Best HDMI DVD player value?

[Hoptimus]

Okay I have done some research and it comes down to these 3 DVD players with HDMI Upscan 720p 1080i.

I have a 30" CRT that does 720p and 1080i

I was hoping someone else here has been through the same headache

First is the Panasonic S52(S or K) Its only $99.00 and gets good reviews

Then there is the Sony DVP-NS75H that is $129.00 that is of the same quality but some say is better.

Then one other one I looked at is the Oppo DV-970HD.

The Oppo seems like the best deal(since it comes with the HDMI Cable) but no where locally sells it.

Any advise? Thanks!

[Gaijin]

The Oppo gets decent reviews and is a good one for the price, though personally I never saw one in person. I have the Panny S99 upconverting and I love it. The Sony, as you mentioned gets good reviews as well, though I really couldn't say it was better thanthe Panny, though some prefer Sony overall.

Don't fret over the HDMI cable. Mine came with one and even if it didn't, I have a supply from monoprice.com. Their HDMI cables are very high quality and priced in the beer budget range too. Don't spend over $15 for a digital cable...it won't make zero difference.

[Prisoner]

I've got a Toshiba from Costco and costed less than 70. Far as I can tell, it plays DIVX and has all the outputs, S vid, HDMI, RCA, and it works great and comes with cable. Don't spend a crapload on HDMI, in the end, all your doing is upscaling a 720 reso anyhow.

[Ladic]

is the difference in quality between those dvd players and regular players with component cables like very noticeable?

[Gaijin]

is the difference in quality between those dvd players and regular players with component cables like very noticeable?

It is to a degree...it doesn't "add" detail and it won't magically turn into a HD disc, but if the scaling chip inside (Faroudja =awesome) is good, it will make a good looking DVD a littel better. Keep in mind, that the results aren't eye popping or such, as it's still just a DVD but try a good upscaling player at 720p or 1080i for a few weeks, and then go back to 480p or 480i, and you'll notice the image being much much softer.

If there is one bad thing about it, it is that on certain displays ( plasmas being a prime offender, upscaling with a Faroudja chip will introduce some macroblocking in certain scenes of certain DVD's. A famous disc is Star Wars AOTC, with the scene in Palpatine's office with Yoda nad Sam Jackson...at one part, the walls look alive!!

Keep in mind, that it is display dependant though...some don't have the problem at all, and on my LCD proj, I don't see the fuss.

[JB0]

I've got a Toshiba from Costco and costed less than 70. Far as I can tell, it plays DIVX and has all the outputs, S vid, HDMI, RCA, and it works great and comes with cable. Don't spend a crapload on HDMI, in the end, all your doing is upscaling a 720 reso anyhow.

If you only list one number, it should be 480 for DVD.

Single-number resolution is understood to be a count of the horizontal lines, and DVD only has 480 lines of resolution.

DVD = 720*480. Which yields a total of 345,600 pixels.

720p = 1280*720. Which results in 921,600 pixels.

is the difference in quality between those dvd players and regular players with component cables like very noticeable?

Short answer = depends on the TV.

Long answer = what Gaijin said, plus a technical note explaining why it's display dependent(because fixed-resolution displays already HAVE resampling hardware inside, so it comes down to whether the DVD player or TV has better resampling).

[jwinges]

I'd avoid the cheap toshiba from best buy. I had 2 of them and they just kept skipping on brand new DVD's. Toshiba upgraded me to the SD-6980 and it works much better. Even plays quite a few Avi and Divx files. Not as many as my Philips DVP642 but still quite a lot.

BTW has anybody found an upconverting player that will play MKV and OGM files?

[Gaijin]

No TV is better than a proper upscaling chip...most TV's when showing something at the native res, just do that...a scaler will do much more than just "change" the res.

[JB0]

No TV is better than a proper upscaling chip...

Unless it's a TV with a good upsampler.

most TV's when showing something at the native res, just do that...

Yeah... not a lot you can do with a native res source.

The issue is NON-native sources.

a scaler will do much more than just "change" the res.

Yep. It will generate artifacts too.

Some resampling routines will generate less offensive artifacts.

Some even employ pattern recognition to fake a higher resolution instead of just hiding artifacts.

But it's nothing that can't be put in on either side, and even at it's best it's just making crap up.

Native res > *

[Gaijin]

Unless it's a TV with a good upsampler.

Name one TV that "upsamples" better than a good scaling Faroudja chip. I have never come across one and that includes sampling dozens of models in person.

ANd I think you mis-understood when I said a TV showing at a native res...since all fixed panels will show any source at the TV's native res, it doesn't truly upsample except to display it at whatvever res the TV is at.

No TV on the market upscales as well as a good scaler.

EDIT: Unless you mean that a poor scaler will make a non native source worse than the original , in which case, the "upsampling" by the TV would be "better" than messing with it at all.

Edited October 6, 2006 by Gaijin

[JB0]

Name one TV that "upsamples" better than a good scaling Faroudja chip. I have never come across one and that includes sampling dozens of models in person.

I don't even know what hardware uses what chip.

I never assumed that the DVD player wound up in the best-case scenario, though.

ANd I think you mis-understood when I said a TV showing at a native res...since all fixed panels will show any source at the TV's native res, it doesn't truly upsample except to display it at whatvever res the TV is at.

So you were saying they all use the cheapest resampling options for non-native sources?

I KNOW they don't use a basic resize routine. The ones I've seen aren't anywhere near THAT ugly. So there's SOME effort going on beyond the minimum required.

No TV on the market upscales as well as a good scaler.

There is nothing preventing a TV from having a good scaler in it.

I admit I ASSUME that more than one brand of resampler is used on both the TV and DVD player sides, but it seems a fair assumption.

EDIT: Unless you mean that a poor scaler will make a non native source worse than the original , in which case, the "upsampling" by the TV would be "better" than messing with it at all.

You'll NEVER get the original with a fixed-res display and a non-native source. It's physically impossible.

...

Well, unless you're working with an exact multiple of the source resolution(you can get an exact duplicate of 640*480 at 1280*960, for example)

What I meant was that if the DVD player's resampler was worse than the TV's, you were better off not using the DVD resampler.

Also worth noting that in my opinion, ALL resampled versions are inferior to the original source, regardless of resampler quality.

I don't trust ANY computer to properly "make up" missing data.

Edited October 6, 2006 by JB0

[Gaijin]

Your ASSUMPTIONS are correct. I used to think so too just as you. But in reality, they do not hold true.

Edited October 6, 2006 by Gaijin

[Hoptimus]

Got one today.

Onkyo DV-sp404

5.1 Dolby and DTS,720p,1080i HDMI upscan and Divx. $134.99. Plus an HDMI cable from Sams club 23.00

Compared the new Ace Ventura(since I just watched it the other day on my old Panasonic Prog player)

Holy crap 720p upscan is nice! Much cleaner and vibrant! DiVX also works without a hitch. Now I can finish catching up on Naruto without having to watch it on my laptop.

[Gaijin]

Good to hear it.