Help me pick my new Universal Player...

[cjtalbot]

So the Marantz 6400 that I picked up went belly up after only 2 weeks and I'm just returning it outright as I've kind of had it with the dealer.

That being said...I'm in the market for a new DVD/Universal player.

Here are my requirements.

MUST output an interlace 480i signal from the component jacks. ( I have a reg old 33" JVC TV with component inputs ) The difference on my TV between the s-vid and component inputs is night and day...so I need the interlace signal out of the universal's componet jacks.

Not as easy as you would think, many of the players today are built to only output progressive scan out of the component..

DVD, DVD-A, SACD, CD, ETC... (those are the big 4 for me though..not real concerned with other formats at this time)

HDCD decoding would be cool, but not really needed.

So far, here's what I'm looking at:

Pioneer 588A - $130.00
Onkyo SP502 - $260.00
Denon 2910 (more than I want to spend...but the complete package) - $590.00
Yamaha C750 - $280.00
Yamaha 1500 - $350.00
Onkyo 802 - $350
Denon 2200 - (used market - $250)

Right now, from what I've read I'm leaning toward the Pioneer 588A as it seems to provide everything I want and be the most cost effective.

Any comments?

Other products I'm missing?

Obviously porgressive scan and upconversion is a non-issue...

[kexodusc]

I recently bought 2 - a Yamaha C750 and Toshiba SD4960...I think the 4960 is less than $100 now. Audio wise, it sounded every bit as good as the few $400- units I heard, I don't think the audio dac's have much difference in them anymore...Video wise, the Yammie is a good step up if you have all the latest HDTV stuff, and of course it's a 5 disc unit - nice for the audio side of things.

The Toshiba decided it didn't want to play DVD-A's anymore so I had to exchange it - this is a rarity from what I've seen, I searched everywhere when I was trying to diagnose the problem myself and looks like mine was the only one. Took 4 days return mail at Toshiba's expense for a new unit -awesome service. On the video side it's quite good, just not as good as the Yammie...ya get what ya pay for I guess...the Toshiba's down in my stereo system, the Yammie does HT work. The Yamaha definitely feels like a higher quality unit and I have little doubt it'll outlast the Toshiba - but I think the Toshiba is a better value.

I'd recommend it where video is a lower priority. When I did my shopping a few months back the best budget universal players were Panasonic, Pioneer, and Toshiba. THe 578A was a disaster for Pioneer though, hopefully they've those problems fixed. The 563 was the talk of the town prior to that.