[Fuzzmo]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a DVd player (budget £100.00) that does really well over component connection. Am connecting it to a 36 inch Panasonic CRT so obviously HDMI is not an issue (for example if a DVD player is good but has issues with picture shift over HDMI). DivX/Xvid playback is a must also.

Need to buy one very soon as quite frankly my current DVD players aren't even worth giving away.

Many thanks in advance!

Fuzzmo.

[Liam @ Prog AV]

You'll probably do better to buy something 2nd hand. The problem with current players (and displays) is that all this pressure to get HDMI into everything and the kitchen sink has meant component/RGB/S-vid has suffered severely. Cheaper and cheaper analogue staging is used to cover the cost of the HDMI license.

[Aitch_Kay]

So is it best to use HDMI connections wherever possible ??

[Liam @ Prog AV]

Not necessarilly. With Panasonic commercial plasmas for example the best results (from high end video scalers etc) are using analogue RGBHV. But often the best signal to use from a DVD player into the video scaler is HDMI. It's getting more to the point where HDMI interfaces are actually being done properley (using correct video and not PC levels, working with audio etc) but the last two years or so has been real interesting. Pioneer are a good example, the 757 (component) delivered a far better component picture than the 868 which succeeded it!!! But on the Pioneer plasmas, the component inputs were lacking but the HDMI inputs are wonderful. In other words, there isn't yet a hard and fast rule. It SHOULD be HDMI all the way, but sometimes it just isn't.