DVD Players
To go along with the new TV I’ve been wanting to get a new DVD player. See, my old Sony DVP-S550D from the late 90s doesn’t support 480p output, won’t play burned discs reliably, is single-region, and has a nasty problem of occasionally losing sync between audio and video†.
On Monday I picked up a Toshiba SD-K770 from Costco for $39.99, and yesterday a Philips DVP5140 for $49.99 from Target. With both players at their default settings, alternately run through the same component input on the TV (set to Pro mode with brightness turned down slightly) here’s what I found:
Toshiba SD-K770
· Remote contains all needed controls, but is small and cramped. Somewhat hard to use without looking.
· Colors appear a bit less saturated than the Philips DVP5140.
· Remote feels very laggy.
· Cannot (currently) be made multi-region.
Philips DVP5140
· Remote is better designed, but is lacking buttons like ANGLE.
· More saturated colors. Not sure if this is correct or not yet.
· Easily made multi-region. (Go to the Preferences page in Setup, enter 138931 on the remote, then pick the new region.)
· Less noisy drive mechanism than the SD-K770.
· Faster remote response than the SD-K770.
· Image pixelates when paused, making test patterns a bit hard to observe. Patterns appear very smooth when playing.
· Display area shifted vertically much more than the Toshiba, almost cropping at the edge of the safe area. (1, 2)
Photographs of the display, showing the same test patterns and some menu stills from a Family Guy Season 3 DVD can be found here (photo gallery retired). These were made by setting up the camera, picking some screens, and photographing them on aperture priority. The players were both using the same input with the same settings on the TV.
At this point I’m almost wondering if I should return both players and just order an OPPO DV-970HD. At $149.99 (shipped) it is 3x the cost of the Philips, but it seems to have a lot of things going for it:
· Like the SD-K770 and DVP5148 it is also a DivX certified player.
· The remote appears to be far better designed and more along the lines of what I’d expect in a DVD player remote.
· The DV-970HD can also play DivX (and such) files from USB 1.1 mass storage devices or flash cards.
· Easily made multi-region. (Enter 9210 on remote while in Setup menu and select region.)
· It gets very good reviews, especially for a player of it’s price.
· Company support appears to be very good, with regular firmware updates posted to their site.
· Plays SACDs, but audio output must come from HDMI or 5-channel out due to stupid DRM.
That all said, I don’t have access to a DV-970HD to look at how things fit on the display, nor how it looks color-wise, but it has been receiving very good reviews from quite a few places. A big part of me is thinking that I should just spend the extra, get the OPPO and go with that.
I don’t have plans to regularly upgrade any home theater stuff, so this would probably be worthwhile. Especially if it lasts as long as my previous player. (The previous player still works, but the lack of 480p and the sync problem is pretty bothersome now.)
† This can be resolved by stopping the player and pressing play again. The disc restarts at the stopped point, but audio and video are in sync.
I just purchased a new HD TV, and upon the advice of a good friend as well as my sales person, they both recommended purchasing an upconverting DVD player. The reason being is that frequently the UC DVD player typically does a better job of the UC than the TV does.
That being said, if you already have a progressive scan DVD player (i.e. 480p) you may not notice much of a difference between a UC DVD player and the UC job that your TV does. Needless to say, the higher end TV’s would do a better native job, and considering yours is an XBR unit, it probably does the UC job quite nicely.
I purchased my TV from a high end Camera/Audio/Video shop here in Rochester. They recommend the previous and upcoming (later this month) Pioneer UC DVD player that sells for just under $100.
I may look at it, but I already have a progressive scan DVD player. If I needed something that would do component/hdmi out, then I would consider looking at this new unit.
Hope it helps!
Heh, I just ordered an Oppo DV-970HD player from AV Science, who also happens to be in Rochester, NY. (I had to look where you were again, because Rochester, MI is half-way between work and home.)
I’m liking the community support that this one seems to have, along with the ability to play content straight from USB drives. Hopefully it’ll work out well enough. The price ended up being $149 + $10 shipping, but it’s looking like it’ll be exactly what I need. Well, I hope. :D
Now to package up the Toshiba and Philips players and return them to Costco and Target, respectively.
Let me know how all that stuff works out. All good to know when I save enough dough to drop on my home theater needs.