I am new in setting up a home theater, and want to get the best PQ from my std def DVDs. After hours of research on components and asking self acclaimed videophiles at work (which was a mistake) I was generally given 3 different pieces of advice:

1) Purchase an upconverting Oppo 980 DVD player (bec. of the price and better quality picture than the 981D).

2) Purchase a Denon 3930ci player which has the Realta 2 HQV chip (about $850 - $900 more than the either Oppo

3) I was told I don't need to put any money into an upconverting DVD player bec. the Onkyo 875 already upconverts from Std Def DVDs with the Reon-VX chip. (I don't know if this is true, if so is it better than #1 or #2?)


BTW - I just purchasing the new Samsung 4681 1080P HD LCD with 100,000;1 claimed CR and new LED backlight technology.

Any help or recommendations you can give to this newbie help with my DVD player and/or video set up is greatly appreciated. I figured you guys are the real deal not the "posers" at work.

Thanks.

2nd gen Toshiba HD-DVD's do a great job of upverting as well. Then you have half of the HD scene covered as well as something that works for Std dvd as well.

1) Purchase an upconverting Oppo 980 DVD player (bec. of the price and better quality picture than the 981D).

I would dispute that. I have and use both, but give the edge to the 981. The 980 is sharper but has rougher deinterlacing; the 981 is smoother and more film-like, which some people call "soft".

3) I was told I don't need to put any money into an upconverting DVD player bec. the Onkyo 875 already upconverts from Std Def DVDs with the Reon-VX chip. (I don't know if this is true, if so is it better than #1 or #2?)


I haven't tried it. If I were you I would take advantage of Oppo's 30-day return, get one and try it. A few days of A/B testing, trying all the combinations, will give you much more real knowledge than commenters here can do.

As was pointed out, some of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players have gotten good marks for SD-DVD playback quality.

-Bill

they are already talking about it over in the hd dvd section the new updates on the Toshiba xa2 is doing 24p on standard def disc... may be something to check out since I know of no stand alones at this price that can do that

Toshiba HD-XA2 has the Silcon Optix Reon HQV processor, does 1080p/24 up-conversion with film based SD DVD's and plays HD DVD's to boot... for about half what the Denon you mentioned costs.

Samsung has a dual format HD DVD / Blu-ray player coming out in a month or two that also has the Reon HQV processor.

I suggest that if you copy alot of movies on DVDrs (and buy in bulk the chinese crap brands like me). Go into the store and demand that you try all 10 brands of DVDr that you have movies on.

Live is too short to have a player that only plays 1/2 of your movies.

I have a CRT HDTV so no need to upconvert - my cheap 25-buck Durabrand plays Playo and Matrix Dual Layers and many many (all brands of single sided DVDrs).

Many players do not - even the expensive ones. Buyer beware!