blu ray player 7.1 analog
image
Will F
Sometimes you see one for $200 and another times you'll see one for $600. So how big is the difference in image quality. Do artifacts show up in the cheaper ones, I don't understand what the difference would be.
Answer
In terms of watching a movie, the player isn't that important ... in essence it's a transport mechanism. While some more expensive players support features that may improve the image quality slightly (e.g. the ability to output 24 fps 1080p video) in general all will provide excellent quality from a Blu-ray disk.
Differences are mainly in support for additional features, some of which are functional and some of which are only important in how movie extras are handled (e.g. internet connectivity for 'in movie experiences / on-line chat) -- many of which may not be important to many users.
Some of the more expensive players have built in support for advanced audio formats that cheaper/more basic players don't. Then there are some with 7.1 analog outputs for uncompressed audio. Higher price may buy the ability to stream HD movies, handle extra fomats (e.g. Divx), support on board memory (useful for JPEG viewing, etc), Internet connectivity, etc. Build quality and the quality of components (e.g. video processor (which can impact the players ability to scale DVDs and/or scale Blu-ray to lower resolution), DACs, circuit boards, power supply) is generally higher with the more expensive. Finally, some manufacturuers simply play on the cachet of their name to justify higher prices.
Read the specs on players carefully and differences become clear.
What is the best HD DVD player that will upgrade to 1080i and will accept Blue Ray as well?
Dolly
Also want the best sound quality as well. I went to consumers reports site and still cannot get the answer I want. I do know about the Denon reciever with the DVD in it that upgrades but never said anything about Blue Ray, I really don't want to buy a new reciever because I have the onyko. Thanks to all that answer.
Answer
All HD-DVD players currently support 1080i output. Some support 1080p, some do not... don't expect upgrades to change a 1080i player into a 1080p player.
No HD-DVD player will support Blu-Ray discs, now or in the future. What you want here is a combination player, or whatever you want to call it. To date, there have been three of these, all from traditional Blu-Ray companies.
The first was the LG BH100. This came out in early 2007, and it's basically a full featured Blu-Ray player that will also kinda-sorta play HD-DVDs, but won't support all of the HD-DVD features.
http://www.hometheatermag.com/discplayers/0307lgbdhd/
This has since been replaced by the LG "SuperBlu" BH200, which claims to be a fully functional HD-DVD player, as well as the usual Blu Ray stuff. This one does 1080p and has a 5.1 analog output, decoding for Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, and DTS-HD.... it better, it costs about $1000.
The third is the BD-UP5000 from Samsung. It's not quite out yet, and it should be similarly priced. See here
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9749669-7.html
As for sound quality.. well, ideally, you have a digital cable from the disc player to your receiver, and so the audio quality of the player itself is moot. Of course, as you're saying, the new audio formats in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will require a new receiver, if you want this digital decoding in your receiver. The first BD and HD-DVD players have onboard decoding of at least some of the standard formats... you can run cables into your receiver's 5.1 or 7.1 input from these. At that point, the quality and the specific formats the BD/HD-DVD player decodes will matter.... I haven't even followed all that, since there's so much chaos out there.
One thing to note: all "plain" HD-DVD players currently come from Toshiba. Other than the cheap HD-DVDs coming Real Soon Now from China, they make all of the HD-DVD players. So if you're not happy with Toshiba's quality, you may be out of luck. On the Blu-Ray side, Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Denon, Pioneer, Sharp, Lite-On, Mitsubishi, Funai, JVC, Loewe, Daewoo, and others are making Blu-Ray players. So there's more variety.
I certainly hope that "Universal" players catch on.. that may be the only way out of this format war. You can expect Toshiba and Sony to be the last folks anywhere to make such players, and probably awhile for the Chinese, too, since this adds cost. So you need to watch the rest of the current "Blu-Ray" folks, to see if this catches on or not.
Software upgrades are nothing terribly new. The Denon DVD-3800 allows them, but it's clumsy.. you have to copy the upgrade files onto an SD card. All HD-DVD players supposedly have ethernet (it's a requirement), as will a class of Blu-Ray players, making updates easier. My own IOData AVeL Linkplayer2 (a high-def red laser player) has had an ethernet connection and update web function for over three years now. It's really crazy to make any digital device these days without some firmware update feature. But no software update is going to turn an HD-DVD player into a Blu-Ray combo player.. you need new drive electronics for that.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
