[ScottChez]

I went to our local Denon Autorized Dealer today wanting to look at Denons.


They did not have any Denons to show even though the Denon Site lists them.


When I asked show me your best DVD player with the absolute best picture with no chroma bugs or anything he said.


They are all good in the $100 to $200 range. He showed me the Pioneers, JVCs, and Sonys as there best. The KEY was they were all the new Fall of 2003 models that have all the bugs fixes and were not tested in Consumer Reports or the DVD shootouts.


He said to Just be sure to by good quality cables like Monster so the picture will be perfect.


is this true? Can you get buy saving a $100 on a DVD player and not buy an expensive Denon 1600 and not notice and difference?


I have never seen a 1600 so I cant compare.


Will I notice a difference on a RPTV like a Sony 65wu600


He pushed the Sony DVD extra hard saying I should stay with the same brands as the Brands will tweak and test using other Sony TVs to make it perfect. Is this true also.

 

[PhilB]

Scot,


I hope you have a pretty thick hide for the responses you may get to this enquiry. You should take that salesman's word with a big grain of salt.


First of all the only product that has a higher profit margin than Monster Cable is Coca-Cola (tongue in cheek, but not far off). That salesman will get a bigger commision from the Monster Cable than from any of the DVD players he showed you.


Second, The quality of the Pioneers, JVCs, and Sonys in the $100 - $200 range will vary quite a bit. You should read the Secret's DVD Benchmark shoot-out. It will teach you what to look for in a DVD player and give results of tests performed on several DVD players.


Go get a big cup of whatever you like to drink, set an hour or two aside and go check out this web site:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...on-9-2000.html


As far as cables goes, there are much better values than Monster, do a search on component cables in this forum.


-phil

 

[ThumperBoy]

I would advise you take the advice from the considerably more knowledge experts on the AVS forum over the word of a retail store salesman! He is just trying to push his over-priced monster cables on suckers, don't be one! A good cable is useful but will not turn a lower quality player into a high quality one! Get a good DVD player and a good cable, but it doesn't have to be an over-priced monster cable, just one made with good coax.

 

[ScottChez]

I read the long DVD shoot out report and this part says for the most part on 90-05% of the DVDs is will not matter. Since I mostly what big hollywood hit DVDs will something like a Denon 1600 help me when I have a RPTV?


----pasted text===

It almost goes without saying that all of these players will deliver a very nice image when fed good material (with a few exceptions, which we’ll cover later). There are differences between the players’ basic image quality, but for the most part, you’re going to notice very minor video quality differences when the players are firing on all cylinders. When the players are dealing with a crummy DVD, though, that’s when things get interesting.


Many people wonder how important these hiccups and glitches really are, and why we spend so much time and energy testing for them. This is a difficult issue, and depending on how you ask the question, you can get several different answers. When we first wrote about progressive scan players, we said that, "Probably 90%, maybe 95%, of major Hollywood releases are going to play back basically fine on most of these players." Note all the caveats - probably 90%, major Hollywood releases, basically fine, most...players.

 

[Spoffo]

You WILL see a difference between a run-of-the-mill DVD player and one of the really good ones. I was a skeptic and stuck with my early Sony player (a good one, the old 650) until about a year ago. After all, the picture looked terrific - - much better than anything from cable or satellite or, especially, tape. How much better could it get?


Finally, all the hoo haa here convinced me to try a Panny XP-50. The difference (on a 42" ED Plasma) was truly astonishing. On good discs, the picture looked almost like HD. No need to rave on in detail. I'm sure you've read it all before.


Yeah, 90% of the people won't see any difference between 90% of the players on 90% of the displays. But if you care and have invested in a really good HD-capable display, then it's worth the effort and $$ to find one of the really good players like the Denon. You WILL see (and love) the difference.

 

[jzodda]

Dude get a bravo or Samsung, hook it up to DVI and see for yourself the difference

 

[Nooby]

There is only so much a cable can do. Basically all the cable needs to do is transfer the signal from A -> B without any degradation or adding any unwanted noise, etc. There are many threads on this forum where they discuss the significance of cables, and for the most part, there is the general consensus that better equipment is more important that better cables. I just purchased the Denon 1600, it is a great player. I never had a chance to check out the Panny XP-30, 50 so I can't compare for you. But from what most people are saying, it is pretty close, and it seems that the Denon 1600 is the best bang/buck player atm. I was seriously considering the Bravo D1 and Samsung 931 also, and I decided that I did not want to be a beta tester. Just seems like the current generation of DVI players are just not made very well. I'm sure by the time I need a new player DVI will be more commonplace and manufactured to a higher standard. I did look at a Samsung 931 and I must say they look pretty good. But in the end, a carefree high PQ player was more important to me than having the latest and greatest. BTW, I'm running my Denon 1600 on Pacific Cable's $10.00 Phyton Component Video cables and they work great!

 

[sangs]

And, just so you know, it's not that Monster Cables are a bad cable - they're not, in fact they're good cables and I have some mixed into my setup - but they are incredibly overpriced. You can find similar quality cables at much lower prices if you look around.

 

[Aroc]

Yeah, as if monster cable makes the best video cable at any price point. Regardless ef you want absolute quality or performance for the dollar, shop elsewhere. Monster is decent, but they are not that good.

 

[Kris Deering]

I am happy that Sony and Pioneer may have cleaned up the chroma bug but as far as our tests go that is just one obstacle. Pioneer and Sony have issues in the de-interlacing department as well. We will have a new shootout before the years end.


As for the Bravo, I agree the picture can look quite stellar at times, but that player has one of the worst de-interlacers I have seen and when it drops to video mode (DVI or not) things get down right ugly.

 

[TonyS]

Sony cleaned up the Chroma Bug?!? I did not know that. Is it throughout their new product line? I'm just curious because right now, I'm loving life with my Denon 1600 and bluejeans component cables!

 

[ScottChez]

Thanks, My Denon 1600 will be here Friday.



Should I get just avergae cables for it then?


Are DR- Digital Research ones a Best Buy OK?

 

[seezar]

For component cables, I'd like to put in a recommendation for bluejeanscable.com. Very decent price for some good quality cables and extremely fast shipping. I've placed 2 orders through them and received both orders within 2 days.


Oh and btw, I've owned the Denon 1600 for almost a year now and I absolutely love it

 

[ThumperBoy]

Where did you end up ordering the Denon DVD-1600?

Get good but not overpriced component video cables, check local electronic supply stores not the big chains like Best Buy! The smaller stores have lower prices but higher quality cables - you want a set that looks like real RG6 coax, not thin audio-looking cables. If you can't find any such stores locally ordering online is better.