Philips DVD-963SA: SACD, DVD, and 24/192 upsampling of CD, for $400?! (1 Viewer)

[Eujin]

The problem with your information chain is you're getting the information 2nd hand. Does that mean its invalid? No, just hard to verify the accuracy of the statement.

John, your point is well taken. I'm fully aware that the information I passed on may not be gospel--that's why I explained how I came by it. At any rate, delays for the 963SA don't seem to be confined to the U.S. alone--hivizone.com which was taking pre-orders for the Asian version, has also announced that there is a delay for a the player over in Hong Kong.

 

[John Kotches]

Claire,
Why not just stop fooling around... get that Meridian 598 and be done with it
Regards,

 

[KeithH]

John,
If you do learn anything from your Philips contact, please share!
Eujin said:

As things stand, the 963SA is in the country, sitting around in warehouses.

Where are these warehouses? Time for me to go over there and steal one ask nicely if I can buy one.

 

[KeithH]

Here is a picture of the '963SA:
[c] [/c]
Does anyone know if the US model will be silver or black? Please say silver! The US version of the '962SA is silver.
By the way, what does that MATCHlllLINE thing in the upper right corner of the front panel mean?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

... could well have been a Universal player but for political reasons DVD-Audio is not included.

I read somewhere that this was also the case for the older Marantz 12 series (the $2500 list SACD player). Had all the internal parts for DVD-A, just that the capability wasn't "turn on". I would really love for someone to explain that "marketing" decision to me.
There are those of us out there that refuse to buy 2 separate components for DVD-A and SACD when we know darn well it can be done it one box...

 

[KeithH]

Kevin, while the Marantz SA-12S1 does SACD, but not DVD-Audio, the DV-12S1 does DVD-Audio, but not SACD.
You said:

There are those of us out there that refuse to buy 2 separate components for DVD-A and SACD when we know darn well it can be done it one box...

That's fine so long as the one box can do both DVD-Audio and SACD well.

 

[John Kotches]

Kevin,

What type of a statement would it be if the co-inventor of a format built a player that supports the rival format? That would be tantamount to admitting the player has merit.

What was the first product that Marantz created once they were no longer majority owned by Philips? The DV-12V1 DVD-Audio player.

The previous generation Marantz players (SA-12S1 SACD, DV-12V1 DVD-Audio) could probably have been made Universal with a little bit of effort, but I am not 100% certain of the details of these two players.

Regards,

 

[KeithH]

At this point in time, with neither DVD-Audio nor SACD garnering significant marketshare, don't expect Sony or Philips to support DVD-Audio. Likewise, don't expect Matsushita to support SACD. If at some point down the road one of the formats does catch on, we may have a situation where the backers of the "losing" format will not be able to ignore the "winning" format and the sales dollars to be gained marketing that winning format. Then we may see crossover, for example, with a DVD-Audio player from Sony. It's happened before with other formats. Although Sony invented and has pushed minidisc, it eventually came out with a component CD burner. There came a point where Sony could not ignore the popularity of CD burners. Obviously, Sony wanted a piece of the pie.

I think we are a ways away from seeing such crossover to DVD-Audio or SACD. Neither high-resolution format has demonstrated the sales figures to warrant attention from the backers of the competing format.

 

[Han]

John,
Did you run into anyone at CEDIA who'd tell you when their FLI2300 based players would come out?

Personally, I don't even need something like the upconversion, since it'll just be an artificial upconversion to 1080i on my TV, and I'd rather just watch DVDs in 480p progressive mode anyway. I agree that Faroudja's, or even Samsung's player would be targetting different consumers, so there shouldn't be a reason why multiple levels of players could be released in the same time period.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Does anyone think the SACD playback of this model will be on-par with the current Sony ES series? I know that answer requires quite a bit of speculation, but does anyone understand this stuff and the features of this particular model well enough to venture an informed guess?

 

[Matt Jesty]

I merely hope that they will "hold-up"well, 'cause while I know that some here switch source components like underwear, I would like to see build quality and durability and a bug-free unit.....the 962...still around....

 

[John Kotches]

Han,

No one was giving time frames for FLI2300 deinterlacing players at CEDIA, but I suspect they will be out either in December or right after CES.

Regards,

 

[Lee Scoggins]

If at some point down the road one of the formats does catch on, we may have a situation where the backers of the "losing" format will not be able to ignore the "winning" format and the sales dollars to be gained marketing that winning format.

I am of the opinion that there may be no format war. In any event Super Audio clearly has the lead at this point in terms of both titles and record labels. I can easily foresee where DVDA is a specialty HT audio phenom and Super Audio takes over the high end listening crowd and the professional archiving market. In the pro market where I have been working lately, Super Audio is very well thought of.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

John- Shame on you!
From your review of the Marantz SA-12S1 SACD/DVD-V player in Secrets:

What type of a statement would it be if the co-inventor of a format built a player that supports the rival format?

The statement to me would be: we are a company that is business to make money, to service our customer's needs, and to *not* get drawn into a useless poliitcal war on which format is better or not.

 

[John Kotches]

Kevin,

It would also be admitting defeat, and do you really think this is going to happen on either side anytime in the forseeable future?

Regards,

 

[Kevin C Brown]

John- I can hope! After all, Sony makes, or at least sells VCRs now...

(I'd give my left nut for a 20 lb ES universal player.)

 

[Rich Malloy]

From the J&R specs: "Advanced Bass Management sets each speaker's low-pass crossover point separately"

Does anyone know precisely what this means? Could it simply be like existing players, where one can select for each channel but is limited to only a 120hz crossover or none, or does this really mean that one can select from various crossover frequencies for each channel (60hz, 80, 100, etc.)?

 

[Rich Malloy]

(BTW, I'm very excited about this unit, can't wait to hear the reviews, and think that just maybe I made the right decision not to go ahead with the Sony 555ES purchase... though I'm still straddling the fence about that one.)

 

[Eujin]

Rich,

From the spec, it looks like the real deal--independent XO settings for each channel/speaker. This would be awesome if true. If this player can produce audio that's better than the 555ES, that would make it an absolute category killer.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Eujin, would the upsampling capabilities of the Philips lead you to believe that its redbook performance would, on balance, improve upon the performance of the current Sony ES series players?

And I also wonder whether the internal DTS/DD processors, hopefully coupled with thorough bass management features on the analog outputs, might be an improvement over my current processor's capabilities? Currently, I can select from a range of various crossover frequencies, but am limited to only a single frequency selection which is then applied to every speaker not run full-range.