Would a new DVD player help me?
 

I recently got a Toshiba 51h84 which I really like a lot.. Great picture.. However my DVD player is a Samsung DVD C-621. It's a good DVD player, 5 discs, probably about 3 years old... Haven't had a problem with it... I've come across some money (about $150-$200) and was thinking of upgrading the DVD player to a pioneer 588 (or something good like that)...

Would the picture be noticably improved? Which pioneer would you go with? (non-pioneer would be fine too)

here is a link to my current dvd player:
http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/n...DVD-C621%2fXAA

looks like it doesn't even have progressive scan

The Pioneer is a decent player....you can probably get away with getting the 285 for around $80 or less. I know the 588 only uses SACD and DVD Audio....so, if those matter to you, get that.

Is your Samsung Progressive Scan?

No.. What would you recommend? I don't think I care about SACD or DVD Audio much... REgion Free would be nice.. Is region free the same as being able to watch ntsc or pal?

in any case your DVD player or TV will do the NTSC>PAL conversion for you whether it's region free or not, but due to the fact you will only be getting PAL from other region disks any player that is region free will do the conversion for you.

go to videohelp.com there is a section on that site that tells you all about basically every DVD player made, you can also figure out how to make your player region free from that site........it's generally as simple as inputing a code from your remote.

For example I have a Philips DVP-642 my player plays DIVX files straight from blank CDs and everything but it did not come region free but all I had to do was open the disk tray and enter "7 8 9 OK 0" on my remote and they player was region free :thumbsup:

kaki

kaki,
That's not completely true. Most American TVs (except front projectors) do not convert/display PAL. From the manual, the 51h84 does not. And many region free players do not, either. Certain brands of players seldom convert, I think Panasonic never does for instance. Most of these will play PAL discs, but then you'd have to have a TV that can display PAL or convert.

j123vt_99,
Your TV will convert anything it receives to 540p or 1080i. Using a standard progressive scan player (like the Pioneer 285/588) is almost useless since those output 480p and the TV will have to re-scale it, anyway. Now, the newer upconverting players might be something you'd like. They can output 1080i to match your TV's best native display. The Oppo is $200, upconverts well, region free, and immensely popular. There are often threads here or in the International forum about other region free players, but most of the ones discussed around here cannot match the above in picture quality. I couldn't stand a Philips model that I tried and gave it away. Got the Pio 285 instead, wonderful picture. (just not necessarily a great match for your TV)

I have the momitsu V880DX upconverting player and love the picture quality.

It is a great DVD player, but has a couple quirks. The remote sucks (but I use a universal so it doesnt matter) and the loader is slow to open. Also, some have reported getting bad units.

I have not had ANY issues with mine and have had it almost a year.

I have had MANY upconverting players in the past and was disappointed with all of the ones with the Faroudja chipset. The macroblocking was horrid on my Sammy DLP. So, I went with the momitsu (which has a sigma chipset).

Ive been curious to try the Oppo, but I dont really wanna change since I love the pq of the momitsu.

Damn you're right! please excuse my ignorance. I guess what I should say is I've never had a problem with this, as my equipment does the conversion. On the site mentioned you can figure out what players will though, and there are many :thumbsup:

kaki