AMW (Ronin Media Works) P80L

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.

The AMW (Ronin Media Works) P80L DVD Player is an excellent machine and great value for money ! go and buy it !

I have now purchased a AMW P80L DVD Player from Dabs and it arrived last Monday. As I read the instruction book I had a major concern as it said that you should not connect the player to a video deck. If you do noise may appear in the picture. Since I wish to transfer my home video DVDs to tape for friends this was a major problem.

However, I did connect a video deck and everything worked well. There is no noise that I can see.

So far I am very pleased with my purchase.

After my Arianet 2255 gave up the ghost (see http://www.reviewcentre.com/review30295.html for full review) I returned the product and got myself a replacement (£55-70).

This is a slim line sliver machine with a mirrored front panel. At approximately 6cm in thickness and auto play's all types of different formats including DVD-Audio with all the usual connections, but as usual only one scart socket.

This AMW player (Amphion Media Works) is rather odd in the sense that it is made by the same folk at Ronin Media Works. In fact when you go to each respect websites the physical address is the same! (http://www.a-mw.co.uk/index.html and http://www.rmwx.com).

This made me a little worried, since I previously owned a Ronin P703 (see http://www.reviewcentre.com/review29869.html for full details) and had to return that as well. Anyway I had exchanged the product (and tested the unit in store before leaving) and that was that.

Inserting a number of disks (DVD, DVD-R, VCD, SVCD) all played automatically with no problems to report. There's full Dolby 5.1/DTS decoding on-board with an extra set of L & R audio outs as well as optical out for the mini-disk recorder. The unit also supports MP3 and WMA files as well (not tested).

The menu system is exactly like the Ronin units, but more pleasant on the eye with almost child-like icons along the top of the screen. Again this unit continue to play whilst I was in setup which was a little strange, but I guess you just have to get use to it.

There are some wonderful software controls including picture quality adjustments including sharpness, gamma, hue, contrast, brightness to produce a very clear and well balanced picture output (28" CRT TV via gold scart). The audio setting comprise of, Pro-Logic II, speaker size, x3 level bass, reverbe mode including living room, concert hall, bathroom which is surprisingly good for a unit in this price range. This produced an excellent audio output via a set of Medion 5.1 speakers (450 PMPO).

Below is the multi region hacks

1. Press SETUP on Remote Control

2. Enter 13798888 (or on some models it can be 13798888)

3. Select VERSION from the menu by pressing ENTER

4. On REGIONAL CODE press RIGHT (>) button

5. Use DOWN button to change REGIONAL CODE to '0'

6. Press ENTER on Remote Control to save

Or

1 Remove any Disks

2 Press Setup

3 Go to Preference Page

4 Type 1379 (this will bring up the region code)

5 change to 0 and press play to confirm the change.

Admittedly none of the these hacks worked on my unit, but there is a firmware upgrade from the following link http://roninhacks.shacknet.nu/mod.jsp you'll notice that when you open the page they have both Ronin and AMW hacks on there.

I cannot stress the importance of READING the instructions before you try and upgrade the firmware. If you fail to follow the instructions then the worst thing that would occur is that you'll have a dead unit and since it is not covered under the warranty there's no one to go moaning to. You have been warned.

In the end it was pretty simple (after 8 attempts) and now I have a machine which plays R1 "XXX" automatically. The instructions as to how to enter the new remote hack is as follows (included in the instructions to be downloaded).

1.Go to "SETUP"

2.Press the ">" button 3 times

3.Type in "1379" and a grey box with the current region number should appear

4.Press "up" or "down" keys for the desired region setting and press "SETUP" or "play" and it's ready to play the disk from the selected region.

One of the great features of this machine is the ability to stop a VCD/SVCD midway and start it again from the point you stopped at (whilst it's still switched on). I have yet to see any other player with this ability.

On the other hand there is a very annoying 4 step process before you type in the particular number of the chapter you want or to go to a specific time index as with VCD's. The remote control buttons are also poorly placed with the "0" button not under the number "8", but next to the number "9".

Oddly enough though, when playing WMV/.MOV files hitting the "search" button quickly gets you to the time index that you want, another feature not seen on any other player that I've reviewed.

There is no Karaoke function on this model and I can hear the disappointment in all of you budding Pop Idols! As well as no support for DivX/MPEG-4 and Quicktime files.

Conclusion

This is a great little unit with some wonderful visual and audio features enhancements and after the firmware upgrade, it works a treat on R1 disks with no problems so far. I believe I may have purchased an earlier model since the website seemed to suggest that the remote hack should be my first port of call.

One word of warning though, this is the 5th DVD player that I have had to review due to units failing to working within 6 months of purchase so reliability may be a future issue. Plus www.ukdvd.com have stopped selling the AMW machine and is now only available via www.virtuosops.co.uk for the exact model and at www.ebuyer.com www.avituk.co.uk www.afterhours.co.uk for other AMW players.

This player has been reviewed by comparing with Acoustics Solutions 421, Mirror MIRR-110, Ronin P703, Arianet 2255 all have reviews on this website