Comments on: DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t Buy A DVD Player For Your HDTV!

By: Cat Johnson

Cat Johnson — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:27:21 +0000

I have a 61 inch DLP HD TV, which produces a great picture. HD on it looks amazing. That being said, I am completely happy with upscaled DVDs on it. I have seen BluRay, and it does look better. But not enough for the price of the player and the 25% premium to buy movies. No thanks!

By: steve

steve — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:23:33 +0000

Here is one good reason to get an upscaling dvd player. My oppo player has a great incremental video zoom feature that my HDTV does not.

By: kyle

kyle — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:28:28 +0000

i have an xbox 360, magnavox upconvert dvd player, and a panasonic 200u projector. I can tell you that without a doubt, upconvert makes a difference. A huge difference. Now, i also have some HD DVD’s and the player for the xbox (got it all cheap). There is a difference between high-def dvds and regular dvds upconverted. is it a huge difference? Lets just say not huge enough for me to replace my dvds with blu-rays and buy a bluray player. Sorry, i just think $30 for a bluray dvd is way to much not to mention the cheapest player is $160.

By: B0B0Y NOBLE

B0B0Y NOBLE — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:51:49 +0000

I AGREE WITH YOU TIM. HDGURO IS SIMPLY STATING THE FACTS.

By: BoredDaily

BoredDaily — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:17:59 +0000

@ Dan,
I would suggest MonoPrice over BlueJeansCable any day:
http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

@ Gary Merson/HD Guru,
Shouldn’t the title read “Don’t Buy an UPSCALING DVD Player…”? And although for most people an hdmi cable is an hdmi cable, you missed an opportunity to detail the available bandwidth with different hdmi profiles as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi.
Lastly, having Blu-ray isn’t all about picture quality. Audio is extremely important. Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD MA are so far advanced (and needs the cable bandwidth and A/V receiver to get it although if your current receiver can do it, similar lossless audio can be had via ANALOG at the identical bitrate) over standard Dolby Digital and DTS over toslink. Sure, getting an inexpensive Blu-ray player over an upscaling DVD is good advice, you should point out that there are additional expenses involved in doing so (HDMI 1.3 cables at a reasonable price, a proper A/V receiver that can handle at least 5.1 surround, and the increased cost of a Blu-ray disc over a standard DVD — sometimes $7-$15 more). Disc players AND the media should come down in price for mass adoption.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:20:31 +0000

The Panasonic DMP-BD35 is probably the best Blueray player for the money and it does everything right according to Home Theater Magazine. You can buy it for under $300.00

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:14:49 +0000

I you wan’t very high quality cables check
out http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/hdmi-cables/index.htm Blue Jeans Cable sells the best cables I have come across at very good prices. I won’t buy my cables anywhere else. Check them out. You can order any type cable in any leghths you like and the give you complete desciptions of how they are made and the difereces between the cable types. Blue Jeans Cable in Seattle Washington will be the only place you will buy from once you try them.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:49:26 +0000

Thanks for reigning this topic back to the original intent of the article.

As a consumer who has yet to make the HDTV leap, I’m reading up on all the information out there prior to making a purchase, and stumbled onto this article out of chance.

-kp

By: Gwydion

Gwydion — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:41:24 +0000

I keep hearing that instead of a seperate Blu-Ray player you should purchase the Playstation 3 w/ the Blu-Ray remote. It boots WAY faster than commercial players, is specifically designed for high-end video output AND you can play games when not watching movies!
Sounds pretty sweet to me… Comments?
-G

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:33:21 +0000

A lot of people seem to be missing the point of this article about not buying an up-converting DVD player!

The point is that TV technology has advanced so much that the up-converting players don’t really add anything more – based on this logic, the up-converting dvd player is a waste of money since the newer TVs do it equally as well if not better!

The comments regarding purchasing a replacing your entire DVD collection are a tangent with what this article discusses – and, are completely irrelevant to this end.

This article doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t suggest you go replace your collection with new blu-rays of the same films, it simply says, blu-ray players will also play your DVDs. Again, linking this back to the comment the article makes in relation to TV technology being improved, regardless of the blu-ray player up-converting or not, the TV will do the same thing as an up-converting DVD player – so why not just buy the blu-ray player!

So in the end, the argument the article presents is sound. Why waste money investing in something a brand new HDTV does, or a blu-ray player does, when it could be better spent on newer technology – a blu-ray player. You still play your DVDs and get the up-conversion you wanted, while purchasing films you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t own, or own but want the next level of quality on blu-ray.

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s amazing how quickly people jump on the, “it’s a blu-ray player I have to replace my collection” bandwagon – almost as if once you have a blu-ray player you will be compelled to upgrade!

The comments in relation to the source “garbage in garbage out” are true. However, the film prints that blu-ray releases are pressed from are generally being cleaned up or restored.

As the saying goes with engines – there is no replacement for displacement, well in the realm of HD there is no replacement resolution.