Toshiba HD-EP35 vs Marantz DV7001

[admin_exported]

RE: Pg 32, January 2008 Edition

Surely the What Hi Fi guys should be recommending the HD-EP35 over the DV7001 in a 'high-end system'? How can a SD player be a better product than the current best HD-DVD player?

I appreciate the Marantz is probably better with CD's but wouldn't a stand alone player, such as the company's own CD6002, sound better? Also, the total cost of the Tosh and the CD6002 combined could potentially be less than the cost of a standalone DV7001.

 

[Clare Newsome]

It's not only leagues better with CDs, it's better with standard DVDs, too - for sound and vision.

Yes, the Toshiba is an excellent machine for the money, but with the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle far from settled - and thousands of DVDs both in collections and still being sold in far bigger numbers than HD discs - there's still room for an excellent upscaling DVD player.

 

[Andy Clough]

Clare's absolutely right. Not everyone will want to risk investing in a high-def video player at this stage, especially given the uncertainties over Blu-ray/HD DVD, so for those (like me) who have a huge DVD collection, a top-quality upscaling DVD player is still a viable option. DVD is far from dead, and you can still get superb results from the format.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I can see your point, but there are plenty of consumers who would want the very best picture for their money and the Tosh meets that criteria perfectly. Why buy a 46" Full HD TV and then not feed it the very best 1080p signal possible?

 

[Clare Newsome]

If you wanted the very best picture, you'd use Pioneer's BDP-LX70A Blu-ray player - far superior (as it should be for three times the price!) But then you wouldn't be able to watch HD DVD-only films of Transformers, Shrek, The Bourne Ultimatum and more...

...rather like the Toshiba wouldn't be any good at feeding you a native 1080p version of any James Bond film, Disney movie, the entire MGM back-catalogue and more...because they're only on Blu-ray.

We're not anti-HD by any means - far from it, it's fantastic. Just still fuming at being dictated to as to what we can/can't watch on HD because of the format war.

And don't get me started on the high prices of the library-release HD discs....

 

[Anonymous]

Please can you tell me, is this Toshiba the 5 star winner from the last issue? (I'm at the girlfriends and have left the mag at home...!)

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it is.

 

[Anonymous]

£269.99 at www.play.com with 7 free HD DVD's.

 

[Anonymous]

How does the Marantz DV7001 compare agiants the Denon DVD 2930?

 

[Clare Newsome]

The Marantz is better - for movie and music sound, and picture.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
The Marantz is better - for movie and music sound, and picture.

[/quote]

This surprises me as the denon 2930 uses the new silicon optix reon chip wheras the Marantz uses the much older Faroudja FLi2310 video chip. Does this prove that the older Faroudja 2310 and 2301 chips have still "got it" or is it more a case of how the chips have been implimented and firmware etc?