recommend a new dvd player

[bikezappa]

well all the dust has settled and blue ray is the winner.

I have up $500 to invest in a new Blue ray DVD player. I use a 4 year old NEC DLP HD projection player and will connect the dvd player directly to the projector with 3 component cables. I use the DVI connection for the satellite HD.

Any suggestions?

I would really like a DVD player that does a good job of up-converting my old DVDs.

Thanks for any help.

Peter

[danger boy]

I can't recommend a good Blu Ray player. but this is a good place to start.. it's got compairson's on players that might interest you.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=996843

[bikezappa]

thanks danger boy.

that list will keep me busy for a while.

[grif32]

Hands down a PS3. Without a doubt the best Blu Ray Player out there IMO. Plus its future proof. It doubles as a game machine as well :D at a great price.

[steveinaz]

My panasonic DMP-BD30k has been great!

[Grimster74]

My panasonic DMP-BD30k has been great!

+1

Rob

[bikezappa]

well i never ever play games so the ps3 has little interest but i do understand it plays dvds well.

Is the panny DMP-BD30K good with upconverting SD DVDs

[Grimster74]

Personally, I wouldn't know, I use my XA2 for SD viewing.

[cheddar]

How you connect to the projector might not be as important as how you connect to your receiver/pre for audio. One of the big pluses for blu-ray are the new lossless audio formats, TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, and uncompressed PCM. These have to be transferred to your rig by either analog outs or transferred digitally via HDMI as toslink/coax will not work. If digitally, then you have the choice of decoding either in the player or at the receiver/pre. So you have to make sure that either the player or your receiver/pre can decode both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. PCM is universally handled in almost all cases. Finally, if the decoding will be handled by the receiver/pre, then the player must be capable of bitstreaming TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.

I know that's a lot of boxes to check. But it's important for either retrofitting it to your current system or looking toward future upgrades.

The next thing you have to ask yourself is how important it is to you to get stuff like internet interactive features that use future blu-ray online features. Many players at this point are not BD-Live (profile 2.0) compliant. This doesn't affect audio/video playback, but will affect the ability to connect to the internet and use additional supplementary features. If having all the bells and whistles is important, then you might want to wait until this Christmas season when all the new players should be released and another round of deals should be surfacing.

Also, be aware that many of the new receiver/pre releases include upconversion. For example, Onkyo actually uses the much talked about Reon chip (included on the best upconverting players) on several of its products. So if you might be upgrading to take advantage of the new blu-ray audio options anyways, it might be better getting upscaling capabilities in a receiver/pre since that will allow you to upgrade all your video sources.

[bikezappa]

thanks cheddar

My ht dts reciever is 8 years old and i may change it also but don't have the funds yet.

I was not going to take advantage of the new audio formats possible with the HD player.

Down the line I would like to get a new reciever with up-convertion options and take advantage of the new audio options.

[WilliamM2]

As far as I know, the PS3 does not have 5.1 analog outouts, so you will not get any of the new formats with your current reciever. You would need HDMI.

And almost all, if not all DVD and Blu-Ray players, will not upconvert with component outputs, only with HDMI. Again, you would need a different reciever, and HDMI inputs on the projector.

[grif32]

well i never ever play games so the ps3 has little interest but i do understand it plays dvds well.

Is the panny DMP-BD30K good with upconverting SD DVDs


Then go with either the DMP-BD30k or the 50k when that comes out.

SD DVD's look pretty good nothing to write home about with the 30K. I think the PS3 is a little better IMO not much but just a little. I owened the 30k but then sold it and went with the PS3. I dont play games either. Well I did buy one.

Also depends on your TV upscaler as well.

I just think for the Money the PS3 is a truly amazing Blu Ray player, sure the internet, download movies, Cd's..

Chris

[bikezappa]

[QUOTE=WilliamM2;And almost all, if not all DVD and Blu-Ray players, will not upconvert with component outputs, only with HDMI. Again, you would need a different reciever, and HDMI inputs on the projector.[/QUOTE]

I didn't know that. As I understand it I will need a HDMI connection between the DVD player or reciever in order to up convert the sd DVDs.

Component connections will not do the up-conversion.

Wow.

time to save more money.

thanks

[cheddar]

And almost all, if not all DVD and Blu-Ray players, will not upconvert with component outputs, only with HDMI. Again, you would need a different reciever, and HDMI inputs on the projector.

Actually, as long as the DVI port is HDCP compliant, then it should work just like an HDMI port without the audio (since HDMI is DVI with the audio). You just need a cable with HDMI on one end and DVI on the other. These are easy to get. Then you could plug everything into a new hdmi receiver/pre (when you get the funds, of course) and let it handle all the switching duties. I currently use this set-up to switch everything and route it to the DVI port on my HDTV.

[WilliamM2]

Actually, as long as the DVI port is HDCP compliant, then it should work just like an HDMI port without the audio (since HDMI is DVI with the audio). You just need a cable with HDMI on one end and DVI on the other. These are easy to get. Then you could plug everything into a new hdmi receiver/pre (when you get the funds, of course) and let it handle all the switching duties. I currently use this set-up to switch everything and route it to the DVI port on my HDTV.


Not sure if he has a DVI port, but that would work as well.

[WilliamM2]

I didn't know that. As I understand it I will need a HDMI connection between the DVD player or reciever in order to up convert the sd DVDs.

Component connections will not do the up-conversion.

Wow.

time to save more money.

thanks

Don't think that will work either, if you are running component to the projector. That whole HDMI handshake thing, may stop the HDMI out on the player if it doesn't detect an HDCP compliant display.

[bikezappa]

Let me see if I get it now

My projector has one HD DVI input and one 3 component input for HD.

I can connect the HD Blu Ray to the projector with the DVI connection and get the upconverstion.

I can then connect the HD TV satillite to the projector with the 3 component on the projector.

Is this correct?

Thanks for the information.

[cheddar]

As long as your DVI port is HDCP compliant, it will function just like an HDMI (for video only) port as long as you get a conversion cable. Since you don't care at this point for the lossless audio, you could then use toslink/coax for standard audio to your receiver/pre.

[steveinaz]

well i never ever play games so the ps3 has little interest but i do understand it plays dvds well.

Is the panny DMP-BD30K good with upconverting SD DVDs

It does alright. I ended up returning my Oppo 980H as the panasonic did better than the Oppo with SDVD. FWIW.

[grif32]

I didn't know that. As I understand it I will need a HDMI connection between the DVD player or reciever in order to up convert the sd DVDs.

Component connections will not do the up-conversion.

Wow.

time to save more money.

thanks

Component connections Will do up-conversion. The oppo's will do this via a remote hack. So yes it can be done.