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DVD/CD Players Buying Guide
Choosing the right DVD player is not a trivial matter in a market flooded with products from various hardware vendors. There are more than several players to choose from in each price category and the notion of spending more money will buy you better performance does not always apply here, especially when DVD players are concerned. Usually when you spend money on a unit, it will offer you more features,...
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Choosing the right DVD player is not a trivial matter in a market flooded with products from various hardware vendors. There are more than several players to choose from in each price category and the notion of spending more money will buy you better performance does not always apply here, especially when DVD players are concerned. Usually when you spend money on a unit, it will offer you more features, better remotes, and more usable / intuitive On Screen Displays (OSD's) with marginal if any improvements in audio / video performance. The purpose of the DVD/CD Player Buying Guidelines is to help educate the consumer about DVD players and assist them in choosing the best model for their needs based upon budget, performance expectations and system compatibility.
User Interface
One of the most important features of a DVD player is the user interface. The player needs to be intuitive for the user to operate especially in the dark which is how most people watch DVD's. The remote should be simple in design and layout and uncluttered with unnecessary buttons. Most players in the $300 price range suffer from poorly designed remotes. Once the lights are out, good luck in setting up a DVD, especially some of the DVD's which requires the user to go through the set up menus via the OSD to set the audio to DD 5.1. Moving up the price ladder will, in most cases, offer better a remote with backlit capability. However, this unit may also feature built in Dolby Digital/DTS decoders which would be a wasted feature if you already have a Receiver or Preamp / Processor with the decoder built in. It is preferred to use the internal DD decoder of your Receiver / Preamp as it almost always offers more convenience, better performance and bass management over the internal decoders of DVD players. A better option to the consumer is to purchase a good $300 DVD player and add a $100-$200 universal remote with backlit capability for easier and more convenient operation if needed.
Performance
Audio Performance
Judging a DVD player for audio performance is only an issue if you plan on using the internal DAC's of the unit. There are two cases where this would be evident
Listening to 96KHz/24 bit CD's and/or DVD Audio/SACDs
Using the unit with an analog Receiver or Preamp / Processor with no internal DAC's or built-in decoders.
The majority of DVD users operate the player primarily as a DVD player with a Dolby Digital Source. Even if one wanted to use it as a CD player, good performance may be achieved by bypassing the internal DAC's of the DVD player and using it as a transport only in your digital system. Audio performance should only be considered a critical issue if you plan on using the DVD player's analog outputs for DVD-Audio/SACD or 96/24 2-channel music.
Bass Management
Many (most, OK nearly ALL) DVD players have horrendous bass management options. Only recently have manufacturers started paying attention to this at all. While not critical for Dolby Digital and DTS source material, advanced bass management is absolutely CRITICAL for high-end users hoping to take analogue SACD or DVD-Audio siganls from theoir players. The only way to avoid another pesky A-to-D and D-to-A conversion is to have a player that does a sufficient job at bass management. Right now, Denon leads the pack in this area (and has for quite some time). On their newest models, dual bass management is supplied for both HDMI PCM output and analogue.
Specs
Comparing specs on the back of the user manual to the DVD player(s) is mostly a colossal waist of time since the specs to all DVD players appear to be quite excellent. Interpret the specs with a grain of salt, and note the tolerances with which they measure frequency response, signal to noise ratio, and output voltage. Some players boast excellent frequency response or S/N ratios with wide tolerances or low output voltage when making these measurements. If you plan on using the DVD players analog outputs as you would with a CD player in a system with no alternate DAC's, note the following:
Important Audio Specifications
Frequency Response: The tighter the tolerance, the more realistic the measurement is.
Output Voltage: Reference should be 2Vrms(min). Many players rate output voltage at 200mV to give illusion of better S/N ratios.
Signal to noise ratio for CD and DVD Audio/SACD
Video Performance
Most DVD players have excellent video performance, if you compare them to the legacy capabilities of a VCR or cable TV. There are, however not-so-subtle differences between players to the trained eye, which should be noticeable enough to prefer one brand over the other (if you don't know what to look for count yourself blessed!) One common occurrence of some of the 1st generation players was the presence of scan lines and / or black vertical bars faintly present in the background while viewing the DVD. When comparing DVD players, one important video characteristic to note is the deinterlacing capability of the player.
To determine this you can either use a test disc like AVIA or HQV's Benchmark DVD, or you can queue up movies that have scenes with the following characteristics:
Moving diagonal elements or lines
Noisy images or images that will show noise well, like blue skies and bodies of water
Tightly woven parrallel lines, as in a wide swath of steps or the close-up texture of a knit shirt.
Color accuracy and richness are also important characteristics of video quality. Pay careful attention to the realism of color and how detailed the picture is when switching between different players.
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