Recommendations for a 5.1 DVD player with excellent sound?
After nearly 10 years. my excellent Sony DVD player seems to be on its way out. As I bought it so long ago, I have no idea what to get to replace it. I need a multi-region player (I have Zone 1 and 2 DVDs) with excellent sound (I'm in the music business) and with RCA analogue (for my hi-fi) and Surround Sound 5.1 outputs (I already have 5.1 speakers so don't need 'home cinema'). Upscaling isn't an essential, but might be a nice extra to have.
At the moment I have no interest in Blu Ray because I have so many DVDs that I'm not prepared to buy all over again.
Any recommendations?
Grumpy Mac2012-07-16T09:07:39Z
Favorite Answer
Well a BluRay player will play all your DVD's just fine and will up-scale the video on a DVD so that should not stop you from doing this upgrade.
For the 5.1 or even your "hi-fi" using a digital connection, the bits are simply sent to your receiver so cheap vs expensive will give you identical sound.
For analog connections - this is tricky because the world uses digital connections rather than analog. Many players skimp or actually ignore analog outputs these days. And most reviews ignore these as well in favor of the 'better' digital hookups.
There was Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD Audio formats that tried to take hold a few years ago. These disks and players targeted audio enthusiasts by playing a higher than CD resolution format and probably had better than average analog outputs.
Search for SACD and DVD Audio players. Sony made some but the Pioneer Elite series was probably the best. They do make 'universal' players that handle everything like the Pioneer Elite BDP-53FD.
The thing I cannot advise you is how to make it region free. But hopefully I have narrowed down some things to look for.
Most manufacturer have stopped producing stand alone DVD players. Universal player are also very limited and only a few manufacturer makes them in the US. The reason is that the Blu Ray disc player will also play your DVD and up convert the DVD to 1080P versus the DVD player now only up converts to the 720P. The only reasonable price universal Blu Ray disc player that I know of is the Pioneer Elite (around $400), the OPPO 93 ($499) and the high end McIntosh ($,500). They all are highly rated for video and audio quality in the order I listed them. I purchased the OPPO 93 several months ago and from the first time I listened to sound I was stunned compare to the Panasonic BD-10 (first generation player) and the Pioneer. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for. Hope this will help you out.
When it comes to home theater, you pay for what you get. I would suggest going to best buy, where they have a lot of them set up and working. Otherwise, look into JVC and Samsung. Panasonic isn't too bad either, but I personally like JVC.