Do high-end DVD (or CD) players actually deliver better sound/picture quality? I’m no signal-processing expert, but neither is the guy at my local audio/video retailer who says I should pay $1200 for “way better” picture quality. When he says, “more advanced digital processing,” it sounds like he knows something I don’t, which is unlikely.
I know you can add a lot to the back end, like Dolby Digital or DTS, which basically post-process the signals into additional channels. But better picture quality?
I bought a low-end Sony DVD player for $100 (half price - no box, instructions, or cables) at Best Buy back in January. Angie & I are very happy with it. We plan to get a better TV for it eventually, the one we have now is my 6-year-old 19" Philips. I say get what you can afford but don’t be swayed by a salesperson who is probably trying to earn a commission off you. A quick search of CNet returned a progressive scan Samsung selling for as low as $185.
KneadToKnow has hit a big part of it. The ‘Progressive Scan’ is one of the major features of more expensive DVD players that improve image quality. However, as already mentioned, such a thing will only be noticed on an HDTV capable television. Your basic model of TV that most of us still have will see zero improvement from this. Progressive Scan allows the image to be displayed in a non-interlaced format…that is, the entire picture will be drawn on the scree 60 times per second. In an interlaced TV (what most people have) the screen is drawn alternately odd lines (30 times per second) and even lines (30 times per second). The Progressive Scan results in a much crisper image…especially when motion is involved (i.e. half an image is drawn [every other line], moves a little, and the second-half of the image is drawn giving a jagged or fuzzy edge to the item in question).
That said you can now get Progressive Scan DVD players for less than $400.
Other features usually include advanced audio offerings and a few other bells & whistles. Dolby, Dolby 5.1, THX, etc… Some DVD players now include support for DVD audio discs as well as supporting MP3 playback. Some even support Karoke discs. You’ll also get players that are better able to handle imperfections in the DVD disc itself and the more expensive players will usually have faster access times and menus and so on.
Someone gave us a cheapo DVD player for Christmas last year and it’s worked just great for us on our lower-end TV and cheap stereo system. Unless you know you want Surround Sound or have an HDTV or other specific need save your $$$. Cheap DVD players can be had for less than $100. There’s no need to waste money for features you can’t or won’t ever use. Then again, if you have the ultimate home theater setup with an HDTV, mutli-speaker 1000 watt surround sound stereo setup then spending the extra money on a good DVD player makes sense.
I’ve been given the green light by the wife to go hod-wild on a home theater setup and had done tons of research and came across that web site you linked (among other good ones). My hard drive then had a complete meltdown and I lost all of my links and research I had saved and have had a helluva time finding the good sites I had found previously.
That’s one off my list!
Sorry for the off-topic junket…please return to your regularly scheduled thread.
I haven’t got a DVD player myself, but a friend of mine is on his third one. He has a 50 inch projection TV (not HDTV) and is really into watching movies. His advice to me was find a player with the controls (especially the remote - so many remote controls are terribly laid out and a nightmare to use, especially in the dark), menu and audio features you like.
He told me (as others here have said) there is no significant difference in video quality between DVD players on a progressive scan TV.
I don’t know if you misspoke or this is what your friend really said. There is a noticeable difference using a progressive scan DVD player on a progressive scan capable TV. There is zero difference on a standard, NTSC, TV that people have had for the past 30 years or so.
After noticing I was the only one in Blockbuster looking for videos instead of DVD’s, I broke down and bought a player last weekend and lucked out at, of all places, WalMart. I got a DVD player plus a 6 speaker,surround sound, home theater system package for $229.00. I am playing it on a relatively new 36" Sharp (cheapie)TV and the quality of picture is amazing, but the quality of sound is light years above the old video experience.
However, I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but I am wondering about the Music CD playback ability.
Two questions:
Music CD’s copied on a computer burner do not seem to play on this machine, but original “store bought” CD’s play just fine. Anyone know why this is?
Should I avoid playing music CD’s on the DVD player to save wear and tear, or are these machines hardy enough to handle heavy use?
Sorry for the extraneous questions.
But as far as the DVD experience, my only regret is that I waited this long. Anybody thinking of getting one - do it!
Not sure about this one. Playing burned CD’s used to be an issue on older CD players but I haven’t heard of that problem in ages. Unless this is some sort of anti-piracy thing (which all DVD players come with) it may be that you just have a cheap DVD player that has a problem reading burned CD’s. There also may be an issue with how you copied the CD you want to play. If it’s just a straight copy of a music CD that’s one thing but if you manually put a CD together (like a mix) there are different methods for writing to the CD (such as disc-at-once, closing the CD or leaving it ‘open’, etc.). Most CD players today are tolerant but having an inexpensive DVD player they may not have bothered to deal with this issue. I’m just guessing here however…I’ll see if my cheapo player at home can do this or not.
The DVD player is pretty hardy but wear-and-tear is wear-and-tear. Still, you’re DVD player is inexpensive enough that it may be no worse than tanking your actual CD player. Unless you gain some audio benefit by running an audio CD in your DVD player (Dolby 5.1 or something) you may as well just stick to your regular CD player.
When I got the DVD, it replaced the VCR -and- the CD changer. This is a “cheap” Apexx with a 3-disk DVD changer capable of playing homemade CDs and CDR’s, and Video CD’s (edited with Final Cut Pro and burned with Toast!). It also play MP3 cd’s, that is, burn a DOS CD in 8.3 format full of MP3, and we replaced about 70 CD’s with 8 MP3 CD’s.
The “higher-end” RCA is relegated to the bedroom, and won’t play ANYTHING homemade.
Thanks Balthisar and Whackamole…so at least it isn’t my DVD player alone.
I will probably just go out and get a different CD player and attach it to the system…easier and less danger of ruining the DVD needlessly.
I work in an A/V retailer, and once you hit the 275$-500$ range of DVD players, they’re mostly all going to look the same. When you get up into the 1500$ range, you’re getting some stranger features. Oversampling, better laser quality, HUGE shielding. (One panasonic model puts a copper box around certain parts of the player). Unless you’re a videophile, I wouldn’t bother. I’ve got a $300 panasonic, and it looks beautiful to me.
Unless you’re running component video on 1M Monster™ cables to a 55" Ultra high end Projection TV and running optical audio to a Carver rack amp that’s properly shielded from outside noise, and then running to a 10,000$ speaker set will you really notice the difference between a good $400 dollar deck, and a $1500 dollar one.
Again…this isn’t to say you can’t buy a crappy DVD player for $400 bucks…it’s quite possible. Just saying that if you shop around, and compare models, $400 is all you really need to spend.
