in need of a new DVD player

[supervij]

And what's wrong with that?! I fully expect, when buying any new piece of technological piece of equipment, to last me well until my old age. Isn't that a reasonable assumption? If they can send a man to the moon, why can't they make a DVD player that won't break down EVER?



All right, all right, glad I made you feel good. I think it's fairly obvious I wasn't being literal. Anything to put a smile on yer face, WooHoo. (Well, not ANYTHING.)

And thanks for the list of pros and cons, revjb. All of those cons are things I can live with, if the pq is everything it's promised to be.

I just realized that the Oppo is only $250 CDN. Both the Denon 1910 and the Panasonic S97 are a hundred bucks CDN more expensive. The Panasonic HD850 and HD841 are $200 CDN and $230 CDN. So I think I'm willing to spend just a little bit more to get the better quality of the Oppo.

As the owner of a 480i display (NOT something I brag about), it's the core video specs I look at, not the de-interlacing specs. And for those core video specs -- stuff like chroma, video levels, blacker than black, YC delay, image cropping, layer change and responsiveness -- the Oppo kicks the butt of every other player in its price range and beyond. So I don't see the point in spending the same or more and getting lesser quality. Aaaaaand, I live about half an hour drive from the Canadian reseller selling them. So I can pick it up, without worrying about shipping and damage and stuff. Tra-la!

Assuming the reseller ever gets more in stock, I think I've made my decision. Thanks, dudes.

cheers,
supervij

 

[mfabien]

...
I'm starting to think that SACDs and DVD-As are slightly overrated. I'm sure they sound incredible, but the cost of these discs is just too off-putting. Plus, my receiver doesn't have a DVI or HDMI connection, so that would mean six cables, and frankly, I've enough of a mess back behind there.
...
supervij

DTS music discs (5.1 surround) can be as good, depending on sound mixing.

You listen to Dolby Digital and DTS via digital connection (optical or coaxial).

You listen to SACD's and DVD-A's via mutichannel analog cables from the DVD player and the receiver (6 cables). DVI or HDMI is not relevant in this discussion.

You say your TV handles 480i only. That being the case, you have no need of the progressive scanning option (480p). My suggestion would be to get a basic DVD player for now. You may then plan ahead for a new TV...perhaps a widescreen HDTV.

 

[supervij]

mfabien, thanks for making those points. I agree with what you said about DTS music. I'm quite happy with the one disc I have; while I'd love to hear it in its full DVD-A glory, the DTS version is pretty amazing.

Yup, got my coax cable to enable the DD and DTS. Love it!

The Oppo, though, does 480i through its component connections. I know that some of those core video specs would degrade a bit through components, but would it degrade so much that it would perform on the level of a forty dollar player?

I'm the kind of guy who likes to have the highest quality gear for my budget. The reason I'm stuck with a 480i screen is cos five years ago, I did no research. I waltzed into ONE store armed with a fat paycheque and two features in mind: flat screen and 27 inches (the largest that would fit through the doorway of my old apartment). And then I picked the least expensive 27 inch flat screen they had. Looked phenomenal at the store, but at home, not so much. Stupidly, I thought those lines would go away after a sufficient break-in period! They never did and since then I've been ticked with myself for not having done the reseach to make sure that I always have the highest possible quality gear for my budget.

I figure that with my anal-retentive, obsessive nature, I'd get one of those forty dollar players, and just hate everything about it, no matter what the picture quality was like. But maybe you're right. Sigh. I guess I wouldn't really miss forty bucks, just to give one of the budget players a try. We'll see.

cheers,
supervij

 

[teamklr2bar]

do you know if the samsung hd850 actually has the Farjouda Video Chip or is the "up convert" function just a "convert" function? I purchased this dvd player for the upconvert function but I did not know anything about this video chip then. Also, sometimes when I am in the dvd player menu the dvd player will lock up and I have to turn it off and basically reboot it. Do you know of anyone else having this problem with this dvd player or any other dvd player?

 

[mfabien]

Here is what it says at Samsung:

"The DVD -HD850 is designed for consumers who want to get the most out of their HD displays with their existing DVD collections, it employs a digital process that upgrades the standard DVD resolution to high-definition resolution with 1080i, 720p, and 768p signals."

Therefore it's upconverting the resolution.

 

[REWJR]

Upconverting DVD players

The Samsung HD-841 has been superceeded by the newset HD-950 with dual DVI/HDMI output as well as SACD/DVD-A decoding ...

http://news.designtechnica.com/article6320.html

All this for under MSL $249.00 web sites are advertising below $200.00 ..