I just bought a Sony kp51hw40 widescreen HDTV. The salesman recommended the Sony DVPNS700P progressive scan dvd player.

First, will I see a noticeable difference with progressive scan? Second, is the Sony model a good choice? Could I do better for less money?

Thanks,
Mike

Yes you will notice a difference and I recommend the Panasonic RP-91. It lists for $699 but it can easily be found for around $450.

A progressive player would be a good choice for your TV. I have the 700 and like it alot although it does have the chroma bug. Whether or not this bothers you is a subjective matter.

Check this link for more info

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...-2-8-2001.html

What is the chroma bug? I couldn't find a description at the site you provided.

Thanks,
MIke

Chroma Upsampling Error (Streaky Saturated Colors)

Here is an image, below, with the correct decoding on the left, and the “bad” decoding on the right. Look particularly at the blue around the word "Toy". See the horizontal streaks? Note that the “bad” example is not necessarily what you will see on all DVD players. Some players may look better or worse, though the nature of the problem and the places it appears will be the same.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...e-10-2000.html


This machine was a surprise to us, a mildly pleasant one. We had heard through the grapevine that this player would be using the Genesis chipset, as the earlier S9000ES had. When we got the player, however, we found that Sony was using a chip of their own. It's not quite up to the level of the Silicon Image or Sage chips, but it's several notches better than the Genesis.

The chip uses cadence-reading, so it passes all the "bad flags" tests quite well. As you can see from the chart, the player failed the Mixed Mode and Chapter Stops test, with a pretty significant recovery time. But it never combed on those tests, which is good. It has good bad edit detection - 1 comb on the Big Lebowski test is very good indeed. Only the Sage and Silicon Image chips do better. And it has good quality motion-adaptive video deinterlacing, which is excellent.

Video quality was quite good. Unfortunately, this player has the chroma bug. It's not as bad as some, but it's there and quite noticeable on certain material. One feature that was missing that some people are interested in is aspect ratio control. The Sony DVPS9000ES offered the ability to windowbox 4:3 material, but we were unable to find this feature on the NS700P.

All in all, this is a very fine player, marred only by a tendency to stay in video mode a little long, and the chroma bug. If the chroma bug isn't an issue for you, we'd certainly rank this player well above average for its price point.

mrosen,
Congrats on the Sony tv. I got a 57hw40 at the beginning of December and am extremely pleased.
You can get a lot of feedback and info about the TV and the use of progressive/ non-progressive players at a very friendly home theater site, hometheaterspot.com.

In general, the line doubler in this new generation of sony hd-capable TVs is extremely good, and many people can't see the difference between a non-progressive player or progressive player with that set (especially with the less expensive progressive players).

I'm very pleased with the JVC low-end progressive player (I think it's the 65gd that I have), as it is renowned for very good performance with film-source material, and I'd agree with that. For about $200, it's a great progressive player, in my opinion. Also has a great zoom feature on the player, which is something that I like on my Toshiba, and some players don't have.

I also have an older Toshiba non-progressive player, and tend to use that for video-source material on DVD.

I would definitely recommend checking out the info about your TV in the Sony forum at that hometheaterspot.com site, very useful stuff, and a very friendly, non-elitist atmosphere.
If you need any info about creating a shelf for the top of the TV, since it just has that narrow ledge at the front, I posted some photos of what I did for mine in the "Sony" forum there. Just do a search about 20 days back for "center channel speaker" and you'll probably find it.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dvd2001
[B]mrosen,


In general, the line doubler in this new generation of sony hd-capable TVs is extremely good, and many people can't see the difference between a non-progressive player or progressive player with that set (especially with the less expensive progressive players).

Purchase the Panasonic RP91K (I picked one up at Ultimate Electronics a few months ago for $349.00) and you will see a big difference between your JVC and the RP91K.

I highly recommend this player as I love it. I have a Sony XBR TV and this player. It has the chroma bug but I have yet to notice any infraction with it. I bought mine at Sears for $270 on a 10% off day but Crutchfield.com has it for $300. At this price for a progressive player when you have other Sony equipment and kind of want to match it, it's a bargain. I notice the difference on my HD TV.

Thanks! I have actually visited that site before. I went back and found your post. The shelf looks amazing. I'm not great with woodwork...how did you get the back edge beveled like that? Is that just done with sandpaper? I'd want to be sure it was even all the way across.

Thanks,
Mike

If you're thinking about the RP91 you might want to wait till its replacement model arrives, which should be soon. Most online retailers don't have the 91 in stock now. Hopefully the new model will address some of the bugs present in all of the current models.

If scaling is important to you, maybe you should buy one of the new Toshibas or JVCs. For half the price of the RP91, you can get a player with equal (and sometimes better) scaling ability. Actually, depending on where you buy the RP91 (it's usually well over $500), the Toshiba 3750 or JVC SA60/65 could be had for one-third of the cost of the RP91. Not a bad deal, considering you're getting equal scaling ability (actually better because neither player shifts 4:3 material to the left) and better performance on film based material.


http://www.hometheaterspot.com/cgi-b...=6&t=000698&p=

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=103258