Talk me into replacing my Sony DVP-725

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I have a shiny new Philips 37PF9830 being delivered next week which as most of you will know supports Component, DVI and HDMI with resolutions up to 1080i.

So I have an old Sony DVP-725 much acclaimed in its day with component output but not progressive scan.

Now I assume the TV will upscale and I will get a reasonably good picture over component for existing SD DVDs.

Should I stick with this and wait for HD DVD players or would I benefit from buying a new progressive scan HDMI upscaling DVD Player like the Denon 1920 or even go more upmarket to notice a difference?
 
Stick.
 
Try the 725 and see how it goes. They were not bad players in their day. If you want to utilise HDMI then the 1920 will offer you that but not necessarily a better picture than what you have.
 
I just got round to replacing my old 725 a few weeks back. The thing was becoming even fussier about discs. Its always been fussy about discs but even commercial non PVR content was being rejected so enough was enough and I replaced with an 868 Pioneer
If yours is still going strong then stick with it - mind you I found a good increase in picture clarity by going with the 868 that I didnt expect - and this is just using RGB Scart.
 
Thanks everyone thats really helpful :thumbsup:

I just didn't want to think I would be missing out big time on making the best use of the new Phillips 37" LCD and from your comments it seems that yes I could improve on it but not enough to justify at this time with HD DVD around the corner (albeit a fairly big corner).
 
The Denon 1920 is not a fantastic level player. I would stick if I were you. The 725 was the same as the NS900 and you'll get an excellent picture out of them.
 
I agree with Cable Monkey.

The 725 is an excellent player (I have one :D ) although mine is tarting to get fussy with commercial disks, throwing up C13 errors. I will probably replace in the near future but doubt I will get picture quality and would prefer to wait for the next gen players (e.g. Blu-Ray) before upgrading.

Use the 725 with component outputs which should be an improvement over the scart connection.

If you are still unsure after a couple of weeks, buy a newer DVD player from a reputable high street shop. Compare it and if you can't see any real improvement, take it back for a refund and wait for the next gen players
 
Ah no C13 errors!!

No more - my 725 is in the loft so hopefully no more C13 erros for me lol :thumbsup:
 
I got a Panasonic es10 dvd player with my Panny PV500 plasma and compared with my 725 there is a very slight improvement in the color balance using component. I must say that the Sonys disc navigation is easier but it now only gets used if I need to record something from SKY. A borrowed a mates Denon 2200 DVD player and it was clearly superior to both the Panny and the 725.
I would reckommend the try before you buy route.

By the way Sony have just released an HDMI player for £199 which you might wanna investigate.
 
bonc said:
Ekko Star said:
The Denon 1920 is not a fantastic level player.

can you elaborate?!

not quite sure english wise, what you mean!

He means it is not meant to be a world beater in terms of picture or sound quality, just a capable all rounder. The 725 was originally touted as having a top notch picture so the 1920 would not be in its class...
 
There's a hidden menu on the 725 which recalibrates the laser settings. Haven't got the button sequence on me at the moment. This might sort out the C13 error messages you've been getting.
 
Put in standby...press title, clear and power on, via the remote.

You can then try recalibration of laser. However C13 usually means duff laser on an old Sony player :(
 
The 725 was a great dvd player, back in the days. But now is well and truly long in the tooth. Upgrade seems a sensible option bearing in mind your new philips telly.

When i upgraded from my sony 7700 to denon 2900 (2 years ago), the difference was simply huge and i would say the the s7700 was slightly better than the 725. I sold my 7700 promptly and have never looked.

Yes, upgrade and you should notice some PQ improvement.
 
Ok - I think the concensus is that the Denon 1920 would not be enough of a difference to make it worthwhile and its not aimed at the same market level as the 725 was.

So keeping on the Denon theme (always fancied one for no apparant logical reason) how far should I be looking at? DVD2910 is about £500 and the DVD 3910 about £700.

I am not sure there is a Denon supplier on the Island (Guernsey), never seen one and the WEB site does not list any so I will probably have to buy blind as usual. Will check as it would be nice to trial one!

Will of course try the 725 first and see what I think but it would be nice to do a comparison.
 
If you intend to connect using HDMI/DVI, the extra money spent on the 3910 maybe worthwhile. If it is beyond your budget, consider the Marantz DV7600 reviewed here. It pitches in at the same retail price point as the 2910 but with some of its issues ironed out. While the 2910 is a nice player, its issues can be quite display specific so buying one unseen would be a gamble...
 
I moved from the 725 (a ugly white one but cheap from my student days) to the Oppo/BBK player.

In combination with my Z2 projector I found it a very significant improvement in PQ. Regarding sound quality the step is probably less as the 725 was supposed to be quite good in that area. But I find it hard to compare this as sound quality is always overshadowed by the picture quality in my experience with A/V.

Menno
 
Just tried out a pio 575 via component interlaced out to my X1 pj.

Must say compaired to the 725 its not got the same level of detail.
With spiderman 2 on the pio and there seemed to be a destinctive lack of detail on faces a smudged sort of water coloured look, in comparision to the sony where it seems to always have high detail with 'worts and all'. This might be the disk (?), maybe they ahve retouched the actors after the fact.

A few things were different in my test though, i haven't tried a cross comparision with the same software. The 725 had a much larger screen size compaired to the one the pio was throwing and on the cabling side the 725 used the same cheap component cable as the pio but also had a number of cheap phono exteneders from maplins. For just interlaced through component to my projector, in this somewhat unfair test the 725 seems to produce a better picture, if i get a progressive component connector for the x1 things might look a little different though.

Also it is compairing a £500 rrp 6 year old vs a £150 rrp 1 year old.
 
Well if you really want the answer, I would recomend you buy the player you want, maybe the 1920 or 2910, form an online place, test to see if its worth it. If you like it keep it, if not return it within 7 days as you will be covered by the long distance rule. Maybe the Oppo, thats a decent player.
 
I had Sony 735 and it is better than my last two budget DVD Player.

Maybe Denon 1920 might be suitable but we will never know until we try it at home with our display. There will be happy users and miserable users.
 
Does any one know whether the Sony 725 outputs progressive, or interlaced??

Cheers,

James
 
Only interlaced atleast mine is, although the picture quality is impressive never the less.
 
Interlaced, I believe, is good if you want to pass it through a dedicated scaler (lumagen, dvdo etc.). I am thinking of going down this route, so that is good news for me!
 
That is a point, my X1 projector does have a faruja (sp?) scaling chip build in, so the sonys output probably isn't too bad as a projector source.
 

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