Expensive & Inexpensive Dvd Players

[jrtm]

In 2003 I purchased a Denon DVD-2900 for around $2000 and I am still using that unit today, it has been fantastic apart from some reading problems now and then.

If I was to purchase a DVD player with HDMI is there much difference between expensive and inexpensive DVD players or all they all much for muchness?

[pgdownload]

SD DVD resolution is now your limiting factor IMO. You'll presumably be plugging it into a screen that is much more capable than the source (SD DVD). As such you can spend $10-$1000 on a SD DVD and you're probably making 1%-10% difference in the PQ.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[jrtm]

SD DVD resolution is now your limiting factor IMO. You'll presumably be plugging it into a screen that is much more capable than the source (SD DVD). As such you can spend $10-$1000 on a SD DVD and you're probably making 1%-10% difference in the PQ.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

So your suggestion is just stick with the DVD player that I have until I am ready for a Blu-Ray player?

[yamapro]

Hi JR

I seriously doubt you will get any improvement by going to an HDMI DVD player... unless you spend mega bucks. Possibly something like an oppo - if you have a large enough (projection) screen but if I had a 2900 i would be using it for my DVDs I certainly wouldn't be buying another DVD player...

I would be putting the DVD upgrade cash into a BR player (althoug i am personally still happy to wait for a little more product maturation)

[Mitcon1503562253]

While I agree SD DVD has matured pretty much there can be quite a difference between the cheap & expensive players. Some do have better picture quality than others and then there is sound, if you use your DVD player for your audio listening there can be a larger difference yet again. How many cheap/low end universal players have good SACD/DVDA/CD quality output ? How many cheap/low end players have decent DAC's in them ? Quality of internal components makes up a large factor of the end price on better players, while there are other formats out I'm not so certain even though they are better that they will "replace" SD DVD.

[tb1231503560936]

I guess in a lot of ways it comes down to your expectations and ability to be able to pick out that maybe 5% difference it may, or may not make. There would also be a difference in various brand cheap players I would imagine so would depend on what you buy.

As an example I have a Pioneer LX70a BD player ($1800) and a Pio DV610a upconverting DVD / SACD player ($190) both feeding into a Pio LX60 receiver and then into an Pio LX508 panel. Ive only had the "cheap" DVD player for a few days, but at the moment, I can't pick any difference between the two for SD material.

I guess it may also depend on the quality of the rest of you components (amp, speakers, cablng etc etc) that may show some differences as they get better quality, also what effect they may have in upconverting images, video processors etc.

If you are the type of person who likes to spend top dollar on AV gear, then you may just feel better about spending the dollars and knowing you have "the best".

Personally, I would either stick with what you have or buy something cheap-ish for now, then jump into a BluRay player when you are ready.

[Mitcon1503562253]

TBH123,

While there may not be a difference between your Pioneer LX70a & Pioneer 610AV (which both have the same SD DVD abilities so you shouldn't really see a difference) there would be a big difference between either of those & a $50 Conia or no-name cheapie SD-DVD unit. When it comes to sound though you can often hear a difference between players as with one unit vocals may be distant or another might be very bright in the top end etc..etc.. I've got a friend that has a $50 no-name DVD player that plays everything you can throw at it but the picture quality isn't as good as my old basic Panasonic (his new model even upscales 1080P) and when it comes to sound I swear a standard CD sounds better than a SACD. As it happens his neighbour has the Pionner 610AV and that is in another world when you compare, so much so that my friend is buying the 610AV and I'm even thinking of it. Seems to be a pretty dang good player for the money.

[tb1231503560936]

mitcon, agreed that the real cheapies are often nasty as well, I was more refencing the SD ability between my $1800 player and $190 player, meaning that you dont have to spend $2k on a DVD player to get "good" quality these days. There may be some measurable difference, but for me, I cant pick it.

For me, $190 is still cheap. I probably wouldn't even look at the real cheap ones, unless I had a holiday shack and needed one there part time etc.

It will be interesting to see how SACD's perform when I get hold of a couple. I don't really have a reference point though, so to me, they will either sound great, or not so great.

I'm interested to know what difference the CD/DVD player can actually make to the sound quality these days when using a digital (Optical or HDMI) output to an AVR?

Whilst shopping around for speakers recently, most information was that if it's the AVR doing the Digital to Analog conversion, then this is what has the most impact on sound reproduction. Until then, it's all just data off the disc, and assuming the CD player is reading off the disc without errors and all the "ones" and "zeros" get to the AVR in the right order, it "should" sound the same, shouldn't it?

Obviously if you have analog out of the CD, then this would be a different matter.

[brodricj]

I had my video system calibrated by an ISF certified technician. He found the component output of my 10 year old Denon DVD 5000 player produced a much better (accurate) picture than the HDMI output of my highly regarded Oppo DVD player. I knew that anyway, but it was nice to hear it from a professional. I know it doesn't really answer your question (i.e. compare picture quality between a cheapie HDMI player and an expensive one), but it goes to show that a quality player is always a quality player, even a 10 year old one.