Performance
Now, on to the actual review. We put in what's always the first to go in: the test disc. For DVD players, calibration is not necessary; besides, our Philips full HDTV was calibrated and working fine. So we went straight to the stock footage and let it roll, with all its hues and complicated patterns. We were hooked via the HDMI cable provided, so I was expecting a hi-def signal all through.
First off, you need to go into the player's menu to get the little machine to live up to its claim of 1080p upscaling. The image was surely high-def and quite well-detailed. In still picture reproduction, the player fares quite well; as there is less noise, and satisfactory detail.
There were visible artifacts in motion sequences, however – digital video de-interlacing in particular didn't rate too highly, as titles and video objects weren't spotlessly clear. Film and animation scenes were better than digital video material, but twitter, jitter, jaggies etc were discernible in small doses. Overall, the clarity was on the better side, considering the price of the player.
What was actually very good was the color; or rather the intricacy of color reproduction. The colors were pretty much in their borders, even in intricate parts. I really liked that aspect of the DVD player, and the small but important things like speed and mechanical response were also very good.
Conclusion
At Rs 5990, this is a good budget player. It looks nice and does what it claims, and that is to provide you with high-def upscaling from the source player itself. The color was good. Certain artifacts in the video will not appeal to someone who is really into AV, but it works fine for others. Our verdict: above average, tending towards impressive.
What about playing Hi-def DIVX (720p/1080p) movies? 
