dvd player upgrade

djdhrubs

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Hi, I'm kinda new to this, so forgive the naivety.
I've got a home cinema setup, involving a Denon 2800 Mk II DVD player, a Denon 2802 amp, a Panasonic 42 inch plasma screen which is about 4 years old and therefore not HDMI compatible, and now most recently an Infocus IN76 projector. The DVD player is at the front of the room, connected round the room to the projector at the back with component cables. I was told that over longer distances, component will give me as good a picture as HDMI. So first question, is this correct?

At present, the DVD player I have gets a maximum of about 580p from the Projector, and not the full 1080p thats its capable of. I was thinking anyway of upgrading my DVD player, and I'd like to spend less than a grand. Any suggestions? (such that I'd notice a definite difference in picture quality through my component cables). Final question...with HD-DVD and Bluray on the horizon, should I just wait for them to happen and then get a player...I don't want to wait too long (I've been told it may take about 4 years before things are finally settled!) But at the same time, I don't wanna buy a DVD player that becomes obsolete in 18 months. Your advice would be much appreciated.
 
djdhrubs said:
I was thinking anyway of upgrading my DVD player, and I'd like to spend less than a grand. Any suggestions?

Arcam AV79, Pioneer 989iS or Denon 3910....

3 cracking players........;)
 
What ever you do all DVDs are only SD sources, 480 or 576 at best. Your projector is a good 720 p and will upscale anything correctly to that resolution fine. Although the Arcam 79 is a lovely modern DVD, and the Pioneer 989 has it's following, your current player was always pretty decent in my book and if it ain't broke......A good alternative is an Oppo 971 which I for one think is better than most and would not break the bank if video quality is of interest.

The other £1k option you have is a video processor which would totally eclipse the other options here for quality on video and would leave many options open for the futrue. It would mean you don't have to ditch a good player but build on it.
 
Nic Rhodes said:
The other £1k option you have is a video processor which would totally eclipse the other options here for quality on video and would leave many options open for the futrue. It would mean you don't have to ditch a good player but build on it.

Ooh hadnt thought of that one.....now thats "thinking outside the box"
 
ok i'm a bit embarassed to ask this, but what is a video processor? how would it leave me 'options in the future'? How would it connect to my system now? And where can i look for them? Basically, please tell me about them! And please explain it to me like i'm a 2 year old!
 
djdhrubs said:
ok i'm a bit embarassed to ask this, but what is a video processor? how would it leave me 'options in the future'? How would it connect to my system now? And where can i look for them? Basically, please tell me about them! And please explain it to me like i'm a 2 year old!

No need to be embarassed it is a good question. A VP is a dedicated box to get the best out of a video signal. It contains the best deinterlacing, switching, scaling and an assortment of other video functions in order to drive your display progressively. It is all about quality. It however does this for all video sources and not just DVDs. There is a forum dedicated to them on this site. In your case your Denon would feed an interlaced component signal (as stored on DVD disc) and feed the VP. This would deinterlace it, scale it and mate it to your screen. An new player would also deinterlace it (not as well) and scale it (again not as well and probably not to the correct resolution anyway). The addition functions would not be done by a player. It means you money has been used for all devices and not just VP and the quality is higher, especially when you have a good DVD player already.

Typical good makes are DVDO, Lumagen and Crystalio.
 

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