Marantz's new high-end Blu-ray player

Supposedly Marantz's new Blu-ray player was at CEDIA, but if it was, we missed it. We won't let that happen again next week and we guarantee we'll get our hands-on the new BD8002 at CES next Wednesday. This players seems it may be one of best players ever considering it includes everything we can think of -- as it should with a MSRP of $2,099.99. At the top of the list is the players ability to decode just about every new audio codec out there including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, and output it via 7.1 analog outs or uncompressed via HDMI. The icing on the cake is the inclusion of the 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta video processor, which should help make it the best Profile 1.1 player yet when it's released the second quarter of 2008.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 2:05PM]

Marantz and Denon are owned by the same company - this is likely the delayed Denon player under a different badge.

D&M Holdings = Denon and Marantz.

It would have been nice for this to have been a dual-format player, considering Denon's history is full of universal players.

[Elandyll Posted Jan 4th 2008 2:06PM]

My Dream player :)
Will no doubt find a nice niche in the high end Home Theater installs.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 2:15PM]

For $2k, it should be able to wash dishes for me. That's more than twice the price of a dual format player that supports Dolby True-HD and dts-HD AND with an HQV chip.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 2:18PM]

Perhaps, but it wouldn't elevate your status within the Home Theater Elite like this player would now would it? You would be all the rage on the AVS Forums for a whole 5 posts... certainly worth the $2K doncha think?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 3:12PM]

Why not? I could buy a Denon receiver instead.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 2:52PM]

The Realta chip is the highest end model HQV has for home - the Reon VX is the lower end model that the Toshiba XA2 and Onkyo units use.

I don't think it'll really matter for HD output - no scaling is involved.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 5:32PM]

Too bad marantz wont be at CES to check it out.

[Galley Posted Jan 4th 2008 3:24PM]

Anyone wanna buy a slightly used spleen? Only $2100 (plus removal fees)!

[EQC Posted Jan 4th 2008 3:29PM]

From the "Read" link:

"Additional information (subtitles, audio streams, camera angles, trailers, games, etc.) can be downloaded from the Internet via computer and stored on a SD card that either player will accept. This content can be played with the original content of Blu-ray Discs."

For $2,000, why the hell can't they include the ethernet port and 1GB of storage on-board to make it profile 2.0 capable? What early-adopting guy wants to spend $2k for the highest of the high end and then walk a little SD card back and forth to his computer? I guess he's supposed to have his butler do it?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 3:55PM]

Whoever buys this has more money then brains. Give me a break, over $2000 for a profile 1.1 player.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2008 4:30PM]

Serious question - what does this have over my PS3?

[BenD Posted Jan 4th 2008 4:31PM]

The ability to take advantage of DTS-HD MA and HR, as well as better integration with home automation systems.

[Fredster Posted Jan 4th 2008 4:42PM]

WTF!! Comes out Q2 and is a Profile 1.1 player!!!??? Come on guys, something is not right here, or?

[Gipper Posted Jan 4th 2008 5:24PM]

marantz is a notoriously slow adopter of new tech. They haven't even released an HDMI 1.3 receiver yet; just announced it a couple of weeks ago.