There are two versions of the Mintek 1600.

Apparently, if the box for the player does NOT mention "VCD" anywhere, then the player is the "newer" version
(However, despite the lack of VCD mention, VCD is indeed supported, and so is SVCD! More on this later.)

If the player has already been taken out of the box, then look at the list of formats supported above the 4 oval control buttons:

The "older" version includes "VCD" as part of the list. Here's a picture of the older Mintek 1600:

The "newer" version does NOT include "VCD" as part of the list.
(but, again, it WILL play VCD and SVCD!)
Here's a picture of the newer Mintek 1600:

This review focuses on the newer version.

You may wish to check out the Mintek 1600 page on the Mintek Web site. Note, however, that the information provided
is for the older Mintek 1600. For example, the online manual is the version that came with the older Mintek 1600.

The newer Mintek 1600 is sold at Best Buy stores in the United States.
It is an amazing little DVD player, especially considering the price (which fluctuates between about $57.xx and $60.xx).

It has "true" support for the following formats: DVD, VCD, SVCD, CDDA (regular Audio CD), MP3, miniDVD, JPEG.

It also plays "raw" MPEG files through the file browser menu.
It lets you do more with raw MPEGs than many other similar players (more on this later).

It has been reported that the 1600 also plays the karaoke CD+G format properly, which means that it shows lyrics on the screen. I have not tested this, but I have no reason to believe that this is a false claim. Up to this point, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to find a DVD player, especially in this price range, that has support for CD+G music AND lyrics.

As you can see, it uses a Supreming AV Lab video processor.
Supreming AV Lab processors are quite similar to the ESS processors found in many other players.

A CS4955 video encoder (outlined by the pink box) is present, but it may not actually be in use.  The video processor used in this player apparently has a built-in video encoder, and this processor reportedly has a way to disable the presence of an external video encoder.

The firmware resides on chip outlined by the blue box.
This is apparently a 1 MB chip made by Macronix ("MX").  Unfortunately, it is difficult to remove and read this type of chip.
 

In comparison, here's what the primary circuit board from the older Mintek 1600 looks like:

The older 1600 uses a different type of Supreming AV Lab processor.  Once again, the CS4955 video processor (outlined by the pink box) is present, and it definitely is in use (possibly unlike the newer 1600.)  The firmware, outlined by the blue box, resides on the chip located inside the brown socket, with the green sticker on top.  (Note that some older 1600's have the chip in a socket while others have it soldered to the board.)

Next is a look at the menus on the newer 1600.

SETUP MENUS

Pushing SETUP displays the following relatively familiar screen:

There is an option to switch the background of the menu screen, so that it looks like the following (more on this later) --

Here's what's inside each of the sub-menus:

GENERAL SETUP

Here's the option to switch the background of the menu screen: "TYPE2" is the one shown in these pictures; "TYPE1" is the darker blue version:

AUDIO SETUP

Inside SPEAKER SETUP:

Inside CHANNEL EQUALIZER:

Inside DOLBY DIGITAL SETUP:

Inside SUPER EQUALIZER:

VIDEO SETUP

There are a lot of players out there which are similar to the newer Mintek DVD-1600...
but very few of them have picture controls!

Inside the BRIGHTNESS menu:

Inside the CONTRAST menu:

PASSWORD SETUP

Inside the PASSWORD menu:

PREFERENCES

(Note: as is the case with virtually every player based on the Supreming AV Lab or ESS video processor, it is necessary to push STOP twice,
or to remove the disc, in order to access the PREFERENCES menu.)

The function of the LOCALE menu is still unclear; however,
it is apparently related to the PARENTAL menu in some way.

NOTE: The PARENTAL menu is grayed out when the PW MODE option is set to ON.

Inserting a DVD on which the parental rating is higher than what you have selected results in the following screen:

 

MP3

Here's what I got when inserting my MP3 disc, containing 151 files. Note that the
menu is now titled "MENU", instead of "SMART NAVI", as in the older Mintek 1600:

As is the case with a lot of other players, including the older Mintek 1600, the first 11 characters of the filename are shown.

Unfortunately, just like the older Mintek DVD-1600, the menu background is transparent (and the MENU STYLE option doesn't have any effect here), so the file names are somewhat hard to read. The old trick of pushing SETUP twice to get rid of the Mintek logo no longer works.

You can access a track directly by keying the track number with the remote. The highest number possible is likely 999;
the picture below shows the number 990:

There are 4 different play modes: FOLDER, FOLDER R, REP-ONE, and SHUFFLE.
You can toggle between FOLDER and SHUFFLE by pushing the PLAY MODE button on the remote.
You can toggle between FOLDER, FOLDER R, and REP-ONE by pushing the REPEAT button on the remote.
It is NOT possible to play continuously or shuffle between folders.

Pushing REMAIN on the remote will let you toggle between the time elapsed and the time remaining on a song:

You can fast-search, up to 16X, within any MP3 song:

It is also possible to use the Pause function on MP3s; I don't think the
older Mintek 1600 allowed this:

The KEY CONTROL (pitch control) function works during MP3 playback;
this was not possible on the older Mintek 1600.
The range is -/+ 16 (older models had a range of +/- 7).

The AUDIO MODE control, which lets you select
between STEREO, MONO LEFT, MONO RIGHT,
and MIXED MONO, is also active during MP3 playback:

Even the A-B repeat works during MP3 playback!
I've never seen this on any other player!

VCD/SVCD

When inserting a VCD, you get the following screen:

This particular VCD was created with Playback Control (PBC),
so "PBC ON" is displayed.

When inserting an SVCD, you get the following screen:

This particular SVCD was NOT created with Playback Control (PBC),
so "PBC OFF" is displayed.

If you push PLAY, there will be about a 3-second delay before the VCD or SVCD starts to play.

One feature missing from a lot of other players in this price range is the ability to switch between languages on double-language VCDs.
Fortunately, the newer Mintek 1600 does have this ability; pushing the LANGUAGE button on the remote cycles between the available
audio tracks. More on this in the "Miscellaneous" section (below), under "OSD button on the remote".

miniDVD

A lot of players out there, such as the older Mintek 1600, let you play miniDVDs, but all you can do is play the .VOB file, through the file browser menu. You can't fast-search, you can't access subtitles, and the counter doesn't work.

On the other hand, the newer Mintek 1600 appears to have "true" miniDVD support. I would love to test this myself, but unfortunately, my test miniDVD is set to Region 2! (Long story). When I inserted this disc, I was greeted with the infamous "WRONG REGION" screen:

However, the fact that it displays "miniDVD" on the screen is a very good sign that the player has full miniDVD support.

I downloaded and burned the VCDhelp.com miniDVD sample - yet when I try to play the disc, the player simply says "LOADING" and all the buttons lock up.
I tried with 2 different CD-RW's and one CD-R - the result is always the same. Very strange.

JPEG

The Mintek 1600 has support for Kodak Picture CD. It also has support reading plain JPEG files from a CD.

The file browser menu is shown when inserting a disc with JPEGs. Unfortunately, unlike the MP3 menu, there is support for only 8 characters. For folder and file names that exceed 8 characters, you get something like this:

TESTTE~1

...similar to what happens when DOS or Windows 3.1 tries to display a file or folder whose name exceeds 8 characters.

The same play modes that work for MP3s (FOLDER, FOLDER R, REP-ONE, and SHUFFLE) will function during JPEG playback.

Page 32 of the instruction manual claims that there are multiple playback modes that can be selected by pushing PLAY MODE on the remote. During my tests, I didn't see any on-screen text indicating that the mode was being changed, yet, while the disc was playing the JPEGs, it used a variety of different transitions between each picture. So I assume that it is possible to have different playback modes, but there is no indication of what mode is selected.

One annoying aspect of the JPEG playback feature is that it often (constantly?) says "JPEG ENCODING..." on the screen.

"Raw" MPEG

Like many other players, including the older Mintek 1600, the newer Mintek 1600 can play "raw" MPEG files from a CD.

The file browser menu is shown when inserting a disc with JPEGs. Unfortunately, unlike the MP3 menu, there is support for only 8 characters. For folder and file names that exceed 8 characters, you get something like this:

TESTTE~1

...similar to what happens when DOS or Windows 3.1 tries to display a file or folder whose name exceeds 8 characters.

The same play modes that work for MP3s (FOLDER, FOLDER R, REP-ONE, and SHUFFLE) will NOT function during raw MPEG playback. This is not surprising, since the player does not make any claims of supporting raw MPEG.

However, unlike many other players, including the older Mintek 1600, the newer Mintek 1600 allows use of the following functions during raw MPEG playback:

Fast-Search (FF and REW)
Slow Motion
Key Control (Pitch Control)
Zoom
Audio Mode
A-B Repeat
Time Search
Pause (I think this works on other players as well)
Volume (I think this works on other players as well)

In addition, the counter functions during raw MPEG playback - this is a rarity.

On top of all that, raw MPEGs which play improperly on other players (i.e. the picture is half the size of the screen) work "
just fine on the newer Mintek 1600.

Unfortunately, the phrase "JPEG ENCODING" (yes, that's right...JPEG ENCODING) is often shown on the screen, just as it is when playing actual JPEGs.

Miscellaneous

ZOOM button

The ZOOM function works on DVD, VCD, SVCD, miniDVD, and raw MPEG.

The Mintek 1600 can zoom in AND zoom out! Here are some screen shots:

4X Zoom IN:

1/2 Zoom OUT:

1/3 Zoom OUT:

1/4 Zoom OUT:

SLOW button

Slow motion speeds of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 are possible.

OSD button

Pushing OSD during DVD, VCD, or SVCD playback displays a nice graphical menu across the top of the screen. It lists the format of the disc you are playing. The options differ based on what format you're playing.

Playing a DVD gives you TITLE, CHAPTER, AUDIO, SUBTITLE, ANGLE, AND REPEAT options. Note that each of these functions can also be accessed directly by pushing the appropriate button on the remote control.

Here's an example of the menu for a DVD with the AUDIO option selected. You'd push the up and down buttons on the remote to cycle between the different audio channels:

Here's a screen shot taken when pushing OSD on an SVCD:

In the example above, the SVCD has multiple audio tracks, so it is possible to highlight the AUDIO icon (if the VCD/SVCD lacks multiple audio tracks, then it is NOT possible to select the AUDIO icon.)

Pushing the LANGUAGE button on the remote will let you cycle between the different audio tracks, if they exist. (this is the equivalent of selecting AUDIO, as shown above, and pushing the up/down buttons.) This is presumably the button that comes in handy when playing double-language VCDs.
 

Here's the same screen shot as above, except that the L/R icon is highlighted:

Pushing the AUDIO MODE button on the remote lets you cycle between what's available in the L/R menu shown above -- i.e. STEREO, MONO LEFT, MONO RIGHT, and MIXED MONO (this is the equivalent of highlighting the L/R icon and pushing the up/down buttons.)

BOOKMARK button

Under the left arrow button on the remote, there is a button labeled "BOOKMARK".
(On the older Mintek 1600, this button was called "RESUME"; the player had no bookmark capabilities.)

As its name suggests, this function lets you store your favorite segments/scenes into memory
(although I'm quite certain that this part of the memory is erased after the power is turned off.)
It seems to work during DVD, VCD, SVCD, and Audio CD playback.

When you push BOOKMARK, you first get this screen:

If you push PLAY, you get the following screen:

I haven't figured out how to bookmark more than one scene/segment; I'm hoping that this actually possible!

DIGEST button

The DIGEST function works on DVD, VCD, SVCD, and Audio CD.

When I pushed DIGEST on my test DVD, I got the following screen:

Here's what I got when trying each of the 4 options listed above:

TITLE DIGEST:

CHAPTER DIGEST:

TITLE INTERVAL:

CHAPTER INTERVAL:

On an Audio CD, pushing DIGEST plays the first 10 seconds of each track. The word
SCAN is displayed as each segment is being played:

TIME SEARCH button

The TIME SEARCH function works on DVD, VCD, SVCD, raw MPEG, and Audio CD.

You can search by either Chapter or Time.

Here are a couple of screen shots from a DVD Time Search:

Volume Control

The volume control goes up to the number"20", compared to "16" in most other similar players.
It's unknown whether this actually results in more sound being outputted; more likely,
it just means that the changes in the level of sound are less dramatic from one number to the next.

Summary