Hi there everyone,
I'm currently planning to get a half-decent home cinema set-up. I've read a lot of reviews and threads on WHF and am grateful to all who post on these forums for the useful info.
I'm weighing up the differences between the panasonic 35 and 55, the sony 350 and 550, the pioneer 51 and the denon 2500 (which seems to be available at about £600 from various places, possibly as a result of the negative reviews it has been getting for freezing on bd-live discs.) I'm likely to get a home cinema amp costing in the region of £600 and speakers in the region of £1200 although there may be a gap between getting the tv and blu-ray player and then getting the amp and speakers. I've got 4 questions that I'd love some help with:
(1) DACs are mentioned in a few of the WHF reviews but I have no idea what they are or whether they will make a difference to a setup such as the one I'm considering. Could someone please enlighten me? (I'm even more confused as in the panny 55 review the DAC seems to relate to the audio whereas in the pioneer 51 review it seems to relate to the video.)
(2) I'm reluctant to shell out twice or thrice the price for the pioneer or denon when neither is profile 2 or appears to be in a hurry to get a firmware upgrade out. The pioneer also doesn't decode all the HD audio although my understanding is that if you're putting the sound through an amp, that particular omission won't be a problem. Is that right?
(3) As a profile 1.1 player, will the pioneer have the same 'freezing' issues with bd-live discs as the denon?
(4) Is the pioneer worth an extra £100 on the sony 550 bearing in mind the likely cost / quality of the rest of my planned setup.
Thanks in advance for all your help,
Tim
I'm currently planning to get a half-decent home cinema set-up. I've read a lot of reviews and threads on WHF and am grateful to all who post on these forums for the useful info.
I'm weighing up the differences between the panasonic 35 and 55, the sony 350 and 550, the pioneer 51 and the denon 2500 (which seems to be available at about £600 from various places, possibly as a result of the negative reviews it has been getting for freezing on bd-live discs.) I'm likely to get a home cinema amp costing in the region of £600 and speakers in the region of £1200 although there may be a gap between getting the tv and blu-ray player and then getting the amp and speakers. I've got 4 questions that I'd love some help with:
(1) DACs are mentioned in a few of the WHF reviews but I have no idea what they are or whether they will make a difference to a setup such as the one I'm considering. Could someone please enlighten me? (I'm even more confused as in the panny 55 review the DAC seems to relate to the audio whereas in the pioneer 51 review it seems to relate to the video.)
(2) I'm reluctant to shell out twice or thrice the price for the pioneer or denon when neither is profile 2 or appears to be in a hurry to get a firmware upgrade out. The pioneer also doesn't decode all the HD audio although my understanding is that if you're putting the sound through an amp, that particular omission won't be a problem. Is that right?
(3) As a profile 1.1 player, will the pioneer have the same 'freezing' issues with bd-live discs as the denon?
(4) Is the pioneer worth an extra £100 on the sony 550 bearing in mind the likely cost / quality of the rest of my planned setup.
Thanks in advance for all your help,
Tim