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In Reply to: Then, you don't know many people posted by Eric LeRouge on April 24, 2003 at 13:56:47:
Some of you people are just plain rude. I also don't know anyone that has a portable DVD player. Whether that is any indication of sales, I don't know. Be a little more civil next time, I think he was asking a valid question. Personally, I think they are overpriced, and I really cannot imagine watching a movie on their pathetic little screens. Now a nice laptop with a DVD player built in would be another story. I don't know anyone that owns one of those either ;-( I guess I better get out more.
Follow Ups:
Sorry Gimpboy, I didn't mean to sound rude but your initial comment itself seemed pretty unsubtle to me.
Perhaps I misunderstood and your tone was not being snappy.
As for the rest, anyone would agree, there's more value for the consumer in laptops. Middle market to high end laptops sold today have built-in DVD drives, and within two years there should be DVD-A compatible drives as well. Stand-alone DVD-V players sell for less than half the price of a laptop, so many people actually consider that option.(You should, nevertheless, get out more, and so should I... : )
Best
> > Middle market to high end laptops sold today have built-in DVD drives, and within two years there should be DVD-A compatible drives as well. < <But surely there's NO way that a $900 laptop would be as user-friendly or have the playback quality of a dedicated portable DVD-A/V player, priced at the same $900.
(Indeed, for only $900, you would hardly be able to buy any kind laptop — unless it is second-hand).
Furthermore:-
~ laptops need to be booted up;
~ they crash a lot;
~ they get viruses;
~ they consume a lot of power;
~ most of the money (in a laptop) is spent on the CPU, motherboard, 128-512k of RAM; keyboard, ethernet, modem, installed operating system, software applications etc etc;
(so logically less money can be spent on high-quality pure audio and video components, laser, and output jacks / digital-out for connection to 5.1 receiver etc.)In addition:-
~ laptop screens are NOT pixel-for-pixel PAL or NTSC optimised;
~ laptop screens are not 16:9 widescreen ratio;
~ they do not incorporate motion-smoothing;
~ so picture and sound quality on any laptop is generally very compromised.So surely there is a place for a dedicated portable DVD-A/V player. In fact, I’m very tempted to get one myself, for my new roof apartment / bedroom which I’ve just had built. i.e. using its docking station it would feed, using S-Video-out to a 24inch wide-screen TFT wall-mounted display. Meanwhile, the audio-out would be connected to a "micro" receiver (with in-built CD & tuner) / amp & speaker setup (Denon make a good one, with Mission designed mini-speakers).
Then, for my travels & visits to friends & relatives, I’d take it with me, along with some DVD-As and DVD-Vs, and make use of the in-built 16:9 screen, as well as its accompanying speakers.
Meanwhile, my Denon DVD-3800, TDL floorstanders, Mission surrounds & multi-amp 5.1 setup, would remain where it is — i.e. on the ground floor in the living room for critical multi-channel listening (& viewing).
To each his own... there's a lot of room for dedicated multimedia devices, and a high-end segment will probably emerge. I'm open to all options, and I can see that the younger generation is more interested in mobility and individual use than in pure sonic quality (a wireless portable game console / dvd player / mobile phone / Internet platform being some kind of convergence nirvana for that generation : )Most of these dedicated portable players have a poor audio section at the moment, I checked a few models and even the analog outputs were pretty cheap. Also, I have some doubts about the audio format that they will output (because they are DVD players, I suspect that some will still reformat everything to 48k as a native format).
At the moment, you have a lot more flexibility for pure audio treatment using a laptop than a dedicated DVD/DVD-A player. The quality of built-in screens is improving very fast (see the latest Apple models?).
In terms of audio quality, see the recent posts by Ducati below for some interesting use of 24/96, all the way from recording to playback.
Anyway, I like to see a wide variety of platforms on the market.
Best
Yep, I fully agree — it's pretty much "horses-for-courses". However, for pure portable listening requirements, a Dell laptop, plus all those attendant USB devices and the dCs offboard DAC mentioned below, would be akin to using a sledgehammer to crack the proverbial nut (although the laptop approach is indeed ideal for portable hirez recording / editing purposes — as Ducati has discovered.)And as for your sentence: > > I have some doubts about the audio format that they will output (because they are DVD players, I suspect that some will still reformat everything to 48k as a native format). < <
Well, I think you’ll find the both the Panasonic LA-95 and the latest DVD-LX9 do output via DACs with the full 24-bit @ 192kHz spec (albeit only in 2-channel).
I think you are right. I'm beginning to spend more time reading about music and equipment than I do listening to it. Not a good thing.
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