DVD Player -- Best Buy?

[_mAyDaY_]

greetings fellow watchers

in this topic, you can read and contribute (hopefully) to the great neverending saga of finding the ideal dvd player

i'm challenged with several problems that (unfortunately) can't be solved with browsing vendor pages, but only by dvdplayer owners and people with practical experience...

I'll split my demands in 2 groups (high--imporant & low--not very important)

High :
-> excellent DivX/XviD support
-> excellent subtitle support (sub,srt and most important idx+sub)
-> good CD(+/-)R & DVD(+/-)R support (meaning it can read most of discs, not in the sence of type, rather in meaning of various vendors)
-> DVD Recorder (by time schedule)
-> decent Audio output (more then just left-right, standard stereo)

Low :
-> S-Video output
-> JPG viewer
-> MP3 player
-> Progressive scanning

not very picky, am i?

about the first (DivX/XviD support) thing, i've seen that people recommend that its a DivX-certified player (although i prefer XviD)
so, this is one of the pages to consider
http://www.divx.com/products/hw/browse.php?c=1

also, it's most commonly that only QPEL or GMC are supported in the XviD section...
one other thing, that no one mentiones, but is very important, is the right size-ing... if you use sizeing tricks (forgot the right word for it, sorry), only when you manualy size the picture to 16:9, will you get the real thing... also some old backups i made, when manually resized to 4:3, look decent
i'm mentioning this, because i recently saw, on friends LG (forgot model, sorry), that the sizeing isn't possible, in another words, the size that its encoded in, that will you see...

as for the subtitle support, i've seen that idx+sub is quite problematic....

----------------------------------------------------------------------
now...

using VideoHelp(.com)'s very nice search engine, i found several candidates...

DivX certified :
AVAYON DXP-1000
LG DR-7900H
Samsung DVD-R125
Philips DVP-721

And, from large number of uncertified... :
Zensonic Z500
Zenith ZRV-514
Philips DVDR3320V
Yamada DVX 6100
Daewoo DRX-1105

thanks for taking time to read this
and, please comment/suggest

[Bob W]

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html

[_mAyDaY_]

hey Bob

thnx for the great suggestion -- Oppo OPDV971H - DIVX DVI DVD Player

the feedback on the Videohelp's search are also outstanding

it only lacks the recording capability

can any of the owners comment the sizeing abilitys ?

[Smells_Like_Feet]

_mAyDaY_,

Just a word of caution on the Oppo. From your list of low priority features, you would like to have S-Video output. If you plan on using any connection other than DVI, the Oppo may not be the player for you. This player has mediocre video quality through any output other than the digital DVI interface. That being said, Oppo does offer excellent customer service and very regular firmware updates through their website. On this basis alone you may still want to consider it.

As such, you should be able to find a less expensive player that will fit all of your High priority features. I'd suggest looking at pioneer, panasonic, or phillips brands. The pioneer DV 578A may fit your needs well and pioneer tends to make reliable players. Other than that I haven't done much research recently so I can't call out any other models. Sorry.

Good luck,

Smells_Like_Feet

[BJ_M]

i would get and dvd recorder AND a player ....

for a number of reasons

[SingSing]

Just a word of caution on the Oppo. From your list of low priority features, you would like to have S-Video output. If you plan on using any connection other than DVI, the Oppo may not be the player for you. This player has mediocre video quality through any output other than the digital DVI interface. That being said, Oppo does offer excellent customer service and very regular firmware updates through their website. On this basis alone you may still want to consider it.

Analog Video quality is based on parts and circuit, firmware update is not going to improve it.

I am a bit suprised about the the need of divx, because there are no source materials in this format ( Not even camcorder ). If one have to re-encode to divx from another source, don't you think some video quality already lost in the process ?

[Treebeard]

Sounds like a HTPC is the best solution to me.

[Smells_Like_Feet]

Analog Video quality is based on parts and circuit, firmware update is not going to improve it.

I am a bit suprised about the the need of divx, because there are no source materials in this format ( Not even camcorder ). If one have to re-encode to divx from another source, don't you think some video quality already lost in the process ?

SingSing,

You are correct about the video quality, it is hardware limited and won't change based on the firmware updates. My reason for recommending Oppo based purely upon their regular updates is that they have actively improved their product with respect to playback functionality. I.E. they have improved playback of Divx through firmware update. Also, supporting a company that has demonstrated such great customer service is very high on my priority list. If it is worth the price premium (other players can be had for less), then I still recommend the Oppo. Also, if the OP is planning on moving to HDTV in the near future, the OPPO is the only way to go.

As for wanting Divx playback, I assume it's primary intent is to play downloaded content. I could be wrong, (it happened once before ).

-Smells_Like_Feet

[_mAyDaY_]

Just a word of caution on the Oppo. From your list of low priority features, you would like to have S-Video output. If you plan on using any connection other than DVI, the Oppo may not be the player for you. This player has mediocre video quality through any output other than the digital DVI interface. That being said, Oppo does offer excellent customer service and very regular firmware updates through their website. On this basis alone you may still want to consider it.

thanks for mentioning this very important fact, much of tv sets dont still posses high quality interfaces, such as DVI or HDMI (in my case, i have Sony Wega,, whose best quality input is the S-Video)

i would get and dvd recorder AND a player ....
for a number of reasons

this is pretty reasonable thing to do, but which player AND which recorder would you choose?

Sounds like a HTPC is the best solution to me.

this is probably the best and most customizable option, if you have time & will to do it, because there are several tricky things to do if you want it done properly (IR-Remote, Custom-own menus, if recording, time schedule software + input device, ...)

As such, you should be able to find a less expensive player that will fit all of your High priority features. I'd suggest looking at pioneer, panasonic, or phillips brands. The pioneer DV 578A may fit your needs well and pioneer tends to make reliable players.

Yes, Pioneer seems to make the best player-recorder combinations, but still any comments from the owners? DivX/XviD support, sizeing ?

so far, we've seen that the Oppo OPDV971H is a great player (in much aspects, DivX/XviD support, subtitle support, firmware support, ...) IF you have a newer TV set to back it up

I'm looking into Pioneer, Panasonic & Philips players, and i'll post you conclusions i make here...

thanks for participating people

[InXess]

This one is getting some rave reviews:
LG Upconverting HD DVD DivX Compatible DVD Player (LDA-531)