DVD player not cutting the mustard!

turbo

turbo

turbo

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Shropshire, UK
Hey guys

I purchased a Samsung 50" flat screen tv the other day. Now I brought this thing to play films cinema style and I have to say that normal TV is bang on.

However my cheapo DVD player is letting the side down now and was fine for my 32" but is making the picture all blocky on DVD's which the normal TV doesnt suffer with.

Now I presume the DVD player is to blame and to be honest I hadnt even given it a thought before buying the TV. I just assumed they all produced the same sort of picture quality.

Anyway I'm hoping to upgrade the DVD player and while I'm at it get a decent speaker package to match in with it. I saw at a competitors store that samsung do a 2.1 stereo system and DVD player in a shiny black plastic that matches the TV (Samsung HT-Q100). It doesnt have to be Samsung I suppose but it must be black and it must be a quality brand capable of creating perfect picture quality at a good resolution. I roughly have a budget of £250 which I think should be sufficient?

Any ideas?
 
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That is the best you can do for £250, if you need dvd and speakers. I highly suggest you buy a samsung 1080p7 dvd player for £50-80, and save up a little more money for a better speaker system.
 
DVD players are one of the best examples of getting what you pay for.
You really cant compare the visual or sonic quality of a cheap as chips sub £100 player with a £250+ model.
 
With a screen that size, and a guess it wasn't cheap either ! why try and use a cheap/crap player ..... like putting diesel in a Ferrari !!! ;)
I would spend twice that, look at either a Blue Ray player, or Higher end Denon standard player..... Or perhaps a more cost effective route would be a second hand Arcam DVD Player.
The screen deserves a good signal.....
 
<F0rb> said:
That is the best you can do for £250, if you need dvd and speakers. I highly suggest you buy a samsung 1080p7 dvd player for £50-80, and save up a little more money for a better speaker system.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, just saw this passing through the thread, looked the machine up and it looks pretty impressive. Happen to know of any reviews of the samsung box? :)
 
i wouldnt spend £250 on a dvd player. thats absolutely bonkers. get a hd-dvd or blu-ray player for not a lot more, but dont spend that much on an sd player.

atpbx said:
DVD players are one of the best examples of getting what you pay for.
You really cant compare the visual or sonic quality of a cheap as chips sub £100 player with a £250+ model.
Click to expand...


sonic quality changes with dd/dts material?
 
mi9tchy said:
upscaled dvd sucks in comparison to blu-ray/hd-dvd especially on a 1080p screen
Click to expand...
It will do, but if you've got a lot of DVDs (some people I know have 100+) it's far preferable to be able to watch them upscaled, looking better than they would otherwise, than to spend absolutely thousands on replacing them with HD copies of the same movies. Not to mention you'd have to wait for the eventual (possible) release of said movies on HDDVD/Blu-ray.

Not exactly a hard decision for many people in similar situations is it? Spend £1000s for a more detailed picture, or save £1000s by putting up with lesser quality picture.
I mean a lot of people used VHS til up til recently, and the picture quality between a good dvd, and vhs, and a good dvd and HD formats is far smaller.
 
For a lower price player but with superb picture quality search for thr Oppo 981. At £181.00
It has the picture quaility to shame many players costing a lot more. Denon included.
Avforums has a long thread on this player.
 
AnastieByte said:
For a lower price player but with superb picture quality search for thr Oppo 981. At £181.00
It has the picture quaility to shame many players costing a lot more. Denon included.
Avforums has a long thread on this player.
Click to expand...

I'll second that, it's widely regarded as the best player for the money on Avforums.
 
Hey guys

Thanks for the input thus far. I brought the TV and didnt really think about the DVD player. Its not something you realise has an effect until you actually see it playing on your screen and think what the hell is this picture all about hence me being on the a mission to get a better one!

I actually swapped out the current DVD player for a hitachi player from my gf's mum and dads and it improved the picture dramatically to be fair. However I'm still in the market for a better player than that one and some of the products you guys have put up are looking good especially that samsung HD1080P7 :)

Speakers wise what am I best getting i.e 2.1 or 5.1? I would also like items that are good value for money, I'm not looking to spend circa £300 on speakers even if they are the danglies, the girlfriend just wont understand lol..... sadly! :P
 
You're best off getting 2.1 mate, you cant get a decent 5.1 within your budget, especially not with a decent DVD player as well. Going hi-fi seperates, you'd probably be looking 250+ second hand for a reasonably decent 5.1. (not being snobby :), as some of the audio stuff sounds insane, but is priced insane too!)
 
james.miller said:
i wouldnt spend £250 on a dvd player. thats absolutely bonkers. get a hd-dvd or blu-ray player for not a lot more, but dont spend that much on an sd player.




sonic quality changes with dd/dts material?
Click to expand...

Absolutely.
If it wasnt the case expensive players wouldnt exist.
After all if they didnt have better components and more features and were not capable of out performing cheaper models then there simply wouldnt be a need to make them or a market to sell them to.

My Sony DVD player that is nearly 10 years old and cost me the best part of £800 when i bought it STILL produces a better picture and sounds a hell of a lot better than the newer and substantially cheaper (£400) Sony DVD recorder i bought to replace it.

Admittedly a part of the initial expense was because of it being new technology, but there were also three cheaper models than it in the line up.
 
atpbx said:
Absolutely.
If it wasnt the case expensive players wouldnt exist.
After all if they didnt have better components and more features and were not capable of out performing cheaper models then there simply wouldnt be a need to make them or a market to sell them to.

My Sony DVD player that is nearly 10 years old and cost me the best part of £800 when i bought it STILL produces a better picture and sounds a hell of a lot better than the newer and substantially cheaper (£400) Sony DVD recorder i bought to replace it.
Click to expand...

id like to ask, how is it substantially better? picture i can understand, but the sound? well thats decoded by your amplifer. how does your £800 dvd player transfer the audio any better?
 
I think it has been posted here and discussed before, that not all HD players are always that good at up-scaling standard disks... Hence the reason for a higher end Standard player, what they do, they do very well. If you have much invested in standard disks, then it is still the best way of watching them.

Then why the obsession of buying an up-scaling player, does the screen not have an upscale built in, and in many cases better than the ones in cheaper players.

I think two many people buy by specification on paper, and not what a product can actually do in practice.

My player does NOT up-scale, cost an obscene amount of money, and fed by component leads into a Panasonic HD PJ looks dam good at a 94inch inch projected image image.....

Like things audio, go to a dealer and see what the different players can do under demo conditions, then buy the one with the lowest price and the best picture !!!
 
I own an Sony ns92v , denon 1920 and a HDA1 (the first gen HD-DVD player american import)

The Sony was a mistake! poor player, the upscaling on the Denon 1920 is v v good and the HDA1 is just as good

get a HDE1 you will be v happy with the upscaling (it is good) and you will be able to watch HD-DVDs which will look marvellous.

If the HD-DVD format fails (read as: if microsoft and its billions of $$$ let sony win) you still have a very good quality upscaler

Out of you budget is the XE1 the upscaling on that player matches the most £££££££££ high end stuff from Denon and even compares favourably to dedicated scalers.
 
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