Hey folks.

I ordered a Marantz VC6001 dvd changer from accessories4less on Fri. and received it this morning. Price was great. Standard delivery by FedEx was reasonable and super fast. The deal included a free HDMI cable as well. Sounds great so far, huh?

Back in the day when I used a 32" Sony back-breaker CRT, I had a Pioneer Elite dvd changer that just excelled for its time and technology. I became extremely comfortable with the convenience of a 5-disc changer. I could load up double and up features (same director, same genre, same actor, etc.), or, if I didn't know exactly what I wanted to watch (which happens all too frequently) I could load up 5 completely different movies and skip 'til I found what I wanted to watch without leaving the couch.

Then came the Panasonic plasma and the Toshiba HD-A2 player. The picture with HD-DVDs and sd dvds blows me away every time I use this combo. The Toshiba is my first upconverting or upscaling dvd player. (It also plays that dead format, if you remember.) The only problems I experience are the Toshiba loads terribly slow and its build quality does not instill confidence. Otherwise, I'm always impressed with the picture this player produces with regular dvds. But being a single disc player and extremely slow to load I began to long for the days when I could load up 5 of whatever I wanted.

To re-live the days of comfort, convenience and couch surfing for as long as I could hold my bladder, I searched for a 5-disc changer that would upconvert or upscale standard def dvds as well as the Toshiba player. In fact, I thought that a higher-end machine might even better the Toshiba. My search concluded with 2 choices - the Marantz VC6001 and the Denon DVM-2845CI. Of course that doesn't mean I was able to audition each of these players. I've seen the Denon in person and I've read every review imaginable about the current generation Denon and Marantz players. The best I could find was a review of the single disc Marantz player that the VC6001 is based on - the DV4001.

The Marantz comes in about $100 cheaper than the Denon. Accessories4less is a Marantz authorized internet dealer. Their standard shipping via FedEx is cheaper than audioadvisor's. Their deal included a free HDMI cable. It seemed that the Marantz from Accessories4less was the best choice. A4L came through like a champ with ease of purchase and fast (amazingly fast) shipping. I hooked up the player this morning, went through the video setup to compare the player's auto HDMI ouput selection to user-selected 720p which is appropriate for my Panasonic plasma. Both selections appeared grainy and with little or no contrast/definition in darker scenes. It really reminded me of watching a movie on the Panny with my old Pioneer Elite non-upconverting changer. Needless to say, my initial impressions are not favorable. I had to rush off to work (so I could post this). This evening I'll play around with the settings a little more and try the HDMI cable I'm using with the Toshiba in place of the freebie that came with the Marantz. If there's no improvement, it's going back. Not sure how Accessories4Less handles returns. I'd rather not find out, but things will have to look much better tonight. If you're aware of a changer that excells with dvds, I'd like to hear about it. I may be trying the Denon soon since I can get it from a local B&M about an hour away, but I may be adding Yamaha and Sony's changers to the list of potentials too.