In addition to VCDs, DVDs and MP3 CDs, the Mitashi DIVX-555 multimedia player can play MPEG4, JPEG, HDCD, and many other media formats. A two-channel audio and com-posite video cable to connect to a TV is also provided. Some more supported features are wide-screen TV support, an S- Video as well as Composite-out, a D-Sub connector to con-nect to a PC monitor, SP-DIF coaxial and optical output, Dolby Digital 5.1, Pro Logic II and DTS, to name a few. We put it to test by playing DivX-encoded movies on it, and it performed without any glitches. When a non- standard compliant media is inserted in the player, an easy, Explorer-like interface pops up so you can navigate the folders on the media. We then went one step further and tried to play a movie encoded with the newer and now very popular XVID (also an implementation of MPEG4) video compres- sion and with Dolby 5.1 sound. We were pleasantly surprised to see that it not only played the movie flawlessly, it also correctly detected and played the Dolby 5.1 sound format. We then popped in the February 2005 Digit DVD, which had lots of wallpapers, to see if we could view them. We found that we could view all the images—even as a slide show. Previews were available in the Explorer view. VCDs and DVDs, as expected, had no problem playing. The image quality in all these tests was crisp, and the colours vibrant. Sound reproduction, both in 2-speaker and 5.1-speaker modes, was also very good. One thing to note is that the DivX- 555 has a 3D sound processor that can recreate sounds according to seven different preset environments, and this feature actually worked. Overall, this is a great player. Add a 29-inch TV and a 5.1- speaker set, and what you have is a full-fledged home theatre.
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