Need a new DVD Player. NO idea what's decent.

[Kurant]

I just bought a new home theatre, and only to find out my DVD player is shitting out on me.

Anyway, I am looking really to spend no more then 250-300 bucks. Just curious what's decent, without breaking the bank?

I'd appreciate any help.

[JStrider]

http://www.consumer.philips.com/cons...ESHQFHKFSEKI5P
get one of these babies its the Philips DVP642 DivX Capable DVD Player

it will divX Xvid + your standard dvd,cd, mp3... and its firmware is upgradeable to support more formats...

it should run you $70ish at wal-mart


ive never heard anything bad about it...

[powerclown]

Im partial to Toshibas. Ive got 2 sd-2800s, which is an older model that ive had zero problems with, great picture, and they've only gotten better. There are a bunch of toshiba players under $300, a few under $100. Some are 5-disc, some 1 disc.

[Kurant]

I have that phillips DVD player on our TV in the basement. I dont think it has optical out on it.

I've been looking at some toshiba's, only problem is I'm in Alaska, no where sells them. Bestbuy has a few, but they are all garbage. No 5 discs, which is what I really want. Sears has a few, but none over about 140 bucks. No optical outs on any of them. e have no Circuit City - and CompUSA just plain sucks.

Any idea where I can find them online?

[powerclown]

Both these places have the toshiba sd-6915, a 5 disc player.
onecall.com
jandr.com
pricegrabber is a good pricesearch engine.

Ive used onecall, theyre pretty good. I bought a portable dvd player from them and they actually called me a week later to find out how i liked the player. i was kinda shocked...

[Kurant]

I was looking at the SD-6915 and found out that there is a firmware problem making the progessive scan malfunction and not work correctly. It says it's easily fixable with a disc they will send you if yours falls between a certian set of serial numbers.

I think I'm going to order that one, and hope I dont get one of them, and if I do, I guess I'll be making a phone call.

[brandon11983]

Denon has a player at $269 that will blow all those menioned before out of the water. It has a Faroudja DCDi chip in it, outputs 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i via component, DVI, or HDMI.

[Kurant]

Do you know which model it is? I can't find any Denon DVD players locally. I'm in Alaska, a shop up here carries Denon, but not DVD players. Just Marantz and Panasonic, and a couple others.

[brandon11983]

DVD-1910

[2sheds]

ditto on the denon. you can order from crutchfield for $250 with free shipping (don't know about to alaska tho...)

[Rawrr]

Originally Posted by JStrider

http://www.consumer.philips.com/cons...ESHQFHKFSEKI5P
get one of these babies its the Philips DVP642 DivX Capable DVD Player

it will divX Xvid + your standard dvd,cd, mp3... and its firmware is upgradeable to support more formats...

it should run you $70ish at wal-mart


ive never heard anything bad about it...

I was looking at getting one of these I think for what it does $70 is a great price..pretty nifty looking too

[gcbrowni]

If you have a new HD set then you'll probabally want a DVD player with DVI output. That will give you perfect 1-to-1 pixel mapping if you have a digital HD set with DVI-in (as opposed to an analog HD set.) $300 will buy a whoop-ass digital DVD player, although most of the DVI based players don't have great analog output (which doesn't matter if you're using the DVI.)

Other than that, I'd worry about the layer change lag/delay. (DVD's have two layers and there can be a significant delay when the player changes from one to the other. This is usually about halfway through a move and can be as bad 2-3 seconds.)

You might also want a region-free player. If I were buying again I'd probabally get the region-free Momitsu V880.It's region-free, plays/reads ISO's so you can burn 'normal' cd's and dvd's and play them, and has a DVI port. I think it's about $300. It's also probabally the last DVD player you'll ever need (until HD-DVD shows up.)

You might check the 'Secrets of Home Theater and HiFi' website for their DVD player comparisons. They are very highly respected and go in to great depth and are pretty easy to understand.

Good Luck, and don't get suckered in to an expensive player!

Grov

[brandon11983]

The Denon players all have at least 16 MB (64 on the big boys) of memory to absorb layer changes. He is surely not being suckered into an expensive player. Cheapo DVD players simply cannot perform on par with those from a respected manufacturer like Denon. The Momitsu player may have DVI, but the Denon does as well, and uses a better deinterlacer. Silicon Image's processor's are great, but the Denon DVD-1910 uses the chip found in the DVD-5900, last years flagship. The new Denon universal players are untouchable at their respective price points.

[gcbrowni]

I wasn't aware Denon had a $300 DVI players yet. Brandon is right; unless you want a region-free player, buy the Denon.

I'm not sure I yet agree with the statement, when talking about DVI/Digital, that expensive players from a large major will be better than cheap players. With analog that statement is almost always correct. Digital levels the playing field quite a bit. It should be interesting to see the next set of reviews: the $300 Denon w/DVI is going to beat the crap out of the more expensive Denons w/analog.

[Cynthetiq]

I love my region free player. Now as I travel the world DVDs are as much a part of souveniers as CDs.

Also, many American series are repackaged and released overseas before US markets. It's also neet to have a copy of LOTR Two Towers in Finnish, Lilo & Stitch in Icelandic, and Terminator in Castillian Spanish, of course all of them have english audio too.

I'm annoyed with layer changes but region free means more to me than the pause as it's not always noticeable.