New to Blu? Buy a PS3: the most featured BD hardware available... - Page 4

Adam Gregorich · 01-09-2008, 10:38 AM

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Mark my words, this thing will outperform Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Yamaha

I am not knowing the Marantz as it's a great unit, but the Marantz and the Denon are owned by the same parent company and share a lot of common parts, thus will most likely sound the same. The featureset of the 8002 puts it right between the Denon 3808 and the 4308. I actually think featurewise the Denon 3808 is a better buy and for a small fee can be upgraded to include the equivilent of the $2000 stand alone Audyssey Pro processer. Out perform Pioneer and Yamaha? Yep. But I'd put your Marantz up against my Denon and I don't think you would be able to tell the difference as long as I have Audyssey deactivated. With Audyssey turned on I bet the Denon would win hands down.

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Ron Reda · 01-09-2008, 10:49 AM

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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Carlo,

I just got the Marantz 8002 which is HDMI 1.3, does internal advanced audio decoding, and sounds BETTER than my highly-regarded B&K receiver I had prior. Mark my words, this thing will outperform Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Yamaha. I'm amazed how "high end" the sound is... and online you can get the 8002 for under $1600.

I just put an order in on the Integra DTC 9.8 pre/pro for that same price and it does it all! I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing all of the new formats through this baby!

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DaViD Boulet · 01-09-2008, 10:54 AM

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the Marantz and the Denon are owned by the same parent company and share a lot of common parts, thus will most likely sound the same.

They don't, and their internal design is very different (and the do not share many common parts, this is a common misunderstanding).

I sold Onkyo, Denon, and Pioneer (and had a top-denon receiver I traded back for my B&K which sounded vastly superior). Having heard all of them (and owned several), I can assure you that the sound quality of the Marantz 8002 is in league above any of these others.

Adam_R · 01-09-2008, 10:56 AM

I fully agree with David. The PS3 is the best choice for MANY reasons.

How about a BD player that has a web browser, plays games, stored high def video on a HDD, has chat, both text and video, is future proof, yada yada, so on and so forth. It's an incredibly capable machine for $400.

Also - I made the mistake of buying a 360 add-on HD DVD player. It's a complete hunk of **** if you care at all about new sound formats. I was uninformed when I made the purchase and regret it. Not only that, but the 360 running sounds like a plane taking off and is HIGHLY annoying while watching a film.

RobertR · 01-09-2008, 11:24 AM

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The Panny 50 has 7.1 analog out and internal decoding for all advanced audio

That is good news. I'm glad Panasonic is doing that instead of taking a "we'll make you use HDMI, and we've don't care if you don't like it" attitude that some on here have suggested is ok with them.

RobertR · 01-09-2008, 11:37 AM

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wow, grouchy.

thats all i was asking, is what reason besides, "it plays video games"

And I gave them to you. Sorry if I came across as grouchy, Tony, but I seemed to detect a "how could anyone possibly object to the weaknesses of a game console" attitude in your posts (it seems clear that you and everyone else was aware of those weaknesses before my post). That's why I made the "why should set top makers even bother" remark. Now you know why the thing is unacceptable to me. Period.

Carlo Medina · 01-09-2008, 11:59 AM

I'm with you Robert, the Panny DMP50 looks good, as long as it's reasonably priced. If the $599 is true, it should probably street for $100 or so less (via online options). If it really was BD 2.0 and internally decoded TrueHD/DTS-MA and output them through the 7.1 outputs (along with lossless 5.1), this would save me tremendously in not having to update my receiver. That alone would justify a higher price tag. Then my PS3 would become my bedroom BD player

Mark Zimmer · 01-09-2008, 12:03 PM

Does the PS3 have component outputs? From what I can see there's some kind of cobbled together thing that you have to buy extra--is anyone using that effectively?

And am I reading this correctly that it won't output DD+ over optical?

KurtEP · 01-09-2008, 12:07 PM

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Originally Posted by Mark Zimmer

Does the PS3 have component outputs? From what I can see there's some kind of cobbled together thing that you have to buy extra--is anyone using that effectively?

I'm using it with no problems. It looks great. I think I had to buy it separately, but it was a few months ago and I'm no longer sure.

RobertR · 01-09-2008, 12:08 PM

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I'm with you Robert, the Panny DMP50 looks good, as long as it's reasonably priced. If the $599 is true, it should probably street for $100 or so less (via online options). If it really was BD 2.0 and internally decoded TrueHD/DTS-MA and output them through the 7.1 outputs (along with lossless 5.1), this would save me tremendously in not having to update my receiver. That alone would justify a higher price tag.

Good point, Carlo. $599 is more than my $499 benchmark, but if it lets me keep my Anthem AVM 30, it's worth it.

Man-Fai Wong · 01-09-2008, 01:21 PM

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Originally Posted by Mark Zimmer

Does the PS3 have component outputs? From what I can see there's some kind of cobbled together thing that you have to buy extra--is anyone using that effectively?

If you're getting the PS3/40GB, you have to buy the component output breakout cables pack separately (for ~$20) -- the pack includes stereo audio output. Not sure if the PS3/80GB comes w/ it or not -- but probably not. On the bright side, you don't need additional cables for it -- other players don't generally come w/ them anyway.

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And am I reading this correctly that it won't output DD+ over optical?

This I'm not sure -- can't remember if that was a choice in the settings -- but I do get 640Kbps DD in my setup, which would in theory be better than what you normally get from DVD. I haven't really compared, but I get the impression that it does generally sound better than what I normally get from DVD.

_Man_

Patrick Sun · 01-09-2008, 01:39 PM

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