Video Asylum

Posted by Joe Murphy Jr (A) on June 09, 2004 at 17:47:43

In Reply to: What's happens if... posted by Mr. gridlock on June 09, 2004 at 07:41:10:

all of the DVD players with a digital output (DVI or HDMI) for the video have some sort of issue with them for many people. Then there are the lucky ones (like me) that have one (a Bravo D1) with no issues. For HomeTheater applications, the audio is usually handled by a surround receiver or processor from the player's digital output, so analog DVD player audio quality is not of great concern for most people.

What's left for 2004: Samsung HD-941, Panasonic DVD-S97, Sony ? and a few Denon models.

Now the bad news. The Samsung will probably use the "incorrect" digital PC standard on the HDMI output -- the just released HD-841 still has this flaw. The Panasonic may or may not have an MPEG decoder that is equal to or, at least, close to the MEI MPEG decoder found in their earlier stellar players -- one can only hope for the best. Sony's offering will probably have an MPEG decoder that still exhibits decoder errors. As for the Denon models, they're probably the most worth waiting for. Of course, any of the upcoming DVD players with an HDMI output may or may not have the HDMI bug (which clips below black and above white signals).

For video, an SDI output from one of the MEI MPEG decoder based players and a high quality video processor (like the new DVDO iScanHD or Lumagen VisionHDP or VisionPro) is still better than all current and currently planned DVD players in regards to video quality. However, to go this route, the minimum investment on the video end (player, SDI mod kit and processor) is about $2300.