Video Asylum

Posted by dave in gva (A) on January 08, 2002 at 05:29:41

Hello there,
I am planning on picking up a Technics DVD-A10 for a dual use system that will be roughly 50/50 home theater/audio listening. For home theater the reason I am interested in this unit is that it will be modified to allow a direct digital out of video information, which can then be run through a home theater PC for scaling. This allows any DVD player to attain professional feed status on the image front and gets around the drawbacks of a non-progressive player, since an HTPC can easily deinterlace the video feed.

The question I have for you all is more of a home theater question rather than an audio one. I have read that the unit has onboard Dolby Digital and DTS decoding. The question I have is whether I am better off buying a receiver for the unit and allowing the AV receiver to do the decoding, channel levels, delays, etc.....or whether I could use the unit's decoding, channel delay and level settings, and output 5.1 analog to a 5 channel amplifier. The first option of using an AV receiver has the advantage of using a different frequency cutoff for LFE (if I use the player's decoding and output analog this is set at 100 Hz which is higher than the 80 Hz used most commonly)- I am planning on running Newform 645's up front and Newform 630's in the back. Not sure of whether I'll go with a center yet. Another potential advantage of going with an AV receiver is that I perhaps might get better DD and DTS decoding, although I have read reviews of the unit saying the onboard decoding is excellent. I suppose one advantage of going the AV receiver route for sure would be a more user friendly setup. The disadvantage of the first option, of course, is mixing the decoding/preamp duties with the amplification. Since I don't have the money for a high end separates package (I'm thinking about possibly going with something like the Denon 3802 if I go the receiver route), I am seriously giving some thought to the second option, which has the advantage of probably giving me a better standard of audio amplification and the possibility of upgrading to a full fledged set of separates at a later date.

So, after all that preamble, I'd love it if some people can hop in and help me out here. If you would recommend the amplifier route, thanks to pitch in with some suggestions. I don't mind to go ebay for used on the electronics, and I'd have a budget of somewhere in around $1000 for either the amplifier or receiver.

For those of you who actually have the DVD-A10 - how are you running your DVD-A10? Do you have it in a home theater system, and if so, have you tried running it straight into a 5 channel amp or do you route through a receiver? Any and all comments you have would be a great help to me.

All the best,

Dave