S

singhal2

Audioholic Intern
guys, here is a kinda corollary to the " what's ur upgrade?" thread in other forums.......if one was to compare two dvd players, say one from a local non-descript firm and one from a reputed brand say "sony" with both the dvd players offering the same kind of features and functions like dts decoder, dolby digital, digital output etc and to add to it, the local dvd player plays all dvd's irrespective of their region code and also plays slightly scratched dvd's and dvd-r's ( believe me the sony IS snobbish in these aspects), will u want to upgrade from the local cheapo to the sony and if so why? what extra is the sony offering...........the cheapo is a fraction of the cost too.....


singhal2
 
JVC

JVC

Banned
As long as the cheapo did what I want it to, I wouldn't get the Sony. Unless there was a big, noticable difference in video and audio quality.
 
A

av_phile

Senior Audioholic
I have commonly encountered remarks in many fora that an entry-level SONY DVD player is one of, if not the worst DVD player you can get for the money. I probably wouldn't espouse that, but just say that an entry level Sony has the least features you can get for that price which many CHina-made unbranded DVD players are more than happy to fullfill. A $40 DVD player I saw has all the features you can find in a branded player costing 4x plus regionless, macrovision-free playback and NTSC-PAL conversion.

But I guess, it all depends on your value perception. Others I know would stick it out with branded players considering their arguably better aftersales services and reputation. Personally, unless there is a compelling feature I want that I cannot find in cheap players, like DVD-A, SACD, etc., I'd still get a china-made player. You'd be surprised at how excellent some of their features are: 192/24 audio DAC, 10bit/54mhz progressive scan, 10x zoom, Jpeg/Mp3/Wma/CD-R/RW/DVD-R/VCD/SVCD playback, DTS/DD decoding, frame advance, variable slow-motion, multichannel analog outs, component outs, and many more. Some even has a VGA output to connect to your high definition PC monitor, pre-empting the DVI interface. (Talk about digital display viewing)

I should know, I've had three unbranded DVD players in succession (no reliability and disc problems, just had one sent to my parents and another bought by a friend). These, together with a Yamaha S830 for DVD-Audio and an Onkyo Sp301 as my main DVD player.

Very soon everything will be made in China. Except babies. :D
 
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