V, Inc. Bravo D1 DVD Player
 Most people
won't have heard of V, Inc., but the company, founded by William Wang, a pioneer in
computer-display technology, is dedicated to offering cutting-edge video technology at
very attractive prices. What got my attention was the announcement of the Bravo D1
DVD player, a DVD player with DVI (Digital Visual Interface) output. But here's the
kicker: the Bravo D1 has a list price of only $199 USD.
Most of the time you pay a hefty price for the latest
technology, so word that I could keep the video signal in the digital domain from source
to display for less than 200 bucks seemed like a pretty big deal. I set about getting my
hands on a sample.
Simple and direct
The Bravo D1 is slim (16.9"W by 2.6"H by
12.2"D) and clean-looking. The front panel has an On/Off button and a central disc
drawer, with an alphanumeric display window to the drawer’s right and a menu
navigation wheel (rimmed by a fluorescent blue ring) to the right of that. Below
the drawer and window are eight additional buttons, which control the transport functions.
These controls are recapitulated on the remote, which is
packed with tiny, faintly labeled, TicTac-sized buttons that did not fit my
ham-sized hands. Rumor has it that V, Inc. has since switched to a better remote; your
sample might be different from mine.
The rear panel sports both coaxial and optical digital
outputs, two pairs of analog RCA outputs, as well as composite, S-video, component, and
(wowsa!) DVI video outputs. There is also a hardwired, ungrounded power cord.
The D1 weighs slightly over five pounds. Its build quality
seems appropriate for its $200 price point -- at that level, you don't expect the solidity
of a brick outhouse.
Eminently plain and direct
The feature that attracted me to the D1, of course, is that
DVI output. This is most important if you have a digital video display, such as a
fixed-pixel display using plasma, LCoS, LCD, or DLP technology. CRT-based tube or
rear-projection sets aren't digital, so the DVI connection probably won't deliver any
noticeable improvement.
DVD does not actually deliver a high-definition signal, so
the D1 also provides upconversion that matches its output to the native resolution of your
display. The D1 converts widescreen DVDs (852x480 pixels) to standard 480p, in addition to
HDTV resolutions, such as 720p (1280x720) and 1080i (1920x1080) -- although it goes
without saying that Macrovision-protected DVDs (i.e., nearly all commercially released
discs) can’t be upconverted beyond 480p if you're using the component outputs.
The Bravo D1 also outputs an 852x480 image for displays,
such as the Sampo PME-42S6 and Gateway GTW-P42M102 plasma TVs, that employ that singular
native resolution. The D1 has a digital zoom function, which can expand non-anamorphic
letterbox images to fill the entire width of a 16:9 display.
The D1 also plays MPEG-4 videos and MP3 files, and displays
JPEG files.
Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street
The $64,000 question: How well did it work? That's
where things got complicated.
I loved the picture quality I got through the Bravo
D1's DVI output, but the DVD player itself was a hair shirt of a product to use.
It was slow to load -- which is the criticism that makes me
roll my eyes in disbelief when I read it in other people's reviews. Life's not that
short, I think -- at least until I spend a few decades waiting for the D1 to read a disc's
table of contents. It was also a balky beast, refusing to read many discs on the first try
-- and frequently hanging fire on others, necessitating a power reboot to jog it into
operation. Then there's that display, which mostly tells you how much time has elapsed on
the disc you're playing. Title, track, other info? Fuggeddaboutit! And God forbid
you should try to skip chapters while using the digital zoom mode. The player reverts to a
4:3 letterbox display. Every. Goldarn. Time.
When I got past the D1’s mechanics, however, things
got remarkably more pleasant. The menu system is dead simple to use. Navigation and setup
were as easy as pie. Then there's the DVI output. Whoo-eeee, that is some kind of good.
I paired the Bravo D1 with the PLUS
HE-3100 projector, connecting it through both its component and DVI inputs for
comparison purposes. On the Video Essentials test DVD, the differences were
profound. The DVI was sharper, especially around the edges of shapes, and the colors were
crisper and deeper.
On DVDs, such as the Superbit Shakespeare in Love,
the DVI showed exceptional clarity on moving images, especially the tossing leaves and
riffling grasses in the picnic scene I tend to use as an "everyday life"
reference. With the component connection, leading edges were blurred and sometimes left
"ghosts" or "trails."
The differences were consistent with other Superbit DVDs,
such as The Fifth Element and Desperado. Sharpness, clarity, and color were
always far better, deeper, richer through the DVI connection.
The end must direct the operation
TAG McLaren's DVD32R also
provides a DVI output, so it seemed obvious to compare a budget DVD player to a high-end
player just to see if DVI is the great equalizer.
Not quite, although the D1 didn't embarrass itself in the
area of picture quality. The DVD32R's video image was a tad less sharp, which is not a
criticism. The D1 seemed overly "edgy" -- the leading edges of objects seemed
just a little too sharp. Objects in motion, on the other hand, seemed better defined with
the TAG player. This was an extremely subtle difference -- it might even be one where a
different observer would prefer the D1.
In terms of color, contrast, and detail, the two players
were very hard to distinguish from one another.
There was no contest, however, when it came to actually using
the two players. The DVD32R is built like a tank. Its sliding, motor-driven disc cover
responds briskly to commands and moves with the precision of a 17-jewel Swiss watch. It's
not the fastest-loading player I've ever operated, but it’s never made me curse its
sluggardly pace, either. And it never failed to recognize a disc, or refused to perform a
command, or simply, Bartleby-like, preferred not to do anything.
I'm not saying you have to spend $8000 to get that level of
reliability, but it's a terrible thing to wince and wonder every time you load a disc.
To be direct and honest is not safe
The V, Inc. Bravo D1 DVD player is a mixed bag. Its DVI
output gives it video performance far better than anything else I have experienced
anywhere close to its $200 price. I also admired the simplicity and clarity of its
menu-driven setup system, which was about as good as they get.
However, it was not a joy to use. I don't necessarily
expect perfection from an under-$200 DVD player, but such basic functions as disc
recognition and reliability don't strike me as options you should get only from the
high-priced competition.
I suspect that V, Inc.'s next DVD player will resolve such
issues. I hope so, because I love the idea of getting so much video quality for so little
money. If you do, too, you might find the D1 is worth the extra effort that living with it
requires.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
V, Inc. Bravo D1 DVD Player
Price: $199 USD.
Warranty: One year (limited).
V, Inc.
10910 Talbert Avenue
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
Phone: (714) 962-4848
E-mail: sales@vinc.com
Website: www.vinc.com
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