Best legacy DVD player

[Tarheel_]

with a mature format, tons of bought discs, and cheap street prices...

can anyone recommend the best of the best DVD players (are they considered old school now?), under consideration.

I'm a year or so away from spending money on movies i already own so i'm looking for a stellar DVD player to integrate into my HT.

I weigh both audio and video equal...well, maybe audio a bit more.

thx!

[Woochifer]

Might need to act on it quickly. The high end DVD player market is basically dead with everything moving over to Blu-ray, and the middle market dwindling as well with Oppo discontinuing all of their DVD players to focus on Blu-ray.

If you plan to use a digital audio connection to a receiver, then the audio capabilities of the DVD player is irrelevant (unless you want DVD-A and SACD capability).

The hometheaterhifi website was the go-to source for benchmark test results on DVD players. They still maintain the test results on their website, but I don't think they've done any new DVD player tests recently. You might want to look through their benchmarks to pick out a few models to look out for.

There are plenty of deals right now on closeout items. A few months ago, I got the equivalent to the Denon DVD-1940CI at Costco for less than $70 (original list price was $370). Very nice unit, with the usual set of Denon quirks (i.e., indecipherable manual, illogical menus, etc.) to go along with the good audio/video performance. Someone else found it for around $90 through 6th Avenue Electronics. Either price is still good for that particular unit, which comes with a Faroudja video processor, Burr-Brown DACs, built in DD and DTS decoding, and format support for just about everything short of Blu-ray.

Another option is the Marantz DV-4001, which somebody on this board bought for $83. That too is a highly spec'd DVD player that used to sell for more than $300. It lacks 5.1 analog outputs and support for DVD-A and SACD, but it is very well regarded for its video quality.

If those options are no longer available, you might want to just bite the bullet and go with a Blu-ray player. Even if you don't have a HDTV or HDMI 1.1 (or above) enabled receiver, Blu-ray uses higher res versions of DD and DTS that will give you an immediate audio quality improvement. The Panasonic DMP-BD60 is now available for around $130 in some places. It was one of the first BD players that fared very well on the standard DVD tests (most early BD players did a mediocre job on DVD playback), and is a stellar performer with Blu-ray.

[recoveryone]

The Pioneer Elite DV48A was highly rated back in the day for a universal player (DVD-A, SCAD,DVD, MP3 and so on) also upconverts to 1080i or 720p (via HDMI) not sure what its going for now days, retail $399, but I'm sure you can find it cheaper.

[BadAssJazz]

The best of the best are still the Oppo Digital DVD players...but as mentioned previously, Oppo has stopped selling them. You can sometimes find a used unit at www.audiogon.com, www.videogon.com and ebay.

[Tarheel_]

Thanks!!

I took your advise and purchased the Denon from Dakmart.com for $70. I have a 720p projector and this seems to fill my need.

Not ready to support blu-ray because of my equipment, ability to burn movies and...no need to re--purchase my favorite movies.

Greg

[pixelthis]

Thanks!!

I took your advise and purchased the Denon from Dakmart.com for $70. I have a 720p projector and this seems to fill my need.

Not ready to support blu-ray because of my equipment, ability to burn movies and...no need to re--purchase my favorite movies.

Greg

IF YOU CARE ABOUT "collecting" there is a "need".
True you wont get as big a bang for your "buck" with a 720p setup, but BLU IS STILL THE WAY TO GO.
DVD is dead doomed to soon be relegated to Dollar stores, supermarkets, etc.
I have 25 or so BLU discs, and a lot are "rebuys", and dont regret a single one.
TERMINATOR II , MIB, etc, all are a hoot to watch over in high res format.

[BadAssJazz]

I have 25 or so BLU discs, and a lot are "rebuys", and dont regret a single one.TERMINATOR II , MIB, etc, all are a hoot to watch over in high res format.

The rapidly changing landscape is precisely why I never bought any LD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A, etc., etc., disc. I just can't see re-purchasing all of those movies/music over and over again. More power to the folks who have the budget or space to do that. As for myself...Thank God for Netflix.

[manlystanley]

can anyone recommend the best of the best DVD players (are they considered old school now?), under consideration.

I love my Denon 3830ci. Even with my modest projector it looks great!

I bought it from ubid for $280.

Best Regards,
Stan

[pixelthis]

The rapidly changing landscape is precisely why I never bought any LD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A, etc., etc., disc. I just can't see re-purchasing all of those movies/music over and over again. More power to the folks who have the budget or space to do that. As for myself...Thank God for Netflix.

YOU SOUND LIKE THE GUY WHO DIDN'T buy a color TV until 1989 because he was
waiting for the price to go down.
You love Netflix? Another reason to buy a Blu player, as a few stream Netflix.
THE ptb LOVE GUYS LIKE YOU, as I posted on the news section, they want DVD to
die so they can sell their product over the net and on demand services, save a ton on
making discs.
AND it looks like they are going to get their way.

[BadAssJazz]

YOU SOUND LIKE THE GUY WHO DIDN'T buy a color TV until 1989 because he was waiting for the price to go down.

Not quite the same thing.

I have no qualms with upgrading to newer technologies the minute they hit the market. In fact, as mentioned in several other posts, I've owned multiple Blu Ray players, as well as LD, DVD, mini disc, SACD, DVD-Audio players, digital servors, etc., etc., when they are/were released.

My point was that I'm generally not one to go out and purchase multiple iterations of the same movie or album, essentially replacing old libraries simply to comply with the newer media format. I'm not knocking those who do.

I'm not even saying that I've never repurchased a movie or LP in order to be lockstep with the "current" technology. At one time I owned Stevie Wonder's "Songs In the Key of Life" in several formats, including the Lp, the 8 track, the reel to reel, the cassette tape, the initial CD release and it's remaster. Now imagine doing that same thing with the thousands of movies that I like. No, not gonna happen.

I like movie rental companies. I NEED movie rental companies. But don't read more into that than convenience. I wouldn't sacrifice the quality of blu ray or basic DVD's for streaming movies. (At least not until they devise a way to improve the vid stream and provide HD audio along with the video content.)

[Woochifer]

The rapidly changing landscape is precisely why I never bought any LD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A, etc., etc., disc. I just can't see re-purchasing all of those movies/music over and over again. More power to the folks who have the budget or space to do that. As for myself...Thank God for Netflix.

I see the utility of SACD/DVD-A precisely because there are no other means of listening to 5.1 high res audio for most of those titles. In many cases, the reworking of the multitrack masters to produce a 5.1 mix results in a dramatically different listening experience and much improved sound quality.

As long as I keep a working universal player in my HT rack, I'm fine. I still seek out SACDs because I just like the audio quality and the hybrid discs maintain backwards compatibility.

It's also different with optical disc formats maintaining that 5.25" form factor. This makes for easy transitions between different optical formats. A Blu-ray player will also play CDs and DVDs, and something like the Oppo adds DVD-A and SACD playback all in one player. It's not like Laserdisc or Beta/VHS, which use a completely different form factor.

[Woochifer]

Thanks!!

I took your advise and purchased the Denon from Dakmart.com for $70. I have a 720p projector and this seems to fill my need.

Not ready to support blu-ray because of my equipment, ability to burn movies and...no need to re--purchase my favorite movies.

Greg

Congrats on the purchase. It's a nice player, and should work well for you.

But, given that you already have a 720p projector, why not Blu-ray?

[Tarheel_]

Congrats on the purchase. It's a nice player, and should work well for you.

But, given that you already have a 720p projector, why not Blu-ray?

Honestly, i've listened and watched HD DVD and Blu at a friends house and wasn't impressed much on either video or audio. Sure, it looked a bit better than my 720p projector, but he has a 1080p plasma and movies just look more detailed/crisp than on my 110" screen.

The audio is where i was disappointed. We watched a few movies and the sound didn't impress...it just sounded louder and brighter.

True, we have different HT equipment, but his stuff is well above average and calibrated well.