Newbie needs A player for my receiver

[kaleo]

Hi. I have read tons here and elsewhere, and my head is about to explode! So I could use some help about now!

I am putting together a HT system, but my actual usage is about 70% audio, 30% visual (dvds, video), so audio quality is most important.

I just bought a Harman Kardon AVR235 receiver and need to buy a well matched DVD/CD player (I have a 5-disc Phillips that started to freeze less than a year after I purchased it). I prefer a multi-disc, probably a carousel, for under $300.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks to you all

p.s. I'm saving the bulk of my $ for speakers ($~1,000).

 

[SilverMK3]

What kind of tv do you have?
-> what kind of video connection do you want to use with it? Component Video, DVI?
-> is it an HDTV? If so, does it have an upscaler or any image processing?

Do you listen to DVD-Audio or SACD discs?

Do you care about being able to play back DivX video files?

 

[kaleo]

What kind of tv do you have?
-> what kind of video connection do you want to use with it? Component Video, DVI?
-> is it an HDTV? If so, does it have an upscaler or any image processing?

Do you listen to DVD-Audio or SACD discs?

Do you care about being able to play back DivX video files?

Thanks for steering me in the right direction with those good questions. I'll try to answer them...

I have a 10 yr old Sony TV w/ S-video, but will replace it with an HDTV in a couple years, so I want to buy stuff now that will be compatible with the upcoming HDTV.

My music collection consists of CDs, cassettes, and soon MP3/WAV/OGG files as I also recently purchased a digital flash audio player. Not sure about listening to DVD-audio or SACD discs (these are expensive i hear, and I'm cheap ) which I know little about. I do have a new computer that can burn DVDs +/-, so i suppose I will eventually get around to utilizing that capability.

And I have no idea what DivX video files are...

 

[SilverMK3]

Thanks for steering me in the right direction with those good questions. I'll try to answer them...

I have a 10 yr old Sony TV w/ S-video, but will replace it with an HDTV in a couple years, so I want to buy stuff now that will be compatible with the upcoming HDTV.

No problem, since it will be a while before you upgrade to an HDTV, I don't think that getting an upscaling DVD player will be a huge concern. Just get a DVD player that can do progressive scan and has component-video outputs and it'll work fine when you upgrade your TV.

My music collection consists of CDs, cassettes, and soon MP3/WAV/OGG files as I also recently purchased a digital flash audio player. Not sure about listening to DVD-audio or SACD discs (these are expensive i hear, and I'm cheap ) which I know little about. I do have a new computer that can burn DVDs +/-, so i suppose I will eventually get around to utilizing that capability.

Since all of your music will be stereo only, there's no need to worry about getting a DVD player that has discrete 6-channel RCA outputs on the back, You'll be better off using a digital optical or coaxial connection and allowing your receiver to do all of the audio processing. Your HK receiver will do a much better job of processing the audio from a digital connection than just about any DVD player would using analog connections.

And I have no idea what DivX video files are...

DivX is a compression format that is commonly used for sharing videos on the internet. If you don't have a huge collection of these that you want to be able to watch on your TV, then there's no need for a DivX player. Its kind of a niche-market feature that lets computer geeks watch their downloaded TV shows and movies on their TVs without spending hours converting them to DVD-Video

Since you are primarily concerned about the audio quality of a DVD player, and pretty much all DVD players will perform the same (as far as audio goes) if you use a digital connection to your receiver; I'd say go with whichever 5-disc changer you like the best.

since you will be bypassing the audio DACs completely, keep an eye on the video DACs and make sure that they don't go below 8-bit/54MHz. Get a 10-bit/108MHz player if you can. Avoid 27MHz players like the plaque.