Cheap DVD player (£50)

[Phil_P]

Hi Folks,

I'm looking for a new cheap DVD player around £50 (or less) to go with my new Sony KDL-32S3000 HD ready LCD TV. It's not 1080p but does accept a 1080i input so I assume I'm right in thinking I want a DVD player that can upscale to 1080i??

Anyway, a quick look on amazon found me this Samsung player for £48:

Amazon.co.uk: Samsung DVD-HD870 - Region 2 - DVD Player With HDMI and Upscaling to 1080i: Electronics & Photo

Anyone have any solid recommendations as my current bargain basement player from Tesco has given up the ghost so I thought I'd really push the boat out and up the budget to £50 this time round!

PS - The Humax PVR you guys recommended me last time I visited the Audio/Visual section really rocks - thanks

[doddsy]

Thats about the best you'll find without going well over budget tbh, I found a glowing review:

Home Cinema Hardware Reviews

You can find the model up from this (1080P7) for about £10 more, it has a better scaling chip but as you only need 1080i I think that'd do you nicely. Other alternatives are the phillips 5960 and 5980. You should have a look at them.

[Phil_P]

Thanks doddsy - great find on that review

So how would I best hook this up to my TV - HDMI, scart, component?

And any chance someone can explain 720p, 1080i, progressive scan etc and what's best to use?

[doddsy]

best way to hook it up would be through hdmi.

Te numbers are vertical resolution, basically the more the better. i stands for interlaced and p means progressive. Basically progressive renders each frame fully and interlaced renders half frames (consecutively these make up full pictures), p is better.

Whats best to use depends on your screen and source. As your TV is 720p (technically 768) and you're upscaling DVDs then 720p would probably be the best for you to use. It would mean the least scaling.

[Phil_P]

Thanks again doddsy - great explanation!

My TV arrived this morning and I have it set up with the Humax PVR and also fed a freeview signal. After reading your links above I think the Samsung sounds just the job so I'll get myself one of those along with an hdmi lead after Christmas.

One last question - do you think the Humax would benefit from a better quality scart lead than the real cheapie lead I'm using atm ... the built in freeview seems a little better quality than when fed from the Humax PVR?

[doddsy]

Scart cables are analogue so spending more on them gives better results. Don't go overboard but have a look for one with gold connectors etc.

(Sorry for the late reply, Christmas was busy!)

[KBeee]

Upscaling from a cheap DVD player is pretty much useless, unless the scaling chip in the £50 player is better than the scaling chip in the £500 TV.
Each time an image is re-scaled, some quality will be lost.
Playing from a standard DVD player you'll send a 576 image to your TV, which will re-scale it to your displays native resolution, which in your case is 768.
With an upscaling DVD player, you will take a 576 image, re-scale to 1080, and then your TV will re-scale again down to 768.
A progressive image will give a better boost to quality than pointless rescaling.
Also, if you have any VCD's or SVCD's, check that the Samsung will play them. The Home Cinema review says it does, but other places say that it doesn't.
My Samsung SH855 won't play VCD's, SVCD's or mpegs written as data, though it plays DivX/XviD's sorta OK-ish