Best Standard Def DVD Player under $8,000 used?

01-11-09: Tom92602
To all: If you have no experience with these 4 players
do us both a favor and post elsewhere. If you have a/b'd
these I'd love to hear of your experiences.

We're not alone in our assessments. Check out www.ultimateavmag.com for their rankings of video disc players.

Their Ultimate Choice category is entirely populated by HD disc players, from $1500 Pioneer Blu-ray all the way down to an entry-level Toshiba HD DVD player.

The next level down, "Premier Choice," is populated by expensive battleship-build-quality boutique std-def DVD players ranging from a thousand to $11K:

Ayre DX-7e $5,999
Lexicon RT-20 $4,495
Linn Unidisk $11k
Marantz DV-9600 $2,099
Meridian G98DH $6,000
Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi $999
Simaudio Moon Orbiter $6,500
Sony DVP-NS9100ES $1,300

Most of us have moved on and consider the purchase of high zoot std-def DVD players as throwing good money after bad. Read the reviews for the better Blu-ray playes, such as the $2K Marantz.

Most of the better Blu-ray players do great upconversion of std def DVD, so they'll take good care of your 500 std-def DVD collection. If your TV doesn't accept HDMI, you'd get better picture for the money by getting a modern 1080p display and feeding it a 1080p upconverted or native mode Blu-ray signal--even if it's from a (gasp!) $500 player.

Your assessment of the Oppo DV 983H based on component video output is missing the point. Even my 720p display looks significantly better when it's fed an upsampled signal via HDMI. I have compared component vs. upconverted HDMI video from four different DVD players in my house and the HDMI trumps component every time.

Not that long ago, state of the art home theater was anchored by a 480p Pioneer Laserdisc with AP3 1st-gen Dolby Digital 5.1 with the video signal fed to an outboard $20,000 Faroudja video processor. These were superseded by the disc players of which you speak--high end std-def DVD players with the Faroudja circuit built in. These have since been superseded by the Blu-ray players of which *we* speak.

Quit shooting the messenger.

01-11-09: Tom92602

Ok.. Nice work all you $300 BluRay payer lovers..
If only you had highend systems to appreciate the
gear I am wanting to discuss.

BluRay is slow to load disks, Disks are expensive and
I have a 500+ standard Def DVD library.

The PS3 and Oppo BDP-83 (which is $500, thankyouverymuch) are very fast to load. If you're budgeting $8000 and spend only $500, that leaves $7500 to upgrade your DVD library to Blu-ray. You should be able to buy at least 300 Blu-rays, and more likely replace your entire library of 500.

If you want better redbook, rip your CDs (losslessly) to a laptop and get a Wavelength Cosecant USB DAC for a mere $3500. I dare you to find a CD player that will match that.

Any way you slice it, $8K for a std def DVD player, even if it will play dinner plates, is throwing good money after bad. Go whole hog on an Oppo BDP-83SE ($900) plus laptop (say $800) plus Wavelength Cosecant DAC ($3500), and you have better playback in every format for $5200. Use the other $2800 to upgrade your video library to Blu-ray.