[sunspot]

I am contemplating buying a Denon 2910 player. I currently have a Panasonic RP-62, but it is dying.

I'm wondering if it makes sense to buy a SD player of this caliber with HD right around the corner or if I should just get a cheap player to hold me over?

 

[Bytehoven]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunspot I am contemplating buying a Denon 2910 player. I currently have a Panasonic RP-62, but it is dying. I'm wondering if it makes sense to buy a SD player of this caliber with HD right around the corner or if I should just get a cheap player to hold me over?

Until we know the SD DVD playback quality on the next generation HD players, it's hard to conclude the current top performing SD DVD & Upscaling players will become obsolete.


IMHO, based on the performance of manufactures so far, there is a good chance SD DVD reproduction will take a back seat on HD players. Perhaps the higher cost HD players may also include the better SD DVD playback solutions... perhaps.


I recently picked up a used 3910, and owned the 2910 briefly. The 2910 is a very good player.


EDIT: If you might be interested in a excellent Panny XP-30 to hold you over, let me know as I am planning to sell mine since buying the 3910.

 

[AlieniceT]

sunspot,


I think a high-end SD DVD player is a good purchase today - with qualifications.


If you are into hi-resolution audio (DVD-Audio and SACD), most of the top players (including the 2910) offer support for those formats, and excellent performance on Redbook CD's.


If you have an extensive library of SD DVD titles, it is a no-brainer. They won't look any better on one of the HD DVD players, that's for sure.


SD DVD players do not figure to become doorstops any time soon. The format is only eight years old and the software (discs) should outlast you and I if taken care of properly!


IMHO, I don't believe every DVD released to the buying public once HD-DVD is in place will be HD. Yes, there will be new releases with SD and HD in the same package or on the same double-sided disc. There will be an ungodly number of re-issues in HD - some will even be worth buying. But not every distributor out there will issue everything in their catalog in HD. SD DVD will coexist with HD DVD for a time as the public decides whether to adopt the hardware when they already have two or more SD players in their houses.


Unless the film or video source being released on DVD is worthy of HD treatment, I would rather see it released in SD than to have the studio or distributor pretend the source material is HD.


I am certain that videophiles will find many early HD DVD releases disappointing due to the lack of noticeable improvement in PQ over SD. There will be some stunning examples of the technology, make no mistake about it, but there will be turkeys on the shelves alongside the trophies, just as when SD DVD was introduced. Never underestimate the greed of the studios.....


The short answer is: if you are a renter, no. If you are a collector , yes.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I agree with a lot of the above. I will add that another reason to consider a top quality SD player now is that it could be a while before we see *universal* players with what we have now, plus HD-DVD *and* BluRay. I personally would not buy a future player that only has HD-DVD *or* BluRay.


Plus, think how long it took the DVD player manufacturers to get SD playback down right? Just look at some of the older players reviews on Secrets. It's abominable how long it took some manufacturers to get rid of the chroma bug!


Plus, I very firmly believe that HD-DVD and BluRay are going to be more niche products like SACD and DVD-A than mainstream like CD, MP3, or SD DVD. One simple reaosn is that on a 42" display, from further away than about 8 to 10 ft, there simply isn't that much difference between HD content on an ED display vs HD.


Plus, since the idiots promoting HD-DVD and BluRay seem to want to insist on another format war, I personally am going to sit back a few years until the dust settles, and enjoy SD DVD until there's either a winner, or a universal player that will play both in comparable quality to what I get now. And that format war itself is going to slow introduction *and* acceptance of the new formats.

 

[captain_video]

I don't see any issue with buying a new SD player at this point. In fact, I'd highly recommend it. I don't plan on investing big bucks in a HD player until the dust settles over the format wars. Paying through the nose for a new HD player that will probably be compatible with only about half of any new DVD releases seems to be a bit foolish, IMHO. Eventually, one format is bound to oust the other one for supremacy but until then the studios and hardware manufacturers are just shooting themselves in the foot by not agreeing on a single HD format. Once again the consumers are stuck in a battle of corporate greed and stupidity while they fight for market domination. I don't plan on feeding the flames until they decide on a single format, which may be a long time coming. Does anyone still remember DivX DVDs? I'll bet the players make nice doorstops and the discs probably work great on a skeet range. Picking the wrong HD format at this point can be an expensive lesson learned.

 

[PooperScooper]

Quote:

I am certain that videophiles will find many early HD DVD releases disappointing due to the lack of noticeable improvement in PQ over SD.

If the quality is as good as D-VHS, then there will be no disappointments. D-VHS is the "bar" for expectations. Irregardless, there's no reason to not buy a SD player today. You'll be watching "regular" DVDs for a long time to come.


larry

 

[NoThru22]

HD DVD and Blu-ray have the potential to look much much better than D-VHS and they had better too! With all that space it better be a big improvement over even broadcast HD.


And I would say buy the Denon 2910 if you listen to a lot of 5.1 music and the Panasonic S97 if you want the best picture right now. I guarantee the high def DVD players will not output an SD DVD at the same quality and what are you going to do, throw out all your old DVDs?

 

[dirk1843]

For about 1/6th the price of the Denon you can get a Samsung HD941. There is alot of talk about this player not being that good, but I have had mine for a couple of weeks now, and I think it has a great picture. Also outputs 1080i and/or 720p over component with a simple remote hack. The SACD/DVD-A playback seems to be at least as good as my old 563a.


I am sure the are better units, but this player fits the abilites of my display and speakers great.

 

[PooperScooper]

Quote:

HD DVD and Blu-ray have the potential to look much much better than D-VHS and they had better too! With all that space it better be a big improvement over even broadcast HD.

I'm with you there, but it depends on what resolution they use to "master" the DVD. 1080i wouldn't be any different than D-VHS. 1080p24 or 1080p60 would be better. Hopefully people aren't expecting the VHS->DVD PQ "upgrade" difference (unless of course you are watching DVDs via composite output ).


larry

 

[kanefsky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PooperScooper I'm with you there, but it depends on what resolution they use to "master" the DVD. 1080i wouldn't be any different than D-VHS. 1080p24 or 1080p60 would be better. Hopefully people aren't expecting the VHS->DVD PQ "upgrade" difference (unless of course you are watching DVDs via composite output ). larry

You can have good-quality 1080i and bad-quality 1080i depending on the bitrate and how they do the transfer. On some DVDs you can see a tremendous difference in quality between the main movie and deleted scenes, for example, even though they're both 480i. I also find that most (not all) movies on HBOHD don't look much better than DVD, whereas movies on INHD or even NBC tend to look better. So I think the effort they put into it matters a lot more than the medium and probably even more than 1080i vs. 1080p.


I would expect a lot of the early HD transfers will either be bit-for-bit identical with D-VHS or broadcasts of the same movie, or will be quick-and-dirty transfers like on HBO that don't look much better than SD. Then of course they'll re-release them with better quality later on and many people will buy another copy.


--

Steve

 

[jylee]

How much investment you want to make to get high quality SD DVD player is purly a function of your budget, and the approval of the significant other. Whether it's "worth it" is so subjective, and it's not really worthwhile asking others for the opinion. But since you asked, here it is.


The technology used in DVD (MPEG decoding and scaling) is pretty mature now, and the difference in pricetag doesn't really correspond to the difference in performance any more. Have you read the DVD player benchmark before? If not you should.


Are you buying the universal player because you really care about the audio quality in DVD Audio and SACD, or because it's cool? Think hard before you answer this one.


The implementation of DVD Audio and SACD is not mature as video processing technology, and you will see big quality gap between sub $1000 players and the high end players. Whether the rest of the system can handle the high resolution sound or not is another matter, and usually is the bottleneck.