Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater What's the best DVD Audio/vidio player under 500?

I've just hooked up my new M60's,EP150,QS8's and EP175. They all sound fantastic but now I need a great DVD player that will also do DVD Audio and I'd like to limit my purchase to under $500. I've been looking at the Denon DVD-1600 and it seems that it will fill the bill nicely but I also see a "new" model, the DVD-1200 which has a few more features but there doesn't seem to be any real reviews. PLEASE HELP a DVD newbie if you can advise me! PS, While I've been looking at the Denon line, I'm not limiting myself to that brand only.

bought a mits dd8040 a few wekks ago to replace an older panny. while initialization (sp) is a tad slower, performance seems to be fine. now i'm saving for cables, after i pay card bill for cd & dvd player, to wire the 6 outputs into the rxv1300 for the dvd-a's.
dan

I recently faced the same decision, compounded by my desire to have SACD playback as well. While I was willing to pay quite a bit more, I ultimately chose the absurdly inexpensive (less than US$180) Pioneer DV-563A, a universal player with modest on-board bass management and (according to others with better TVs) excellent video playback (no chroma bug, for example). Why this choice? I simply decided that technological developments were moving so fast that I would almost certainly want to upgrade within the next few years (say, to a hypothetical player with digital DVD-A/SACD outs), so why spend a lot of money now? Anyway, if you're interested in the Pioneer, there is a long, long thread on the HTF forum dissecting all of its strengths and weaknesses.

I've been happy with my JVC XV-FA900BK. It's a 7-disc DVD-A/V changer. It does not do bass management or play SACDs, but is available for less than $170.

I am very happy with my Toshiba SD-4800, <$200 US. As for the cables...BestBuyAudioVideo.com 3m coax cables= $3 US, 6X$3=18. + shipping

I am very happy with my Toshiba SD-4800, <$200 US. As for the cables...BestBuyAudioVideo.com 1m coax cables= $3 US, 6X$3=18. + shipping

...I suppose the stop button isnt working tonight...oops

Most Audiophiles/Viedophiles consider the Denon 1600 to be one of the best players ever. It is supposed to have amazing picture quality as well as very good sound. Even though the 1200 sounds the same in its specs, it is not, the components are actually not as good. If you can get the 1600 for a good price (It is hard to find) and you do not care about SACD, then I would say that is your best bet.
Denon does have the 2200, which does do SACD but it does not quite have the amazing picture of the 1600. But it still has really good picture, just not quite as good as the 1600. And it costs almost twice as much.

I'm looking for a player that does not have the chroma bug and has superior video quality while also doing super audio and dvd audio.... I'm willing to go as high as about 600 bucks. Any suggestions? I have 7 super audio cd's (Billy Joel rocks) right now and nothing to play them on!

My thanks to all who have taken the time to reply to my ?.
1) Rob, I agree with you that it's still very early in the DVD-A vrs SACD war and your solution would be fine for awhile but then I'd end up investing again in a year or two which will be a hard sell to my wife... So, I believe what Snippy said is true based on the build quality of Denon products. I've scanned the web and have found the DVD-1600 for around $330 US. As for Folgersinmycup, hey, the Denon DVD-2200 sounds like your cup-o-tea!

Just to play the devil dancing on your shoulder: the new Denon 2900, retailing at a mere $850-1000, is widely hailed as the dream machine of the moment. See, for example, http://audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/DenonDVD-2900-reviewp1.html. So it's a BIT more expensive than the 2200. What's an extra $300 where fully adjustable bass management is at stake? Heh heh heh heh...(Vincent Price laugh).

IMO, the very best way of DVD-A/SACD bass management is having the digital i.Link connection and letting the receiver (not the player) to do it to your heart's content. I am waiting for the price of i.Link-savvy players to come down from the current "high-end" range.

FireWire! It's called Firewire!!! (IEEE approved name for 1394)

Hear, hear! That's what I'm waiting for, too, and that's why I decided to "go cheap" for the time being with the new Pioneer universal player, especially since moving to a all-digital-out DVD-A/SACD player will probably also involve moving to a new receiver (my archaic Denon doesn't have an iLink jack). Once a cross-manufacturer iLink option emerges (right now, as I understand it, iLinked players and receivers must come from the same manufacturer), I figure the 6-channel-analog-out-from-the-player format will go the way of 8-track and Beta. Here's hoping, anyway.

That is one big plus of the higher end HK receivers, they have digital bass management on the 5.1 analog inputs. Yes.....their must be quality loss in the extra conversion step, but I think it is better bass management than most of the DVD-A/SACD players.

Right, Ken... and of course, the principal inventor and shepherd of FireWire/i.Link/IEEE1394 is Apple.

Damn, didn't mean to let it show.... :-D

After NuBus, Apple really redeemed themselves with Firewire.

In reply to:

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the principal inventor and shepherd of FireWire/i.Link/IEEE1394 is Apple

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Yeah...but its growth is because of its availability on PCs.

I worked for Xerox for over ten years and saw so much technology that could not be capitalized on because they would not license it to others. I think the PC would be dead if Apple allowed the cloning of their hardware.

If the general public knew what Xerox had in the mid-eighties, what we have now with Macs and Windows is no big step forward.

I second the Nubus comment. Firewire was a heck of a step forward after that mess.