Narrowed Down: Denon 1710 or Yamaha S5750

Michael Preyer · 04-22-2005, 10:04 AM

I want a good quality, inexpensive, black, single disk DVD player. All I do is watch purchased DVD movies on a 65-inch projection TV, so I just want good picture and good surround sound. I don't care about other bells and whistles or ability to play lots of media types.

Based on my wants, I've narrowed it down to one of these two. They are both about $150 and have "similar" specs. I'll just note the main differences below:

DENON 1710
10-bit video converter
3:2 pulldown

YAMAHA S5750
12-bit video converter
NO 3:2 pulldown

I've heard and read a lot about 3:2 pulldown, but I still can't figure out if it will make a noticeable difference in the type of viewing I do. I also have no idea if I'd be able to see any difference between the picture from a 10-bit vs 12-bit video converter.

In my mind, these two units are a dead-heat tie. Can you help me break the tie?

Michael Preyer · 04-22-2005, 10:31 AM

UPDATE: I was just reading through the manual on my Toshiba 65H82 TV and found that it has something called "Cinema Mode" which is a 3:2 Pulldown switch processed by the TV itself, so I don't need that feature in the DVD player.

So, taking 3:2 pulldown out of the equation, is the Denon 1710 or the Yamaha S5750 the better player for the price based on picture and sound quality plus hardware build quality?

John S · 04-22-2005, 11:48 AM

To use the 3:2 pulldown in your display. You must send it 480i, preferably over component video. Cheapie players tend to excel with this as all they need is a good mpeg decoder.

Beware as some nicer players do not even allow 480i out the component video output.

Bets of luck with it.

Michael Preyer · 04-22-2005, 07:38 PM

It sounds like I'd be better off with the Denon and use it's 3:2 pulldown rather than using that feature of my TV.

I went out today and tried to find each of the two DVD players at stores around town. Tweeter was supposed to have the Denon. They didn't. Best Buy was supposed to have the Yamaha. They didn't. That was frustrating. I guess I'll just have to buy sight unseen from the internet.

Stephen Hopkins · 04-23-2005, 05:15 PM

The 1710 did VERY poorly in the Secrets DVD benchmark. The Denon 1910 which is a scaling player and did very well in the Secrets benchmark is available from eCost for $165 w/ free shipping as factory reconditioned. eCost is an authorized reseller of Denon factory refurbished items. The 1910 and similar players are great for fixed pixel displays (plasma, lcd, dlp, lcos) and have their advantages w/ analog HDTVs as well (less A-D and D-A conversions). If you can expand your budget to $200 then the 1910 and Oppo DV971H look to be very good options. If you don't have a DVI or HDMI input on your display then you may want to look at the Zenith DVB318 which with a firmware flash can scale to 1080i VERY well and can be had online for around the $150 mark.

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