What DVD player ?

[Powermap]

Guys

The short of it....i need a new DVD player as my Sony 735 is 4 years old and dose not provide the picture quality i need for my Infocus 5700 PJ or my 32" HD panel.

The question is....do i go out and buy a Denon 2910 or a Pioneer 989 ?
Am i wasting my money if the HD DVD and Blu ray players are going to be released soon ?

Or do i buy a 2nd hand player with upscaling and progressive scan and HDMI output to tie me over till these new models are released.

I know it is my choice at the end of the day but i would value other comments on this.

Cheers

my system
Infocus 5700 PJ
7" Owl Screen
Denon 3905
Sony 735 DVD
Kef Speakers
Rel Stampede Sub
32" Samsung HD panel

[Timbo21]

When I bought my first pj 6 months ago I had this dilemma. It's a hard one to answer, whether to wait for HD or splash out on an expensive DVD player now? Say, for instance, you will be able to buy HD-DVD players in August or September (the Toshiba HD-A1 should be between £300 - £400, depending, since, IIRC, they are being released at $500 in the U.S). Would you buy that then, or will you wait for the 'war' with Blu-ray to play out, or perhaps want to wait for next generation HD-DVD players, in case of initial shortcomings? If it's the latter two points, then there may be some time to wait.

The other thing to consider is will you be throwing out your SD DVD collection & starting again with HD-DVD/Blu-ray when it comes along? Or, will you be wanting to play a large amount SD-DVD well after HD has arrived. Answering these questions may help you decide.

Surely, if you are looking at the 989, then the comparison would be with the Denon 3910. If you had a Pioneer amp with i.link for audio I might say look at the Pioneer. However, if you get a 3910, then you can use the Denon-link connection with your 3805, which would give you a substantial increase in movie sound quality. The 2910 doesn't have Denon-Link. So, perhaps audio is something to look at, if that's important to you.

The 989 I've heard hasn't got great deinterlacing, & the 2910 & 3910's is quite good apart from the dreaded mackroblocking, which on some displays looks really bad. On my 3910 with 720p/1080i over HDMI/DVI it's not that bad, but if I go via component progressive it's abysmal, like really, really bad.
You may find that outputting interlaced component to the 5700 (with either of them) may be the best, since the 5700 has very good deinterlacing. I used this with my previous 7205 pj with very good results.

Another possible player to check is the Marantz 7600. Or, a cheaper compromise could be the Oppo OPDV971H.

T.

ps. If you can get a good 2nd hand player you feel is in good condition, then why not?