I'm stuck on a decision as to which DVD player to buy. I've narrowed it down to 2 main choices and any feedback is welcome. I hope to decide by tomorrow. My main thing is get the best picture quality possible for under $300 and hopefully to get some features my current players don't offer. Good build quality won't hurt either as this will probably be my main DVD player for a couple of years at least.

Sony CX995V
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...lance&n=172282
Granted I don't think I really need a 400 disc changer, but its only $278 and does HDMI upconverting. I've been happy with the picture quality from Sony players up to this point and this seems the best player from Sony in my budget.

Panasonic S97S
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...Fencoding=UTF8
This one seems to be getting great reviews for its picture quality and also does HDMI upconverting. Its pretty hard to find, but J&R music has it for $240. Never owned a panasonic though so not sure if there are pitfalls I should be aware of.

I'm hooking this up to a Sony 46" rear projection HDTV
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...&s=audio-video
I'm not really sure if connecting it HDMI will make any difference at all on my TV so if anyone has feedback on that it will be welcome.

Of course option 3 is to say screw it and wait and pay $500 for an HD-DVD player. The temptation is there, but I really don't want to start buying a bunch of HD-DVD discs with the format war just starting not to mention we still don't know what kind of picture quality it will have on standard DVDs or if there will be compatibility problems with certain discs.

I would get a decent, but inexpensive, DVD player to last you until the format war is over. There are some decent Pioneer and Sony models around or under 100 bucks (not sure of model numbers, but I bet someone here knows).

I wouldn't get the Sony changer - I had the model before the 995v (985v - basically the same player but without HDMI). The picture quality was awful and the on-screen interface was useless.

I'd say get the Sony player that Circuit City sells for around 150. The Megachanger is a PITA because when you enter the 400 discs into the menu it deletes them all the time.

The Panny S77 and S97 have macroblocking on some displays.

Okay, I'm definitely seeing the wisdom of just getting something under $150 for now and waiting a year or two to see how the format war shakes out. I am going to go and try out some of the players in that price range.

I have it narrowed to these choices.

The Panasonic ES20 DVD Recorder is $150 this week at Circuit City and the recording functions could come in handy as long as the playback quality is decent. Not sure about macroblocking though or if its an issue on my display. I'm replacing a Sony GX7 which is barely hanging on, but I had kind of talked myself out of getting another DVD Recorder as I wasn't using it to record that often.

The Sony DVPNC80V/B is a 5 disc player and seems a bargain at $119.

The Sony DVPNS70H is an HDMI player and also pretty cheap at $139.

Panasonic has a 5 disc changer as well the DVD-F87S that is $129.

Someone also suggested the Toshiba SD-4980 that is only $79.99 at Best Buy and plays Divx and does HDMI, but I have to wonder if a player that cheap will have a picture quality worth watching.

I'll take some discs with me today and bug them to hook up a couple of these so hopefully I can decide. My big concern is the Toshiba and Panasonic only have 10bit/54Mhz video conversion where the Sony models always comes with a 12bit/108Mhz solution. I'll compare though to see if I can tell the difference. Thanks for the suggestions.

Well I spent the entire day testing out DVD players and was mostly unhappy with the results. The Toshiba and Panasonic low end players were not exceptable and the Sony players were okay, but still not worth the trouble to upgrade to. I finally said to hell with it and spent a few hours trying out players in more of a mid range price. I ended up falling in love with the picture quality of the Denon players and after much debating decided to buy the Denon 2910 for a wallet crushing $699. However, this is probably the the last DVD player I will buy and I want the best picture quality in my budget and a quality player that will last for a long time.

I also checked out the Toshiba HD-DVD player while at the store and the demo set up does nothing to really impress. They are having a tech demo in April and I will return to check it out. They did say the player in the store is not the final version of the hardware and agreed some of the content on the HD demo disc really didn't look very HD so hopefully things will be more impressive at the tech demo.

FWIW, I've heard that the Toshiba @ BB is a non-trayed system and has major problems with the loading system because of it. Beware - that's info an employee told me.

I've also heard the Panasonic 5-disc and SINGLE DISC systems have pretty decent picture (outweighing the Sonys, which I can attest flicker WAY too much). My next player will probably be a Panasonic that will float me through until HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are done bickering over quality.

The 2910 is a great player. I bought one when they first came out and love it.

I tossed a lot of stuff at the 2910 tonight. I have never owned an HDCD compatible player and it was kind of nice to hear the full potential of those CDs. May be tempted to try a few Super Audio CDs and DVD Audio discs as well.

Image quality seemed just as impressive on my home set up as it did at the store and definitely an improvement over my old Sony player. The coolest thing so far was zooming past a layer change with zero hesitation and my amazement as the 2910 played through the problem section on my copy of The Raven without a single skip or issue. That is one of the famous Universal DVD-18 discs that chokes on my Sony players midway through the Raven. I will definitely have to try some of the other problem discs and see how the Denon handles them.

The 2910 is awesome. The DVI out is great and saves me an HDMI port.

Definitely check out DVD-A and SACD. I'm not sure what type of music you're interested in, but here are a few great discs:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (SACD)
Beck - Sea Change (SACD and DVD-A)
The Who - Tommy (SACD)
Neil Young - Harvest (DVD-A)
Davie Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (SACD)

A friend of mine is lending me the Police SACD and I plan on picking up Dark Side of the Moon on Tuesday when I go to pick up some DVDs. I'm going to put together a list of SACDs and DVD-As of interest and try a few out now that I have a quality player to play them on.

Forget all of those...get the Oppo player from Amazon.com....its the best.

Its excellent with a great upscaled picture, region free, pal to ntsc converter and more!

Its highly regarded as the best upscaling dvd player under $300 (and better than some over $300).

I think its about $190 at amazon.com.

I have it and love it.

As a former Oppo owner, I can tell you without a doubt it's NOT the best. It has a horrific audio sync issue. It has a terrible macroblocking issue, and while you can turn off the farudaja feature that causes it, it comes at the expense of the picture. It's only DVI (which is an issue to those of us who don't want to turn their stereo on just to watch an episode of friends). I sold it and got the S-77, which is just as well regarded with none of the issues. I *wish* the Oppo was the best, but it just isn't.

Now, it is the best upscaling, DVI, region free with divx player? Yes. But that's a real narrow field.

well said. For the money, the Oppo seems to have been well-received and praised for it's features, but the Denon 2910 that the OP bought will own it like a dog. And it should considering the price differential.

I have a Sammy 61in DLP and MANY players have had bad macroblocking on my tv (sammy 931, sammy 941, panny s97, denon 1910). I have yet to see it on this one. I was surprised by that! I was expecting to see it. So, yes, it can have mb, but its display dependant (as some of the others on his list too though).

As for the audio synch issue, I have not seen that either. My friend who has one said he saw a synch issue one time and when he stopped the dvd and restarted, it went away. Also, Oppo has made some firmware updates that have supposedly reduced if not eliminated it.

It got the highest score in the shootout on secrets (above the Denons)...

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...h&articles=all

I briefly considered the Oppo, but Divx really isn't a selling point as I doubt I would use the option often and it only does progressive through the dvi port which means I would have to give it my only HDMI port instead of saving that for a future piece of hardware that could fully use it. The audio sync was also an issue I didn't want to run into.

I agree the Oppo does seem like a nice option at the $200 level, but I decided to spend over that for more quality and features I might use. Region Free and Divx just aren't options I really need. I tried dozens of players this weekend and I can honestly say there is nothing out there that could match the Denon 2910 for my needs unless of course I wanted to spend even more than $700 which just wasn't an option. (I did test out that Denon 5910 for the hell of it though)

I'll tell you what will be a GREAT DVD player - the next generation Oppo. Should it keep all it's current features and support, add HDMI, progressive over component, audio sync fix, perhaps the newest gen farudaja, etc. I actually plan on being an early adaptor of it.

Picked this up tonight and was completely blown away by it. Its an album I have listened to a hundred times, but I ended up listening to it all the way through twice. The Police SACD wasn't bad either and I have ordered a Miles Davis SACD and the Shaft soundtrack in SACD as well from yourmusic.com. I have also put a few classical and jazz SACDs and DVD-As on hold at the library. So I am definitely going to enjoy the SACD and DVD-A feature and I have 7-8 HDCD compatible discs as well.

Granted I did have a snag at first because I didn't read my manually carefully and had no idea that SACD isn't transmitted through the digital out. However, I figured that one out pretty quickly and ran the 6 cable connection to my multi channel in on my reciever and was in business. I like that the Denon lets me completely shut off all the other functions of the player to get the highest audio quality possible when using SACDs.

Another great disc is "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by The Flaming Lips (DVD-A). Great album with a very aggressive 5.1 mix.

Yeah.

Don't pay anything over a $100 for a DVD player at this point with HD-DVD and Playstation 3 a short time a way. Playstation 3 will be a full powered player. Even if you don't play games, you could get one just to play movies on.

No offense, but paying $300 for any regular DVD player at this time is idiotic when HD-DVD players and Playstation 3's will be around $400 by November.

Is this something you really even need? Or are you really buying it on an impulse because you can't afford to upgrade to HD/Blu-ray yet?

You already say you have other players? Why do you want another traditional DVD player at this point? Why not just use what you have until the holidays when players of next gen will be in your price range?

If you need a regular DVD player, buy one under $100. I think paying anything above $100 for a regular DVD player at this point is a mistake. Especially hundred's.

You mention HDMI? I assume this means you have an HDTV?

This makes it even more of a mistake to make a move like this. It just doesn't make any sense logically. Just hold it out for a couple months and use what you already have.

I am not trying to interfere. I am just trying to save you from making a mistake you will regret in the fall. The fall will come. Then you will think. If only I would have waited, I could have bought something that my HDTV is meant for.

Don't stick yourself. Think things through very, very carefully before you make a decision like this now. I can almost guarantee you that you will regret it in less that 6 months. Especially owning an HDTV.

If you didn't own an HDTV? That would be a different story. Even so, I would still not advise anyone spending $300+ on a regular DVD player. This isn't 1999-2001 anymore.

I spent $700 on the Denon so "can't afford HD-DVD" really isn't the issue. I will decide on the Toshiba HD player after going to an HD-DVD 3 hour demo on the first of April. Its definitely in the realm of possibility for me to buy an HD-DVD player as well though I'm leaning strongly towards 2007 or 2008 when the format war is over and media and hardware prices are down. If anything HD-DVD seems more of an impulse buy and buying a quality DVD player seems more like a good investment on a 900 disc DVD collection.

The DVD player I am replacing is my 2 year old Sony GX7 that I paid $400 for. This was my main DVD player hooked up to my HDTV. My other two options are both low end Sony players though the S300 was also $400 when I purchased it in 1998.

I did try to go low end with a replacement, but the video playback quality was simply not exceptable to me on any of the players I tried. Low end players do a decent job and I never had a major issue with them on my old 27" and 32" SDTVs. However, since I purchased the 46" HDTV the video performance has been an issue. Even the GX7 only did an okay job at best. My HDTV puts out a very nice 480p picture and low quality DAC and deinterlacing gets fairly easy to spot.

I went DVD player shopping with a stack of discs and the only player that in any way felt up to the standards I wanted on my HDTV was the Denon. I probably could have gotten by with the Denon 1920, but I wanted something high quality that could last for years and give my DVDs the best possible showing on my HDTV so I went with the more expensive 2910.

That decision cost me $700, but again I think its a very exceptable investment on my DVD viewing not to mention opening up SACD and DVD Audio options. There is zero guarantee that the new HD players are going to do more than an exceptable job of playing back standard DVDs so I would rather have a high quality DVD player and just use the new hardware when I decide to upgrade for what it is designed for, HD discs.

BTW, the PS2 was without a doubt the worst DVD player I ever owned not to mention the most unreliable hardware I have ever owned. I would never invest in Blu-Ray with the PS3 as my main player.

First off, I think under $300 is affordable. Everyone has different opinions on price though.

As far as HD-DVD and Bluray, the initial players will not have as many features, they will be more expensive and possibly have bugs. Im probably gonna wait a bit DUE to my Oppo upscaling player.

So, spending under $300 right now on a nice upscaling DVD player (especially region free with pal converter...Oppo anyone?? ) is NOT a bad investment in my opinion.

Besides, if the perfect HD player comes out in Nov and is a good price point, you can always ebay your old dvd player.