Mustek V-560

Mustek V56L

I have found that both the Mustek V56L and the Transonic 56L DVD players have a problem with overheating. The overheating causes the movie to either freeze, lock up or show pixelation onscreen. The way to overcome it is to ensure that the unit is well ventilated.

To do this I simply put four rubber feet beneath the unit (one on each corner) to raise it by a centimetre or two. This allowed for sufficient ventilation and in turn the player has performed well ever since. When sitting on the feet that came stock standard with these units - the feet were simply too low and so the venting holes (which are underneath the units on the lefthand side) didn't have enough room to ventilate properly. Extra ventilation holes to these units would keep them cooler and working more efficiently.

This has been tested with the player being housed in an entertainment unit behind glass doors with a small cable hole at the back.

I hope this review is able to help anyone who has purchased a 56L and is having problems watching their movie the whole way through!

Too hot is the problem...I have Mustek V56L from Dick Smith. After a number of replacements and at the point of throwing it in the Bin I realised that the only Ventilation holes in the base where blocked by the power supply plastic sheild. Also, there is no other ventelation to allow air flow so after 30 mins or so the whole unit over heats and the CPU chippy starts spitting the dummy causing slow operation and lock ups etc etc. The fix for me was to go to the trouble of ventelating the top cover and the unit has never missed a beat since. Maybe Dick Smith or the consumers institute should be given one to test and I'm sure they will also find that over heating is an issue with these beasties. (ps removing the cover will void your warrenty but now armed with this knowledge you can take appropriate action).

I have a Mustek V56L from Dick Smith Electronics. I have an older tv, so have had to connect it to my video, and then the video to the TV via RF, which is not the best. Was having problems with it pulsing - both audio and visual - too much power coming through the RF cable. THe only way to fix this was to hack it and turn off the macrovision. I also did this to change it to multizone. Now it has lost vertical tracking on the opening screens but this sorts itself out when the DVD begins EXCEPT on a Zone 1 DVD I just tried. I tried turning Macrovision back on to see if the tracking would return to normal to no avail. :(

The Mustek V560 is a great DVD player...plays anything svcd vcd mp3 anything goes no hacks needed. Plays anything straight out of box....great value for £99. Bought this from computer fair - go get one.

The features of this, very nicely priced, entry-level Mustek V560 DVD player are impressive.

I cannot comment on it's quality of DVD playback yet (except that fast fwd/rwd is jerky for any speed over 2x) as I haven't watched any fully. It has the ability to switch between hi-res and no-flicker (or auto) which really does get rid of the flicker of lines if they are problematic (as was the case in the 'space terminal' scene in, '2001: A Space Odyssey').

My main use for this player (after DVD) is, as an mp3 player and it seems to have superior handling of this format compared to others I tried (Lexoxx DVD8700, Black Diamond MP2000, Samsung DVDS124, Mizuda DVD-2023X).

The player was not advertised as a component-out player but it has the terminals on the back!

The manual is basic and doesn't explain all the features very well. I don't know what some of them do yet.

The price was definitely the clincher after I found out it handled mp3's and multi-zones so well. It was NZ$299 from Dick Smith and only an extra $40 for another 2 years warranty (on top of it's std 1 yr).

I have had a Mustek V560 DVD player for less than a week and bought one movie (U571) to test it on install. Title sequence to this movie starts with a computer generated sequence leading up to the root menu. Immediatley I noticed pixelisation on the colour boundaries in this sequence, and in several other scenes where a sky or underwater shot meant low contrast colour changes across the picture. It seemed to have trouble blending the colours smoothly. As I am new to DVD I am unsure if this is to be expected, but I can't see how it could be. Normal high contrast scenes were very clear and sound quality seemed very good (once i figured out how to turn on the AC3 decoder for 5.1 output). I have a friend with the same machine and he says he has noticed it too on other disks. I even went to the extent of taking the disk to a shop and trying it in the Mustek floor model. Same problem. This is very disappointing as it seems to be a very good machine otherwise. I have not watched the movie on a "high quality" brand machine so dont know if it is normal, but it is not the disk, as my friend reported the problem on several disks he has watched. I welcome anyones input into this problem and if it is "normal" as no-one else in any reviews i have read has mentioned it.

Cheers

The Mustek V560 DVD player is great value for money once I had found the hack to make it multizone. Have had no problems with it so far.

Once i opened my brand new mustek V560 dvd player from the shrink wrap, i inserted a DVD and it wouldn't read it. Then i tried opening it and the dvd got stuck inside the machine! This was a brand new one and it didn't read any of my CD's and broke two of them.

DONT BUY IT

Specification for the Mustek V560 DVD player is:

Disc Format Hi-Resolution DVD-VCD-SVCD-DVCD-CDR-CDRW-MP3-CD

Region Multi-Region

Video System NTSC/PAL

Video Decompression MPEG-2(ISO/IEC-13818)MPEG-1

Video Output 1.0Vpp/75 ohm Sync minus

S-Video Output (Y)1.0Vpp/75 ohm(Sync & minus polarity)

(C)0.28Vpp/75 ohm (Sync & minus polarity)

SCART Output Standard European Scart

Audio Characteristic: 5.1 Channel Digital Surround (Digital Output)

Linear PCM Audio

Analog Output 2.0V / 330 ohm (1kHz)

Frequency Response DVD:

48kHz Sampling; 4Hz-22kHz

96kHz Sampling; 4Hz-44kHz

CD: 4Hz-20kHz

S/N Ratio >=105dB

Dynamic Range >=95dB

Distortion <=0.004%

W & F Below measurement

Digital Output 0.5Vpp / 75 ohm

Phones Jack 32ohm (30mW):>8 ohm

Video Section: Video output x 1

S-video output x 1

Scart x 1

Audio Section: Analog Output (L / R) x 2

Digital Output PCM/AC-3 x 1 (Coaxial)

Line Voltage AC 100-240 VAC+-10% (50/60 Hz)

Power 20W

Dimensions 430mm(W) x 90mm(H) x 302mm(D)

Weight 4 kg

Remote Control DC 3V (AA x2 ) Infra-red

I have been very happy with this Mustek V560 DVD player. It has all the features I was looking for in a DVD player, and at the price: NZ$400 inc tax (approx US$200) it was less than half the price of comparable 'name-brand' models, excellent value.