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Old 19-04-2000, 16:03
MartinG
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I'm a complete novice here. I've recently purchased a Toshiba widescreen TV with Dolby surround sound. I've got a crappy (at least 12 year-old) CD hi-fi system which is taking up too much space. I really only use it to play CDs now. Is it worth purchasing a DVD player which presumably will connect to the TV and play CDs through the TV's Dolby system? If so, does compatability come into the equation? i.e. would a Toshiba DVD make any difference as opposed to another make?
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Old 08-05-2000, 02:33
Byron
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Virtually ALL DVD players I've come across play CD's. However, the quality varies between models, so it's worth reading a few reviews before you buy. If you also have a good Dolby 5.1 or Pro-logic set-up, it could well be worth replacing your aging-stereo.

Oh, and my Toshiba 709 plays CD's just fine!
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Old 24-05-2000, 07:51
brassd
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Make sure the player will play CDR's. Useful for the future!
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Old 24-05-2000, 08:53
MartinG
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Thanks for the tip. Of the budget priced DVD players on the market I think that the Wharefdale one on sale at Tescos for £180 (if you can find it) plays CDRs. It has had some good reviews for DVD playback and value for money generally. Anyone tried it for playing CDs?
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Old 25-05-2000, 07:55
brassd
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A mate of mine has, he says it does a reasonable job. It won't be as good as a decent hifi system though.
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Old 25-05-2000, 09:19
MartinG
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Perhaps better, or at least as good as, my old hifi system. Trouble with the Wharfedale player I suppose is that you can't try it out in Tescos. The sound from my Toshiba TV is pretty good in the dolby surround sound thing, so I'm not sure if I would notice a difference. Does your mate play his straight through the TV, or does he have separate speakers and/or amplifier?
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Old 25-05-2000, 22:46
orbv
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The Wharfedale player is a great budget DVD player but (there is alway a but) some DVD menus do not display or function correctly.

I played with one over six months ago so they have better firmware now. They may not have a digital sound output either. (Worth checking this)
http://www.scan.co.uk are selling some multi region players for under 200 pounds at the moment. may be worth checking out.
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Old 26-05-2000, 07:37
brassd
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Be careful about buying from Scan though, I almost bought my Pioneer 525 from them until I realised it wasn't the UK version and didn't have a Scart socket!
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Old 26-05-2000, 09:26
MartinG
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Scan are selling the Lasonic 2000 multi region DVD player with a SCART socket for £198 inc VAT. Anyone seen any reviews of this one?
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Old 26-05-2000, 18:49
Paul Kerton
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The Wharfedale DOES have a Dolby Digital capacity.

It has a optical connector on the back, I will soon be using mine, but i need to find the price of a cable.
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Old 27-05-2000, 19:44
MusicFreak
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Playing CD's on a budget priced DVD player will never reach the sound quality of a CD-player! The price of DVD-players with the sound quality of CD-players is £500+ in my opinion. Sony’s DVP S7700 (about £600) beats most CD-players. If you don't want to spend this amount of money, I would recommend that you stick with your CD player and just use the DVD-player for DVD's.

Anyway: Not even the most expensive DVD-players can reach the sound quality of a HighEnd CD-player. I've got a Wadia 270 CD-player and I can't imagine any DVD-player ever reaching this sound quality. Except of course a DVD-Audio-player, but that's another story.
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Old 31-05-2000, 10:12
MartinG
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Yes, MusicFreak, but you've probably got more "educated" ears than me. My Phillips music centre wth CD is at least 12 years old, and by no means a "HighEnd" CD player. Will I really notice a difference?
If so, is it because of the DVD player itself or what it is playing through e.g. amp/speakers? The speakers that come with the Toshiba TV aren't bad, but perhaps the ones with my hifi are a bit better and I could change them over.
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Old 01-06-2000, 15:24
MusicFreak
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When comparing a CD-player with a DVD-player one should connect both to the same amp/speakers. Otherwise comparison becomes difficult. If amp/speakers used for the DVD-player are much better than the ones for the CD-player, I guess the DVD-player could indeed sound better than the CD-player.

Now, asuming you want to compare both players using the same amp/speakers, then the CD-player (even a 12-years old one) still will sound better than a budget priced DVD player. This is mainly because CD-players contain a laser with higher preciseness & the D/A converter is of higher audio quality.
I remember an interesting sound quality compararison between CD- and DVD-players in a HiFi magazine some time ago. The result was something like this:
- DVD-players in the class £600+ have the sound quality of CD-players between £300-£400
- DVD players of about £500 have the sound quality of a £150 CD player
- DVD players cheaper than £400 ==> really cheap CD players
- DVD players cheaper than £300- ==> no CD-player sounds as bad
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Old 01-06-2000, 15:48
pauld
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I have a Sony 725 DVD player. It has seperate circuitry just for audio CDs. I checked out the review for this player in Home Cinema Choice magazine.

They rate the CD audio playback quality by measuring the digital deviation, measured in picoseconds. The lower the deviation the better. They say that anything below 200ps is in the "audiophile" category (there are some DVD players that register well over 1000ps, with the Wharfedale 750 coming out at 324.8ps). The 725 came out at 151.8ps. The seperate audio review said that it sounded very good.

I think it sounds great, which, of course is where it matters - as long as it sounds fine to you then buy it. Just give a big up yours to anyone who tries to slag off your kit that you've worked hard to pay for!!
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