Opinions on DVD Players

[Ustauk]

Well, my Panasonic DVD player conked out on me last night, on DVD night no less  Fortunately, I had a backup in the form of the XBox.  I'd like to get another set-top DVD player so I don't overburden the Xbox too much.  I'd appreciate any feedback you guys could give on your current and past DVD players.  In particular, the following one caught my eye.

http://www.jvc.ca/en/consumer/product-detail.asp?model=XV-N320B

A&B has it on sale for $69.



Best Buy also has a Pioneer on sale for $79

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10059252&catid=20208&logon=&langid=EN



Thanks.



PS: If anyone wants the old one to tinker with, you're welcome to it.  The motor's having trouble spinning up the DVD.

[Mr. Analog]

I would take the Pioneer over the JVC, but that's just me...

[Shayne]

JVC ownz you, but that's just me...

[Thorin]

Erm, neither of those have Optical Digital out.  If your receiver has an Optical Digital in, I'd be looking for that.  Only because it's cool.  Oh, and because EM interference doesn't affect optical connections.



Not a brand-name, but has optical audio connector and built-in DivX decoders: Kosch at Futureshop

[Thorin]

Same unit but even cheaper: Kosch at BestBuy

[Mr. Analog]

If it were me, I'd go for the Toshiba with optical out and Divx playback



I likes it I does...

[Cova]

Oppo is what you want, I'll post some links in a bit.

[Ustauk]

Erm, neither of those have Optical Digital out.  If your receiver has an Optical Digital in, I'd be looking for that.  Only because it's cool.  Oh, and because EM interference doesn't affect optical connections.

I was looking into the whole optical-versus-coaxial thing a bit on the net.  Over short distances, the two are apparently similar.  EM interference isn't a factor on Coax unless you're running it next to a massive EM source.  Since its digital, you'd know right away from the signal cutting in and out.  I actually had two 12' a/v cables coupled together running from my computers SP/Dif out to my receiver's coaxial port a while back and noticed not interference.  So it doesn't matter to me which one I get.

[Cova]

Ok - got more details, I can never remember more about this thing than the brand name and that I want one.  The Oppo DV971H is what I'd recommend you get.  The first link below has a ton of information about it.  The other 2 links are to a pair of large comparison articles between various different DVD players - the first has almost everything you'd want to consider, the second only has a few, but has the updated firmware for the oppo player in it (yes, you can download and update the firmware in this player yourself)



http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=491306&highlight=oppo



http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=122



http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=124



Edit:

And the link to the product page at the manufacturer...

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html

[Ustauk]

Ok - got more details, I can never remember more about this thing than the brand name and that I want one.  The Oppo DV971H is what I'd recommend you get.  The first link below has a ton of information about it.  The other 2 links are to a pair of large comparison articles between various different DVD players - the first has almost everything you'd want to consider, the second only has a few, but has the updated firmware for the oppo player in it (yes, you can download and update the firmware in this player yourself)



http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=491306&highlight=oppo



http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=122



http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=124



Edit:

And the link to the product page at the manufacturer...

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html

Thanks, Cova, but I think this is a bit out of the price range I was looking for.  I just have a plain old 27" CRT with s-video in, and I have the XBox for Avi files, so its a bit more then I need.

[Shayne]

Do DivX players play Xvid?

[Cova]

Do DivX players play Xvid?

That oppo one will play some Xvid's, and other players might also play some, hard to give a much clearer answer than that.  Some players can't resize video, and will only play xvid/divx at 720x480 (dvd resolution).  Some only support certain features of the codecs (eg. no using qpel) so some files will play and some won't.  Xvid and divx are exactly the same format (along with many other codecs) they all implement MPEG 4 Advanced Simple Profile in various ways.  In the end, that oppo does close to the best job of playing mpeg4 and still sucks at it - a modded xbox is cheaper than many divx-playing dvd players, and will play all mpeg-4 based codecs in virtually any container format (avi, mkv, ogm, etc), as well as quicktime, real-video, wmv, etc.  supports all the features of those codecs, supports video of any size (HD streams will drop frames though, xbox cpu isn't fast enuf), and can stream them over the network from any computer(s) you have.

[Ustauk]

Well, I ended up getting the JVC.  It seems to be working well. So far, I'm not noticing any difference between the opticl and coaxial digital outs.  Thanks for your advice, guys.