Hi all,

The Teac is at $349 down from $450 - $400. Hotchip was $239 with DVI (but switch at back for res.), and Kaon was quite cheap at $219 I think, also with DVI as far as I could see, and VGA. Not sure about the quality of Hotchip and Kaon, but these are great prices for HD boxes. Kaon also have a PVR with a single SD tuner and an 80GB HDD for $269 I think it was. Considering a good SD box with component is still around the $250 - $300 mark, why not get HD? The SD boxes that have SCART, some will do a YCbCr signal out to component, but many will not...

JSmith :ph34r:

geez thats quite cheap ..

are you talking about the Hotchip ODT-4000HD ? @ $239

and the Kaon they have @ $349 RRP .. did u get these prices after bargining or just straight out ?

You can get units for $139, that would be more like it. Good quality, but admittedly few and far between. They should be retailing for $179.

Also, I believe many of the cheaper HD units achieve HD by using two SD devices internally, that may be why they are inexpensive. I understand there are not many that actually use full HD internally.

Yes, but they only have composite, s-video or SCART. Some can do a component signal via the SCART output, but others can't. A box with actual component outputs is more expensive that is reasonable quality, but possibly not quite as much as I thought now. I don;t know about the "cheap" HD STB's using 2 SD devices, but if that was the case they would be operating as one HD device

JSmith :ph34r:


Yes...

Yes that was the sale price on the price tag on the remaining stock as far as I recall, don't know how many they had though.

JSmith :ph34r:

The Hotchip is a really good unit. It just has major compatibilty problems. Get it but be prepared to return it.