[yikes]

Hello, any advice welcome please.

I want to buy my first dedicated BR player, having used the PS3 for playback duties for the last several months.

Although the PS3 has done a good job in introducing me to the delights of HD, the intrusive fan noise and lack of Analogue outputs to use via my Tag set up have persuaded me to buy a dedicated player. Therein starts the confusion.

My current set up is;

Pioneer Kuro 500A
Tag McLaren AV32R (Single Processor)
Tag McLaren 100:7R Amp
Tannoy Eyris 3 Speakers with matching centre and surrounds

Presumably, and please correct me if I’m wrong, I can use a BD player with multi-channel analogue outs and the player can pass the both Analogue but also HD soundtracks via it’s analogue outs into my Tag AV32R in 5.1 bypass mode?

My main criteria/concerns aside from the obvious ones of decent picture and sound quality are (I think!)

• Non-intrusive mechanism and fan noise
  
• Good SD DVD performance and a fast layer change for SD DVD as I have a reasonable size back catalogue that I want to keep
  
• On board HD sound format processing with Multi-channel Analogue output
  
• No issues with lip sync that are rendered irresolvable if I’m using the analogue bypass mode on the AV32R
  
• Decent CD playback performance

I was looking at the Pioneer range of BD players but although I could live with the sluggish load times that have been reported, I don’t think that I would be happy with the layer change times.

The budget is reasonably wide ranging, and I’ve been considering anything from the Panasonic DMP-BD80 which seems to be good value and a finished product, and maybe a good choice while BR player technology continues to evolve at the rapid pace it is at the moment, through to the Oppo BDP-83 which a lot of people on the forums are raving about.

I’ve noticed that CRT aren’t taking any orders on the latter Multi-region modded version until at least Friday though. Are there any issues with the OPPO in terms of it being a non-UK domestic product? Should I be patient and wait until CRT can take orders again?

Are there any other contenders, am I being too harsh on the Pioneers for the layer change issues, and have I understood the technology correctly in terms of HD Soundtracks via my analogue equipment?

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions.

Cheers
Richard

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by yikes

I’ve noticed that CRT aren’t taking any orders on the latter Multi-region modded version until at least Friday though. Are there any issues with the OPPO in terms of it being a non-UK domestic product? Should I be patient and wait until CRT can take orders again?

Are there any other contenders, am I being too harsh on the Pioneers for the layer change issues, and have I understood the technology correctly in terms of HD Soundtracks via my analogue equipment?

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions.

Cheers
Richard

Hi Richard.
The oppo has universal voltage,comes with UK plug and the normal 1 year warranty. (some info here)
Nothing wrong with Pioneer it's just there a bit slow loading and layer change can be up to 3 seconds.
Yes you need a player with HD decoding (TrueHD/DTS-MA) what can be sent over it's multi-analogues to your Tag.
All the best.