Blu-ray players versus older high-end DVD players

[admin_exported]

Has anyone done comparisons between any of the current Blu-ray players and some of the older high end SD DVD players, on both picture and sound ?

I'd be interested to hear what people have found when comparing £1000+ universal DVD players from 2007/2008 against the current HD players. Eg. Denon 3930 and above sort of players. I only mention Denon as an example....

 

[HDNumpty]

The WHF mag did a test with 3 readers in June where they pitched a Marantz 7001 against the Pioneer Bluray player - interestingly 1 reader thought that there was only "10-15%" difference in pic quality...

 

[Anonymous]

I've just purchased an Arcam DV139 (second hand), rather than Blu-ray as I have lots of non-HD format DVDs and wanted to get best from them. Was also replacing a CD player, so the music capabilities were really attractive.
Didn't do much side by side stuff when auditioning, discounted Blu-Ray as I didn't want to go out and re-buy my collection and I don't watch an awful lot of TV so the benefits of an all HD set up were pretty slim.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

From My experience I am yet to see a Blu-Ray player than can outproform My Denon 3930 for either DVD or CD playback (or one that is truly Multi-region which is essentual to Me)

The forth comming Denon Units may just be the first players to break this rule as the will use a Blue Laser for BD playback and a seperate Red laser for DVD and CD.

For now I am sticking with My 3930 for DVD and CD as it really is a fantastic unit which I got Ex-Demo for under £500, and My PS3 is perfectly fine for BD Movies, tho I must say the differance between DVD upscaled to 1080p vie the 3930 over the PS3 is substantually better on the Denon.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

brotherharry:I've just purchased an Arcam DV139 (second hand), rather than Blu-ray as I have lots of non-HD format DVDs and wanted to get best from them. Was also replacing a CD player, so the music capabilities were really attractive.
Didn't do much side by side stuff when auditioning, discounted Blu-Ray as I didn't want to go out and re-buy my collection and I don't watch an awful lot of TV so the benefits of an all HD set up were pretty slim.

I'm looking at the same player or the older 27A or 29. Do you listen to music with it as well? I've read that these high end Arcams are amazing.

 

[Frank Harvey]

As far as music is concerned, high quality DVD players like the Arcams sound much better with music. Obviously, they've been designed with this in mind, so are naturally going to outperform a BD player musically.

As for the video side of things, I think this comes down to one thing - the quality (and maybe size) of panel the two are being compared on. Using a projector on a 5ft screen (hopefully slightly bigger soon) the differences between DVD and BD are immense. Yes, some scenes on DVD can look very impressive and may fool some into think it is HD they're watching, but there's so many telltale signs that state otherwise. DVD just doesn't posess the black level or the detail of BD. Landscapes are usually gobsmacking to look at on BD, whereas on DVD they tend to look too mushy with near to no detail at all.

Obviously, differences are smaller on smaller screens, but even the smallest of average living room screens will show a difference between SD and HD, whether 1080p or 720p.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's my single source unit for music and DVD. Sounds fabulous, with great imaging and seperation. The player is due to go back in for a service so I'm currently back on my old Technics £100-er and the difference in music playback is really marked and mushy.