[Ebonyks]

Ok, after dealing with the death of a hardrive, i've decided to start looking for a better source for my headphone setup. Right now, i'm using an art DI/o with an upgraded powersupply and plan to keep on using it, however, I'd like to get a DVD player as well, just to kill 2 birds with one stone. So, what do you guys reccomend? DVD-a and SACD is ideal, high quality digital out is most imporant, and a player that can play DIVX would be great, although i realize it will be difficult.

If there's something substantally better than the other options for a bit over 200 dollars, i'm intrested, but would like to still stay as cheap as possible

Thanks in advance

 

[Andrew LB]

I just picked up the Sony NS500V DVD/SACD/CD/VCD player from http://shop.store.yahoo.com/mediasou...eldvdvdcd.html for $146.26. And that is including shipping. I say save the extra money for some nice Outlaw cables to connect it.

 

[Gergor]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ebonyks ...and a player that can play DIVX would be great...

DIVX still exists? I thought it's long gone...

 

[Ebonyks]

Thanks for the reccomendation, but i've already got everything else that i would need short of a video cable, and on my TV, it's not going to make a substantial difference.

Divx as the disk format is long gone, but divx compression is still very good, better than SVCD

 

[antness]

I picked up the Sony NS500V for $125 on Yahoo shopping. With shipping, the total was $133.

Beat ya by a few bucks Andrew

 

[Andrew LB]

Are you serious??? I looked all over yahoo shopping for that DVD player. hehe. oh well. This thing sounds so good i'm more than happy to pay the premium (even though its far from premium).

 

[antness]

Here's a link:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/mediasou...eldvdvdcd.html

They are based in New Jersey, and arrived in only about 3-4 days UPS ground.

 

[Andrew LB]

Thats the same place I got mine from. With shipping it was around $146 to here in Southern California. Weird.

 

[scrypt]

New Jersey, you say? That's perfect for New Yorkers like me, who will save on tax and still enjoy extremely low shipping costs. I'm restraining my mouse-hand while typing this (not an easy feat).

The only thing stopping me from picking up an NS500V is the new Phillips upsampling DVD player that's getting verbally licked and fondled elsewhere in this forum.

 

[wallijonn]

http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk/

scroll down.

the sony DVPNS500V supposely has SACD, but supposedly won't read >256kb mp3's. see circuit city reviews.

Sony DVPNS715P has a 12bit/108MHz dac, but circuitcity doesn't give audio specs.

of course if the audio doesn't have 24bit/192MHz sound you shouldn't get it anyway.

supposedly some players will come out with both scda & dvd-a

i'm still looking for ones with headphone jacks in the front. and a mini dvd player would be nice as there's no good reason to have large players when it's all empty space inside, anyway.

on a personal note, i never buy sony. every single piece of sony i've ever had has given me problems, and i used to work for them.

Onkyo DVS555
plays DVD-Video discs, CDs, audio CD-Rs & CD-RWs, and MP3 CDs
27MHz/10-bit video D/A converter
15-disc settings memory (96kHz/24-bit capable)
subwoofer output
Direct Digital Path
remote control (multibrand for TVs)
audio signal-to-noise ratio 100 dB
dual 192kHz/24-bit Burr-Brown audio D/A converters

i wonder if they use THE burr brown opamps (627's?)

http://www.audioreview.com/PRD_127158_1587crx.aspx

http://electronics.cnet.com/electron...6342369-1302-0

 

[scrypt]

The Onkyo looks nice. Thanks for pointing it out. Perhaps someone can link to a cheap vendor and perhaps a non-proprietary review by someone other than a disgruntled Circuit City customer.

Funny you should mention Nerd-out. I post there occasionally in the Malata forum.

What I didn't see on your cited page was anything by Sony -- which I suppose was your point. A lot of the DVD players on that list (such as the Apex series) aren't particularly good -- but I'm sure you know that already.


Still, people who pick up a 500 here are mostly interested in sound and will want to use the machine to play CDs with a dedicated DAC. I count myself among them in terms of priorities, since I already have an N996 for multi-region playback (and yes, I bought it fully aware of Macrovision and mp3-playack incompatibility, since X-Y scaling, anamorphic conversion and the expert audio menu were my reasons for choosing the 996). SACD playback doesn't interest me at this point. The price point of the 500 and the reasonable quality of its audio features when combined with a DAC are the reason it's being discussed in the first place.

I considered picking up a Sony SACD775 as well. But at this point, I'm waiting for reviews of the Phillips. The Onkyo you've mentioned sounds quite good, but decent upsampling is the feature I've been awaiting.

I appreciate your contributing to this thread as a former employee of Sony. Perhaps your dislike for them has something to do with unnecessary manufacturing compromises, and that is relevant. However, I have no more interest in hating Sony ad hominem than I do in worshiping them. In my experience, reliability hasn't been an issue. Manufacturing has on occasion, depending on where the unit's made and in which class designed.

The real problem I have with Sony is its various copy protection schemes. That company is more controlling than Microsoft.

But that doesn't pertain to this discussion. Perhaps the polite thing to do might be for us to return to discussing the merits of various individual players.

 

[recephasan]

divx originally was intended to be another way of marketing DVD movies by making players with a phone line and $5 disks that would play for a few days until you dialed up and paid the full price, if you choose to. kinda like a try and buy option that went bust real quick. circuit city was one of the companies that sponsored the format.

the divx talked about today is a video codec that integrates mpeg4 and mp3. as far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong, there are no DVD players that play these files.

the two have zero commonality, except for the name.

I have the Sony DVP-NS500V and am expecting my ART DI/O to arrive this week. no intensions to play mp3s on this setup, esp. since I have high hopes for the DIO.

 

[Mcrmouse30]

They just annouced that DIVX enabled players will be out in the next few months.

 

[wallijonn]

saw a real slim compact JVC slot dvd at Target. $149.99. the rear panel had everything: s-video, coaxial, tri-colour component, fiber, and regular a/v connectors. i'm surprised that it didn't have fire-wire. takes an external power pack (walwart?). no headphone front output, though. unfortunately there was no specs on the box, ie, oversampling, DAC, etc.

as to sony, i saw all the returns that came back for repair. ugh. and as a computer technician i hated working on the mini-towers, though the laptops worked fine (the handfull i supported, anyway). Many people love sony products - but after being burned by a Sony computer dvd i no longer want any sony products. and you're right about sony burners not being able to copy music. same thing with yamaha. funny how sony makes a cdp for copying music, though. and they even came out with a car player that will play mp3's. go figure.

http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/sear...383766290a420c

 

[PAGEFAULT]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mcrmouse30 They just annouced that DIVX enabled players will be out in the next few months.

I think some people are thinking of two diferent types of divx. Original divx, was a pay per use DVD, and it died as it should off. The divx now days is a video file format for computers. This is the format the people download movies off the net. The two are completly unrelated.