New DVD/CD player (1 Viewer)

[Lars Larsen]

Hi,

I'm close to buying a new Yamaha receiver, RX-V765 and in addition to that I need a new DVD/CD-player. I haven't kept up with the development in the DVD department for several years. I'm at a loss as to what the important factors are when shopping for a DVD-player these days. I will only use digital output connections, so I suppose there is no reason for shelling out huge cash for a unit with top-notch DACs?! As far as I can see, any supermarket player is just as good at passing untouched digital output as very expensive players?!

Some of the factors that I am going to consider are:
- Playback formats (Divx, MP3, etc.)
- Upscaling capability (but why, really? If my display does upscaling, why do I need it in the player?)
- Progressive scan (even the cheapest players seem to have this today)
- HDMI output (requirement)
- Physical build quality (quiet drive, readable display, remote etc.)

Thanks!

 

[Stephen Tu]

You may not need a new DVD player unless your old one is broken. If you are getting a new player you should get Blu-ray IMO, if you have >= 1280x720p HD display.

For DVD playback, the main differentiators for basic playback are deinterlacing of poorly encoded discs & scaling quality. You are correct that if your display does this well the scaling doesn't really matter. Otherwise differences are mainly in the details, UI, loading speed, layer change speed, special trick playback modes (zoom, fast scan, slo-mo), ability to correctly handle 4:3 & 4:3 letterbox content without requiring a lot of resolution/aspect mode changing.

 

[Lars Larsen]

My old dvd-player doesn't even have a display, and I don't want to turn on the TV just to see track numbers when I play cds. Also, the tray is coming apart, so it definitly needs to be replaced.
I don't want to use a bluray player for cds, because I don't want a unit that takes several seconds to boot. I don't know the load times for some of the newer bluray players but it used to be around 10 secs. for CD's as far as I recall. Has it improved much?

 

[Stephen Tu]

Newer units boot/load a lot faster than the 1st/2nd generation units. You'll have to bring CD to store yourself to see if fast enough for you.

Ever consider PC/NAS/network player based solution for music? I enjoy not having to change discs, I have not used my CD jukebox player for many years.

 

[Lars Larsen]

Well, I do have an HTPC and a Synology NAS, but I guess I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to music I'm not too keen on navigating menus, browsing folders and so on. I prefer to just pull a cd off the shelf and stick it in the player.
Maybe I should get a demo of a newer generation bluray. It certainly would be preferable to have just one player.