DV88 worth upgrading?

teknosys

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I am getting a 46 inch HD TV soon.....I have had a DV88 for years and never got around to upgrading to progressive scan, Is this player old hat or still worth upgrading?

If yes, how much does it roughly cost, and does anyone know where I can get it done? as I called the dealer in London where I bought it and it was like talking to a brick wall......

Or can some one recommend a better alternative player?
 
The pic quality on the DV88 can easily be bettered by a number of Arcam's newer players such as the DV79 etc, especially since you lack progressive scan, but the CD playback quality of the DV88 is quite good and so you would have to step up quite a bit up the line to better it.

If you are looking outside of Arcam, players from Oppo etc. make excellent choices for dvd playback (lousy for CD in my opinion) and would cost you next to nothing in comparison to trying to update your old Arcam.
 
Thanks Mark!

Yep I am a bit out of touch lol

Is there a blueray player that plays normal DVD's that is well rated?

then I can keep the DV88 for a CD player.....

never heard of Oppo.......is this progressive scan?
 
Thanks Mark!

Yep I am a bit out of touch lol

Is there a blueray player that plays normal DVD's that is well rated?

then I can keep the DV88 for a CD player.....

never heard of Oppo.......is this progressive scan?

actually forget about blue ray.....Best upscaling DVD player is all I need at the moment
 
Actually, it all depends on what "46 inch HD TV" you have purchased. If it's a decent one, it will deinterlace and scale as well as the DV88 upgrade, and quite likely scale as well and deinterlace almost as well as fairly expensive players. And if it doesn't you'd anyway be better off buying a better quality TV, as you also have to deinterlace and scale normal TV broadcasts.
 
Actually, it all depends on what "46 inch HD TV" you have purchased. If it's a decent one, it will deinterlace and scale as well as the DV88 upgrade, and quite likely scale as well and deinterlace almost as well as fairly expensive players. And if it doesn't you'd anyway be better off buying a better quality TV, as you also have to deinterlace and scale normal TV broadcasts.

Thanks Mark!

I think it will be the pioneer 46inch Z81 because i want that size screen and its well reviewed? I would go for the probably superior pioneer but dont really want a 50inch.

My sister has recommended like you, that I keep the arcam for CD and get a toshiba XDE500. what do you think? If the OPPO better which model is best??
 
To be fair, I reckon you'd be better off saving the cash and sticking to what you have. If you really do have money burning a hole in your pocket, a dedicated CD player would probably yield the most. Or perhaps amplification (you didn't say what you had).

I know your problem with the Pioneer. I wish they had a 42" Full HD Kuro Plasma, since 42" is our size limit. To my eyes, the Pioneer's picture is better than the Panasonic's - of course it also costs more.
 
I bought the pioneer 428xd for that exact same reason, the 50 was just a bit too big and sadly there is not a 1080p version. Its still pretty hard to beat on sheer quality.

I was thinking about this and the idea of replacing my DV78, could not decide if I prefered the image quality from the PS3 or the DV78 through component. Think Im going to wait to see what the latest blu-ray offerings are, until then the DV78 will do the music duties :)
 
do blue ray players play DVD's as well? and upscale them?

what is the upscaling like on the pana Z81 like...does it have it??

I have the Arcam AVR 200 which I purchased same time as the DV88. and I have good surround, with B&W centre and rear and classic US Gales up front which are still great IMO:)

Mark, when you say stick with what I've got......you mean the DV88?

I can get the toshiba XDE500 player for £100....which Oppo is recommended as they have quite a range
 
do blue ray players play DVD's as well? and upscale them?
Yes, and yes.
what is the upscaling like on the pana Z81 like...does it have it??
Yes to the second question (all HD TVs have it by definition). I'm not convinced by the quality of the Panasonic's scaling and find the Pioneer to be better, but that's my opinion. I always seem to end up buying Panasonic (e.g. I still have a Panasonic VCR and a DVD/HD recorder), then regretting it.
Mark, when you say stick with what I've got......you mean the DV88?
Yes.
I can get the toshiba XDE500 player for £100....which Oppo is recommended as they have quite a range
Do you really expect to better your DV88 with a £100 player?
 
Thanks mark, most helpful!

I suppose I could get the 50inch pioneer......

any recommendations for blue ray players that will play my normal DVD collection and upscale them well?

My sister has about 25k worth of kit and she suggested the XDE500 as a cheap way of getting progresive scan and upscaling.

She was an early adopter of HD and picked the wrong horse. Has said to me not to get a Blue Ray as they are not taking of and downloads are going to take over next.............
 
I think it will be a few years off getting a good qualty download service, its currently possible, take virgin media's on demand but the quality is a little questionable. Great for tv but if you want awesome image quality then the file size will be large.

Until the infrastructure is setup and download limits are removed disc based media will still be your best option.
 
Since you're buying an HD TV, you are getting progressive scan (deinterlacing) and scaling, so there's no need to get a second (cheap) implementation in a DVD player. The TV (especially the Pioneer Kuro) will probably do it better anyway!

All Bluray players play DVDs - they have to by definition - so just look in the shops for whatever player your prefer. You can also ask in the relevant forum (Arcam currently have no Bluray player).
 
Grrr......just as I was thinking of the pioneer LX 5090 they bring out a new model the KRP-500A but its £2800:rolleyes:

sony have a well reviewed new blue ray player out as well, the BDP-S350 ans its approx £230

will stick with my arcam kit as I am generally happy with it......
 
I've been debating the same thing with my 27a. I have the panny 50pz800u. I figured the 27a was deinterlacing fine and the panny was upscaling fine so not to worry about PQ. Well, I took the plunge on the Oppo 983 and all I can say is there is a big difference in PQ. I set the 983 to 1080p with no overscan on 800u. The deinterlacing and scaling of the 983 is better than the 27a deinterlacing and 800u scaling. The 27a panny combo isn't terrible but it just isn't as good. The Oppo is also much more accurate player in terms of pixel cropping, cue, speed etc. I'd love to do a AB with the 983 and 139. I can't imagine there being that much of a difference in PQ in my setup. You can get better PQ than your 88. Are you willing to sacrafice analog audio to do it? I doubt you can hear a difference from spdif from one quality player to another.

I wouldn't upgrade the 88 unless you are getting a 1080p display. I would agree you should only scale to your displays native rez. If not, the scaling in the set will do fine with the 88.
 

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