budget dvd mp3 player recomendations... (1 Viewer)

[KonradN]

need a budget player with excellent mp3 playback. So far I am looking at the toshiba 2800 and panasonic rv-32 or panasonic's changer cv51. I have the tosh 2800 right now and have 30 days to return it. The problem I see with this unit's mp3 playback is that the volume output is about 5db less compared to playing back regular cd or compared to the mp3 output of my computer. I am using a digital connection in all cases so I find the difference in output a bit odd. However the biggest problem I see is that mp3s don't sound as clean compared to mp3 playback of my computer. I should note again that both my computer and tosh player are connected digitally to my receiver. The difference is not huge but noticeable.

I am just wondering if there are any better dvd mp3 players?

 

[Yiannis]

I had good luck with the Hyundai 380. Excelent mp3 navigation both on lcd and screen (id3s on screen) and reading (vbr,multiseesion you name it) and sound (coax and optical).

 

[karthik]

Konrad,

How do you connect a digital out to receiver for mp3 playback. I thought the mp3 decoder converts it to analog signal which needs to be hooked up through the A/V line-outs? If SD2800 is doing digital reconversion, it means it downconverting the mp3 format directly to a digital format which is great.

Also, how is the Toshiba mp3 navigation? Can you jump directories, multiple files (+10) or select a specific track to play. It would be awful to have to keep incrementing the counter to reach the song you want. I also heard that Toshibas have a limitation on the disc density (74min vs. 80min CDs) for mp3 playback.

 

[Joe_H]

I highly doubt that its the DVD player's fault that the sound is so poor compared to your computer. Its probably that your regular system is way more revealing than the speakers with your computer. While the computer speakers won't show the faults in MP3 encoding, your other speakers will.

Edit: BTW, don't get a Panasonic player if you're interested in MP3s because their MP3 support sucks. There's no random play, and doesn't show file/folder names; it just will assign the track a number in alphabetical order.

Edit Again: Apparently it would help me out to read the entire post before I commented. I didn't see that your computer is also connected to your receiver. Sorry.

 

[KonradN]

karthik

my toshiba player is connected with an optical cable and my sound card with a coaxial cable. This however does not cause the in quality because when I burn the mp3 into a regular cd and play it through the toshiba it sounds clearer than when i let the toshiba do the mp3 conversion. I think what the tosh does is convert the mp3 data into a pcm bitstream that can either be passed to the receiver or to its own d/a converter for analog playback.

as for mp3 navigation on the toshiba. It displays 8 songs at a time and all songs are sorted alphabetically. Songs inside folders are read as if they are in the root directory with the song name appended to the folder name. So you can use folders to group songs together and general sorting. you can move back and forward by 1 or 10 at a time. Good thing is that moving from song to song is almost instantly.

 

[KonradN]

maybe i'll just screw the mp3 playback and go for a player with a high resolution format.