DVD 5 - what will I be missing?

I don't own a DVD5 but a couple of years ago I borrowed one for a couple of weeks whilst my original Tag McLaren player went for repair.

The PQ of the DVD5 was on a par with my TMc, i.e. very good, and it was also excellent at CD replay. But I guess that doesn't interest you!

The DVD5 integrates well with the Naim AV2 processor, but that won't be of use to you either.

I swapped my Tag for an Oppo DVD player - £150 at the time. It had a better picture than the Tag; a real giant killer of a player & It played any disc you bunged in, even making a fair fist of DVD-A & SACD. It even played a small china tea plate I inadvertently put into it once. (Sorry, made that last bit up)

Feeling the Oppo was a bit "low budget" in my system, I borrowed a DV 139 for a few days, but it wasn't as good as the Oppo in both PQ and its ability to play certain discs.

If I was in your shoes, I'd go for a Blu-Ray player. My humble Panasonic is excellent at SD DVD replay and wonderful with blu ray.

With a big plasma display it's a bit of a no-brainer!

I haven't seen the 139 but have seen the 137 - although the 139 is supposed to be a lot better than the 139.

The DVD5 was comparable to the 137 for picture. Not much in it for me on a 50" plasma display.

For sound though, the DVD5 was a real cut above - as you might expect from Naim. It's a lovely player.

Abbeydog

Why would you buy a non Hi-Def device at this point in time? It makes no sense to me to have your plasma TV running at less than full capability...

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim,

Mrs Abbydog has lots of DVDs and we believe it is too early to buy into BluRay at this time. I am happy to be persuaded otherwise. We also heard BluRay players are not great with existing discs - again this may be more rumour than fact.

Personally, I already have one hobby, which is hi-fi, and I'm kind of reluctant to get heavily into Home Cinema as I've enough on my plate.

All the same, it would be nice to make the right decision about a player.

One area where I believe a high end standard defintion DVD player will thrive for some time to come is on concert DVDs. Lately this has been a large part of my viewing and I'm enjoying it very much.

In my opinion if the majority of your viewing are movies then I would try a blu-ray player, as you'll be able to get virtually any new release in blu-ray. If you watch a lot of concert DVDs, then I would get something like the DVD5 or 139.

fyi, I use an Arcam DV29 as my only source and I am 2 channel only.

Is your Fujitsu a 1080p model? If not, my guess is that the difference between SD and Blu-ray will will be less dramatic.

Abbydog, I do urge you to try and audition a Blu-Ray player at home. Although naturally the technology is bound to improve over time, I can't see why, as you're considering buying a better DVD player, you aren't keen to go for one.

I'm mightily impressed by the ability of my Panasonic player to upscale standard DVD to 1080P resolution, and before upgrading to a full 1080P projector, my previous 1080i one showed a significant improvement with blu-ray playback, so even if your display's not full HD, I guarantee you'll notice a significant improvement over any SD player.

If you were considering using the DVD player for CD or DVD-A replay then the Arcam or the DVD5 would make more sense, but for significantly less than that level of outlay you could get a very good Blu Ray player indeed, and one that I suspect will better either of the aforementioned players for both picture and sound quality.

As Jim says, it really makes no sense to go for a SD player.

Abbydog

quote:

Mrs Abbydog has lots of DVDs and we believe it is too early to buy into BluRay at this time. I am happy to be persuaded otherwise. We also heard BluRay players are not great with existing discs - again this may be more rumour than fact.

Turn your statement around the other way....why buy into old technology at this point (no offence Naim). The picture quality from a 1080p TV of any kind via Blu-Ray is simply fantastic). Upscaling is OK but I was to offer you a CD player that had a range of 100Hz - 10KHz which upscaled to 20Hz - 20KHz would you buy it?? Maybe a poor analogy but hopefully you get my drift.

You don't have to get into "home theatre" to get value from Blu-Ray in HD - the picture quality alone is worth it IMO.

Vaughan makes a great point on sound quality and if that is the over-riding buying factor then certainly consider the Naim player but taking the audio out via the optical out into a DAC will be pretty good also.

I run the audio out from my DVD player into an old 62/160 combo through my Castle Howard's and the combination of sound quality and picture quality is excellent through my 65" Mitsubishi RP 1080i TV.

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim, I really value your input. However, if I applied the same logic to hi-fi I would never have bought a CD555 and I'd now be living with a redundant SACD/DVD Audio player.

Although DVD-HD has gone away I don't see Blu-ray succeeding just yet. Most people have never heard of the format, think DVD is great and will not be dashing to HMV to pay £18 a disc for a while yet, I feel.

Unless the studios kill DVD artificially, I think it may be the mass-market format for a good while.

What I'd really like to do is get the best of of the existing DVD format and worry about Blu-ray down the line.

abbydog

I guess living in different countries shows at times.....mass market electrical retailers over here, places like Best Buy or Circuit City are wall to wall with Blu Ray players and you can hardly buy an SD TV as everything is now 1080P....the future is here I think.

In my view it's not a fad, 1080p is the new standard and sales of Blu Ray will continue to grow to take advantage of that capability.

I think this is very different from the SACD/DVD audio debate as the sound differences were marginal or non-existent over redbook CD. Blu Ray is a quantum leap forward in terms of picture quality over 480P SD.

Just opinion of course.

Cheers

Jim

That is very interesting, because if BluRay is that big in the US already its probably got a strong future. Guess the US is still the market that counts! Thanks.

I have a Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player and on SD DVD thought it looked better than my Arcam DV27A - in fact I sold the Arcam shortly afterwards. There's someone else here, Neill I think, who has the same blu-ray player and thought it slightly better with standard DVD than his DVD5 but I can't find the post now.

Given that you can pick up a BDP-S300 for about £250 what is it about the DVD5 that would make you want to spend the additional £2,250?

quote:

Originally posted by abbydog:
That is very interesting, because if BluRay is that big in the US already its probably got a strong future. Guess the US is still the market that counts! Thanks.

I had a quick hunt for market share figures for SD DVD players vs HD but couldn't find them easily, anyway it was just my two cents/tuppence worth.

Cheers

Jim

quote:

Given that you can pick up a BDP-S300 for about £250 what is it about the DVD5 that would make you want to spend the additional £2,250?

I guess I've never regretted buying Naim in the past and I know where I am with the products.

However, I am concerned about spending ten times the price of a BluRay player on a machine which appears to be a little obsolete even by DVD standards, never mind newer formats.

Then again, my Naim tuner appears to be a little obsolete compared to the latest digital wonders...until you actually listen to it, that is.

Abby, maybe my post was a bit provocative but the point I'm making is that even if you never buy a blu-ray disk and you use it exclusively for standard definition DVDs, you can buy a player thats going to be pretty much as good as, if not better, than a DVD5 for a small fraction of the cost.

As you said ealier "I already have one hobby, which is hi-fi, and I'm kind of reluctant to get heavily into Home Cinema" so why the spend the extra?

Thanks Allan. Appreciate what you say!

or...how about a blu-ray player with an external dac?

OK guys, ordered Naim DVD5 through dealer today.

Reasons were:

1) Faith in Naim - I've never been dissapointed by the company's products.

2) No-one suggested there was a better alternative for standard definition DVD.

I'll look at a Blu-ray player in a year or so as I don't believe in being an early adopter of new formats.

I'd just like to thank everyone who replied as it was really a big help to Mrs Abbydog and I and helped define the arguments. Cheers.

Oh well Abbydog, we tried!

Enjoy your DVD5!

I'm surporised you can still buy them. Maybe they've got a large unsold stock to shift

I've got both a Sony BDP-S500 & a Toshiba XE-1 going through a Lumagen Radiance, neither of them come close to my DVD5 for SD on both PQ & Sound, if I didn't already have one & I had quite a few SD DVD's then I wouldn't hesitate getting one.

Abbydog go for it & enjoy. Charlie

abbydog inspired me, I just ordered my 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma.

Sounds like the choice after both Fujitsu and Pioneer quit!

Abbydog you've made a wise choice, I used to have a DVD5 and for my sins changed to a DV29. Sadly I couldn't stand the Arcam after having been spoiled by the DVD5! I now run an Nvi and the picture quality is awesome.

Oh and a Panny screen is the way to go IMHO.

Enjoy!

Yoda, what didnt you like about the DV29? I have one and like it very much...but then again Ive never demo'd a DVD5.

Munch

quote:

It will be one of the last ones to come out of Salisbury.

You mean production is moving to China?

Jim