If Faroudja is the Pentium4 of DVD players who is the Athlon ? (1 Viewer)

[anthony_b]

Meaning, Intel processors are the most popular chips out there and argubly the best, but AMD Athlons are nothing to be ashamed of...so, which DVD player chip fits "the very close second" like AMD does in the computer world.

 

[Danny Beck]

I would guess it's the Silicon Image chip in the Denon 2200 and 2900.


Danny

 

[Ernest Yee]

What's funny (or not so funny) is that the same company is the one that's producing a major of these players w/ either chip so there's no Athlon pricing for high quality players - at least not anymore since the Panasonic XP30 days.

 

[Don_Berg]

There is none, since in your analogy you are looking for a chip thats almost as good as the Faroudja but at a cheaper price. There is only the (relatively) expensive high quality de-interlacers (Faroudja and Silicon Image) and then there are all the rest which are cheap and low quality nothing else!

 

[JamesGL]

So how about players from Marantz, HK and NAD, anyone know what type of deinterlacers they use?
I am so leaning towards a NAD T513 right now. Thanks.

 

[John Garcia]

Absolutely no use to the thread, but I just thought it was funny that Intel, AMD, and Silicon Image are all within 3 miles of my place and I see them almost on a daily basis

If you look at the shootout results, and consider currently available players, the Silicon Image (SiI504 DCDi - 2200, 2900) are on top, with the exception of the Faroudja based 5900, also a Denon, but then the 5900 is also about 3x the cost of the 2900.

I am waiting to see if the 216mHz Faroudja makes it into the replacement of the 2900...

 

[Dave Moritz]

My Sony DVP-S9000 ES uses the Genesis Microchip for de-interlacing. Not sure how good it is compaired to the Faroudja but it does a good job. I have owned my Sony ES peice for over a year now and the only gripe I have is the layer change. I how ever am looking at replacing it with the Denon 5900 or the new Adcom.

 

[Don_Berg]

The older Genesis de-interlacer is way below the quality of the Faroudja, especially for video-based material. The Genesis is average about the same as the cheap progressive players out there today. Only Faroudja and Silicon Image do a decent job on video-based material and the many badly flagged DVD movies out there.

 

[Henry Colonna]

I would dispute the analogy - on most weeks looking at a cost/performance ratio , AMD wins. On a few weeks occasionally after a price drop, Intel wins. AMD accomplishes this on probably 1/10th the R&D budget. I think that the impression that AMD is a 'close second' is fueled by a huge Pentium ad campaign and branding amongst the 'general consumer.' I am not a general consumer - I am a PC enthusiast who is always tweaking and running benchmarks. I could argue with data to back it up that Intel is the close second to AMD.

 

[anthony_b]

Henry, I agree with you. I'm an Athlon user myself, but I put the question out there to see if I could get a good value out there without having to pay for the "faroudja" name stamped on DVD players....Whatever chip the Onkyo dvsp-301 (I just purchased it) must be the "Athlon" I was looking for.

 

[John Garcia]

I run AMDs at home. IMO, they actually run faster than their clock speek suggests, compared to similar Pentiums. In terms of reliability and functionality, they are so close, the difference is negligible.

Many players, specifically the Faroudja based Panasonics, did not even mention that they carried this deinterlacer, so saying that there is a premium charged for the name is not true.

 

[Don_Berg]

anthony, unless you have had a Faroujda-based player to compare with you don't know what you have now. I was satisfied with a JVC for years until I finally got an Faroudja-based XP30 - it blows them all away! You have to know what DVDs and scenes to compare. Check the flag-waving scene on the VideoEssentials DVD for example, only Faroudja's DCDi will get rid of the jaggies!

 

[anthony_b]

Don, I've done it all....the first thing I do when I get a DVD player is throw in my DVE disk...I can spot a mediocre DVD player a mile a way...(you've read my previous posts in which a JVC player didn't last two days in my house)...I agree that the Faroudja based players are better then the current crop of under $200 players...but take a look at the Home Theater mag review of the Onkyo dvsp301 in October 03 (I don't put much stock in mag reviews until I see them for myself) but if someone is looking for a player to hold them until the new 2004 players arrive, this is a close second (As is AMD Athlons )...I know that a lot of people are in same boat as I am, who do not want to break the bank until we see the current crop of players that are coming out.

 

[Don_Berg]

Untll the Secrets guys totally test a player I'm skeptical. Also I don't see any info on the chips used on the Onkyo models, I don't like unknowns. I'd have to recommend a known Faroudja-model since I know what to expect from those.

 

[anthony_b]

The post is not ment to recommend deinterlacing chips, but to find out what "other non-faroudja chips" can give you very decent performance/cost ratio such as the Athlon chips do in the PC world.

 

[Don_Berg]

I'd say the Faroujda is a great performance/cost ratio, since some of the Faroudja-based models like the Panasonic XP30 can be found at $200 or even less. You won't find anything with performance even close for less than that. And it is a bargain compared to the Silcon Image $500-$1000 players, they are the P4 equivalents I'd say. Silcon Image=P4, Faroudja=Athlon in your analogy.

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

I agree with Henry too.

 

[Don_Berg]

By the way all the others under $200 players use chips that are like Celerons.

 

[anthony_b]

Don...your last post cracked me up, that was funny.

 

[Dave Moritz]

While I was not aware that the Genesis chip was really that bad. The Sony DVP-S9000 ES received very good reviews on its audio and video performance. I am however impressed with the silicon image chip preformance in the Denon dvd players. The Denon's with the silicon image may be a little pricey. But how many dvd players have a buffer coupled with a great processor. That dont hickup durring layer changes? That is my main complaint about my Sony 9000ES is that it hickups during layer changes. You would think that for a dvd player costing $1500 that would not be an issue.

As far as Faroudja goes, IMHO is allways on the cutting edge. I honestly dont think one could dispute Faroudja performance domanance in the high end market. I was at CES this year in Vegas and Faroudja again put on a great demonstration. The image quality was nothing short of breathtaking. I realize that there are other companies out there offering competing models and technology. If I was to buy a scaler or processor today, I would pick a Faroudja. But as far as dvd players I would pick the player that I liked best based on averall performance. Faroudja may not be the be all end all, but I have always been impressed with there results. I feel it depends greatly on the quality a company puts into a product. Even if it has a Faroudja chip there are other factors to consider. For example the Kenwood Soverign series dvd player with the Faroudja IMHO did not truely take advantage of the chips performance. While others did a great job of mathing the player to the chip. For myself I will be most likely running a Faroudja video processor with the Runco DLP projector I buy in the near future. As far as my Sony ES peice goes it is going to be retired to SACD only and maybe used to watch dvd in a 2nd zone? I am currently looking for a Faroudja or Silicon Image dvd player to take its place.