whats a good stand alone dvd player?

[bhome83]

Im looking for a dvd player but have no idea what a good brand would be. im looking to spend around $200 for a good dvd player that mainly focuses on picture quality. extras are nice but not sure exactly what kind of extras there are. any suggestions on good players would be nice. Thanks.

[LawyerRon]

My son bought the Panasonic RV31, $179.95 at Best Buy, and it works great. Consumer Reports rated it a "Best Buy" too.

[audiyoda]

If you can find an Apex DVD Player, they have menu features to disable macrovision -- otherwise I'm partial to the Toshiba SD-1700 (another Consumer Reports Best Buy and cheaper than the Panasonic) or Sony NS-300B (mine). I'm not into DVD Players that do mp3's -- too many reported problems with the decoders crapping out.

-Craig

[mbossman2]

i have a toshiba SD-2200 and have had no problems with it at all....

[Jenni]

Any Apex DVD player can disable Macrovision? Because Sam's/Wal-Mart has an Apex model for $88.96. I am assuming that you would need to disable Macrovision in order to rip DVD's to your HDD, correct? How do you do this when menu options to disable are not there?

[archie]

The Apex DVDs won't play CD-RW disks. One feature that is available on Sony is the 2 audio out jacks. Then there's progressive scan ... if you have the right tv/monitor for it. Panasonic has a descent one [*RV31] without progressive scan but it does play MP3s if that's important to you. Hitachi also has a model with similar features.

[bhome83]

if i get a $100 dvd player compared to a $200 dvd player will the resolution of the movie be the same, or better for the $200 player? all i really care about is how good the dvd looks. i want the best quality possible for $200. thanks for help.

[archie]

Apparently, there's about 1/2 dozen of movies that are known to be hard to read for some models ... which is not known. Or someone may bring music for a party. Some DVD players do it all. As for Progressive Scan, the full benefit would not be seen as well unless with HDTV monitor.
As for sound, it depends a lot on what the current setup is and what it will likely be 2 years from now. If the speakers sound descent now, chances are that they will still be there 2 years from now.
BTW, check out the remote control too. It may be a matter of preferences ... but I wouldn't get a Pioneer model just because of the way the buttons are 'mushy'.

[archie]

That doesn't really answer the question of WHY one is better over the other. In the end, the quality of any DVD player is going to be vastly superior to VHS, there is one of them out there that would be something you would still be pleased to be using 5 years from now. Tough decision is choosing the best one. They probably all sound even better than you can imagine but it seems to be time consuming to compare.
In my situation, much of this new equipment is being used with 15 yr old HI-FI equipment. ... audio: line out to the Toshiba CX-2084 16 yr old TV/monitor. The audio can be amplified through the Denon Amp/Celestion speakers.

[NickLuto]

You can always save up 100 bucks and go all out with a PS2, then when you ask yourself why you bought twelve copies of planet of the apes on DVD, you can play games on it too!

[audiyoda]

Jenni: Yes, most Apex units can (could) disable macrovision -- although the power structure of Hollywood took them to court and had most units brought in to have that little error fixed.

CD-RW disks: It's been reported that most DVD Players have difficulty with CD-RW's. Most any DVD player will play audio CD-R's (CD-RA) disks because they have the font-end TOC pre-burned on the disk. Many will play standard CD-R's and some even read MP3's.

Those 1/2 dozen movies that are in many ways unplayable on many DVD Players are all encoded with NUON enhancements. The only known nuon enhanced disk to play on any player is Planet of the Apes. Nueon is a joke -- don't buy a player for those stupid features.

-Craig

[LawyerRon]

"You can always save up 100 bucks and go all out with a PS2"


You can buy a PS2 for $100? Where?

[NickLuto]

Oops. Sorry LawyerRon. He said that he had $200 to spend on a dvd player. I meant he could just save up another $100 and get a ps2=) sorry bout the confusion


Nick

[LawyerRon]

Arrrrrrrg, I had my credit card out and was going to order a half a dozen of 'em!


Just kidding Nick.

[archie]

I'm wondering how important it is having a built-in Dolby Digital decoding with 5.1-channel output if there is no existing feature on the existing equipment. Also, for audio output, I'm thinking one to the amplifier where the CD player was, and the other from the DVD player to one of the line inputs on the TV/monitor. The Sony DVD models have two audio outputs.

[archie]

I ended up choosing the Sony *400 because it has the two audio outputs. Seems like the best one for my needs. the Sony DVP-NS400D.

[archie]

The top 10 sellers.