Final decisions made on Home Theater Components- Please comment (1 Viewer)

[cctyu]

After two months of research, debates and testing. I have finally decided on the following components for my upgraded home theater:

Sharp 52" 1080p Aquos LCD TV
Marantz SR5001 A/V HDMI 7.1 Receiver
Denon 1930CI Universal Player with 1080p HDMI up-conversion

Comments anyone?! Are they compatible with each other? I still have one week to change my mind!

My major selection criteria were a Can$6-7000 budget, a 50"+ 1080p HDTV with great picture quality that is less than 130cm wide, a universal player with HDMI up-conversion that accepts SA-CD and a 7.1 receiver that delivers great sound and has HDMI capability.

Many Thanks!

 

[Alon Goldberg]

There is an upcoming Oppo 981 (expected this month) that will feature 1080p Upconversion and SACD. Based on previous Oppo models, this model is expected to be class leading, and less expensive than the Denon DVD-1930CI.

But for roughly the price of the Denon DVD-1930CI, I would instead recommend an HD DVD Player. The Toshiba HD-A1 is available on Amazon for $350. The only drawback is that this model does not accept SACD.

Why watch 480p DVD's upconverted to 1080p when you can watch original 1080p source on HD DVD?

 

[JeremyErwin]

For all of the praised heaped on the Toshiba HD-A1, its upscaling/deinterlacing performance is not all that good. (The samsung bluray player fairs even worse.)

As for the receiver

it upconverts to component, not hdmi
the hdmi is not neccesarily compatible with 1080p
the hdmi audio may (or may not) be rather limited (and probably does not support dsd)

A few players, such as the oppo 970 can convert dsd to multichannel pcm.

DVDs, btw, are 480i, not 480p. If they were progressive, there wouldn't be a need for laborious benchmarking and bug testing....

still, even the best upsampler can't match an hd-dvd for image quality.

 

[cctyu]

Hello Alon and Jeremy,
Many thanks for your most useful input. First time I've heard of the "Oppo" brand. Looks great on paper. And the price!! Even the current DV-970HD at US$ 149 looks unbeatable. However, I think I'm going to wait for the 980.
As for the receiver, thanks again for the heads up. I chose the Marantz solely on its 'sound quality'. May be I should opt for the Denon AVR2307CI 1080p receiver instead?
Guess you gentlemen is OK with my choice of the Sharp Aquos 52"?! I would love to get the Sony XBR3 53" LCD, but the price!!!!
Cheers,
Charles

 

[Alon Goldberg]

The new Sharp D62 series is excellent, just ensure that the set you purchase doesn't suffer from banding (see avsforum for discussion - Sharp is aware of the issue on the first batch of sets that were shipped, should now be resolved). I own a Sharp D90 Series.

As for HDMI capable receivers, you may want to consider the Denon AVR-2307CI or Yamaha RX-V1600.