Upscaling DVD Players - Which is best?

[admin_exported]

Im currently looking for a dvd player that can get the most out of my dvd collection. I have identified several players as possible candidates; therefore i'm after the opinion of others to help me decide which is best?

Pioneer DV-LX50

Toshiba XDE-500

Oppo DV-981HD

Onkyo DV-SP406

Denon DVD-1940

Which should I go for, any idea's ???

 

[d4v3pum4]

Elsewhere the Oppo seems to be held in high regard and a lot of buzz is being generated about their forthcoming BD player with equally impressive SD upscaling/performance.

Personally I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a SD player now.

 

[aliEnRIK]

I have the LX50. It can be had pretty cheap on ebay and will probably outperform all the others (Especially the far cheaper toshiba)

It has VERY impressive sound and picture quality

 

[Anonymous]

Oppo 983 is the latest DVD only player and the best on the market for upscaling.

Oppo BDP-83 is the BluRay player, available in Region A only at the moment. Same upscaling of DVD's so basically the best of both worlds. It's £550 in the UK, but not Region B yet. It is considered the best BluRay player in the world at the moment to the enormous consternation of those that believe you must spend more. Astonishingly the yanks have brought out a player that via HDMI in particular is equal to the Denon 3800 and Pioneer 91. It is also lightning fast, which none of the aforementioned can remotely claim to be.

When the Region B is released, towards the end of the summer it's what I'll be buying. Plays SACD and DVD-A as well.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Will Harris:Oppo 983 is the latest DVD only player and the best on the market for upscaling.

Hi will

Intriguing answer. How do you know its the 'best' on the market? In my personal experience, most of these 'upscaling' players are not a patch on my pioneer tvs inbuilt scaler. Obviously its down to the software involved and how it determines how to go about upscaling so saying something is 'the best' is open to debate straight away as there isnt really a RIGHT way to go about it. It either 'looks' better than another way or it doesnt.

When I first got my PS3 I was blown away by its upscaling. But it was only over time that I realised that my tv actually does a better job. It also scales better than the LX50, but the LX50 does a far better job of scaling than the PS3.

HOWEVER, the PS3 does a remarkable job of scaling still photos.

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:
Will Harris:Oppo 983 is the latest DVD only player and the best on the market for upscaling.

Hi will

Intriguing answer. How do you know its the 'best' on the market? In my personal experience, most of these 'upscaling' players are not a patch on my pioneer tvs inbuilt scaler. Obviously its down to the software involved and how it determines how to go about upscaling so saying something is 'the best' is open to debate straight away as there isnt really a RIGHT way to go about it. It either 'looks' better than another way or it doesnt.

When I first got my PS3 I was blown away by its upscaling. But it was only over time that I realised that my tv actually does a better job. It also scales better than the LX50, but the LX50 does a far better job of scaling than the PS3.

HOWEVER, the PS3 does a remarkable job of scaling still photos.

Very simply because it is.

It doesn't get much coverage in the UK, but if you look on the audio visual forums that are out there you'll find a consensus that the Oppo is the best upscaling DVD player on the market. Particularly for PAL upscaling. This is not my opinion. It's more like a sort of well known fact that doesn't get a lot of traction in the UK media. How many Oppo sellers do you know? Their main UK distribution is through CRT Projectors in the UK.

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it, but trust me when I say that I wouldn't have said what I have above if there wasn't a considerable amount of writen evidence to support the view. The only reason you haven't yet seen a review of the Oppo BluRay player, the BDP-83 is that it is not available in Europe in Region B just yet. WHF are aware of it and are waiting to see what the Region B is like.

Rumour has it that the next gen of Pioneer and Denon players will have caught up in terms of load speed, but as of yet, the Oppo is the only BluRay player that loads up in the same sort of time as a DVD player.

But you were talking about upscaling and the 983 I think you'll find does a better job than any other DVD player made. I leave it to you to get a pleasant surprise if you try one 🙂

 

[aliEnRIK]

Cheers will. I wasnt having a go, simply saying its obviously debatable. But yeah, I might just do that sometime. What about the upscaling capabilities of the bluray player? Is it the same?

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:Cheers will. I wasnt having a go, simply saying its obviously debatable. But yeah, I might just do that sometime. What about the upscaling capabilities of the bluray player? Is it the same?

Supposedly yes. I've watched one for about 2 out of 4 hours at TLC Broadcast. We were testing it against a Denon DVD3800BD. The quality was identical on BluRay as was the sound. On SD DVD it is exceptional through a KRP600M. This is a remarkable machine and very fast to operate. So fast it makes you wonder what on earth the current range of BluRay players are doing when you switch them on.

Really worth tracking. The Region B is supposed to be released in Europe at the end of the Summer. For the money, and even if it was twice it's price, it would be at the top of my list to audition against the new crop coming from Denon and Pioneer.

Arcam seem to be shooting themselves with the money bullet. Their new players will cost the earth. the question to ask, is whether connected digitally via HDMI, an ideal transport needs to do anything more than the Oppo BDP-83 already does. I'll leave it to everyone else to decide that. My view is that we've already reached the point we need to on the universal transport front with the Oppo BDP-83. It streams everything digitally and does it exceptionally well. To the chargrin of retails who can't sell it. I sympathise with them, the fault lies with the BD forum for being so sloppy in setting out the specs for BR players such that the offerings from major manufacturers can be such lagards! (PS3 excepted).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply guys; do you know where I will be able to source the Oppo 983 and how much they cost?

I have googled it, but not much came up - maybe im not looking hard enough?

Thanks

Andy

 

[aliEnRIK]

I was considering buying the sony (around 1k). But I think ill hang fire to see how the 'oppo' pans out. Cheers Will

 

[Anonymous]

My pleasure guys.

The 983 is available from CRT Projectors. Google them. I think it's still for sale. If it's ended it's because the 83 with BluRay has replaced it, just without a Region B version at the moment. That's sure to change. You can register with CRT for updates when they get the Region B. If you want a Region A you can buy one now.

I'm waiting for the Region B. It's a universal player too, and has 7.1 analogue outs, reputed to sound very very good indeed, though I've only listened to it via HDMI. It'll stream a DSD signal via HDMI for SACD playback into an amp or DAC to decode. What an amazing bit of kit!

 

[Anonymous]

This is the same DV 983 that WHF gave 3 stars in review, yes....?

 

[Anonymous]

I have just noticed that it only got 3 stars and I was going to ask Will's opinion on it?

 

[Anonymous]

Can't comment on the stars WHF gave it. The 983 is regarded as the best DVD upscaler, elsewhere ;-)

The BDP-83, now that I'd like to see them knock a star off 🙂

 

[Anonymous]

Every other review says this is a reference level DVD player. The negative points from the WHF review are -

Unfavourable exchange rates; competition from Blu-ray Disc players; looks a bit cheap

Probably worth waiting for the region B blu ray player. There are also rumours of a region free mod for the US player.

 

[Anonymous]

Spot on Bennyben! 🙂

 

[aliEnRIK]

Will ~ are you saying its the best scaler in the world? Or just around its pricepoint? (ie ~ is it better than the top of the range Pioneer?)

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:Will ~ are you saying its the best scaler in the world? Or just around its pricepoint? (ie ~ is it better than the top of the range Pioneer?)

Better than the Pioneer yes. And that's the BDP-LX91. Also better than the Denon DVD3800BD. In my opinion.

I'm afraid that Oppo have gone and produced a product to annoy the hell out of those determined to believe that if it costs more it must be better. Not this time. The chipsets in the Oppo are the same as can be found in the highest end of the competition. Including the new Denon's recently announced. The Anchor Bay chip is the same VRS design found in the DVDO Edge.

Be very interested to hear your views if you get to test one. My dealer spend nearly 4 hours trying to demonstrate how much better the 3800 was, and much as my cousin and I tried to see the differences, on BluRay they were identical as was sound over HDMI. DVD upscaling was exceptional. I've said all this before though. It is the standout machine. The price is just a freak of circumstance I guess. It costs what it costs and it does what it does, but you can throw out the usual manufacturers throttled performance to meet a performance per pound criteria. This machine breaks the gentlemen's agreement on this.

 

[aliEnRIK]

I think ill certainly be routing one out when I can if thats the case

Cheers Will

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Personally I am yet to see a Blu-Ray player that does a better job with DVDs than my Denon DV3930 and that is including the BD3800. The 3930 is also a much better CD player if you need a multi-tasking unit.

I am interested to see how the Oppo rates but IMHO when I saw one of their DVD players it was rather cheap-o in apearance.

 

[aliEnRIK]

D.J.KRIME:
Personally I am yet to see a Blu-Ray player that does a better job with DVDs than my Denon DV3930 and that is including the BD3800. The 3930 is also a much better CD player if you need a multi-tasking unit.

I am interested to see how the Oppo rates but IMHO when I saw one of their DVD players it was rather cheap-o in apearance.

I havnt seen one so I cant comment as such. But I must say I disagree with WHFs review if it was simply based on how cheap it looks. If it performs outstandingly well then it performs outstandingly well. LOOKING better isnt going to change that at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think the Oppo is a pig to look at. The Denon is much prettier to me. So is the Pioneer, though I'd take the Denon ahead of it on looks. But the Oppo is really ugly. But at £550 this is where I'm prepared to cut it some slack, and as Alienrik says, it's how it performs that counts, and that's where it scores for me. And that's all I want it for. Ugly or not. (Still it's a lot more substantial than the 983).