I am looking to buy a standalone VCD/MP3/Cd player. I would like to know what brand brings out the best VCD quality. Thanks.

-- Steve Liu (fst111@hotmail.com), October 02, 2002

Answers

Try a sony, they seem to be the best as far as quality goes, but they are kind of spendy. like $150, not too bad for a sony.

-- (s@s.s), October 02, 2002.

None of them play homemade VCDs very well, but they all do OK with commercial VCDs. If you don't care about playing homemade VCDs, they're all about the same. If you do want to play homemade VCDs, save your money. The suggestion to buy a Sony may be wrong. Maybe things have changed, but I know that in April when I looked into buying a VCD/CD/MP3 portable for my girlfriend, only Napa and Likko made such models. http://www.lik-sang.com sells a model that plays VCD/MP3/CD and JPEG files on CD-R (it won't support CD-RW discs). I don't remember the model, but you can find it at Lik-Sang. It's a good model and it plays homemade VCDs the best, but even on this unit playback is jerky for homemade VCDs. Strangely enough, if you copy a commercial VCD to CD-R, the portables play it fine. If you make it yourself, playback is always jerky. I tried several different burning programs and the results were always the same - homemade VCDs played jerky, commercial VCDs played fine whether they were originals or copies. Good luck.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), October 02, 2002.

I heard that Panasonic is pretty good. Anyone had experienced with Panasonic vcd player?

-- Steve Liu (fst111@hotmail.com), October 03, 2002.

Hi. First of all, i'm sorry but my english is too bad ...

I have two portable-VCD-Player (the NAPA 311 and a so called VCD-1246 model from ¿?) and, after a lot of failed burned VCD's --home made--, now i use the Panasonic Encoder plug-in with Flask from DVD and my backup VCD copies of such DVD's runs fine, very fine.

The portable-VCD-players are very, very, special. First off all. only allow CBR Mpeg files on the VCD. I use 1246 kb/s for video and 128 kb/s for audio (yes, yes, !!! this is not exactily the standar, i now, but with this scheme the VCD runs ok). None of VBR. Also, all the frames, either I, P or B- frames, must have no more than 40 kb. I don't know if this is a requirement from the standar or if this is a specific limitation from the MPEG-decoder chip used (may be most of them use the same chip or chips from the same manufacturer).

Un other "tic" is about the brand or model of the CD-R/RW used. Some times the video looks bloking. This is not an artifact from de encoder process because this is not a repetitive efect. I think thas this is a read-error. VCD stream have not any error-correction scheme (only error-detection). Then only is posible the error detection (if the player can do ...). So if the reflectance figure of the CD-R/RW is not to high (or the burned process is poor) the read errors may be to high (i think that, also, this is not only model dependant, this is unit-to-unit variable). The NAPA error detection, also, is very poor, and the error is propagated far away.

This is my experience, Is usefull for you?

I apologize for my english

-- josradiel (josradiel@hotmail.com), October 03, 2002.

What software did you use to burn your VCDs? I tried both Nero and Fireburner (from a VCDEasy image file) and did not have good results in the portable players.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), October 03, 2002.

Let's all get back to the original post. I went through this once before (early this year) and this is what I concluded: Sony, Panasonic, and ALL the other big names, for some reason, DO NOT make portable VCD/MP3/CD players. They have some very good quality VCD/CD players or MP3/CD players but NO VCD/MP3/CD players all-in-one. Why it's like this, I don't know. You find VCD/MP3/CD players from less glamorous but infinitely more colorful names such as Napa, TIT, Dragon, Shinto, Shintel, Shinjuku, Fujitel, Hiroko, and Mayflower. I'm not making this up. The performance of these el cheapos (US$50- 80) if u can find them are variable. Some of them accept CD-Rs better than pressed, and vice-versa. Some of them take forever to recognize MP3 CD-ROMs and then the sound is so wretched you'd think that unlike Shrek you probably haven't taken out yet the wax plugs from the inside of your left ear (like at least one brand APAC/Egoman). It really comes down to you get what u pay for. I find out Panasonic VPLS45 consistently plays VCD/CD okay, pressed or CD-R. Too bad no MP3. If u really want that, now there are Panasonic and Aiwa models that go the whole hog and play DVDs aside from VCD/CD/MP3, with 7in LCD displays to boot. But those are not what you're looking for, are u?

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), October 06, 2002.

Has anyone heard of a - Fujitel. fj-vcd200r. Its supposed to be a CD/VCD/MP3 player,i bought it in Tenerife last week (21/02/03)but have tried Audio cd's,MP3 discs but nothing works,am i doing something wrong ?

Martin U.K

-- Martin (m.hughes47@ntlworld.com), February 25, 2003.

Please check out SL-MV50 by Panasonic. It can play VCD/CD/MP3 burned on CD-R/RW. It also comes with a wired remote controller.

-- Joppee (joppee_pascual@yahoo.com.sg), March 11, 2003.

Hey, buy a Napa DAV 311 and aply Canopus Procoder to convert your avis to MPEG1. Then burn your vcds with those MPEG1 files with nero deselecting "compliant standard..." You will see what wonderfull is NAPA. And cheap too.

-- japychou (japychou@interlap.com.ar), March 13, 2003.

Try on MP3PLAYERSTORE.COM I saw two models of Mirage & Supertek. Looks ok, I am also planning to buy, but don't the performance.

-- Shirish Paranjape (shirish_sp@yahoo.com), March 14, 2003.

Hmm... As far as I know, there are a lot of Chinese counterparts that offer CD/MP3/VCD with a Remote Controller, Earplugs, All Cables and Adapter with Built in Recharger. Ofcourse, if they say Panasonic or Sony, they're probably not being very truthful, but I found it was worth it. I bought one labelled Panasonic SG-888A. http://chinasign.en.alibaba.com/product/10173798/10237705.html For more information.

Bought it yesterday. Some chinese products say they can play DVCD (whatever that's supposed to be) lol! :D Anyway, the sound isn't too bad and my CDs (Gamma Ray, powermetal) worked fine. I even watched Scooby-Doo on it today - not bad at all. I listened to songs from a CD-R burned disk and it works fine. It doesn't have fast forward or backward for MP3/CD tracks (you can go back and forth tracks) but it did have it for the VCD. The english for the manual is terrible. But for $33.4 (NRs. 2600) it's worth it!

-- Parimal Satyal (darkwin@myrealbox.com), April 17, 2003.

maybe u r piece is not working i got a fujitel myself it just about plays all three cd vcd mp3 finee check out the warranty it came with . fujitel ..ummm u must have bought it cheap (i paid 1999rupees ) thats about 35 $ and it works fine for me ...i use it occasionally but most of my music is on my system / home theatre . well if u r a user like me who would choose a portable only in case of no other option while on the move or travelling u have done the right decision in going for fujitel...now u gotta make it work for u ...so check out the person who sold it to u and get it repaired/ replaced if possible . IF NO OTHER OPTION WORKS AND U R STUCK/ CHEATED ....GO AND GET THE " LENS " REPLACED ...IT WONT COST U A LOT ..THE LENS "READS " THE CD/VCD ....I DONT KNOW WHAT IT COSTS IN UK BUT HERE IN INDIA IT COSTS 200 RUPEES THATS 4-5 $ .....TAKE CARE BYEEEE

-- GAURAV JEET (GAURAVJEET2181@HOTMAIL.COM), April 23, 2003.

I have a fujitel cd/vcd/mp3 player. its around a month old. it could not play VCD/MP3 cd well skips allthe time. found that the system was overheating and changed the cooling fan with one of those big ones used in computer power supply units. i later realised when reading cds i had made on my computer, it was spinning like hell and not doing much with the end product - squeks, pauses in music, skipping and etc... since then i have been burning cds at a much lower speed of 8X and has never had any problem since......

is it possible to upgrade or rather improve the speed of the cd unit in case i get fast cds maybe upto 54X or 48X????

thanks

-- Tembi (mtembi@justice.com), September 05, 2003.

those who are techi & wants something exclusive. Pls. try APS brand , USB MP3 player just pen or pendant size ! No media . Just transfer from your computer using cut & paste & carry your favourite music . for further information , email me or 91 22 327 44048

-- Bhavesh shah (tobhavesh@yahoo.com), October 03, 2003.

Well, I've already bought an mp3 player (USB) and it's awesome. And interesting observation about the CD/VCD/MP3 player though... when playing a track, press the "Skip Left" and "Skip Right" button together and the ESP (Electronic Shock Protection) mode executes - allowing a shock-free experience.

-- Parimal (darkwin@myrealbox.com), November 24, 2003.

Hey... I saw a Panasonic SL-MV50 on eBay (New). It is being sold with low price. It's a VCD/MP3/CD player, also can play CD-RW discs. If anyone is interested in the player, check it out at eBay. Bidding is ending soon.

-- Fred Geoff (huyrich@hotmail.com), January 22, 2004.

I bought a fujitel last fortnight. Its works fine for me. I bought it for 1600 indian bucks thats something around 30-35$. Functions are fantastic especially while playing VCD. Good piece of plastic, i would say.

-- Aamir (aiq@gmx.net), May 09, 2004.

I bought Fujitel Gold VC/CD?MP3 player 3 days back for 1750 indian Rs however now getting no disc error and it's power adapter is also not working.

it is not recognising any CD and giving No disc error and stops when tried using with normal batteries.

can this be repaired , if so you know any service center in delhi region/ noida ?

pl. let me know if you someone who can fix it.

Thanks

-- Jaiveer Singh (jaiveer@rediffmail.com), June 01, 2004.