Budget DVD Players

[Enchanter]

Hi people,

I am in need of a new DVD player for use in the living room. As I do not yet have any dedicated home theatre system and because the player will only be used for occasional viewings by my undemanding housemates (projected rate), a budget DVD player will suit us just fine.

What brands and models would be your recommendations? I require the player to possess component video output and 5.1 analog audio output. Multi-region support & australian availability will be great to have. I am willing to pay up to AU$250 (could stretch to AU$350, but only if the price difference is really worth it).

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Regards.


Edit: To keep this thread free of clutters (i.e. thank you's), I will refrain from doing so in subsequent replies. Anyway, thanks to Oriphus, who happens to have replied at the time of editing.

[Oriphus]

Everything you ask for can be found in the Plu2 DVD Players and they are only around £50 in the UK. They come from Germany, i look into finding out the name of the place you cang et them from. I have two of them, though i only use one. Has the component out which i connect to my Projector and they all have Progrssive scan built in.

[Oriphus]

This is the one i have:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3066918901&category=27730

[gd_nimrod]

Damn enchanter, when you said "budget" i was thinking like ~100$...but 250$ seems pretty high end!

[Enchanter]

I said AU$250. That equals to roughly US$180. Anyway, I ended up with a Pioneer DV-466 costing [cough] AU$300. At that price level it is hard to get a player that does the audio decoding on-board, so I have to suffice with stereo analog output for the time being.

Impressive. The player reads most media types that I threw at it: Audio CDs, CD-R/RW, commercial DVDs and DVD+RW. I have yet to try the DVD +/- R and DVD-RW discs. The sound quality is one or two steps up (from my old VCD player) when playing anything from DVD, VCD and Audio CDs. The vocals have more presence and weight. The bass delves deeper and louder, and yet is unexpectedly more musical or responsive. The MP3 decoder does not produce stellar sounds, but that also applies with all MP3 decoder hardware I have come across. The player is connected to my TV via component outputs. The picture looks very good, though it did not impress me as much as the audio did. I have more discerning ears than eyes, and my existing sources and TV are not the best anyway, so that could have affected my impressions of the video. I am still trying to convince myself that the component-based connection looks better than composite, but am still having trouble seeing the difference. My housemate says he sees a noticable difference though. Perhaps I should test the connections by swapping to composite and back to component.

Overall, I am happy with this little purchase. A multichannel receiver and surround speakers set will complete the package, but that will need to wait until the cash (and needs) come along.

Regards.

[admin]

I bought a Loewe DVD player some three years ago (I checked, because the machine is playing up, and it just passed the warranty period ). It cost me over $AUD 900 (which was actually quite cheap for a DVD player with 5.1 decoding back then), but it doesn't play MP3, SVCD, and I doubt that it would play DVD±R/RW all that well. It does have RGB output (no component), so it matches nicely with my TV (also a Loewe). However, I suspect that most $300 DVD players these days can beat the pants of my player.

My sound system is an Onkyo receiver (does only Dolby/DTS 5.1, also bought 3 years ago at considerable cost) with B&W speakers. The whole package cost me around $AUD 4000, but I have to say it was worth the money. Even though 6.1/7.1 audio isn't supported (there was only 1 model in Australia that supported 6.1 audio back then, and it was also an Onkyo at $5000), it is still more than enough to handle DVD playback, and I would not think about changing it (especially the speakers) anytime soon.

So basically, don't spend too much on a DVD player (unless you're a millionaire and don't mind forking out $5000 for the state of the art player, which in the end, only matches the quality you get on a computer based DVD player hooked up to a high-def display using DVI) as they will be out of date in no time, but do spend a little more on the sound system, since a good system will last you a long time.

(and using a computer for DVD playback is the best, if you have a display with DVI/RGB input, since it will definitely playback DVD±R/RW, VCD/SVCD/MP3/WMV/DivX/..., and if you want HD-DVD, then all you need is a new HD-DVD-ROM drive and some new software)

[Oriphus]

Well the speakers, knowing B&W are bound to be very impressive. I got myself a Marantz THX system not that long ago and its amazing with my Monitor Audio S6i's Speakers. The joy of watching movies in style.....

[atifsh]

got a philips happy with it, though i wanted this DVD737, plays divx too...

but got dvd625 at the end.....low- budget

my svideo connection is so much better then composite, how come u cant see any difference b/w composite and component......

[Enchanter]

I'm looking at (drreaming of, more like it) the Pioneer VSX-C301S or, if budget allows, the VSXD812. Speaker packages from KEF or Mission will be nice too.