[Bossk128]

As title really, I am sort of contemplating the Oppo for source direct, speed of operation, analogue outs, and a Profile upgrade from my current machine.

I just think that £550 is a bit steep, especially if the bass management on the Oppo isn't 'perfect' (fixed crossovers), when players like the Denon 3800 give you as much control as an AV receiver.

So, next best as a potential would be players which do source direct and a re-encode of HD formats to max bit rate DTS. I know there are a few Samsungs which do this, but I don't think any of those do source direct. Any other candidates? My budget is around £350.

Cheers.

[Avi]

Originally Posted by Bossk128

As title really, I am sort of contemplating the Oppo for source direct, speed of operation, analogue outs, and a Profile upgrade from my current machine.

I just think that £550 is a bit steep, especially if the bass management on the Oppo isn't 'perfect' (fixed crossovers), when players like the Denon 3800 give you as much control as an AV receiver.

So, next best as a potential would be players which do source direct and a re-encode of HD formats to max bit rate DTS. I know there are a few Samsungs which do this, but I don't think any of those do source direct. Any other candidates? My budget is around £350.

Cheers.

I'm not aware of a model at your budget level that has both source direct and DTS re-encode. The manufacturers that offer source direct in some of their current products are Oppo, Denon and Pioneer. AFAIK Oppo is the only one that also re-encodes to DTS.

The 3800 has some base management and it may be OK for what you need but if you need a different crossover for different channels that is supported by some AVR's then it doesn't provides this (other Denon models do). Having used one I also found it pretty slow opertionally and IIRC the UK model doesn't support SD interlaced over HDMI.

AVI