As this player has a power selection switch at the back, the most vital step to start with before even plugging it in is to ensure this is set to the correct voltage, otherwise if this player is supplied with a higher voltage than what the switch is set to, it will most likely burn out its power supply.

Once powered on, depending on the method of connection, the first thing that needs to be done is to select the correct video output.  By default, it is set to NTSC over S-Video, which means that if it is connected to a high definition TV, no picture will display upon its initial power up.  Once powered on, it takes around 20 to 30 seconds to fully load up.  At this point, it is possible to select the correct video output mode by pressing on the 'TV Modes' button.  The current selected mode is shown on the player's display:

We did find a minor issue in that it takes a few seconds to switch from one mode to the next and if the 'TV Modes' is pressed repetitively, it will continue to go through the modes to make up for the number of times the key has been pressed.  No disc should be loaded when switch modes, since if the player is playing back content while switching modes, it may cause the player to crash.

Once the correct display mode is selected, the following shows the initial screen that appears prior to any setting up:

Without any further configuration, the player is ready to play content from disc or an attached USB mass storage device, such as a USB hard drive or pen drive.  The system setup menu can be accessed while no content is currently being played.  This menu can be accessed by pressing either the 'Info' or 'Setup' keys:

The menu is split up into 6 sections, with a list of fields and drop-down combo boxes on each screen.  Navigating through the options is very straight forward.  To change an option, simply navigate to it using the up/down arrows and press ‘OK’ to edit it.  For combo fields, it is just a matter of using the up/down arrows to select the desired option and press ‘OK’ to select it.  Tick boxes will toggle when selected.  Finally, text entry fields are filled much like keying in text on a mobile phone without predictive text.

The contents of the menus and options are as follows:

System
          Screen Saver
                   Wait (Choice of 1 to 60)
          System language
                   English, German, French, Italy, Spanish, Dutch
          Encoding language
                   English, German, French, Italy, Spanish, Dutch
          Subtitle language
                   English, German, French, Italy, Spanish, Dutch, Subtitle Off
          Internet Security
                   SSL2
                   SSL3
                   TLSV1/SSL2/SSL3
          Video Setting
                   Composite/S-Video NTSC
                   Composite/S-Video/Component NTSC
                   Composite/S-Video PAL
                   Composite/S-Video/Component PAL
                   HDTV Component 480P
                   HDTV Component 720P
                    HDTV Component 1080i
                   HDTV Component 1080P
                    HDTV Component 576P
                   HDTV Component 720P 50Hz
                    HDTV Component 1080i 50Hz
                   HDMI 480P
                    HDMI 576P
                   HDMI 720P
                    HDMI 720P 50Hz
                   HDMI 1080i
                    HDMI 1080i 50Hz
                   HDMI 1080P
                    HDMI 1280 x 768
                   Auto
          Video Zoom
                   Fit To Screen
                    Full Screen
                   Actual Size
          Audio Setting
                   PCM format
                    Raw format
          Audio Mode
                   Stereo (Fixed)
          Browser Option
                   Enable HD Mode Browser (Toggle)
          Sound Option
                   Typing Sound (Toggle)
          Navigation Sound (Toggle)
                    System Alert Sound (Toggle)
          Save (Button)
          Cancel (Button)
          Restore Factory Settings (Button)

DVD
          VCD PBC
                   Off
                   On
          DVD Parental Level
                   (Choice of 1 to 8 and Off)        
          DVD Parental Control Password
                   Setup
                             Current
                             -> New password
                             -> Confirm
          TV Type      
                   4:3 Letter Box
                   4:3 Pan Scan
                   16:9
          Enable Auto Play
                   Off
                   On
          Save (Button)
          Cancel (Button)
          Restore Factory Settings (Button)

LAN
          MAC Address
                   Read-only, shown in the format xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx

          (Following fields are read-only until LAN is set to manual)
          IP Address
          Subnet Mask
          Primary DNS
          Secondary DNS
          Default Gateway

          (Following buttons are only shown if LAN is set to manual)
          Save (Button)
          Cancel (Button)
          Switch to Automatic (Button)

          (Following button is only shown if LAN is set to automatic)
          Switch to Manual (Button)

Wireless
          Connection now using
                   Read-only field showing current connection method
          Preferred
                   Wired network
                    Wireless network
          Available
                   (Selection of available access points)
          Select (Button)
          SSID
                   (Text entry field)
          Connection
                   Infrastructure
                    Ad-hoc
          Security
                   Disable
                    WEP 64-bit
                    WEP 128-bit
                    WPA TKIP
                    WPA AES
          WEP key
                    (Text entry field)
          Save (Button)
          Cancel (Button)
          Restore Factory Settings (Button)

          Signal Strength
                   Read-only field showing current signal

Time
          Primary NTP Server
                   (URL entry field)
          Secondary NTP Server
                    (URL entry field)
          Time Zone
                    (Choice of Time Zones from GMT -12:00 to +13:00)
          Daylight Saving (Toggle)
          Save (Button)
          Cancel (Button)
          Restore Factory Settings (Button)

Firmware
          Firmware Version
                   (Read-only field showing current firmware version)
          File System Version
                   (Read-only field showing current file system version)
          Click here to check online firmware update
                   (Link to update player’s firmware)

Any fields for entering the IP address, WEP key, URLs, etc. are all the same type of text entry field in which the digits and letters are entered like that on a mobile phone.  A firmware update during December has added uppercase and numeric entry switching by pressing the ‘DVD Top Menu’ button.  After a few seconds of entering a character, the cursor moves to wait for the next key entry.

Setting up the display configuration

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While it is possible to select the display mode using the remote's 'TV Modes' key, it is not clear which display mode is selected unless one actually looks up the manual to see what 'HDMI 02', etc. means.  For example, while the picture may look sharp, the user may have chosen the wrong frequency for their country, which would result in jittery motion while watching video.

As some displays may not mention which TV signal format it is receiving, the choice of display modes is available in the setup menu within the 'System' section in the 'Video Setting' option, as shown in the following screenshot:

The player has a choice of three zoom options for playing back video.  The “Fit To Screen” option stretches the picture such that there is no black space around the image, which is very useful when it comes to playing back video, which would leave a thin black bar on the top/bottom or left/right during playback with the other options.  The “Full Screen” option simply resizes the video to fill the screen, while keeping original aspect ratio.  For example, a 4:3 video shown on a 16:9 display will leave black bars along the left & right.  Finally, the “Actual Size” option shows the video display pixel per video pixel when the image’s resolution is within the display’s resolution.  While this is useful for maximising the sharpness of the video such as if the video is just above or below the screen resolution, for video of a low resolution, it leaves a lot of black space around the picture. 

For DVD playback, the player gives a choice of “4:3 Letter Box”, “4:3 Pan Scan” and “16:9”, which function the same as with pretty much any other DVD player. 

Finally, the player has a useful “Enable HD Mode Browser” option on the system menu to reduce the writing size.  The HD browser mode works best on the high definition mode, in which more information can be shown on the screen at one time.  While it works with a standard definition mode, unfortunately the writing can be difficult to read as shown in the following screenshot:

Screen Saver

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Due to plasma, CRT and other phosphor based displays being susceptible to image burn-in when a still image is shown for an extensive period, this system automatically runs its screen saver after a certain period of inactivity.  As the screen saver cannot be disabled, this minimises the chance of screen burn being caused by this player.

The screen saver works by showing two circle cut-outs of the image bouncing about the screen, as shown in the following screenshot: 

Unlike some players where the screen saver only takes affect while in the stop mode, on this player the screen saver will also take effect if the current playback has been paused after the preset screensaver wait time.  For example, it is quite easy to pause playback to answer a call, forget about the TV and end up heading out or doing something else for a few hours. 

Setting up the sound configuration

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Unlike the NeuNeo and Helios HVD2085 upscaling players we previously reviewed, this player has only a handful of audio options due to the lack of analogue 5.1 audio channel outputs.  This means there is no speaker set-up configuration like on the other players.  On the other hand, even with a digital surround sound amplifier, it is usually still necessary to select the correct digital audio output options.

The audio options include the usual DVD Audio options such as default launch, subtitles and so on.  For digital out, it includes a choice of “Raw format” and “PCM format”; however there are no “DTS” or “Digital Output” toggle options like on the Helios HVD2085.  Finally, for the menus, it gives a choice of enabling sound effects for typing in content, navigation and system alerts. 

Setting up the network configuration

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In order to access Internet based services or browse the Internet from the player, it has to be configured for a network.  This player includes Wi-Fi support, which is very useful when it comes to setting up the player in the living room without worrying about having to run a lengthy cable back to the PC, router or network hub. 

For a Wi-Fi connection, first the access point needs to be selected, following by its SSID, connection type and type of encryption.  If encryption is enabled, the key can be inserted in the field that appears below.  Unfortunately, when the standard browsing mode is enabled, the connection quality overlaps the “Restore Factory Settings” button.  The following screen shows the Wireless configuration screen along with the overlapped connection quality text:

Once the player is connected to a wired connection or is configured for Wi-Fi, the player will automatically configure itself if DHCP is enabled on the network, as most consumer routers come with DHCP enabled by default.  However, if network settings need to be configured manually, there is the option to do so.  The following screen shows the manual LAN configuration screen:

Installing the latest firmware

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Once the network configuration is set up, if the PC has Internet sharing enabled or the player is connected to a network that is connected to the Internet through a router, the player can directly download the latest firmware online.  The player also supports firmware update from disc if it is not possible to connect the player online.  Note that the screenshots shown in this section were taken before we carried out the firmware update.  The rest of this review was carried out using the January 8^th Firmware

The player is fairly straight forward to update online by simply going into the ‘Firmware’ option in the menu:

Once the upgrade link is selected, a warning screen will appear about the consequences of an upgrade failure.  We strongly recommend only upgrading the firmware during the least likely time of a power failure, such as avoiding a time when it is very windy or if there is construction in the home that has any sort of risk of tripping the power.  An alternative safe option would be to connect the player to a UPS such that should the power cut out, the UPS will keep the player running long enough to finish the upgrade process.

On the next page, it gives steps on how to carry out the firmware update, depending on which firmware is already loaded:

If the latest firmware version shown on the page is already present on the system, then there is no point in continuing the firmware update process, since the player will not perform an update if the latest firmware is already installed. 

The following screen shows the second part of this screen:

Once the ‘OK’ button is pressed, the firmware takes place as shown in the following screenshot:

If we attempt to update the firmware with a version already present on the player, we are presented with the following error screen.  This screen will also appear if a firmware update attempt is carried out from disc with an already present firmware version:

Finally, once the firmware is updated the system must be rebooted.  Finally after the system boots up, it must be completely powered off and on before the new firmware takes effect.

Features and bundle

Setting up NeoLink