good no-frills dvd player: suggestions? (1 Viewer)

[Antoine Peltier]

Hi all,

My brother needs a new dvd player, no frills though, no dvd-audio, no pro-scan. Just great interlaced image and perhaps an integrated dts and dolby digital decoder since he has no AV receiver. Not entry level, perhaps medium quality.

Any suggestion?

 

[Denward]

Hi Antoine,
Not sure why he would want to pay for a decoder in the DVD player if he doesn't have an AV receiver to play it through. Unless he has a "Dolby Digital Ready" receiver with 5.1 inputs that will accept 5.1 output, but I think those are pretty rare since they were only sold for a short transition period.
I think he'd be better off buying a DVD player without a decoder and apply the savings to a decent receiver down the road. In which case I would recommend the Panasonic RV31 or the Pioneer DV-440. Here's a thread where someone else just went through a similar decision:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=36128

 

[Dave Reichert]

I'd recommend the Pioneer or the Panny myself too. You should be able to snag the Pioneer for $160 right now at Sears.

 

[RyanT]

Definitely don't get the RV31. I got one three days ago and it already doesn't work sometimes--it seems to have a hard time reading a lot of my DVDs, even ones that are brand new and flawless. You can read people's comments on amazon.com about this... Anyway, mine won't read the Simpsons DVD disc now, although it did a few days ago... Disc is clean... I'm thinking of returning it and getting the pioneer, although I really liked the black level adjustability of the Panny.

Ryan

 

[KeithH]

Antoine, it would help if you could give us a budget. When you start talking about interlaced players without SACD or DVD-Audio these days, you are often talking about entry-level players. Note the suggestions of the Panasonic DVD-RV31 and Pioneer DV-440. They are nice players, but they are entry-level at $160-180.* I'd choose the Pioneer over the Panasonic, by the way.

* I do not consider $100 players by APEX, Mintek, Oritron, Raite, etc. as entry-level. In my opinion, they shouldn't ever enter into consideration. In my opinion, entry-level starts with budget models by Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, and the like.

 

[JackS]

Unfortunatly, theres a risk when purchasing any low priced player and even some not so low priced. The only way I know of, is to purchase a player that already has a history-ie,a player with some sort of track record. If you do this, you have to avoid the newest models. I would trust that the Panasonic RV-31 would be a good choice based on the numbers of satisfied users and the fact that this model has been around for quite some time now. The RP-56 seems to be gaining on its reliability for low priced progressives, although no one will know for sure until several months down the road. The way I see it, if your lucky enough to get a budget player, that serves its purpose for more than a couple of years, then you've gotten your moneys worth.