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Good 1080i upconversion DVD players?

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tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
Ever since buying my HD set, the weaknesses of my Phillips DVP642 DVD player have become really apparent. Now, I'm looking for a semi-affordable DVD player with a DVI or, preferably, HDMI output that can upconvert to 1080i. I hear Oppo's a great new brand of players that meets these qualifications, but they also average about $200 and seem to have some Macrovision problems. Any particular recommendations in addition to this? Thanks.
 
I recently bought this and I can't complain. Easy all region hack too.

http://ca.lge.com/en/prodmodeldetai.../LDA-531-L+May+30+05.jpg&model=Select+a+model

Up-Conversion (1080i) through HDMI and Component Output
8-in-2 Multi Memory Card Slot (CF/MD/MMC/SD/SMC/MS/MS Pro/xD)
Multi Format Playability (DivX, XviD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, Audio CD, CD-R/RW, MP3, WMA, VCD, JPEG)
Plays DivX/XviD Movies (.avi/.mpg/.mpeg files)
Video Out: Composite, S-Video, Component, HDMI
Digital Audio Out: Optical, Coaxial

Dunno if it's available outside of Canada though.
 
$200 for the Oppo is an amazing price, considering it's really one of the best sub-$500 DVD players on the planet. As long as your display doesn't have problems with macroblocking, it's the best you can buy. The Panasonic players are your next best bet. If you want really cheap, you can get a Samsung 941, which is their best player and can be found for $125. It has HDMI out and comes with both an HDMI cable and an HDMI to DVI cable. It upconverts (and can be easily hacked to do so over component) and plays SACD/DVD-A as well. But it's really not in the same league as the Oppo, Panasonic or Denon players.
 
zmet said:
Does this one still suffer from audio-sync issues? I wanted one (and I still might get one) but I ended up getting the Panasonic DVD-S97S. The picture quality on S-97 is great!

If you have the S97, don't bother. I'm pretty sure it uses the same Faroudja 2310 chipset, so the picture is going to be the same. I bought my Oppo primarily for it's region-free capabilities and PAL > NTSC conversion, which is beautiful, I might add. But the dreaded lip-sync issue... Supposedly it's much improved with the latest firmware; I wouldn't know how improved because I just got my player. But I have played quite a few discs on it already and I got the lip-sync problem while I was watching an R2 DVD. Hopefully this will get fixed completely in future firmware revisions. I noticed the macroblocking, which the S97 has as well, via the Faroudja chipset which contains some unfixable bug. Other than that, great player. 1080i upconversion is nice, but the picture quality on my Denon 2200 is still a little better, so I still use it as my primary player. The Oppo is for my non-Region 1 discs. Also, there is some red push on my tv which I was able to correct by using an attenuator on the red component cable out on my Denon, but I can't do the same for the Oppo or DVI. But that's another story...
 
I picked up a Toshiba SD-5980 720P/1080i HDMI player while I was at Fry's today. It got a pretty good write-up on hometheaterhifi.com and while it does meet the Oppo in output quality, it doesn't seem to have the audio-sync and Macrovision quirks it does. It's using the Zoran Vaddis 778 chip that's found in similar Samsung players. Surprisingly, it actually came with a decent length DVD cable and a pretty nice remote that will likely get used for all of 15 minutes before getting replaced by my All-For-One.

The picture is a definite improvement. I have it running at my TV's native 1080i setting via the HDMI connection, and while the difference from my previous player isn't blowing my socks off, it's a sharper picture, colors appear more accurate, less motion artifacts, etc. It's very cool to have the previous mess of cables reduced to one small one. So far I'm happy with the purchase.
 
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