High-end DVD and a high-end receiver ??

[mafiaahem]

Folks,

I was wondering what is the use of having both a high end dvd player and a high-end receiver when the receiver supports (plus more) than what the dvd supports.

By high-end, I mean not the krell and theta types but one that supports almost all the latest & greatest features available.

I do not have a home theater yet but I am on my way building one. I already own a Denon DVD-2930ci which is a fairly high-end dvd player (in my opinion) with excellent processing features. Now if I purchase a receiver that does these features along with many other, then I would want to connect my dvd player to the receiver via a digital link and have the dvd player simply send raw dvd data to the receiver and offload all the processing tasks to the receiver. In this case, my dvd player will reduce to a "simple dvd disk reading" device after all that money I had put in it for all those features.

Is this understanding of mine correct or have I got it all wrong?

Thanx!
Mafiaahem

 

[Adam]

You're thinking right. It doesn't do any good (IMO) to double up on expensive audio/video processing. You can get it in one or the other (flat panel TVs also do video processing). Higher end components generally have some other leg up on the lower end gear outside of the processing, though. The receiver might have a better power supply and better circuitry. The DVD player might have a better platter. Just some guesses.

 

[j_garcia]

With the HD formats available, there is no need to have a "high end" DVD player. There are relatively inexpensive players that have all of the features you speak of. In order to use hires multichannel audio formats, you will still need to use analog from the player, but for movies, yes a digital connection is all you need in which case the player becomes a "transport". Your player has all of those features because they need to cover their bases for the majority of users.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Folks,
I do not have a home theater yet but I am on my way building one. I already own a Denon DVD-2930ci which is a fairly high-end dvd player (in my opinion) with excellent processing features. Now if I purchase a receiver that does these features along with many other, then I would want to connect my dvd player to the receiver via a digital link and have the dvd player simply send raw dvd data to the receiver and offload all the processing tasks to the receiver. In this case, my dvd player will reduce to a "simple dvd disk reading" device after all that money I had put in it for all those features.

Is this understanding of mine correct or have I got it all wrong?

Thanx!
Mafiaahem

Well, you do have a good DVD player, but. The new high def DVDs are here and they will be the format, one of them, that will replace standard def DVD that you have. Certainly not tomorrow, but it is evolving and will be.

So, you have two choices, using analog out from your future high def DVD player to get your lossless audio that the player decodes, or in a receiver capable through HDMI.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Folks,

I was wondering what is the use of having both a high end dvd player and a high-end receiver when the receiver supports (plus more) than what the dvd supports.

Yeah, you don't need both a High-End AVR & a High-End media player. But if you can afford it, sure, why not get both a High-End AVR & a High-End media player? High-End not only gives you better processing, it's better built physically and will probably last longer.

However, it seems like all the new Blu-ray disc players are High-End anyway. The cheapest BD player is $500. Denon is coming out with a blu-ray player that is like $3,000.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Denon is coming out with a blu-ray player that is like $3,000.

Somebody has to cover the stratosphere

 

[MDS]

I wouldn't buy 'high-end' anything (law of diminishing returns) but a few things to consider that nobody has really touched on yet:

You have to separate audio and video issues.

Audio
If you use a digital audio connection from the player to the receiver then most, if not all, of the audio processing features of the player are moot. But, IMO that is what you should prefer anyway. The receiver is the brains of the operation and once it has the audio in a data format (instead of analog) it can manipulate it untold ways - apply time alignment, xover, tone/EQ controls, re-EQ, cinema filter, late night mode (dynamic compression), matrix decoders, and on and on ad nauseum. So for audio with a digital connection, I'd say yes a high end player is redundant and not worth the cash outlay.

Video
Video is a whole 'nother ball game. DVD is a standard but standards docs have a whole lot of may and should in contrast to must (I work with software standards). Therefore there is a lot of leeway, not to mention that authors don't always follow the rules anyway (either on purpose or out of ignorance). Just like software, if something becomes popular and is in wide use, despite not technically following the letter of the law, the code must be changed to support it because nobody wants their code to not support the most popular application on the planet.

This is where high end players come into play. They can deal much better with the zillions of combinations. Video processing algorithms are more complex than audio and that is what you are paying for in a high end player. Receivers are starting to incorporate deinterlacing and scaling algorithms but that pales by comparison to decoding and things like locking onto the cadence when things change from video to film and back again. You'd want a better player to deal with all that junk if you are extremely picky about video and/or have such a wide selection of source material that a large number of the potential problems exist in your collection.

However, I still think the point is somewhat moot there too as many lower cost players (think Oppo) have been shown to do what the big expensive boys can do and yet at a fraction of the cost.

I'd put my money into the processing chain (pre-pro/receiver) and not so much into the player...but that is just my opinion. A 1K receiver with a $200 DVD player is a perfectly acceptable combo as far as I am concerned.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Somebody has to cover the stratosphere

Yeah, I wonder if the Denon BD is really worth $3,000 (A/V performance) or it's just a total rip off. I am definitely not buying this one! It's going to be outdated in a year or two.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Video is a whole 'nother ball game...This is where high end players come into play. They can deal much better with the zillions of combinations. Video processing algorithms are more complex than audio and that is what you are paying for in a high end player. Receivers are starting to incorporate deinterlacing and scaling algorithms but that pales by comparison to decoding and things like locking onto the cadence when things change from video to film and back again. You'd want a better player to deal with all that junk if you are extremely picky about video.

So if the Video is Reference quality in a Hi-Def player, but not Reference quality in the AV receiver, would you even hook the player to the receiver or just hook it directly to your HDTV and bypass the "middle man"?

 

[j_garcia]

Any decent receiver will pass the signal through without degrading it. If you are using the receiver to do processing (one that can do so) then again it should be able to manage the signal appropriately and if it can't, you can usually disable the internal processing so it just acts as a pass through.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yeah, I wonder if the Denon BD is really worth $3,000 (A/V performance) or it's just a total rip off. I am definitely not buying this one! It's going to be outdated in a year or two.

Me neither, but, you know the high end, some will buy it or they would not start up an assembly line and I don't think Denon is hand building to custom orders

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Me neither, but, you know the high end, some will buy it or they would not start up an assembly line and I don't think Denon is hand building to custom orders

Yeah, I'm sure somebody will buy a $3,000 Denon Blu-ray. I mean some people spend $600,000 on speakers, so why not a $3,000 BD?
Rich bastards