Heavy == good... why? (1 Viewer)

[Ian Montgomerie]

Sure such a player may wear out because of its plastic parts after 5-8 years, but you know what, if the only difference between two players were plastic vs metal you can bet on the fact that in 5 or even 8 years you could take the money you saved by buying the cheaper plastic model and go out and replace your now broken player with a better one

Oh it's worse than that. The big metal cases and thick construction don't increase player reliability at all. The component most likely to fail is the disc drive mechanism - and these expensive players all contain off the shelf drives.

 

[Ian Montgomerie]

And last but not least I concede - a thick brushed aluminum front panel to help your images look better through implementation of a strong plac-ego affect!

You forgot the feature that no elite DVD player should be without - several feet of lead shielding to keep stray gamma rays from flipping bits inside the digital circuitry.

 

[Phil Nichols]

Ian,
I'll look inside my 3800 to check out what you say. Should I "get the lead out" or leave it in if I find it? Isn't lead also good for cosmic ray shielding?
(I doubt there's lead in my player......I expect those Burr-Brown l738 ADAC IC's that sell for $4.95 in qtys >1K probably weight at least a pound each -> there's at least 6 pounds accounted for. )
........Besides, here in Calif. those feather-weight HT components wind up in the next county with any quake greater than about 5.8. We need heavy stuff to keep it in place.