Black Boxes: V, Inc. Bravo D1 DVD player

by Charles Fulton
Winter 2003/Spring 2004

V, Inc. presents the Bravo D1 DVD player, a versatile unit that plays a remarkable number of video formats. The Bravo D1 also has the future in mind, with the ability to output an ATSC high definition signal through either its component video outputs (for analog displays) or its DVD output (for digital displays). It also has impressive scalable progressive-scan capabilities.

If you have accumulated any DivX-format MPEG-4 video, the Bravo D1 can play that back as well. We tested a CD full of instructional videos, and the unit did a good job, with acceptable quality video on an analog television.

Turn it On
We pressed the power button on the front panel first. Once this switch is on, we could use the power key on the remote as an on/standby button. Once we loaded a DVD, it took a while for the player to begin reading the disc, at which point the player generates an unusually large amount of motor throttling. Also, we found that the player takes a rather long time to respond to key presses while navigating through menus. The menus can be navigated at the front panel as well-however, though the manual says the center of the front-panel navigation control is "Enter," we couldn't make the player actually enter the menu we were trying to go into.

Play it, Sam
The unit includes a reverse frame advance/slow motion control, which is a feature that should be more common than it is. The player also has MP3 playback and JPEG viewing capabilities. It does not have some frilly features we have seen before, such as zoom and artificial pseudo-surround sound processing. The unit also does not include WMA playback, karaoke or memory card reading capabilities of some other players we have seen recently.

The Bravo D1's front-panel display was not the best we have seen and did not include title and chapter information. If you are trying to determine what is coming out of the digital audio output, this unit will confound you, as there is no indication of the current audio mode or the language of a particular audio track in the on-screen displays.

DVI
Many computers have DVD-ROM drives that will let you watch your Hollywood movies on your computer monitor. If you do not have an HD TV yet (and most of us do not), check around your house again: you could think of your computer monitor as an HD TV. The video from the Bravo D1 was beautiful on all of the hi-res monitors we tried.

Oddities
If you are like us and have a tendency to get sidetracked from time to time, leaving the DVD player on in the interim, beware that the unit does not include a screen saver or automatic standby functions. We also found it a little troubling that we could not find a safety testing lab's listing label (i.e. from Underwriters Laboratories, ETL or the Canadian Standards Association). It's not that we think the Bravo D1 could be potentially unsafe, but it just makes us feel better to see that an independent company has verified that it is a safe product.

DVI, etc.
The Bravo D1 DVD player contains a number of unique features in addition to most of the features one expects to find on a typical DVD player, even if it is a little rough around the edges. With cutting edge geek-features like DivX playback and DVI output for your new digital flat panel monitor, the Bravo D1 may be the only player that meets your technology needs.

III SMART SPECS
Video Outputs: DVI, component, S-video, composite
Audio Outputs: coaxial digital, optical digital, stereo analog

Company: V, Inc.
Phone: (714) 962-4848
Web: www.vinc.us
Price: $199