good dvd player... (1 Viewer)

i'm looking for a good dvd player around 100-200$ lemme know of any ideas you may have. thx for all the help
soon to be in hd land...
~ELSock~

ps. it will be hooked up to a sony 60" grand wega with HD, also a denon 2807 with 7.1, so progressive is a must and any other bells and or whistles would be nice... thx again for the help.

I would recommend an Oppo. Check it out online. I bought a 971, but now they have the 981. Great upconverter.

Pete

I second the Oppo. I don't have one, but thosefolks I know that do, rave about them. See them here:http://www.oppodigital.com/

I down loaded the manual for a 981 (all 55 pages of it!) and this looks like one heck-uv-a dvd player for $229. There's no component out as it's designed for HDMI, so it almost makes me want to go out and get an HDMI equipped avr and tv!

ok i've never heard of Oppo... how good are they, seriously? Also wheres the cheapest place online to get one? One other thing, are there any other brands worth picking up if i decided against the oppo?

I have the Oppo 970 and it is great. I think it was only $150. Very hard to beat at that price. Just a note, the 970 is supposed to be the best sounding of the 3. They are all a bit different from one another so look through the specs and pick the one that suits you the best. I went with the 970 because I wanted SACD, DVD-A, and component outs.

just got my Oppo 981 and installed over the weekend, an awesome dvdp, the upconversion is sweet. Im running it HDMI so thats awesome. The previous model is rated number 1 on DVDBenchMark so the oppo brand is an outstanding way to go and the prices cant be beat. Check out www.oppodigital.com to order.

Hi Matt

I have had several single disc DVD players and I would never buy another single disc DVD player...unless you are prepared to buy a Blu Ray HD DVD or HD DVD player...the differences among single disc DVD players are really not that significant...I am going to replace my single disc DVD player with a 400 disc Sony DVD megachanger...much more entertainment friendly.

Happy New Year

A 400 disc changer sounds like a good idea (if you have or will have that many) but the OPPO 981 does quite a bit more than the Sony. It up-converts to 1080p DCDi by Faroudja, plays HDCD, DVD-A as well as SACD and sends them both thru the HDMI, has a pre-set EQ and 3-D surround (these may be kind of gimmicky, but it has them), and plays all versions of DIVx. You need the proper display and avr to take advantage of some of it, but on paper, the 981 looks real good for $229.

i'm replacing my sony 400 disc megachanger... due to the fact that mine is forgetting dvd titles i program into it, and on top of that my father has 2 mass dvd changers both of which are dieing on him and they're not that old, neither is mine. so i'm gettin a single disc, less breakable parts.
thx for all the help.

soon to be in HD land...
~ELSock~

Thanks Matt

Those are some serious concerns...however, I have had some pretty serious concerns with my $55 Toshiba single disc DVD player and I am about to get rid of it...Consumer Reports gave the Sony 955 a very favorable review and said that the entertainment experience was signficantly improved...I just don't want to have 25 DVDs on the living room floor.

Thanks

I have the Oppo971. LOVE IT. Looks way better than my old Toshiba. It was around $200, but that includes the dvi-hdmi cable (which would be like $50-100 if bought separately for another player so don't forget to add that into the cost of even a cheapo player with HDMI - most don't come with the cable). Anyway, I think Oppo only sells them from their website - not through other channels, so you won't find many bargains elsewhere online. That said, I've seen people on here selling them used, which might work for you.

I've been really happy with mine, and continue to see little details in the image that I never noticed with my old player.I have it hooked to a Sony KDFE-42A10 (1080i). Not as high end as the grand wega, but still looks great nonetheless...

Hi guys

I have a Toshiba 65H84 1080i CRT RPTV that is HD capable...I use a Comcast Digital Cable box with HD service...and I have had 2 different single disc DVD players...when I upgraded to progressive scan, I could barely tell any difference between the DVD players...I continue to recommend the Sony 400 disc Megachanger...with all due respect to those who see differences in the picture quality using the Oppo...I would rather spend another $80 for the megachanger because the convenience of having a bunch of DVDs to switch to is far more useful than the minute differences in picture quality...all in my humble opinion of course...I get stunning picture quality both on cable and with DVDs.

I just ordered the Oppo 971 yesterday from Amazon for $199 + FREE shipping. Don't know if anywhere else beats that or not, at least I didn't find anywhere that did. Hopefully it'll be here by the weekend so I can report on my experience with it.

I contend that you will see almost no difference between any of the decent progressive or up converting DVD players as long as you are sending the signal using Component or DVI/HDMI (not S-Vid or composite). The set is going to scale the picture to it's native resolution anyways.

On these rankings, the things that are determining one placement vs the other are the most minute things that you almost never see, and if you do, it's for a brief second...if you can even tell.

I just don't see spending $229 on a progressive DVD player vs a $60 or $100 model. If you're going to shell out that much spring for the HD-DVD for another $150 or whatever so you can play the new discs.

That's just where I am at least.

I you get one of this oppo dvd players, do you need a receiver and tv with hdmi or as long as the tv has it will work.

As long as the tv has it, it should work.

ChrisClearman - that extra $150 might be more than someone is willing to spend! But I do agree with you, which is what I might have done had the toshiba's been out for a while and there was no format war to think about... I don't want to end up with the next "beta"

If you can't see the difference with the $200 upscaling verses a $50 dvd player, then buy the $50 and be happy with it. Personally, the Oppo looks a good step above my old toshiba player. Now, if I had time to buy a bunch of players to find the cheapest one that might be close to one that is consistently raved about (the oppo) then I might do that to save some money...

With your old Toshiba (this goes for anyone who upgraded their old player):

1. Did you connect through Component or DVI/HDMI?
2. Did you calibrate using Avia/DVE?
3. How much better do you think the more expensive DVD player is? 10% 50% 100%?

This is my lastest reply from the up-conversion thread.As far as a percentage, I wouldn't venture a guess. As a replacement for the Pioneer the Yamaha was worth every cent. The Denon and H/K were not accept for the H/K's hi-res bass mngt. All were hooked up via component to an HD rptv.