Low/mid-range DVD players

[Matt Mcleod]

I recently picked up one of those Samsung WS32A10 widescreen TVs.
Not flash, but a whole lot better than the cheap-and-nasty DEC TV
it replaced. Generally pretty decent for the price and size.

Anyway. This leads me to want a better DVD player than the equally
cheap-and-nasty DEC unit I got a few years ago. If the Denon DVD-900
had component output I'd aleady have bought one, but as it doesn't...

I'm looking for a decent low/mid-range player. Something up to
$400, I guess. Progressive PAL would be nice, but by no means
essential. Component output and region-free, of course.

The big thing, though, is sane handling of 4:3 content.

The cheap DEC player I have right now doesn't really differentiate
between 4:3 and 16:9. This didn't matter when I had the cheap 4:3 TV,
but with a widescreen it means I'm getting horribly stretched video
unless I put the TV in 4:3 mode, and that's the one part of the Samsung
TV I'm not at all happy with -- in 4:3, it puts *light grey* bars down
the sides. Bloody horrible to look at.

What I would like would be a DVD player that puts the (black) sidebars
in when outputting 4:3 content to a 16:9 display. I have no idea if
this is at all a common feature, only that the Denon boxes claim to do
it and nobody else mentions it at all.

So. Is this common? Does the Pioneer DV-266 do it?

I've considered the Nintaus boxes, but no-one seems to be selling
them mail-order/online -- I have mobility "issues", so have considerable
trouble getting to whatever random store is selling them. I've been
happy with Pioneer kit in the past, hence that being at the top of
the list at the moment.

Matt

--
Matt McLeod Sysprog, Systems and IT Infrastructure
<mjm@unimelb.edu.au> The University of Melbourne
Security Is Not A Line Printer

[Han]

Hi Matt,

> I've considered the Nintaus boxes, but no-one seems to be selling
> them mail-order/online -- I have mobility "issues", so have
> considerable trouble getting to whatever random store is selling
> them.

I have no idea about whether the Nintaus is the answer to your problem
or the particular model you looked at, but I know about mobility
"issues". Anyway, FYI http://www.scorptec.com.au has several Nintaus
players at the moment with what looks like decent prices.

HTH
Cheers

[Matt Mcleod]

In article <3fcd44a7$0$20482$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>,
Han <reply@the.ng> wrote:
>I have no idea about whether the Nintaus is the answer to your problem
>or the particular model you looked at, but I know about mobility
>"issues". Anyway, FYI http://www.scorptec.com.au has several Nintaus
>players at the moment with what looks like decent prices.

Thanks for that -- may come in handy if it turns out that these units
handle 4:3 nicely.

The other box I've been considering is the Lite-On LVD-2002. I'm not
generally a fan of really cheap gear -- hell, I buy Apple computers
for personal stuff -- but the DivX playback would be nice. Pity they
apparently decided to pull the region-free hack out.

Matt

--
Matt McLeod Sysprog, Systems and IT Infrastructure
<mjm@unimelb.edu.au> The University of Melbourne
Security Is Not A Line Printer

[Adam Cranney]

Marantz DV4300 would be my suggestion, and can be had for that budget


"Matt Mcleod" <mjm+usenet@unimelb.edu.au> wrote in message
news:bqjf96$c5n$1@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au...
> I recently picked up one of those Samsung WS32A10 widescreen TVs.
> Not flash, but a whole lot better than the cheap-and-nasty DEC TV
> it replaced. Generally pretty decent for the price and size.
>
> Anyway. This leads me to want a better DVD player than the equally
> cheap-and-nasty DEC unit I got a few years ago. If the Denon DVD-900
> had component output I'd aleady have bought one, but as it doesn't...
>
> I'm looking for a decent low/mid-range player. Something up to
> $400, I guess. Progressive PAL would be nice, but by no means
> essential. Component output and region-free, of course.
>
> The big thing, though, is sane handling of 4:3 content.
>
> The cheap DEC player I have right now doesn't really differentiate
> between 4:3 and 16:9. This didn't matter when I had the cheap 4:3 TV,
> but with a widescreen it means I'm getting horribly stretched video
> unless I put the TV in 4:3 mode, and that's the one part of the Samsung
> TV I'm not at all happy with -- in 4:3, it puts *light grey* bars down
> the sides. Bloody horrible to look at.
>
> What I would like would be a DVD player that puts the (black) sidebars
> in when outputting 4:3 content to a 16:9 display. I have no idea if
> this is at all a common feature, only that the Denon boxes claim to do
> it and nobody else mentions it at all.
>
> So. Is this common? Does the Pioneer DV-266 do it?
>
> I've considered the Nintaus boxes, but no-one seems to be selling
> them mail-order/online -- I have mobility "issues", so have considerable
> trouble getting to whatever random store is selling them. I've been
> happy with Pioneer kit in the past, hence that being at the top of
> the list at the moment.
>
> Matt
>
> --
> Matt McLeod Sysprog, Systems and IT Infrastructure
> <mjm@unimelb.edu.au> The University of Melbourne
> Security Is Not A Line Printer

[Matt Mcleod]

In article <bqjj6k$2354fe$1@ID-132377.news.uni-berlin.de>,
Adam Cranney <adamNOSPAMcranneySPAM@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>Marantz DV4300 would be my suggestion, and can be had for that budget

I had considered it -- it gets very good reviews -- but everywhere
I've found it online at least it's listed for $699.

I'm still tempted, though: do you know how it handles 4:3 content
displayed to a 16:9 TV? I'm not too clear on what the "usual"
(as opposed to cheap-arse of three years ago) behaviour is.

Matt

--
Matt McLeod Sysprog, Systems and IT Infrastructure
<mjm@unimelb.edu.au> The University of Melbourne
Security Is Not A Line Printer