a new dvd player with 1000 pounds to spend

kid rock

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My house suffered a major electrical surge recently and the piece of equipment that has died is my 4 year old Pioneer 737 as this was not protected by a suitable surge protector. I am gutted as this is beyond economic repair and I am forced to make an upgrade to a machine I really think is/was great with both my plasma and my pj an NEC Ht1000.

I want to upgrade to a machine that is multi region and able to make the most of the DVI input on the NEC HT1000 and I want to spend circa 1000 pounds. While I am at it DVD audio would be worthwhile as I am interested in the format and looking at a machine that will last me 5 years. My Arcam avr200 is soon to be replaced by either the new Arcam avr300 or the Nad t773 as I want 7.1 and great stereo. Therefore I want a machine that will shine with these 2 av amps. So 1000 pounds, lasts 5 years, dvd audio and dvi, where does that take me ?

Your views are very welcome as I am now using the dvd drive off a Toshiba Satellite 2430 201 laptop via s video and its making me cry.

Thanks

Kid Rock


Nec ht1000, Nec plasmasync,silicon images i scan pro, Arcam avr 200,pioneer 737(DEAD!!!!),Mission cinema 773e 77ds 77c1,Mission m5ds on order, rotel rcd 991,B and W asw 675, Oehlbach, Chord and Nordost cables
 
About the only player I can think of that fits, ie. has digital video output, is the Pioneer 868 at present.

Of course, no current machine will play back HD-DVD as it's being defined at present and as far as I know the final 'standard' won't be laid down for some time, so your hope for a 5-year life could be a little optimistic. ;)
 
Kragorn thanks for the reply- the 868 has hdmi and not dvi I think- therefore how could I connect this to the NEC pj dvi input?

I do like the idea of another Pioneer as the 737 was soooo good.

ATB

Kid Rock
 
you can just buy a HDMI to DVI cable, or a HDMI/DVI adapter

The 737 was good in its day but now seems quite poor. the 868i will give u a nice improvement over that
 
Originally posted by kid rock
Kragorn thanks for the reply- the 868 has hdmi and not dvi I think- therefore how could I connect this to the NEC pj dvi input?
As Gandley says, the 868 will feed most DVI projectors and I've seen reports that it does so with the NEC .. my 868 is driving a Sharp Z200E which is also 'only' DVI.

If you're at all concerned, get the retailer to confirm it will work.
 
why not just try and pick up a 2nd hand 747?

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Coz it dosent have DVI or HDMI, and suffers from cue and isnt as good as the 868i.
 
I previously had a Toshiba SD900 which consistently blew more expensive players out of the water.
I ended up buying the superb universal player, Marantz DV8400.
Picture and sound about 20% better than the Tosh.
Has the DVI-D output you need and looks pretty good too.
RRP £1,400 but i saw it on 'unbeatable.co.uk' for £1,000.
Never got into the Pioneer players much, they seem to bring a new model out every other month.
 
8400 is a pioneer player at heart, its a clone of the 757 with bells and whistles, so is still effected with chroma bug
 
Been to the local dealer today who has allowed me to borrow a few machines following a hefty deposit !!!!

Marantz 8400, Pioneer 868 and a Samsung ( albeit with dvi). So far i have tested the Samsung and its dreadful -poor sound, poorly built ,digital noise and without a class feel, why anyone buys this for this money is beyond me. The Marantz and the Pioneer I will look at tomorrow as they need to go back on Weds but my initial impressions are good. The Marantz in particular feels like a special machine - we will see approx 950 pounds or 1450 euros at my dealer here in Germany.

Thanks to you all who bothered to reply.

By the way does anyone know if Denon have a forthcoming- Dvi enabled machine I seem to recall reading about this somewhere.

Kid Rock
 
I saw an iscan pro in the setup..... having a dvi player totally bypasses this.... hence my suggesting of another pioneer

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I have only got a Sky digibox and a Humax f1 Fox fta receiver connected to the I scan which is in turn connected to my plasma.The I scan is not used for the DVD and the pj at all .My pj has a Faroudja deinterlacer and the I scan is not as good IMHO.

Cheers

Kid Rock
 
I must say that i have never noticed this chroma distortion from any of my players.
Up until now i have always had Toshiba players running through component out which might explain why.
Seeing as the Marantz is even sharper than the SD900 i thought i would have noticed this straight away, but there is nothing.
 
the SD 900 is one of the worst i know to display chroma bug, even my 9500e has it, you sure you know what your lookin for

depends if your running it through somthing that might have a chroma filter, such as any faroudja chipset or the iscan ultra
 
i have finally reviewed both the Marantz 8400 and the Pioneer 868. My god what a tough choice but I have opted for the Pioneer. There is no doubt that the Marantz is the machine of choice for audiophiles as the sound of DVD audio is fantastic and certainly movie soundtracks sounded utterly superb. but the picture was not what I had hoped for -sure its good and far sharper than my old Pioneer 737 -but i didn´t feel it was that much of a leap forward.


The 868 on the other hand has a fantastic picture- I mean the NEC ht1000 and it produce simply the most cinematic images I have seen except for the High End stuff (TAG, meridian and Barco) I have only looked at, at my local home cinema showrooms. Through the hdmi dvi cable the dealer lent me the picture was almost three dimensional , deep blacks, fantastic resolution, sharp. One great test disc scene, for me at least, is HEAT and within this Al Pacinos late night helicopter ride over L.A. This was so sharp on the Pioneer!!!! The cable is a 500 euro audioquest job though, but probably worth it. On the Audio side its not as smooth as the Marantz and to my ears sounded a bit brighter with DVD audio. However given the relative lack of resonable DVD audio discs at the moment this is not an issue for me as I will be an ocassional DVD audio listener.



I have now ordered an 868 and the Audioquest cable , over budget as usual, but what the hell. Pity I can only get silver as the rest of my av stuff is black.


ATB

Kid Rock
 
i take it that was an audioquest HDMI cable. i would of recommend u tried with the basic cable first as if it was HDMI then i doubt you would see any difference. Thats one of the highlights of HDMI. but if it wasnt i`ll shut up
 
Probably shouldn't say this now you have ordered, but for that money you could get a sdi dvd player (rp-82 panasonic chroma free) and a scaler with sdi input.
 
Yes I did try it with component (My trusty 5 meter Oehlbach component cable) on both my pj and plasma and the HDMI connection for my money was much better- I do intend to connect the player to both the plasma and the pj- component to the plasma and the hdmi out to my pj. I will just alter the menus on the Pioneer as appropriate before i watch a film.

ATB
Kid Rock
 
Originally posted by gizlaroc
Probably shouldn't say this now you have ordered, but for that money you could get a sdi dvd player (rp-82 panasonic chroma free) and a scaler with sdi input.

What performance differences would I have noticed compared to the 868?

Kid Rock
 

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