DVI Players- What do you recommend

[sceptic]

I'd be interested in your views on DVI players- I plan to get one to connect to a Hitachi 42PD5200.
Or is it better to wait until there are more available and thay are cheaper?

 

[limbk]

I am exactly the same position as you. I have a 42pd5200 and am in the market for a DVI player.

I narrow it down to 2 choices. Either the Samsung HD945 or the Denon 1910. The Samsung has had bad consumer reviews in the US, not so much in the UK. The Denon generally has excellent reviews in the US. In the UK, the reviews for the Denon is generally good but there is some recurrent complaints about macro blocking issues (which seems to affect all Denon models except for the highest end models). The Samsung can be had for around £150-£160 and the Denon about £190-£200. The advantage of the Samsung (apart from price) is that it is a universal player - it plays DVD Audio and SACD. The Denon is not. But overall, from the reviews I have read, I think the Denon is better player. If you get the Denon 2910 (£500), you will also get a universal player. I am also thinking about the Denon 2910 to get the universal player capabilty as my current Yamaha Amp has a 6 channel input - but it is a big jump in terms of price!.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rickyj at Kalibrate]

You could also consider a hdmi player, and get a hdmi-dvi lead or adapter. This would bring the Panasonic S97 into play.

It uses the same deinterlacer as the move expensive Denon 2910 and 3910, and as such has had some bad press on macro blocking, but has just had an firmware update released, which is meant to impove matters, but I haven't tried it yet. I haven't noticed any macroblocking anyway, and that is on a 92" screen, but I am not going to go out of my way looking for it.

It plays DVD audio, but not SACD.

Worth consideration though as it can be bought for £199 + del (multiregion) from www.totaldigital.biz .

Hope this helps.

Ricky