Yamaha DVD-S2300MK2 Universal DVD Player Reviewed!

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>It's apparently DVD player month at Audioholics as we just completed our review of the Yamaha DVD-S2300 MK2 flagship universal DVD player and are almost ready with our complete coverage of the Denon DVD-5900 as well. We found that the Yamaha's excellent Faroudja video engine and separate SACD and DVD circuitry provided phenomenal audio and video quality. We gave the unit a thorough workout and, overall, were quite pleased with the results. Read on...

[Read the Review]</font>

 

[pam]

<font color='#000000'>Hi Hawke

A few questions:
1) What is the difference between FLI2300 chip and Faroujda DCDI? Is DCDI the algorithm and FLI2300 the processor?
2) Suppose that I have a letterbox DVD in a 4:3 ratio, what is the advantage of letter box format? Will it increase the 4 side to fill the entire 16 and cut on the top and bottom (reducing the 12 (3X4) to 9)?

Also I am trying to put this evaluation in perspective:
Should your evaluation scale be reviewed to account for the coming of HD-DVD. I would like to think that a DVD player that would get 5/5 should be able to reproduce and image that would be as good as what you get in Cinema.

On the other hand, a score of 4.5 overall would mean that this player seems to be able to compete with many of very high end DVD players (Ayres, Linn, Simm, etc...). To compare with school, it would be like a student getting 90% in a class where the average is 70% (3.5).

Anyway, thank for the evaluation and it was an interesting article.</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">1) What is the difference between FLI2300 chip and Faroujda DCDI? Is DCDI the algorithm and FLI2300 the processor?</td></tr></table>
DCDi is the technology name for Faroudja's video engine. FLI2300 is the actual engine itself (the chip).

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">2) Suppose that I have a letterbox DVD in a 4:3 ratio, what is the advantage of letter box format? Will it increase the 4 side to fill the entire 16 and cut on the top and bottom (reducing the 12 (3X4) to 9)?</td></tr></table>
This is a confusing issue (and because I am interpreting your question, I'll try to do my best here). You have three major forms of DVDs: Full screen, anamorphic, and (cheesy) letterboxed. Trouble is, &quot;widescreen&quot; and &quot;anamorphic&quot; are often interchanged, as are &quot;widescreen&quot; and &quot;letterboxed&quot;. Here's the skinny in my terms:

full screen - 4:3 content that is meant to be played back in a 4:3 aspect ration, full frame

anamorphic - one of many aspect ratios that is horizontally &quot;squished&quot; into a 4:3 aspect ratio, to be &quot;de-squished&quot; on output by the DVD player to resort to its correct aspect ratio. The advantage of this is that there is no encoding of black bars at the top or bottom, which could waste as much as 30% of the file space.

letterbox - this is a completely useless solution that basically encodes a 4:3 signal including top and bottom &quot;letterbox&quot; black bars to format the picture for 16:9. Obviously, since the black bars are encoded into the MPEG stream, you are wasting nearly 1/3 of the picture on black space.

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Also I am trying to put this evaluation in perspective:
Should your evaluation scale be reviewed to account for the coming of HD-DVD. I would like to think that a DVD player that would get 5/5 should be able to reproduce and image that would be as good as what you get in Cinema.</td></tr></table>
No, our reviews are based on design-intent (also we only evaluate against current technology) and value. A 5 star standard definition DVD player and a 5-star HD-DVD player could coexist in the Audioholics &quot;universe&quot;. If we didn't do this, then there's no way a VHS player or standard definition TV could be positively reviewed (not that we do those, but you get the point).

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">On the other hand, a score of 4.5 overall would mean that this player seems to be able to compete with many of very high end DVD players (Ayres, Linn, Simm, etc...). To compare with school, it would be like a student getting 90% in a class where the average is 70% (3.5).</td></tr></table>
Again, for us, value has a lot to do with it. This is a $999 player (I've heard street prices of under $775) so we base our final judgements on that. Its the only way we can see handling reviews for all different price levels. You may see us from time to time review a piece of very elite gear, that gets very good ratings, and then receives a poor value rating. It's performance ratings are still accurate, but the player may not show so much improvement over lesser models to justify 2x the price, etc...

Its a soft rating system, but we do our best.</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Hawke, how would you rate this new Yamaha compared to the Denon 2900 and 5900, respectively?</font>

 

[Blondini]

<font color='#000000'>I second this!</font>

 

[pam]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>

hawke : <font color='#000000'>DCDi is the technology name for Faroudja's video engine. FLI2300 is the actual engine itself (the chip).

Letterbox - This is a completely useless solution that basically encodes a 4:3 signal including top and bottom &quot;letterbox&quot; black bars to format the picture for 16:9. Obviously, since the black bars are encoded into the MPEG stream, you are wasting nearly 1/3 of the picture on black space.</font>

<font color='#000000'>Hi

One last question/remark:

If the DVD is encoded in letterbox format, wouldn't the compression algorithm take advantage of this black space to increase the resolution and details on the other part of the image? (Still loose one third of the lines)

If we use letterbox format on the DVD player, will it output 16X9 image (allowing the display to show the film filling the 16X9 image without distortion).

BTW, you are right, DCDi is the algorithm name (incorporated in Genesys chips) and FLI2300 is the processor name (Thus everyone who uses their own DSP must either rewrite the algorithm for the specific DSP or ask to Faroujda to do it).</font>

 

[MerlinMacuser]

<font color='#000000'>I am having problems with my new Yamaha DVD S2300 MK2 player. I have only 5 or 6 SACD disks at the moment and they all play perfectly. I bought the Deluxe Edition of Tommy (Geffen Deluxe Edition #B001366-36) a hybrid SACD/CD disk and it would not read. I returned it to the store thinking it was defective. The new disk would not play either. I took the disk to a local electronics store where they were gracious enough to let me try it on an identical Yamaha DVD 2300 player. The player had no trouble reading the SACD Multi-channel layer...went home and tried it again on mine but it won't read it. It starts to read and starts to display 0000 when it gets to the last time digit it hangs.

I took the player back to my dealer for an exchange. I wanted to show him what had happened and make sure it didn't happen on the new player too. We hooked up the old player and the same error occurred on disc 1. The SACD layer on disc 2 read perfectly. Then we tried the new player and the SAME thing happened! Tried it on another Yamaha floor model and the error occurred again. Then we tried it on Pioneer and Denon units and the SACD layer was read perfectly. Here is a link to a web site where other Yamaha owners are reporting this problem: http://www.sa-cd.net/showthread/1035/

Otherwise I love this player.

Thank you for your help.

*********UPDATE********UPDATE**********UPDATE*********UPDATE********

Yamaha has confirmed that there is a problem with their players with regard to this disk and others like it. I'm told that they will be doing a firmware update in the next month or so. Consumers will need to bring their players to an authorized Yamaha repair facility for a replacement of the chipset.

Apparently there is a difference in the way disc one was made compared to disk two of this set. They said that there was &quot;no way&quot; the other store's unit could play this disk in SACD mode. However, I saw it play in SACD mode with my own eyes.

Merlin Macuser</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>That is odd. I'm glad to hear they are bing responsive. I'll try to follow up on this as well.

One thing to note - I made a typo n the article, the DVD-S2300 MK2 uses the Faroudja FLI2200 chip, not the FLI2300.</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Hawke, we'd still love to hear your thoughts - not looking for a product endorsement - of the Yamaha 2300 Mk II compared to the Denon 2900. &nbsp;Also interested in the Marantz DV 8400. &nbsp;Can you comment - we respect your opinions....

Pat

</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>Since Gene reviewed the 2900 and I reviewed the S2300 - that's a tough one. We were never able to shoot them off together. Gene thinks the 2900 probably has the edge - but he's basing that on build quality and features alone.

I'd say its a toss up.</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Hawke, that's interesting. &nbsp;I just spoke to a dealer that sells both the Yamahas, the Denons and the Marantz, and they suggested that Yamaha and Marantz were the better products. &nbsp;Of course, that could just be what they are trying to sell, but they really weren't too keen on Denon...
Pat</font>

 

[bob griffiths]

<font color='#000000'>Hi looks a great player they should have put HDMI on it but as the RX-Z9 doesnt have HDMI i think they will leave HDMI sockets for a while.
The On screen menus seem based exactly on Panasonic's style .Have Matsushita helped in this design?</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Merlin,

I am extremely interested in acquiring this Yamaha unit - seems to be a great value, and I've heard a lot of negative things about the Denon from Denon dealers. &nbsp;Did you ever get your problem corrected? &nbsp;Other than this problem, how do you like your unit.

I am a bit concerned because I bought a Yamaha CD player years ago which was defective, and they could never fix the thing. &nbsp;I ended up demanding my money back, and had to buy a different product. &nbsp;So, I have my concerns too.

Please advise...

Pat</font>

 

[MerlinMacuser]

<font color='#000000'>Hi, Pat

The company has acknowledged this problem. They will be sending new chip sets to dealers for install as a warranty service. I'm told the chips should be available to dealers in the next 4-6 weeks.

Other than not being able to play just this one disk, I am very, very pleased with this and the RX-V2400 reciever I bought along with it. This makes the 3rd Yamaha receiver I've owned and 3rd other component too (2 cassette decks) going back to 1985. All are still in service I might add.

I have been stocking up on Dylan remasters on sale though Columbia House. Tonight I compared the cd of Blood on the Tracks to the SACD hybrid. Although the cd sounded astoundingly better in the new unit than from my venerable DBX DX3, the SACD put me in orbit. Believe it or not, I got goosebumps listening to Idiot Wind.

There is a pecularity with the LFE/Sub out management that I think I've solved with a simple $16 Y adapter. It is my experience that if you use the Multichannel Sub output to send LFE signals to your receiver, you will not get an LFE signal while listening in 2 channel mode. So, I attached a 2 male/1 female Y adapter (Monster Cable Ultra High Performance) to the sub outs of both the 2 channel and multi-channel ports then to a single subwoofer interconnect (Monster 400) to the receiver. Now I have LFE from either output. Since you must set the player to either 2 or multichanel output, I am not concerned about cross-talk. It will auto-revert to 2 channel if set to multi when trying to play a 2 channel source.

I waited a long time for this unit with these features. I am very pleased with the value I got for my money. I had enough left in the budget for a TiVo and for a bunch of new disks. Now I need a new storage system!

If price is not a limiting factor compare this with the Denon 5900 but concentrate on the features and performance. Kenwood's Soveriegn system is feature laden too but cannot play SACDs AFAIK.

I am looking into Snell SR.5 surround speakers to take this to a 7.1 system.</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Merlin,

Thanks so much for responding. &nbsp;I just bought my speakers, (Paradigm Studio Reference 100 v3, with matching cc-470 center channel and matching adp470 &nbsp;surrounds, and an HSU TN1220 Sub w/500 watt amp), and am about to take the plunge on the receiver - either the B&amp;K AVR-507 or Integra DTR9.1U2, and I think this unit will work well with either. &nbsp;I really appreciate the fine people that are members of this forum for being so helpful and responding to other member's questions and requests for information.

Thanks again,

Pat</font>

 

[MerlinMacuser]

<font color='#000000'>Sounds great...need some help with the set up? I'll be right over.... &nbsp;

</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Are you just looking for warmer weather, or are you really interested in setting up someone's DVD player??

Pat</font>

 

[MerlinMacuser]

<font color='#000000'>Nah, just kidding. I am one of those rare folks that love Winter. We love cross country skiing and feel sad when Winter goes away.

My brother and his wife just moved into a new house. I couldn't bear the thought of setting up his crappy stereo stuff in the new place so I gave him my newly old receiver (a Yamaha RX-992) and a good dual-well cassette deck. Then I rewired the whole system with good quality cabling and heavy gauge speaker wire instead of the zip cords and bell wire he had used before. My fingers are still numb from all the copper I twisted to accomodate the Monster connectors for his new stuff and for the old Yamaha R-8 I've resurrected to use in my home office in lieu of the 992.</font>

 

[stiletto pat]

<font color='#000000'>Merlin,

Thanks again. &nbsp;BTW, based on this thread at this site (and perhaps others...), the dealer I was going to purchase my 2300 MkII from has halted sales of the 2300 MkII until they hear exactly what Yamaha is proposing be done to correct the problem you reported with these units. &nbsp;Now that I've decided on this DVD player, I can no longer get it from my dealer of choice. &nbsp;

Isn't life grand? &nbsp;

Pat</font>

 

[MerlinMacuser]

<font color='#000000'>Well, Yamaha said they will be sending the replacement chips to dealers within 4-6 weeks (from last week). I know there was a high demand for these prior so perhaps the dealer is unable to get a new supply as Yamaha is fixing those units in the supply chain. I'm glad they decided to get ahead of the problem rather than stick it to consumers. It is worth the wait.</font>