Toshiba Ep30/35

[admin_exported]

Hi All,

With the death of hd dvd and the bargains now available (plus some great movies out on hd dvd) I have decided to take the plunge.

I am going to order the Onkyo 605 and Jamo speakers (budget restricted otherwise I would go for the KEF 3005SEs). I would like to take advantage of the HD audio on the discs. I have read the reviews of both EP 30 and EP 35 and am a little confused. I see the 35 can decode HD audio onboard and feed through the HDMI to the amplifier. With the Onkyo being able to decode HD audo is this necessary?

The EP30 i believe send the HD audio as PCM through the HDMI. Could this then be decoded by the Onkyo to give me 'proper' HD audio?

I have a budget of up to £800 - can anyone think of a better combo for the money? I have a Panny 37px70...

Thanks,

ASMA

 

[Gary233932]

£850 would get you the Onkyo 605 and Quad L-ite (silver colour) if your quick as there selling out quick. Got mine on Saturday. This would be far better than the Jamo's.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gary - will keep that in mind.

Can anyone help with my query on the toshibas?

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

They're both very good machines. The EP30 can decode HD Audio (Dolby True HD, DD+) and send it has LPCM to your Onkyo over HDMI. On your Onkyo, the sound will be displayed as Multichannel PCM. The EP30 cannot decode or send DTS-MA. Only the core DTS track will be played. Not really a problem as the number of HD DVD with DTS MA can be counted on one hand. The EP35 can do this too, but also has the ability to send the audio data as bitstream over HDMI. This means that the audio is sent as raw data for decoding by the amp. The amp will display Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital+ or whatever format it's decoding. At the moment, I think the EP30 represents the better deal as far as value goes. HD DVD support from movies studios will be ending very soon, which renders the ability to have bitstream DTS MA almost useless. Dolby True HD has been much more widely used and there's not a lot of difference in having it decoded by the player instead of the amp. You're betting off saving the cash and putting it aside for a future top-spec Blu Ray player purchase.

 

[Anonymous]

Plunge away IMO.

I went EP30 and the quality of vision is amazing (I also have a Panasonic plasma). Older films, such as Backdraft and Born on the 4th of July (watched just last night!) look like they were filmed yesterday.

As for sound, I'm still just playing through my old standard Cambridge amp to give it a bit of power; nothing yet to full experience full surround and it's still amazing. At now £80 when even the cheapest reasonable upscalers alone are £70, if Blu-Ray is not what you're yet after, then I don't really see how you can go wrong. I'm signed up to a DVD rental company which is still lending HD DVDs, so my personal collection isn't huge either if the player breaks.