hs20 - where to buy?

[juniper]

Dear all,

I'm looking to upgrade from my AE100 after some very happy hours, and (am 99.99% certain) that I wish to buy an HS20. I'd be extremely grateful if anyone can give me some helpful advice re retailers who I should be looking to give my hard earned money to?

The deciding factors for me (apart from best retail price) will be after-sales service, esp. if anything ultimately goes wrong - I had a bad experience on a DVD player recently, and it is a case of "once bitten twice shy" for me. I also admit to being not the most technically astute of people, so a "friendly voice" to ask troubleshooting sort of questions to seems like a great thing to have.

Also - anyone know if any retaliers do part-ex on projectors? Or should I sell my AE100 on the forums here, or on ebay?

Lastly (lots of questions, sorry) - if anyone could give some advice on what they consider the best connectivity options would be to the HS20 then I'd be hugely grateful. I have a Denon 2900 currently and use component, and would propose to do the same unless someone can advise me of a better option?

Thanks in advance for your help - I appreciate the opinions of people here enormously.

[pack man]

I to am thinking of upgrading from an AE100 to a VPLHS20.
I have 2000 hours on my AE100 and still enjoy using it so im in two minds about upgrading, i was thinking of holding of for another six months or so to see what comes along. But then again the VPLHS20 would be nice to own.

These are three retailers i have picked up from other people on this forum.

http://www.hispek.com/item_details.asp?item_id=VPLHS20

http://www.robertwhyteltd.co.uk/ cheap im sure others in here have used him.

http://www.discounelectricaldb.co.uk...c0ae67eb4ffd00

Used price of a AE100 is so low i would just hold onto it as maybe a backup.

I have been running my AE100 from a HTPC and i guess that would be how you would get the best from the VPLHS20.

[Noger]

Got mine from Pricejapan, which will save you a few hundred pounds and their service is excellent, but then you do have the "return to base" worries.

As far as connections go, pack man is right. Either HTPC or DVI is the way to go.

But the 2900 is a damn fine DVD, and it seems silly to thow it away, when the DVI alternatives - compared to the Denon, will seem rather clunky.

I am running a £149 Samsung, the DVI picture is brilliant (in fact too good on some disks). But it really shows it's cheapness in the useability. The remote is a pig.

I am certain that when the "big boys" catch up the new generation of Denon / Pio DVD players with DVI / HDMI will be stunning. Personally I wouldn't downshift to a DVI player just yet with the equipment you have, wait and see what happens in the coming months (it's always the way - jam tommorro !).

Depends on your budget of course. There are a few cheap DVI DVD's 2nd hand, and you could always get one in the interim, and maybe use the superior component output of the Denon for those disks that DVI doesn't like.

Hmmm. Had a quick nose around on HD DVD players. Looks like Pioneer have one just about to come out in the US, around $1400 and Denon have one @ $2000.

Sure they will be brilliant, but oh boy, that is lot of money

I bought my HS20 at HiSpek in St Albans about a month ago. Service in the shop was a bit slow, but price was v. good. I was concerned about where I was going to site it in my room, and thought I might be pushing the 'side shot' beyond its capabilities. I spoke to the guys in the shop and got a written assurance that they'd give me a full refund if I couldn't get the geometery right!

I've got my DV88 and Sky+ feed into a Lumagen Vision scaler and then component into the HS20. (I needed a VGA (15 pin d-sub) to thee phono component cable because the only output connector on the Lumagen is d-sub.

[Anim]

If System Sound in Sudbury are still about I would use them again without a doubt. I had one of the first AE100 models (nasty faulty batch) which broke after a day, the second unit broke after a week and the third unit ive still got. They gave me a replacement projector Sony HS1 while i was waiting for a repair and would highly recommend them again for fanstastic after sales support.

Anim