The DVD player buying tips thread!

[yllus]

Main candidate: Toshiba SD3750 Progressive DVD Player and its detailed specs. Amounts on that first site are in Canadian dollars.

With a lot of my electronics getting banged up and in general need of an upgrade when I moved last, I'm in the market for a DVD player for my home theatre setup. Normally I'd just do a bit of Web and general product research, but the specs for DVD players is throwing me pretty badly. Anyone care to answer some of the questions below?

1. Built-in Dolby Digital/DTS Decoder - important? I'm not sure why it's missing from the SD3750's list of features. My reciever (is next in line for upgrades but I can only justify that purchase AFTER we pick up a DVD player...arg) doesn't have this capability. If I did have a reciever that could do this, which will happen soon, do I need to bother about having it built-in?

2. Progressive scan function. Until something gets settled about HDTV formats I'm holding off on that purchase, so we'll simply be using a regular (but <6 months old) 4:3 36" JVC TV with the DVD player. Will I see much of a difference progressive vs. what, interlaced? on a normal TV?

3. Digital Coaxial Output vs. Digital Optical Output. BLARGH! Someone explain this to me in full. I'm assuming some recievers have digital coax only, where others only have digital optical jacks. Most DVD players I've checked out have coax but not optical - a few have optical but no coax; the Toshiba model listed above has both. What the hell is going on here?

4. Component Video Output. I know what this is, but the SD3750 says "Yes - Colorstream". What the hell is Colorstream?

Super ColorStream Pro® Component Video Outputs
Because the digital filter enables eight times oversampling of the component video signal, Super ColorStream Pro players deliver the highest quality video signal to be sent from the DVD player to a component video equipped analog or digital TV. When this connection is utilized, typical NTSC artifacts - like video noise, dot crawl, and flicker - are virtually eliminated, resulting in a low-noise, highly detailed picture with unequaled color purity.

Okay? Help!

5. 10bit/54mHz Video D/A Converter. Good? Bad?

6. 24bit/192kHz Audio D/A Converter. Good? Bad? What I'm seeing is this is pretty standard.

7. Finally, the obligatory DVD region question. I'll be buying all of my DVDs from this quadrant of the planet so I don't think that will be a problem. Any comparable models out there with region disable functions?

TIA all.

 

[olds]

I just purchased a DVD player and went thru the same thing you are going thru. I only have Prologic in my Sony 900ES but will be upgrading to DD in a few months so I didn't get the built in Dolby. I won't be going the HDTV route for a couple of years so I ruled out progressive scan. I decided to purchase a cheap unit and upgrade it in a few years. By then they will probably have built in DVD recorders and who knows what else. I got the Toshiba 2705 from Best Buy for $178.00 USD. It's a 5 disc unit so I was able to take out my CD player. When I upgrade the receiver I will use the old one and the CD player for music out on the patio and by the hot tub.
The type of components you use to connect to the TV and receiver will depend on what connections they have on them. When I was shopping it seemed that the specs were all pretty much the same between units. Good luck.

 

[yllus]

Okay, found one alternative player at the same price:

Panasonic DVD-RP56 DVD Player

It's also a progressive scan player, no clue if it has onboard Dolby Digital/DTS decoder functions.

 

[yllus]

A final contestant: The JVC XV-S502 Progressive DVD Player, detailed audio specs here.

We must have more than one person who's recently bought a DVD player around here!

oldsmoboat: 5-disc is tempting. You're right about a lot of that in general - what will I and won't I be using? I can't see much use coming from the MP3 functions of a player...nobody spends time in that room to listen all day. Man this is tougher than I expected!

 

[ElFenix]

my advice: do not buy sony. i know of 5 people with the dvd sp-360, and mine is the only one that hasn't broke. go to audioreview.com and find tons of people whose player has broke.

actually you could go there and get the stories of lots of people who have those players.


EDIT: is component better than s-video?

 

[edog]

I can answer a couple of your questions for you,

1- If your receiver is "Dolby digital ready" than yes having the decoder built into the DVD player will benefit you if you already have a receiver that can decode Dolby digital than it is useless in the DVD player.

2- progressive scan can only be viewed on a TV that is capable of displaying it, which would be 480p. Most 4:3 TV's only display a 480i scan rate unless they are HDTV ready. With the exception of a couple of sets that can display 480p but not 1080i or 720p which are the formats digital stations use when broadcasting HD signals. So if your TV is capable of progressive scan than yes you would benefit from a progressive player. Most progressive players have the ability to switch the output signal between 480i and 480p so you could still use a progressive player on a non progressive set and later on when you upgrade your TV you would already have a progressive player.

3- Coaxial and optical will do the same thing, transfer a digital signal to your receiver. So whatever your receiver has free you can use coaxial cables are cheaper and more durable than optical so that is my 1st choice.

4- Toshiba uses the term color stream which is the same as component video a separate red blue and green cable to transfer the picture to your TV. Again if your TV has component inputs that would be the best next being s-video and composite being last.


Check out this site for some good info DVD INFO

 

[konichiwa]

Progressive scan is ONLY a benefit with HDTV. With a regular 4:3 there is no difference whatsoever.

Built-in DTS/DD5.1 decoder -- this is if you have an older reciever without this capability and so you want the DVD player to do it itself. I would bet (however I don't know) that the decoding quality is less than that of a dedicated reciever.

 

[Yzzim]

From what I've read on this and other boards is that if you're not looking for Progressive Scan then you can't go wrong with the Panasonic DVD-RV31K or the Toshiba SD-1600 DVD-Video Player.

I just bought an RCA RC5240P at Radio Shack. My sister works there so I got a good deal on it. Plays just about any thing I throw at it. MP3s, VCD, SVCD, etc....I like it a lot.

 

[yllus]

Question: Do all progressive scan DVD players also support interlaced mode?