Buying a new DVD player

Posted by Jeremy Hart [IP: 153.35.215.89] on February 27, 1999 at 18:17:32
Using Mozilla/4.5 [en] (Win98; U):

I plan to replace my first generation DVD player, a Toshiba SD3006. My primary reasons for replacing it are:

1) It is and always has been extremely sensitive to disc conditions ( tiny scratches, disc warpage, etc... ).

2) It is and always has been somewhat noisy when playing discs--you can hear the disc spinning and I find it distracting during quiet passages.

I have narrowed my choices to the following three:

1) Panasonic DVD-A120
2) Sony DVP-S330
3) Toshiba SD2109

This will be connected to a Yamaha RX-V995, so I need no decoder onboard the DVD player. This will be connected to a 27" Sony V-series set, so I will not need component video connections. I very seldom listen to audio CDs on my current setup, but perhaps that is because the Tosh 3006 is gives CDs a very edgy and unnatural sound. This is not big concern, but the first two problems listed are. I am considering the Panasonic my #1 choice at this point because I am concerned about the way Sony players filter the video to make it look smoother when downconverting anamorphic DVDs. I know the Toshiba simply drops scanlines from the picture to downcovert resulting in distracting "sparkle" effects and breaks in fine diagonal lines. I am also aware that the Panasonic and Sony list better servo control as a feature to handle less than perfect discs, while the new Toshiba does not. I have heard that Panasonic and Sony handle layer changes better than Toshiba which is certainly a consideration as well. The new Sony and Toshiba players list a 27MHz filter to improve video quality while the Panasonic does not, does anybody know (or can you speculate) how important this is to picture quality? I am a bit concerned about this since Panasonic really screwed up in their first generation players by not offering adequate DAC performance and therefore their picture quality suffered in those players.

Opinions?

Follow Ups:

• Buying a new DVD player - Tim S. 18:36:38 03/03/99 (0)
• Buying a new DVD player - Martin Grill 17:10:43 03/03/99 (0)
• Buying a new DVD player - Jay Rose 11:50:40 03/03/99 (0)
• Buying a new DVD player - Sanjay Durani 18:33:24 02/28/99 (1)
  • Buying a new DVD player - Adam 04:39:00 03/02/99 (0)
• Buying a new DVD player - Bill 09:41:49 02/28/99 (0)

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