Have your say & ask the experts

fr0g:

Andrew Everard:

fr0g:

But can I ask you which you(as a highly regarded WHFS&V reviewer) think is the best picture...A mid priced BR player, or a Naim DVD5?

As I said near the beginning of this thread, I "have yet to see anything from Blu-ray Disc to tempt me into
a major system upheaval."

At which point I think I will withdraw from what is clearly a pointless agrument. 

And no, Solomon1, I don't think this is in any way

Solomon1:

A Naim dvd versus blu-ray flame thread!.

Instead it's just a spot of WHFSV staff-baiting. We're used to it.

I am not baiting. I am simply interested in your opinion at this point, which believe it or not, I do actually respect. Especially where my experience is obviously light-years (yes I know) behind yours.

"Nothing to tempt me in a major upheaval" I understand. No BluRay player will touch the Naim for DVD or Audio Playback, and if you have a raft of DVDs... But it would be interesting none-the-less what you thought of the picture quality of Blu Ray, played through a current fullHD TV, compared to the DVD playback of the Naim...

Anyway, I am going watching the Last Dr Who now... (A series that improved drastically after the awful 1st episode)

fr0g, I think what Andrew said was that his DVD5 gives out such good quality and he hasn't seen anything from a BD player that has made him (by being that much better) think, that's it, I've got to have one of those. I can see what he means. My LCD, although only a couple of years (light in tech terms) old, is fabulous and I've not seen plasmas or other LCDs that have made me want to upgrade. I'm sure I will at some point. The one thing that makes me intrigued with BD is the HD audio side of things. I'm looking at getting a highish end dvd player and better receiver and hopefully the sound will stop my intrigue and save me money.

I see WHF review man in other thread say Naim DVD is better than BluRay!

I was intrigue so look around and manage to find on eBay.IT a player and email saler and he give modest price so I order.

I hope its betters my PS3 BluRay into my PIONEER KURO PDPLX6090.

 

Sanny x

Andrew apart the picture do you not hear a significant difference in audio quality with BDs and DVDs?

You have to wonder what type of people these electronic stores employ when they cannot tell the difference in picture. Also most players (DVDs and BD) are not even properly set up in most stores unless they have a dedicated movie room.

I think we were 'discussing' picture quality.

 

Without listening to/viewing it? Not a very smart move, in my opinion.

And i have to reiterate I didn't say it was better, just that no Blu-ray Disc player I've seen so far has tempted me to give up the DVD5 for BD.

 

fr0g:

He is talking ****...end of. It might be a great DVD player, but the best DVD player wont touch a PS3 playing Blu Ray. I imagine he fancies the comission a little too much...

 This has to be the best quote on here of all time and I am still roaring with laughter

PS: Just off to get a PS3...........Well I mean if the £300 PS3 is better than the £2600 DVD5..who am I to argue....I'll NAIM that tune in one!

Andrew Everard:

I think we were 'discussing' picture quality.

 

I realise we are talking picture quality. But does audio not come into your thinking on upgrading?

Bullseye:

I realise we are talking picture quality. But does audio not come into your thinking on upgrading?

It does - and for the use I have at home, the sound of the Naim with DVDs, not to mention its musical abilities, are more than adequate for now.

 

I think this is the most misleading topic I've seen on this forum

Using a NAS with a Playstation 3

Tallyho:

fr0g:

He is talking ****...end of. It might be a great DVD player, but the best DVD player wont touch a PS3 playing Blu Ray. I imagine he fancies the comission a little too much...

 This has to be the best quote on here of all time and I am still roaring with laughter

PS: Just off to get a PS3...........Well I mean if the £300 PS3 is better than the £2600 DVD5..who am I to argue....I'll NAIM that tune in one!

The Blu-Ray has 4 times the information on the disc. The best upscaler will not reproduce that.
The DVD5 is reknowned for its sound, which of course will beat a PS3, but get a high quality Blu-Ray disc (Not an UPSCALED image) and compare the picture to that of a DVD player, no matter how expensive, and it will still have far more detail.

Just in the same way as early DVD players beat the best VHS players, and early CD players beat the most expensive compact casette players.

I have an old Arcam DV79 and a Panasonic TH42PX70 plasma and the picture quality is perfectly good. Why would I want anything better? It's got good contrast, good colour, no ghosting. What possibloe benefits can I get by spending loads of money, it's just not worth it.

fr0g:

Tallyho:

fr0g:

He is talking ****...end of. It might be a great DVD player, but the best DVD player wont touch a PS3 playing Blu Ray. I imagine he fancies the comission a little too much...

 This has to be the best quote on here of all time and I am still roaring with laughter

PS: Just off to get a PS3...........Well I mean if the £300 PS3 is better than the £2600 DVD5..who am I to argue....I'll NAIM that tune in one!

The Blu-Ray has 4 times the information on the disc. The best upscaler will not reproduce that.
The DVD5 is reknowned for its sound, which of course will beat a PS3, but get a high quality Blu-Ray disc (Not an UPSCALED image) and compare the picture to that of a DVD player, no matter how expensive, and it will still have far more detail.

Just in the same way as early DVD players beat the best VHS players, and early CD players beat the most expensive compact casette players.

For what it's worth, I recently bought an old high end dvd player off ebay - Arcam FMJ DV27A. My primary reason was to ditch my budget cd player and Denon 1940 upscaler (won lots of awards last year) and use just the one box. Now the Arcam does not have hdmi connectivity so I'm using component and watching dvds at 576p. Amazingly the picture is as good as my old Denon. I plan to buy an upscaling receiver soon so the improvement should be very good again. It gets to the point of how good can a picture get? I was over the moon when I first set my Denon up and to be honest, the only reason I changed was to get better cd playback and lose a box. The Arcam I bought originally sold for £2k so I knew it would be pretty good. I paid £293 for it. I sold my Denon for £102 and my cd player for £132, I also sold an hdmi cable for £40. What Andrew originally said was that bluray has not made him think, "oh my Naim DVD5 has to go because it can't get close to the picture of bluray". I am of the same view at the moment. My LCD is 2 years old and cannot do 24fps but I love it. To get the best out of bluray, I would need to change my screen and spend another £500 or so on a decent BD player. Why bother when I think the picture I'm getting at the moment is excellent and I know that a new receiver will soon make it even better. And I got an unbelievable cd player for free out of it too!

fr0g:

and early CD players beat the most expensive compact casette players.

Hmmm... First-generation Philips player or Nakamichi Dragon?

Andrew Everard:

fr0g:

and early CD players beat the most expensive compact casette players.

Hmmm... First-generation Philips player or Nakamichi Dragon?

Unfair. The PS3 has been lauded as the best BR player until fairly recently, and you are comparing 1st generation optical disk spinner?
Technology has come a long way since then.
I have seen some good DVD players, but none has the resolution and detail of the PS3 playing a good BR disc. (They do obviously destroy it in DVD playback mode)

How about Rotel RCD 865 v Nakamichi Dragon ?

Of course their is also a difference in scale too.
The difference between 2 audio formats is generally quite small, and many people can't even tell them apart CD and SACD for example. But a modern 40+ inch television, with a 1920x1080 pixel monitor displaying a standard DVD is having to add 3 times more information to the picture than is on the media. There is no way it can ever compete with a disk that contains information for each pixel.

Try getting a small section of a digital photograph (say 600x400), from a Canon 1D (say), and resizing to 1200x800... The best interpolation software in the world isn't going to render it as good as a standard 1200x800 original from a Canon 1000D (say)
this is a fair representation of the fact that even with a huge cost, and quality increase, the sheer scale of the information advantage of the cheaper machine will win over.

And thats a pretty bad analogy. In reality we are talking about a display mechanism displaying media from the same source, except one with 4 times the detail.

Gerrardasnails:

fr0g:

Tallyho:

fr0g:

He is talking ****...end of. It might be a great DVD player, but the best DVD player wont touch a PS3 playing Blu Ray. I imagine he fancies the comission a little too much...

 This has to be the best quote on here of all time and I am still roaring with laughter

PS: Just off to get a PS3...........Well I mean if the £300 PS3 is better than the £2600 DVD5..who am I to argue....I'll NAIM that tune in one!

The Blu-Ray has 4 times the information on the disc. The best upscaler will not reproduce that.
The DVD5 is reknowned for its sound, which of course will beat a PS3, but get a high quality Blu-Ray disc (Not an UPSCALED image) and compare the picture to that of a DVD player, no matter how expensive, and it will still have far more detail.

Just in the same way as early DVD players beat the best VHS players, and early CD players beat the most expensive compact casette players.

For what it's worth, I recently bought an old high end dvd player off ebay - Arcam FMJ DV27A. My primary reason was to ditch my budget cd player and Denon 1940 upscaler (won lots of awards last year) and use just the one box. Now the Arcam does not have hdmi connectivity so I'm using component and watching dvds at 576p. Amazingly the picture is as good as my old Denon. I plan to buy an upscaling receiver soon so the improvement should be very good again. It gets to the point of how good can a picture get? I was over the moon when I first set my Denon up and to be honest, the only reason I changed was to get better cd playback and lose a box. The Arcam I bought originally sold for £2k so I knew it would be pretty good. I paid £293 for it. I sold my Denon for £102 and my cd player for £132, I also sold an hdmi cable for £40. What Andrew originally said was that bluray has not made him think, "oh my Naim DVD5 has to go because it can't get close to the picture of bluray". I am of the same view at the moment. My LCD is 2 years old and cannot do 24fps but I love it. To get the best out of bluray, I would need to change my screen and spend another £500 or so on a decent BD player. Why bother when I think the picture I'm getting at the moment is excellent and I know that a new receiver will soon make it even better. And I got an unbelievable cd player for free out of it too!

I think you made a really smart move, and got a great buy.
AND I still buy DVD, as I am happy with it. But the question of which is 'best' still never got answered, or rather, answered in much the same way as a politician would ;)