Mega disc dvd players play dvd RW?

[Upnorth]

Got a ton of old movies and such I transfered from VHS and wondering if there's a mega (300 type) disc player that plays theses discs. Still plan on using my main dvd player for new discs, but looking for a mega disc player as an easy storage rather then quality playback due to original quality of old discs. Seems the ones I seen play recorded CD's but not recorded DVD's.

[drknstrmyknight]

I've found all DVD palyers to be particular about burned disks. -R disks recorded at slower speeds (+4) have generally worked best, but I've had to play with each of my DVD's to find media they liked.

try http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

[Blue Meanie]

Got a ton of old movies and such I transfered from VHS and wondering if there's a mega (300 type) disc player that plays theses discs. Still plan on using my main dvd player for new discs, but looking for a mega disc player as an easy storage rather then quality playback due to original quality of old discs. Seems the ones I seen play recorded CD's but not recorded DVD's.

Why would you use DVD-RW or DVD+RW (re-recordable) discs? Wouldn't DVD-R or DVD+R discs make more sense?

I have 2 older Sony 301 disc changers (DVP-CX860), and they play all forms of recordable DVD discs I have thrown at them. I would be surprised if Sony's latest (DVP-CX995V?) 401 disc changer would be any different. The DVP-CX995V is also upconverting.:D

Jeff

[Upnorth]

Thanks, I'll check out the Sonys.

[westcott]

I have not seen a Mega DVD player that can compete with the video quality of any average performing DVD player. Better to sacrifice a little convenience for better video quality IMO.

Here is a DVD player shootout you may be interested in.

DVD Player Shootout (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all)

[Blue Meanie]

I have not seen a Mega DVD player that can compete with the video quality of any average performing DVD player.

That may very well be true, but per the original post:

"Still plan on using my main dvd player for new discs, but looking for a mega disc player as an easy storage rather then quality playback due to original quality of old discs."


Jeff

[Tom Brennan]

I have not seen a Mega DVD player that can compete with the video quality of any average performing DVD player. Better to sacrifice a little convenience for better video quality IMO.




I have. I own the 995 and a Toshiba upscaler, I also owned original Sony upscaler, whatever it was, it's gone now. And I own 3 other progressive DVD players. Anyway the 995 looks fine. At the price point of the 995 video quality evidently needn't be sacrificed for convenience, certainly not the ability to be "average", whatever that is.

AND the 995 is so handy and fun to use that I use my HT more. It's terrific for going through and scanning movies---a little bit of this and then a little bit of that----watch Mitzi sing "Wonderful Guy" from South Pacific and then watch the opening scene of Touch of Evil and then the chariot race from Ben-Hur, all without getting up. Great.

The more use and fun it provides the better it is.

[Upnorth]

I checked out the Sony 995 and this looks like the answer. I guess the main reason for the original post was all I had for referance at the time was a few Pioneer mega disc players and they stated they only played factory dvds and the only recordable format they played were cd's not video.

Jeff was right about the quality aspect. Most of these dvds were old home movies, old classic black and white movies, etc. One can only reproduce what's on the disc, so using a high end player wouldn't help much with these disc's. That was why I was looking for a convenient place to "store" these disc's and still find one rather quickly when needed, thus the Mega disc player.

Thanks guys

[emoxley]

Here's a little info, that you may not know about, and may help you (and others):
You can't do this with a standalone dvd recorder, but if you're using a computer to burn dvds, you may be able to, if your burner is capable......
Use +R discs, and Booktype them to be DVD Roms. That will make the discs more compatible with standalone players. Store bought movies are booktyped to DVD Rom. That's why they play in almost everything. Of course, as with everything else, there's always exceptions. There's no way of knowing, until you try it. Here is some info on booktyping:
http://www.k-probe.com/bitsetting-booktype-faq.php

I know for a fact this works, and I'll tell you how I know.
My stepfather had a dvd player that wouldn't play any type of homemade dvd (-R or +R). I tried several times, with different brands of discs, in both formats. They just wouldn't play. Then I learned about booktyping. I tried one with a +R disc (doesn't work with -R discs), put it in his dvd player, and it played flawlessly.

Good luck!
If you're burning discs with a standalone recorder..................
as Roseanne Roseannadanna would say.......Nevermind! :)

[Blue Meanie]

I checked out the Sony 995 and this looks like the answer. I guess the main reason for the original post was all I had for referance at the time was a few Pioneer mega disc players and they stated they only played factory dvds and the only recordable format they played were cd's not video.

Jeff was right about the quality aspect. Most of these dvds were old home movies, old classic black and white movies, etc. One can only reproduce what's on the disc, so using a high end player wouldn't help much with these disc's. That was why I was looking for a convenient place to "store" these disc's and still find one rather quickly when needed, thus the Mega disc player.

Thanks guys

It's a shame that the Pioneer Mega changers don't play recordable DVDs, as I've always felt that their construction was slightly more robust than the Sony changers. Haven't had any problems with my older Sony Mega changers though, so I guess I can't complain.

If you get a Sony 995, I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of it. I recently purchased my first Hi-Def TV (42" LCD), so I need to replace my old Sonys with something that does upconverting, like the 995. My old players aren't even progressive-scan, much less upconverting, LOL!

Jeff

[Tom Brennan]

It's a shame that the Pioneer Mega changers don't play recordable DVDs, as I've always felt that their construction was slightly more robust than the Sony changers. Haven't had any problems with my older Sony Mega changers though, so I guess I can't complain.

If you get a Sony 995, I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of it. I recently purchased my first Hi-Def TV (42" LCD), so I need to replace my old Sonys with something that does upconverting, like the 995. My old players aren't even progressive-scan, much less upconverting, LOL!

Jeff


You don't need an upscaler with a digital TV. Going to progressive scan usually gives an improvement but upscaling in the player often doesn't. See what looks best.

[Blue Meanie]

You don't need an upscaler with a digital TV. Going to progressive scan usually gives an improvement but upscaling in the player often doesn't. See what looks best.


Thanks for the info, Tom!:thmbsp: But now, I have about a dozen questions. I'm obviously VERY green regarding digital/HD TVs, and upscaling.

I'm assuming that the terms 'upscaling' and 'up converting' are interchangable. Is this true? What exactly do these terms mean?

If an upscaling DVD player isn't needed with a digital TV, are they used with analog TVs? If not, then what's the point in an upscaling DVD player?

The 'best' video outputs on my old players are component (RGB). My HDTV has a native resolution of 720p. So is my TV doing some sort of upscaling (up converting) when accepting a signal via RGB input? If it is, what would it be upscaling to (resolution wise)? Or do I need a DVD player with HDMI outputs, or at least progressive scan with RGB outputs?

If I got a progressive scan DVD player, would the difference in picture quality be obvious, or only marginally better than what I have now?

The way it stands now, I'd say that the DVD picture quality via RGB on my 7 year old Tosh 61" analog CRT RPTV is at least the equal of the picture quality on my new 42" LCD HDTV via the same inputs, if not better. Or am I trying to compare apples to oranges?.

I am very impressed with the picture quality on OTA HD broadcasts, but I've found the performance with DVDs to be somewhat disappointing. I've attributed this to my old DVD players (non-progressive and non-upscaling).

If I'm going to invest almost $700 to replace my 2 older 301 disc Sony DVD changers with 2 Sony 995 401 disc changers, the picture quality upgrade had better be pretty obvious, as I can't afford to 'waste' $700 for an un-noticable improvement.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

[Blue Meanie]

Thanks for the info, Tom!:thmbsp: But now, I have about a dozen questions. I'm obviously VERY green regarding digital/HD TVs, and upscaling.

I'm assuming that the terms 'upscaling' and 'up converting' are interchangable. Is this true? What exactly do these terms mean?

If an upscaling DVD player isn't needed with a digital TV, are they used with analog TVs? If not, then what's the point in an upscaling DVD player?

The 'best' video outputs on my old players are component (RGB). My HDTV has a native resolution of 720p. So is my TV doing some sort of upscaling (up converting) when accepting a signal via RGB input? If it is, what would it be upscaling to (resolution wise)? Or do I need a DVD player with HDMI outputs, or at least progressive scan with RGB outputs?

If I got a progressive scan DVD player, would the difference in picture quality be obvious, or only marginally better than what I have now?

The way it stands now, I'd say that the DVD picture quality via RGB on my 7 year old Tosh 61" analog CRT RPTV is at least the equal of the picture quality on my new 42" LCD HDTV via the same inputs, if not better. Or am I trying to compare apples to oranges?.

I am very impressed with the picture quality on OTA HD broadcasts, but I've found the performance with DVDs to be somewhat disappointing. I've attributed this to my old DVD players (non-progressive and non-upscaling).

If I'm going to invest almost $700 to replace my 2 older 301 disc Sony DVD changers with 2 Sony 995 401 disc changers, the picture quality upgrade had better be pretty obvious, as I can't afford to 'waste' $700 for an un-noticable improvement.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

ANYONE?? HELLO??

Jeff

[westcott]

ANYONE?? HELLO??

Jeff

As I stated earlier, Sony is not known for their video processing prowess. You will not notice an appreciable difference between what you have now than with the Sony DVD players.

Upscaling is overrated. You must concentrate on core performance of DVD players like MPEG decoding and deinterlacing. If you do not have an HD display, a progressive scan DVD player is not going to improve performance all that much in that area.

Upscaling is not much use for most displays because few of them are true 720p or 1080i native displays and the tv winds up doing the final scaling, in some cases again, which is not always desireable.

I alluded to this before but it seems my comments were ignored because the new megachanger was supposed to be for poor quality transfered DVDs any way. Here is a link to a site that has a lot of great information on DVD players and which ones are good and which ones to stay away from.

DVD Shootout on Secrets of Home Theater (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all)

I suggest the 5 or 6 tutorials at the bottom of the page. Have you calibrated your TV? Do you have a calibration DVD like Digital Video Essentials? These are great tools and highly recommended for optimal video performance.

[Blue Meanie]

As I stated earlier, Sony is not known for their video processing prowess. You will not notice an appreciable difference between what you have now than with the Sony DVD players.

Upscaling is overrated. You must concentrate on core performance of DVD players like MPEG decoding and deinterlacing. If you do not have an HD display, a progressive scan DVD player is not going to improve performance all that much in that area.

Upscaling is not much use for most displays because few of them are true 720p or 1080i native displays and the tv winds up doing the final scaling, in some cases again, which is not always desireable.

I alluded to this before but it seems my comments were ignored because the new megachanger was supposed to be for poor quality transfered DVDs any way. Here is a link to a site that has a lot of great information on DVD players and which ones are good and which ones to stay away from.

DVD Shootout on Secrets of Home Theater (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all)

I suggest the 5 or 6 tutorials at the bottom of the page. Have you calibrated your TV? Do you have a calibration DVD like Digital Video Essentials? These are great tools and highly recommended for optimal video performance.

Westcott, I truly appreciate your reply.:thmbsp: It has helped answer a couple of my questions.:yes: I am sure that the 5 or 6 tutorials you mentioned will help clear up the rest. They are the type of thing I was looking for (hopefully), and I will read them in-depth when finished with this post.

I don't think your earlier comments regarding megachangers were ignored. A guy needed a cargo van, and you suggestd a Ferrari. Both have their place, but aren't completely interchangable, depending on their intended usage.:D

Once again, thanks for the help and suggested reading.:yes: Am heading there now...

Jeff
P.S. Haven't calibrated the display yet. Was going to use my old copy of VE to get by for now, but can't seem to find it (odd). Have at least taken the TV out of 'torch' mode. A friend has DVE, and is going to lend it to me.