Nfinity, I was as big a HD DVD backer as you during the format war, but the format war is over. Get over it. I have pre-ordered a Pioneer Blu-Ray Player (the BDP-05FD). It is much more expensive than what I was planning to spend, but I am going to be happy to replace my RCA HD DVD player in a few months (street date is early August) in the $700 price range. The Pioneer isn't 2.0, but who cares? I mean really, I just want to watch (see and hear) movies in Hi-Def (Video and Audio)
I could have gotten a Sony Blu-Ray player that internally decoded Dolby Digital Plus, DolbyTrueHD, DTS-HD HR, and DTS-HD MA for about $500, but I decided that IMHO the Pioneer was going to provide the best picture and sound. I am planning on running video through component and audio through the analog outputs (I currently have a 5.1 system but my non-HDMI receiver can handle 7.1, so I may just buy two more identical bookshelf speakers for the side/back).
The Denon is also an upscale player (like the Pioneer). Oppo sells a $400 DVD player (the DV-983H). I personally own an Oppo DV-970HD DVD player (which cost $150 about a year ago) -- I could sell it now (on EBay) for $100. The Denon is also supposed to do a good job at upconverting. If I hadn't pre-ordered the Pioneer already, I probably would look at this because the price is reasonable for the product.
“Getting too close completely blurred what we saw to the point of incomprehension, but again, this shows a whole heap of potential that's fascinating to us.”
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Nfinity, I was as big a HD DVD backer as you during the format war, but the format war is over. Get over it. I have pre-ordered a Pioneer Blu-Ray Player (the BDP-05FD). It is much more expensive than what I was planning to spend, but I am going to be happy to replace my RCA HD DVD player in a few months (street date is early August) in the $700 price range. The Pioneer isn't 2.0, but who cares? I mean really, I just want to watch (see and hear) movies in Hi-Def (Video and Audio)
I could have gotten a Sony Blu-Ray player that internally decoded Dolby Digital Plus, DolbyTrueHD, DTS-HD HR, and DTS-HD MA for about $500, but I decided that IMHO the Pioneer was going to provide the best picture and sound. I am planning on running video through component and audio through the analog outputs (I currently have a 5.1 system but my non-HDMI receiver can handle 7.1, so I may just buy two more identical bookshelf speakers for the side/back).
The Denon is also an upscale player (like the Pioneer). Oppo sells a $400 DVD player (the DV-983H). I personally own an Oppo DV-970HD DVD player (which cost $150 about a year ago) -- I could sell it now (on EBay) for $100. The Denon is also supposed to do a good job at upconverting. If I hadn't pre-ordered the Pioneer already, I probably would look at this because the price is reasonable for the product.