Category: Home Theater
Every dvd player that I have ever owned played its best picture right out of the box. Never had to adjust or tweak anything. With this unit, fuggeddaboutit. I took it right out of the box and connected it to my projector and got the worst image that I have ever seen on and dvd player...even the $39 ones from Walmart looked better. The first thing that went through my mind was, "I just blew two grand for this??!!!" Fortunately I had read an earlier review warning me that the factory settings on the unit needs to be reset and tailored to your equipment. After about an hour of fooling around in the menu area, I finally got the settings that I needed. It might have helped if I'd read the manual first...but hey, this was a new toy and I was anxious to see what it could do, and I didn't have time to read any manual.
I previously had the Toshiba HD-XA2 hd-dvd player, just a great machine. When viewing an hd-dvd disc, it gave a stunning picture. The REON processor did an outstanding job upconverting standard def discs. So, my standards and expectaions were really high for this new machine. I had also owned a Sony BD-300s blu ray player. It had a very nice picture also.
After I got it all calibrated to my system and put on a disc, I couldn't believe how good it was. Upconverting a standard def disc with the new REALTA processor was even better than the Toshiba...whis is no small task. On Blu Ray discs, the picture is to die for. As good as the Toshiba was, the REALTA chip in this unit really makes the image much more film-like.
The thing about my system is that I have a 240 inch screen and the improvements are much more dramatic on a screen of that size than on a smaller screen.
I have the audio hooked up via the 7.1 analog outputs on the back of the dvd player going to pre/pro. The hi-def codecs are everything the hype said they would be. Outstanding.
A huge bonus is how great it is as a cd player. I've owned a couple of top-shelf cd players from Audio Research, and this player holds its own in that company as a redbook cd player.
If you have a big screen....this is the player to get.
It is a bargain at $2k.
Associated gear Click to view my Virtual SystemSimilar products Toshiba HD-XA2....HD-DVD with the killer REON chip
Sony BD-300s.... blu ray
