Single disc DVD player with HDMI... (1 Viewer)

[JohnKE]

Looking for a single disc DVD with HDMI and ability to play DVD-A and SACD. Only one I have found for a reasonable price so far is the Toshiba SD-5970...

Any recommendations...

 

[MichaelM]

Hi John. I've had a couple different ones, including the Toshiba you mentioned. I have that one now but plan on returning it to Best Buy over the weekend. Not that it's a horrible player or anything. But here are the pros and cons as I see them:

Pro's: nice, clean picture, easy set-up
Cons: using an HDMI cable with my Sony 30" HDTV I don't really see any difference from my Pioneer DVD player with just the S-Video cable, not even progressive scan. Also, the sound can be a bit buggy, at least on my unit. In 2.0 surround, going through a Dolby Pro Logic II receiver, the sound would often go out on the center channel. The remote flat out sucks. The buttons are laid out horribly and no consideration for the ones you will use most often. Plus, you have to aim it exactly at the unit.

The main reason I'm returning it is because I really don't see much of a differene, if any, than my Pioneer that I've had for years. So for now, I'm just going to keep the Pioneer until something better comes out.

The other one I tried was the LG that Circuit City sells. Most of the reviews on the Circuit City web site were positive. But I tried two different units and both of them couldn't display the image properly when using the HDMI out. It was scrambled and monochrome. I thought it was the cable until I tried the Toshiba and it works fine.

Anyway, a lot of the reviews about HD upconvert DVD players all seem to agree that it really only makes a noticeable difference with a fixed pixel display. So if you have a CRT, like I do, you don't really see the effect. You may want to get the Toshiba just to see if you notice a difference. IF you do, great. IF not, take it back.

Keep us posted. I'd be curious to know what you think.

OK, i just reread your post. I don't think the Toshiba plays SACD's. I could be wrong, but I don't recall that being a feature. And i'm almost positive the LG doesn't.

 

[Jerome Grate]

I think some DVDs will not upscale via HDMI thanks to HDCP, High Definition Copy Protection. That's why there's a rave about the players that upscale via component. You can get a late model Zenith 318 and find the firmware on the internet, burn it on to CD and install the firmware on the player to allow you upscale via component. I can only hope the new Sony players will allow upscaling via HDMI for that beautiful picture and SACD/DVD-Audio. Well Summer 2005 is not far off.

 

[Shane Martin]

Good advice. I didn't see a difference in upscaling. Tried Component and dvi/hdmi both. So far I'm not a big fan of the budget DVI/HDMI upscaling players. They all had too many bugs for me to live with.

 

[JeremySt]

Im not sure what you think is a reasonable price, but I would highly reccomend a Denon 2910 or 3910. If picture quality is of importance to you, these two should have the edge over any other player.

 

[JohnKE]

Has anyone tried the new Samsung DVD players that upconvert to HD?

The HD941 seems to have an awful lot of features for the money..$250.00 on E-tronics....

 

[Jerome Grate]

On AVSFORUM, there's a complete thread on how the Samsung perform, unfortunately it suffers from macroblocking seriously, well according to AVS.