Liteon LVD-2001

In the last three years we have seen DVD Players slowly adapt to the point where most new models offer both SVCD and MP3 playback alongside high quality DVD-Video, all at an affordable price. The natural progression from this point is the ability to play back MPEG4 video files, more commonly known as DivX. The major stumbling block in this area is the sheer number of audio and video codec’s used for DivX combined with the fact they are constantly being updated while older versions are simply illegal hacks, and further to this a good 90% of DivX usage lies within a very grey legal area. As a result its seems unlikely that we shall see any DivX support from the major hardware suppliers such as Pioneer, Toshiba and Sony, but it was only a matter of time until players from alternative suppliers hit the market that actually support the format. The Liteon LVD-2001 is one such example that arrived on the market in the past month alongside several alternatives from other vendors.

Promising not only DivX playback but also Memory Card support and Progressive Scan output for high end users the Liteon has much to live up to but will it deliver? Read on to find out...

First Impressions

Before we get started I should outline some basic information regarding this review and the equipment used for the tests. Firstly I am saddened to say I cannot appraise this players progressive scan capabilities that are provided via its component out sockets, nor can I test all of the Memory Cards this player supports through its Memory Card adaptor. Everything else though will be covered and has been tested as part of the following setup:

• Panasonic TX32PK20 32" Widescreen Television (S-Video Connection)
• Kenwood KRF-V5030D Home Cinema amplifier (Coaxial connection)
• Teac LS5.1 Speaker package

On any other week of the year this humble setup is combined with my ageing Pioneer 626D Multi-region DVD Player, though rather than hide this player away for the week I decided to use it and the current budget player of choice, the Toshiba SD330, for comparison purposes against the Liteon.

When the player first arrived I was pleased to see it came in a fetching silver finish that combined with the black LCD display and a slightly off centre front loading DVD tray leaves you with a fairly attractive piece of kit, though one that is not quite up there with say the Toshiba SD330. In terms of size the player is relatively slim line and of equal width to most other low-end players on the market, though it is noticeably heavier than most of its competition. As a result it feels somewhat more solid than say the Toshiba SD330 that could be quite easily thrown around the room by a child given its lightweight build.

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Moving round to the back most will be disappointed by the lack of a SCART socket, which in turn means no RGB output. What you will find are a set of component out sockets for use with high end equipment such as Plasma and Projector displays, an S-Video socket that gives the best picture quality from this player on standard televisions and of course the bog standard Composite connections (x2) for horrid fuzzy pictures and basic 2 channel audio. Both coaxial and optical digital outputs are provided for the output of Dolby Digital and DTS audio when connected to an appropriate amplifier.

In the box you will find a set of gold plated composite leads, a Scart adaptor for those leads (convenient if you have no choice but to use the composite output), the power cable, two memory card adaptors (more on these later), 1 remote control with batteries, a quick start guide and one very basic manual that comes with English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian instructions. This really is a very poorly written manual that will leave total beginners at a complete loss when it comes to fully exploiting the features this player has to offer, as it barely covers the video standards supported let alone explains what DivX is or how to play it! Still, I somehow doubt complete beginners will be purchasing such a player and by contrast those who do will be more experienced and will most likely enjoy revealing the various nuances of this player.

Besides the power cable the most important of these included accessories is the remote control that as you can see from the pictures is not particularly well designed, nor is it very ergonomic, but then it is no worse than the dull lifeless designs utilised by most budget players these days so I see no reason to overly criticise it. Except, well, you have to point the bloody thing right at the player to get a response! Oh how spoiled are we these days that such a notion results in complaint, but a relevant quibble it is for if the player is sat below your television and you do not aim the remote down not much is going to happen, and that is a rarity in this day and age.

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With no S-Video cable supplied I used my own to connect the player to my television, a coaxial lead provided the digital link to my amplifier and with the power connected away I went! Upon switching the player on you are greeted with a simple but attractive Liteon splash screen, from here you can enter the Setup menu that much like the Manual is very basic in comparison to most. In fact, there are just 3 setup screens in which you can tweak a total of 11 settings.

The first setup screen is appropriately named Initial and allows you to firstly set the System Language by choosing one of eight European languages (this dictates the Setup screens language as well as the default Audio/Subtitle options when playing a DVD). Next is the ISO DISC Autoplay option that determines whether or not a CD with MPEG4/MP3/JPEG files will play automatically or whether the file browser should display whereby you can choose a file to play manually. Also present in this section is the Slideshow Timer setting that allows you to set the time interval between each picture displayed when viewing a Photo disc slideshow. Finally you will also find the LVD-2001 Bios Revision listed on this screen, which again is something we shall come to later.

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Into the Video Setup menu you will find the standard Aspect Ratio selection alongside the ability to alter the video outputs Brightness, Contrast and Saturation levels. You will also find the standard Parental Controls on this screen alongside the ability to turn VCD PBC on or off. The last setup screen is for your Audio settings though I'm sure audiophiles will be quite disappointed as you can only select what kind of output you want (Bitstream or 2 Channel). Conspicuous by their absence on a player that supports both PAL and NTSC signals is the ability to choose which you prefer or indeed like most players set it to 'Auto', while the lack of any option where you set your connection method (Composite/S-Video/Component) is also quite unusual. Fear not though for both of these possible oversights will be covered in due course.

There is of course one other menu of the hidden variety that allows you to change the players region code and to even disable Macrovision protection. To enter this menu simply power on the player with no disc so the Liteon splash screen appears and then press "2", "9", "6", "0" on your remote control.

Performance - DVD Video

So then, we have finally come to the real 'meat' of the review as we now delve into the players various abilities and test just how well they perform, and how they compare to the alternatives already on the market.

Region Compatibility - With the remote hack you can of course manually change region codes as frequently as you like, though if you set it to R0 the player will auto-select the appropriate region for you. For every DVD tested (a variety of R1-4) this worked flawlessly with the exception of RCE encoded discs (such as Charlie's Angels), though a quick manual change to R1 does the trick.

Disc Compatibility - As we all know every player has their own problem discs so for this test I looked at films from my collection that featured complex menus such as The Abyss (R1) and those with track records for causing DVD consumers grief such as Dinosaur CE (R1). Both played without fail while the menu performance was as good as I have seen. Another test in this area was to simply run a selection of Hong Kong DVDs on the Liteon as these have varying compatibility rates. Fortunately all played without any visible problems, and these included a particularly dodgy copy of Stephen Chow’s King of Comedy that breaks up horrifically on my Pioneer and other players of that generation, yet performed without a hitch on the Liteon.

Playback quality - This is the area most people are interested in and I am sure everyone will be happy to know the performance was pretty damn good, though not quite up to the standards set by the players I compared it with. These were my own player, the Pioneer 626D, a five-year old mid-range player that originally cost somewhere in the region of £400, and the current budget model of choice, the Toshiba SD330 that sells for around £80. Both were connected via RGB Scart while the Liteon was of course using S-Video. This was however taken into account in the following comparisons that were performed using two identical copies of the test discs, both running at the same time through the same television, which enabled me to simply switch between the AV channels to get an ideal look at the difference in playback quality.

Monsters, Inc. (R4 PAL) - Pioneer 626/Liteon This reference quality PAL disc looked superb on both players, each offering a rich, detailed and always rock solid image. The Pioneer offered slightly sharper fine details and a preferable colour scheme but this I suspect was down to the RGB connection more than anything else.

Amelie (R2 UK PAL) - Pioneer 626/Liteon - Another reference quality PAL disc, Amelie is also a beautifully shot film with some stunning sequences. Initially I used the opening scenes to adjust the Liteon output (using the Brightness/Contrast/Saturation controls in the Setup menu) so in terms of colour/brightness/contrast it matched the RGB output of the Pioneer. With that done I jumped to the relatively dank opening shot of Chapter 8 that sees Amelie walking down a foggy road. This turned out to be a prime example of where the five year old Pioneer still holds its own, as the fog was handled particularly well with no signs of compression artefacts. The Liteon however showed its first sign of weakness as artefacts were immediately apparent in the fog, showing its video handling abilities to struggle with troublesome compression areas such as this. Further examples are there as the scene continues, with the foggy backgrounds showing obvious pixellation and video noise. Comparisons made at later points in the film show the Liteon to hold its own quite well with the only exception being large blocks of colour, where again video noise is far more apparent than on the Pioneer which keeps this to a minimum.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - Extended Edition (R1 NTSC) - Pioneer 626/Liteon - This reference quality NTSC disc proved to be ideal for comparison material as both players succeeded in offering a detailed picture full of rich colours and deep blacks while maintaining a high level of detail throughout. The Pioneer once again came out on top as it offered improved fine detail (the blades of grass and leaves featured in the numerous forest scenes are slightly better defined) alongside better handling of tough compression scenes, such as the opening shot from Disc 1, Chapter 5 where a firework is released into the night sky. On the Liteon the smoke surrounding the firework is somewhat troublesome with minor compression artefacts present, whereas the Pioneer offers a fine gradient between the night sky and the smoke resulting in a more natural artefact free image.

A Bugs Life CE (R1 NTSC) - Pioneer 626/Liteon - Another reference quality NTSC disc, A Bugs Life looks outstanding on this Collector’s Edition release with both players doing a superb job of recreating the cinema experience as they produced clean, sharp visuals. The Pioneer and it's RGB connection just win out in terms of colour handling, though turning the tables slightly is the Liteon with its fine treatment of the background hues seen in the first 30-seconds of Chapter 5, where it manages to offer a far smoother gradient than the Pioneer does resulting in a more absorbing picture.

On the whole my DVD viewing experiences with the Liteon were very pleasing. As is to be expected the direct digital transfers of the Pixar titles gave the best results, with the live action movies showing up the Liteon's slightly cheaper 'all-in-one' chipset that has a few minor hiccups with large patches of solid colour and the DVD authors nightmare in the form of visuals such as fog and smoke. To describe these as anything more than minor annoyances would be over the top, as before I even ran the players side by side the only real difference that was apparent came down to the S-Video connection that always gives a slightly muted look to discs when compared to an RGB source. Just how much these problems will affect you is largely dependent on your screen size, but for those using a 28-32" Television I doubt you would have any major complaints.

As previously mentioned I had a chance to compare the Liteon with the current budget model of choice, the quite superb Toshiba SD330. Rather than do individual comparisons the first thing I did was compare the Toshiba's output to that of my main player, the Pioneer 626D. What this resulted in was a favourable comparison whereby the Toshiba all but matched my ageing mid-range player in terms of colour and detail reproduction. The only area where it was a slight let down is that of tough compression areas - using the same chapter from Amelie I noted that the Toshiba was somewhere between the Liteon and Pioneer meaning some background noise was apparent though artefacts were not quite as obvious as they were on the Liteon.

Performance - MPEG4/DivX

Testing DivX compatibility and performance is something of a challenge due to the huge array of audio and video codec’s available to encoders. Anyone who frequently downloads video in this format for playback via their PC will be quite accustomed to the necessary upgrading and installing of new and updated codec’s, and even more accustomed to seeing the video but not hearing any music. Due to the quirks of this format Liteon have wisely chosen to include an upgradeable bios, which means you can expect to see upgrades available via the Liteon website that allow you to update the players software with an aim to improve performance and compatibility. Just in the short space of the week in which I was testing the Liteon I upgraded the firmware twice (more on that later) and all of the test results which follow are based on the current v0.02.27 firmware revision.

The video files used for testing this player were mostly Anime fansubs downloaded via the net. These files were of varying lengths and utilised every major audio and video codec available including DivX v3.11/4.0/5x and XVid. In total I would estimate roughly 80 files were tested, of which a good 50 or so played back flawlessly with the quality of video and audio being as good as the source file would allow. Of course playback via a Television will never quite meet the level of vibrancy you will see on your PC Monitor (especially for you LCD users) but it far outweighs the quality I am used to on my Geforce 4 TV Out which resulted in many hours of refreshingly simple yet high quality DivX viewing. Sound quality too was very impressive as it offered crystal clear reproduction via the digital out, while files encoded with AC3 sound also played back perfectly in all their 5.1 glory and really help to bring the videos to life.

Further to the 50 or so that played back fine at least another 10 were also recognised and played, but would suffer occasionally from video freezing. In all cases such as this the audio continued to playback perfectly, and fortunately when the video got going again (usually after a second or two) it would synch up just fine.

Of the 20 or so files that refused to play, three quarters were files I had previously chopped up and re-encoded so as to fit on to a CD-R, and I will quite happily admit that my video encoding skills verge on the non-existent. Further to this revelation I should add that videos taken from the same sources that I did not tamper with played back fine. The last batch of files that refused to play were somewhat baffling as they appeared to use supported codec’s but obviously did something the Liteon was unhappy with and therefore would not play. In all likelihood it is due to some rogue audio codec, or possibly a simple glitch in the file, either way I would hope to see these compatibility problems addressed in future firmware updates.

The main source of incompatibility throughout my tests was the DivX3.11 codec. My understanding here is that due to the legalities of this format Liteon have only been able to implement it's support through software decoding rather than the hardware decoding featured for the other DivX formats. Despite the lack of hardware support the results are generally very good and out of a dozen or so files that I tested all worked, be they using the Low or Fast Motion incarnations of the codec. However, not all were without their flaws and in particular the files encoded at a high bit rate (around 1200kbps) were prone to stutter during playback, though rarely to the point of being completely unwatchable. Further investigation with other video downloads using this codec revealed several files that simply refused to play, the reasons for why were not entirely clear so I decided to test my encoding skills once again and created several test files.

The source video for these tests was the MPEG1 Wonderful Days - Final Teaser that comes in a resolution of 480x360 (download here). Using the latest version of Virtual Dub I converted this video to a variety of DivX formats using a range of quality settings. Initially I did a straight conversion to both Low and Fast Motion DivX 3.11 codec’s with a bit rate between 500 and 800kbps, while audio was left to the Radium MP3 Codec at a low 56kbps setting. The resulting files both played back with no problems. I then did another straight conversion but this time left the sound as raw uncompressed PCM (a massive 1411kbps), in this case the resulting file played back but was prone to frequent video stuttering.

To test the limits further on DivX3.11 playback I then did a conversion where the resolution was increased to 640x480, the video bit rate to anywhere between 1200 and 1800kbps and audio set to 128kbps using the LAME MP3 codec. For these tests I stuck to the Low Motion DivX 3.11 codec as this is the most frequently used and supposedly the most troublesome. Sadly the results were quite disappointing with the video either stuttering so frequently it was practically unwatchable or simply freezing up completely. Finally to offer a comparison between the DivX version support I encoded the file at 720x540 using DivX Pro v5.05 at a bitrate of 2100kbps using the LAME MP3 audio codec at maximum quality settings (320kbps) - the resulting file played back flawlessly and looked quite superb.

However, once again I shall cast my encoding skills into doubt as in stark contrast to my results I have been happily watching DivX 3.11 Low Motion files encoded at 640x352 with bit rates up to 1400kbps that use the AC3 DD5.1 Surround audio codec’s at a bit rate of 384kbps - and these play beautifully with no stuttering of any kind. This all leads me to one simple conclusion regarding the DivX 3.11 codec - the Liteon will not play every file in this format that you throw at it but in time the firmware revisions should improve the performance and compatibility. In the meantime however, providing you use files that have been encoded with care then I cannot see you having much problems (ie. anything done by the various 'groups' out there, or the thousands of individuals with more experience than me!).

Performance - Audio/MP3

The Liteon outputs all major DVD audio formats (Dolby Digital, DTS, PCM, MPEG2) via its rear outputs and has no onboard decoding features so the quality of playback is exactly as you might expect, damned good but entirely dependent on the audio setup you have at home. Unfortunately I am no audiophile so cannot comment on the quality of CD playback beyond 'it sounds good' and is certainly up to that of my Pioneer 626.

What this player does offer in terms of 'special' audio features is the now quite standard MP3 playback ability via standard ISO format discs (ie. ones you burn on your PC). Simply burn a selection of MP3 files to either CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW, pop it in the player and it will play them for you. Long filename support is present as is the ability to display the ID Tag details via the remote controls Display button, while the quality of playback is very good with no problems on any of the files I tested. WMA music files are also supported though I did not test any, as I never use the format and do not have any to hand.

Performance - Other

Now for a quick rundown of the players other features and how they perform when in use...

Media Compatibility: As this player supports ISO discs its general blank media compatibility is very important so it will come as no surprise to hear that is passed this test with flying colours. Every CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW I used worked without any problems and as such I have no reason to believe DVD+R/RW support is any different (a format I cannot test). DVD-R media tested includes: Datasafe Blue, Datawrite Red, Infiniti 4x (Ritek G04), Unbranded Ritek 2x Rewriteable.

VCD/SVCD Support: Everything I tested played back flawlessly, even when using rewriteable discs that are several years old and covered in scratches. I am sure you will also be pleased to hear the Liteon supports non-standard formats such as XVCD and XSVCD while it will also happily play MPEG files (MPEG1 & 2) from a normal ISO disc meaning there is no need to bother with any dull conversion to VCD compliant formats.

JPEG Viewer: Just like the MP3 playback ability you simply burn a selection of JPEG images to a disc of your choice, pop it in the player and you can either view them as a slideshow (ISO Autoplay must be selected) or individually via the menu system. Better yet, if you place a selection of MP3 files on the disc the player gives you the option of watching a slideshow while it plays the MP3 files in the background. When viewing files you can also rotate them using the Angle button.

Memory Card Reader: One of the more individual features of this player is the Memory Card reader slot that is used in conjunction with the supplied Memory Card Adaptor's. These support a range of memory cards as used by today’s Digital Cameras thus allowing you to simply place the memory card directly into the DVD Player and view your photos. I personally tested this feature with a Smart Media Card and it worked perfectly well and is used in the exact same fashion as the JPEG Viewer feature. Other memory cards supported are: Memory Stick Cards (MS), MultiMedia Cards (MMC), SmartMedia Cards (SM) and Compact Flash Cards (CF). The player is apparently able to playback MP3 audio from Memory Stick Cards but I have not been able to verify this feature.

ISO Disc Support: Although I have established the Liteon as a player that is more than comfortable with reading ISO discs I have not yet gone into exactly how it handles them and what options you have available to you. Basically if you have selected ISO Autoplay from the Setup menu then inserting any ISO disc with just one type of supported media on it (MPEG4, MP3 and JPEG) will prompt the player to immediately begin playback of whatever is on the disc, in alphabetical filename order. If the disc has a mixture of file types present then by inserting the disc with ISO Autoplay selected you will be presented with a Menu Screen whereby you can choose what file type you want to be played (MPEG4, MP3 and JPEG) and once you have made your selection it will do just that. If you disabled ISO Autoplay then every time you insert an ISO disc you will be presented with this same Menu Screen, and once you have chosen a file type you wish to play it will then jump to a File Browser window where it lists the files present.

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The Menu System is fairly intuitive but can be a little slow when browsing a disc with hundreds of files present, as the only way to step through them is one by one. Making things worse is the ‘flat structure’ opted for whereby any folders you might have on your chosen media are effectively ignored as it pools everything on the disc into one huge list that is only separated by the relevant file types. Add to that a generally sluggish response when using the remote to scroll through the files and you have a feature that is in need of an update in a future bios revision as it makes browsing a disc with hundreds, if not thousands of files quite a challenge!

Convenience Features: Via the remote control you are offered both A-B and Repeat modes, though no 'Program' feature is present, nor is any ability to have the player remember specific favourite chapter points from your DVDs. To be honest features like this are pretty much throwaway bonus items as I never use them, but then the Liteon does offer a few worthwhile convenience features...

The ability to control the front LCD displays brightness via the Dimmer button is certainly welcome, though I would prefer the ability to turn it off completely rather than just 'dim' it. A Slow feature allows you to freeze the picture and step through frame by frame at a selection of low speeds, making your favourite moments all that easier to track down and view in detail. Another fairly common feature is the Zoom mode that allows you to select between three levels of zoom when playing back DVDs. Besides this conventional use the Zoom mode has a far greater relevance when playing back DivX files as rather than zooming in the image it gives you control over the height and width of the display. This is particularly useful as DivX files can often have their edges cut off when displayed on a Television so with this feature you can counter such effects.

Another useful feature worth mentioning is the ability to manually search DivX files, which results in the ability to accurately skip to a specific point. If however you prefer to browse through an episode then thanks to the latest firmware revision you can fast forward in 1-minute intervals. Sure that is not quite as convenient as standard DVD scanning options but at least we get something (the previous firmware revision had no such feature).

Finally like all DVD Players the Liteon has a Display button that allows you to view information on what is currently playing. This includes chapter and time details on DVD playback, codec and audio format details on DivX/MP3 playback and more, though sadly no bit rate meter is present nor can you use this screen to find out how much time the film/chapter has left to run. The same disappointing lack of information is also present on the Subtitle and Audio buttons that simply tell you which Subtitle/Audio track number has been selected, rather than giving you details on what the track actually contains.



PAL/NTSC/Progressive Scan Support: As I have already said I cannot make use of the Progressive Scan capabilities of this player, though I can write a little about how it outputs the various video formats it supports. Way back at the start of this review I mentioned how the Setup Menu lacked an option whereby you could set the desired video output format, or an option where you could tell the player what kind of connection you are using. As it turns out the reason for this is that everything is handled by one little button on the remote entitled P-Scan. What this button does is allow you to switch between video output formats that comprise of 3 Progressive Scan, 2 PAL and 2 NTSC signals. When flicking through the Progressive Scan modes I see nothing but noise with the exception of the 480i setting where I see a split screen effect. For general use most will of course choose one of the PAL and NTSC modes, though when using the S-Video connection only one of each displays in colour leaving the other PAL and NTSC modes for use with the Composite out.

Unfortunately the Liteon has no auto-selection of these modes which means to obtain the best picture quality you will have to manually switch between NTSC and PAL outputs depending on what video format the disc you are watching uses. Now it should also be noted that the Liteon will convert from NTSC>PAL and vice versa, but in doing so the more astute amongst you will notice minor artefacts as a result (shimmering on fine details for example) so manually switching is the only way to ensure the best picture quality. Of course this feature when combined with the Macrovision hack will no doubt please many as the player then becomes the perfect source for recording to VHS.

Firmware Upgrade: By visiting the official Liteon LVD-2001 website you can obtain the latest firmware upgrades that increase player compatibility and fix any known problems. The file downloads are roughly 3-5mb in size and come with easy to follow instructions, though all you need to do is open the zipped Nero Image files and burn to a disc of your choice (CD-RW would be best). Once you have done that you simply pop the disc into the Liteon and wait a few minutes as it updates the firmware automatically (you should not do anything with the player while it is doing this!). The only negatives of this otherwise simple procedure is that Liteon do not appear to offer any form of notification service, nor do they even carry a "What's New" list on their site informing you of what has changed in the latest firmware. In fact, the only way I could see the firmware had been updated was by checking the firmware upgrades filename!

Anything Else?

Just a few quibbles really: As has already been noted the response from the Remote Control is a little sluggish for my liking, and this extends to the buttons found on the front display that also seem to take a second or two before anything happens. Other quirks related to the design include the noisy drive mechanism when opening/closing and initially reading the disc, though when in normal use it is more or less silent. One final design feature I found quite unusual was how the power led acted the opposite to most normal players, whereby it is lit when the player is turned off, and unlit when the player is in use.

In terms of DivX/MP3 playback I was disappointed to find no support for Ogg Vorbis and OGM formats, while the the lack of subtitle support on DivX playback (separate .srt files etc) is also quite irritating, though is something I would expect to see in a future firmware update.

When the player was set to 16:9 mode it played back anamorphic video perfectly but when I inserted non-anamorphic discs the resulting image was a little unusual, as it seemed to treat non-anamorphic material incorrectly and was still implementing the ‘squeeze’ resulting in a thin picture. This did not appear to happen with every non-anamorphic disc I sampled, but it did happen enough to be worth mentioning, as you will have to switch the player to 4:3 Letterbox mode to view some titles in their correct aspect ratio.

The final point I would like to make is a fairly minor one that I feel is worth mentioning. The Liteon uses a top performing PC DVD-Rom drive (one of their own) and this is why it is able to read such a wide range of media, but this is also why the discs are quite often hot to the touch when you remove them. Those of you familiar with PC DVD-Rom drives are probably quite used to this as it is fairly common, but is not seen quite as much on standalone players. It should also be noted that this does no harm to the discs.

Conclusion

Way back at the start of this review I asked the simple question - Can the Liteon LVD-2001 deliver on the promises it makes? I am genuinely happy to say that in most areas it does as it combines high quality DVD-video playback that is almost on par with today's top budget models combined with properly implemented features rarely seen elsewhere. The most impressive of these is of course the DivX playback that as it stands offers impressive compatibility with superb quality audio and video and can only get better as the firmware upgrades are released. Top this off with MP3 and JPEG support, superlative VCD/SVCD playback and the slightly gimmicky Memory Card features and you have a player that could almost be recommended without reservations, if only more attention had been paid to the controls and information display features that are both sluggish and lacking compared with other players.


At the current price point the Liteon LVD-2001 is fairly good value for money though if you are not interested in the DivX capabilities I see little reason for you to consider it as there are cheaper and better performing dedicated DVD-Video players out there. If however you are looking for a player that meets your needs as a frequent user of DivX, MP3, VCD/SVCDs and yes even a little high-quality DVD-Video then the Liteon is an impressive piece of kit that should serve you well while looking good in amongst your setup.

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