genie friend over and he took all of his "problem"-DVDs with him, like Lord of the rings, Terminator 2 etc. DVDs that freezed and other funny behaviours on his "expensive" player. All movies but Lord of the rings passed. LOTR freezed at one point. Just pressed play again and it resumed. I am very pleased with this player and now I am looking for a cheap but good 5:1 sound equitment.
written by chichichu. on 19/11/2002
Firstly, for the money, this is a great entry level unit. It is more that capable of handling the average collection of media including DVD, CDA, VCD, mp3. The ability to set the output to PAL, NTSC or AUTO is for me an invaluable feature. Add to this an option to bypass region coding and even to set a specific region (for RCE encoded discs) and you are well on your way. I especially like the ability to select regions 7 and 8, which have not yet been assigned. A little forward thinking and future-proofing here. There is also the option to switch off macrovision support. Now for the overheating problem. This model uses a rather large and Shinawa SHD-2502V drive unit, this takes up all of the vertical space inside the case so not allowing enough air flow laterally. If you look under the drive unit you will see that two of the chips mounted on the underside are covered by a heat-spreader. I found that replacing the thermal paste between the chips and the heat-spreader with a thermal transfer compound having a higher thermal conductivity has helped. I have not done so but you may find that attaching a heat-synch to the decoder chipset with a thermal-epoxy could improve performance. Air flow is the key factor to the heat problem here and placing this unit into any kind of enclosed space or stacking system is the worst thing you could do. I needs free flow of air around the case. Well. Overall this is a very capable unit and gets my thumbs-up (apart from the overheating).
written by Mike. on 08/06/2002
The Dansai 852 is a versatile and excellent DVD player. Why mess with expensive units that are difficult to get region free when this baby (only from tesco's) is in town. I can't fault the playback quality myself. It's only the casing that feels inexpensive. Unless you touch it you wouldn't know that it isn't 'brushed aluminium' would you?
Even has two headphone jacks (never seen that before)!
written by pip. on 05/05/2002
The Dansai 852 DVD player plays anything and is easy to hack-not bad for a dvd player. cd play is so-so.
written by gidon. on 02/05/2002
The Dansai 852 is a very impressive DVD player - has most of the features you could want. Its compatability is excellent - nothing has not played in the machine so far - including CD-R(W)'s - with (S)VCD's, MP3s, MPEG and VOB files. MPEG, MP3 and VOB files can be burnt to an unclosed multi session disc and still be played - ie they don't even need to be burnt as a (S)VCD!
Fast forward is jerky on VCDs and only goes up to 4x (as opposed to 32x for DVDs) - but not a major problem. The player is not silent in operation - although I have nothing to compare it to.
Output via RGB is *far* superior to composite - brighter, better contrast etc.
Easy hack to turn off macrovision and region. Makes ping noise on eject - see my site for an example movie with sound(!)
Please see my review on my recommended site for more details (including the user manual scanned in).
written by colin. on 24/04/2002
If you are looking for a cheap versatile dvd player below £100 then the Dansai 852 is the one for you. It plays dvds, mp3, vcds and svcd, also macro disabled (sweet).
I have recommended this to many people and 3 have bought one this week alone and gave it the thumbs up. The other one to watch for is the dansai 1010 for £85.00-smaller than the 852 but works the same with the exception of there is no LCD so you have to use the OSD but still worth the money and fits nicely under your hifi just like a cd player (for all those with limited space)
written by Flash. on 20/04/2002
The Dansai 852 is the 2nd DVD player I have bought. I previously had a Wharfedale 750s which was good but not as stylish as the Dansai. The Dansai has played ll cds I have tried so far. VCD, SVCD and without any lip sync problems. This is a must for bargain hunters looking for a DVD. The latest Mico doesn't have the disable Macro feature as has been removed from the firmware so if you can still get your hands on a Dansai 852, buy it fast.
written by dcf. on 16/04/2002
My Dansai 852 has been an excellent little DVD player so far - only just bought it. Cds are handled excellently -a little hiss but barely audible. Dvd picture is great -skin tones are a little pale but this is easily fixed by turning up the colour on your tv. All the functions you're really going to need are here, it hasn't got the outputs for dolby 5.1 but handles it and you really need a digital receiver to benefit from 5.1 anyway.
All in all an excellent player. I'm glad I didn't fork out twice as much on a dvd player and opted for a bargain entry level player.
written by DVDMASTER. on 05/04/2002
I am very pleased about this purchase and I have to say that the Dansai 852 DVD player looks a lot better than the latest 1010 and with ability to disable macrovision what more do you want for 99 quid??
written by Tekkie. on 01/04/2002
The Dansai 852 DVD player is so easy to set up and use.
Picture clarity fantastic as most peoples TV's need upgrading for cinema quality viewing anyway.
Ask in Tescos if you can't see any-often they are stored out back-Have fun
written by The Doc. on 01/04/2002
The Dansai 852 is a great DVD player for the price. Very very flexible, everything you should need from a dvd vcd and cd player all in one box.
Very difficult to fault. Other than in very minor ways. Have had no problems playing region 1 and 2 disks or playing home produced SVCD and MP3 disks.
written by slimothy. on 31/03/2002
After looking at all types and makes of dvd plyers, i found the Dansai 852 model to be the best and after visiting the web i found that i could make my player multi-regional-now that is also a bonus.
written by Gary. on 22/03/2002
I paid £85.00 from Tescos for the Dansai 1010 DVD player.
The specification is remarkable - what an unbelievable bargain *****
To make it multi-region:
1. Press set-up on the remote
2. On the front panel press -
Stop
Fwd
Prev
Next
and the factory setup menu appears
Select Region ID and you get the choice of regions 1 to 8.
written by ste. on 20/03/2002
The dansai 1010 DVD player is much better than the 852. They have improved the graphics and it plays every cd you throw at it including dvd-r. Ain't tested dvd-rw yet but going to.
Written on: 08/05/2002
i`ve got a 852 & 1010. no difference in pic quality, but the 852 has a built in standards convertor which allows you to copy from region 1 or svcd straight to pal video with no picture break up. shame the 852 was discontinued.
written by MagicMan. on 15/03/2002
The Dansai 852 DVD player is a superb unit, looks good, low price, good quality picture and audio, easy region hack. For the past 18 months I've been used to playing all my DVD's (Region 1 and 2) on my PC with either software (for monitor watching) or my Hollywood + to output to TV etc. Couldn't really see the need to buy a "real" player until I saw this in Tesco on Monday. Did a little research (how to hack region etc...) and bought one first thing on Tuesday!!!! very impressed and the added bonus of no Macrovision :-)
written by miger. on 23/02/2002
I've got the Decca video clone of the Dansai 852 DVD player & my only gripe with this machine is the audio out jacks --------- my speakers have 6 jacks!! Anyone know of a way round this please?
written by reno. on 06/02/2002
The Dansai 852 is without doubt an extemely good buy. It can play any 80min. disc on vcd format. It is very easy to operateand the microvivion function is just the job.
The two jack phone sockets are too big for modern cd player earphones
Written on: 10/02/2002
Those sockets on the front are for the microphones you use when you are playing Karaoke VCDs!!!!!We dont have the TESCO
<br>version,we have the Decca DDV2110 from Powerhouse which is the same.The sockets are marked MIC and the usage is in the instructions. Also the carton lists this function!
written by Paul. on 31/01/2002
This Dansai 852 DVD player is every bit as good (if not better) as my mates Sony ..... problem is he paid £150 more for it! Tesco has a winner here!!
written by emmerdale. on 26/01/2002
Been looking for a good cheap player for a while after using pc to play dvd's for the past 18 months
Very pleased with this Dansai 852 machine so far and would recommend it to anyone, it even comes in silver to fit in with modern systems.
Hack:
"setup" on remote
on player "stop" then "prev" then "next"
this brings up hidden menu, now you can change regions and remove macrovision! Works a treat!
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56864_Julia.'s Response to 26963_Mike.'s Review
Written on: 09/12/2002
Sorry, not into the technical side. Are you saying that you cannot add 5.1 speaker surround sound system to this dvd player? help please