Excellent DVD value -- hidden features.

[Viper GTS]

I don't think I can afford the full price one, but if someone manages to grab an extra opened one, I'd be happy to give you 125% for it.

I may try to talk my dad into taking me to BB tonight, too. Dunno if it will work, he'll likely frown on me spending any money.

Viper GTS

 

[Double Trouble]

Viper, I'll keep an eye out at my local BB (where it seems all the units they sell are the "M" type) to see if any more returns come in.......

 

[Viper GTS]

Thanks.

I appreciate it.

Viper GTS

 

[piku]

That $30 rebate, is it automatic? How do you get that?

My dad isn't too big into movies, but for freaking $39 I'm damn sure he will buy one, if just for the coolness factor

(edit: ah crap the closest Best Buy is quite a drive away... ah well)

 

[DAM]

its a mail rebate for 30 bucks, the price for my dvd was $96 - $30 = $66 still a pretty damn good price.


i will go home tonight and play with it and see if i can confirm tagej's comments, ill keep you posted.




dam(still at work at 7:51 PM )

 

[RadioactiveCPU]

I work at BB. It's a good deal. Also, APEX blows. don't get APEX.

 

[HiveTyrant]

dude got one. Had to hunt it down though, the display was a m but they wouldnt sell it to me They had 2 open boxes, one with M(not sticker) and one without. Guess what one I got. Slaesperson was majorly confused but helped me out, he opened the boxes for me. Seems there may be a correlation between box colors. The lighter boxes may be the M models. The price before rebate was 129.00 but I got the OB for 79.00 plus rebate=49.00. Not too bad, I got a PS2 so this would be a step down but I got it for my grandfather, hes got a 52 inch and no DVD, seemed a shame so I fixed that Good luck people!!

Irving TX

 

[jcballer1]

whats the best deal on a sony dvd player?

are they the best ones??

 

[ForeverSilky]

Yeah the Apex is pretty sweet, just got done watching a VCD on it.

 

[adazam10]

Thank you so so much.

I bought this unit about a week and a half ago because my other player broke down and I needed a quick and cheap replacement. I was seriously thinking about returning it soon and getting something better because of all of the negative reviews for it. I just looked on the back of the unit after reading your post and it is a "221 M." I tested an audio cdr and a vcd cdr and they both work perfectly. I am definitely keeping it now. I bought it for $99, but there was no mention of a rebate. Is the rebate restricted to this week only or something?

Also, if it is like the apex player does it also have the region and macrovision disabling secret menu?

Once again thanks for your great post.

 

[Double Trouble]

<<Once again thanks for your great post. >>

Glad to be of service

<<Also, if it is like the apex player does it also have the region and macrovision disabling secret menu?>>

I've been trying to get to the bottom of that one myself, but I haven't been able to find much solid info. I don't want to start messing with the firmware unless I'm certain I know what effect it will have. I suspect it doesn't have the loophole menu (that was taken out of the Apex AD660), but a firmware fix should take care of that.

<< Is the rebate restricted to this week only or something?>>

It's a BB mail in rebate, I haven't checked to see who it goes through. As far as I know, it's available to anyone that buys this unit at BB, but I'm surprised they didn't advertise it more. Go back to the store and ask them about it, mention that you just bought your unit, maybe they'll cut you a deal. If not, you can always take it back and just get another one and get the rebate

 

[Tom]

First, tagej, thanks for the info you've provided us; secondly how do you feel about the 221m now after a few days with it ? Also do you have the submenu defaulting to on problem that some people elsewhere have mentioned ?

Also, concerning the &quot;crappy&quot; version, could you elaborate on what is bad about it other than it wont play mp3 cds ?

Thanks again.

 

[Double Trouble]

DPS, the 'crappy' version is crappy in the sense that it doesn't have any of the additional features - you get DVD and CD, and nothing else. In addition, it reportedly has trouble with some dual layer DVD's.

I'm extremely happy with this thing. Yeah, the menu's and setup options aren't as good as I've seen on some of the more expensive players, and it doesn't have such nifty things as Dolby Digital sound decoding built in etc..... but for the price, it's excellent. I already have a receiver that does dolby surround etc, so I just ran the audio through the receiver and it works fine.

I've tried every kind of DVD I could get my hands on to see if there would be any problems, but so far haven't found any. Unfortunately, I don't have a large DVD collection (if it wasn't for this cheap deal I wouldn't have gotten a DVD player at all), so I'm not able to test some of the DVD's that cause problems on other players to see how they work on this model. Some of the MGM Bond DVD's supposedly cause all sorts of problems on many players, but I haven't had a chance to get my hands on those yet for testing.

As for the subtitles defaulting to the 'on' position, it's my understanding that the M model does not have that problem, only the &quot;non-M&quot;. Mine doesn't have that problem, I was able to go into the setup and set the captioning/subtitles on or off without a hitch.

 

[unxpurg8d]

Tagej, thanks for the info! I couldn't find one at Best Buy, but fortunately I WAS able to sneak into my son's room and swap out mine for his.



He doesn't read Anandtech, so he'll never know....muahahahahaha!


Seriously though, thanks for posting this. I wasn't aware there were two different models and now I can play with the extra features on my &quot;redistributed&quot; player.

 

[ApacheXMD]

if anyone's interested, the Apex forums are here

-patchy

 

[Tom]

I managed to find a 221m model, (the m is painted on this one, not a sticker). It plays mp3s and vcds, just to confirm tagej's findings.

BTW, I noticed a difference between the 221m and 221 boxes, at least at the store I went to; on the bottom of the box there is a sticker, the 221m box has the sticker in the middle of the bottom and has Total Technology on the sticker; the 221 box had the sticker in the upper left corner and didn't have Total Technology on it. Of course I don't know how consistent this is, maybe if those of us who got the various versions can see if this will help identify the models that are in sealed boxes.

 

[tom3]

bump for an interesting post..
I went to my local BB and they had 5 or 6 sealed boxes of these. Price was 129 - 30 rebate, and there was no way of telling which model they were. They all said DVD221 on the box and the stickers were all at the top-left corner on the bottom. They had a floor model and it had a &quot;M&quot; sticker taped next to the model number, thought it was supposed to be painted?

Anyone able to get the M version for an OB price? I would be willing to buy it from you.

 

[Double Trouble]

Tom, I've seen the &quot;M&quot; in sticker form as well as regular printed form next to the model number, and in both cases the model was the real &quot;m&quot; model.

 

[ArkAoss]

if any one can grab an extra M model for me, PM me, I'll take you up on A decent Quote,
I can only buy ONE, and will definitly take the best offer, even if you don't get a rebate on it.

thnx from a guy too busy to hunt, but willing to grab a special piece of equipment more than the special price

 

[RossMAN]

Viper - Were you able to get a ride to a Best Buy? If so, which store did you visit and did they still have this DVD Player?

Think I might check a few area Portland Best Buy's tomorrow and see if they have any of these in stock. I just need a simple DVD Player and you can't beat this price.

 

[Viper GTS]

I pretty much gave up on it. Decided the money was more important than the DVD player.

Viper GTS