[tluxon]

I'm considering the Toshiba SD-3800 and the SD-4800 (vs. the Panasonic RP82 & CP72). It seems the only difference is that the SD-4800 has DVD-A. From what I've tried to understand, it seems that the future of DVD-A is up in the air a bit because of SACD. Is that true?


If I get any player with DVD-A, does it mean that the player will have its own decoder and 5.1 outputs? What are some of the ways I can take advantage of DVD-A?


Thanks,


Tim

 

[Joe_M]

DVD-A is multichannel audio (as in music discs). There is a format war going on (DVD-A vs. SACD) so it's still up in the air about who will win. All DVD-A players will have at least 5.1 analog outputs. My Panasonic came with DVD-A, I didn't buy the player simply for it. So far it hasn't blown me away as it has for some people.

 

[otzdig]

DVD-Audio uses the higher storage capacity of a DVD disk to hold uncompressed audio information that yields a greater dynamic range and frequency response of conventional CDs. Long story short, they sound better than CDs.


SACD also should sound better than CDs.


The problem is that most people don't have any complaints about CDs, so you can't get them to buy into these formats based on sound quality alone. Both formats also offer multi-channel operation, so that might get people interested.


The problem is that like the early days of stereo, many sound engineers aren't quite sure how to handle this new toy, so you'll be seeing a lot of "ping-pong" effects, and the audio purists will say that's proof that it's a bad format. Well, they said the same thing about stereo too, when it was full of "left-right" effects.


There's alot of other factors involved, both technologically and politically, but I'm not about to get into those here. A subscription to a decent audio magazine or a thourough reading of this forum can help you out a lot with that.


If you get a player with DVD-Audio, there will be a decoder for it in the player, and you'll be able to take advantage of it using the 5.1 channel output. You may or may not be able to take FULL advantage, based on the features of the player. In your particular situation, I wouldn't say that DVD-Audio is an absolute necessity. There's not a ton of releases, and most of what is actually released is stuff that you wouldn't be interested in.


Get the cheaper player. When the dust settles in the "format war" you can think about what kind of player to get then.


Mike

 

[hob]

I agree with Mike except for one thing, I have a SD-4800 with DVD-A as the difference in price is only $30. I got the 4800 because of the disapeering zoom icon.




When viewing a non-anamorphic tiny 2.35:1 you can zoom up the size of the pic then make the zoom icon disapeer. I can still retain the black bars for the wide screen, but don't have to look at the tiny image.

I only have A F-38 not 65 inch or 70 inch where you could have a bigger image with out having to zoom anything. Unfortunatly my small handicapped apartment, will not let me put a 65/70" which I would like.

 

[tluxon]

Based on what's been said and what I've read about DVD-A, I see no compelling reason to get it yet. However, I still need a 5.1 decoder onboard for movies as my receiver has 5.1 in and out but no decoder of its own. This would seem to take the SD-3800 out of contention.


hob,


The zooming is one of the features I like about the Toshiba I have now (SD-3109). Are you saying that the SD-4800 provides a means to make the zoom icon disappear, but the SD-3800 does not? I don't view a lot of non-anamorphic DVDs (I can never figure out whether it's called anamorphic or non-anamorphic), but when I do and use the player's zoom, the zoom icon does bother me. Since getting our RPTV (Mits 55819) last February, I've found it works pretty good to simply zoom the picture with the TV. Do you think I need the player to zoom at all?


Thanks,


Tim