Samsung - BD-P1200

MPEG Maker: MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Optix Deinterlacer Model: Reon HQV     MSRP: $799.99 Website: http://www.samsungusa.com

Video Frequency Response
Samsung

Oppo Digital - DV-981HD

MPEG Maker: Mediatek MPEG Model: MT1389FE Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310 LF     MSRP: $229.00 Website: http://www.oppodigital.com

It’s no secret that we’ve been big fans of Oppo Digital since they came into the DVD scene a few years ago. Here was a company that came out of nowhere and delivered solid playback performance and great features at an unheard of price point. They have also established themselves as one of the best companies in the business for customer service and have exceptional product support.

Oppo’s newest player is the DV-981HD. It is similar to the previously tested DV-971H, but they’ve omitted the component video output, essentially making this a digital transport solution. The player looks exactly like the 971, except the outer shell is black instead of silver. The only other difference is support for a 1080p output resolution via HDMI.

The 981HD is a true universal DVD player. It supports DVD-V, DVD-A, and SACD along with most audio and video codecs including MP3, WMA and Divx. What sets this player apart from just about everything else on the market right now is its support of both DVD-A and SACD over HDMI. In fact, Oppo is the only company on the market that I’m aware of that offers SACD playback via HDMI. The SACD signal is converted to 88.1/24 PCM and passed via a v1.1 HDMI output. Why no other DVD manufacturer has done this yet is beyond me, since most DVD players on the market convert SACD to PCM because of post processing. HDMI v1.1 provides the ability for multi-channel PCM transport, and plenty of A/V receivers and SSP's on the market support this feature. I would recommend the 981HD on this feature alone, as it bypasses the entire analog section of the player and allows you to take advantage of your processor or receiver's D to A stages for playback, which are typically far better than most DVD players at this price point. The only caveat is the player’s video output needs to be set to 720p or higher to get the full resolution and multi-channel signal via HDMI because of the HDMI specification. Anyone looking to take advantage of this feature needs to set the player’s output to 720p or higher if they plan on using the HDMI output.

Like the 971H, the 981HD uses a Mediatek MPEG decoder and Genesis/Faroudja video processing chip. The Mediatek MPEG decoder has quickly become one of our favorite MPEG decoders due to its speed and exceptional chroma performance. When implemented correctly, it offers exceptional core video performance, and Oppo has consistently delivered in this department. The 981HD passed all of our core video tests with no issues at all. This player is not cropping any pixels of the image, has no CUE, and retains the full dynamic range of the video signal by not clipping head and toe room. Y/C delay is the only area where the 981HD has any issues. No resolution setting has more than a full pixel of delay, but there are some very faint signs of it in the highest resolution if you look close enough. The player is still within our pass criteria though and Oppo is working on the issue and hopes to nail it down even more with future updates.

Like all the Oppo players we’ve tested before, the 981HD is a very fast transport. This player has a completely seamless layer change, and its responsiveness is superb. I would have recommended it as a digital transport to feed an outboard video processor if it had a 480i output option via HDMI, but like the 971H, it does not. This is a limitation of the Genesis video processing chip design which does not allow for a pass-through of interlaced video.

The 981HD has two video processing modes: Video 1 and Video 2. This is typical of a Faroudja design and allows for 2-2 processing separate from typical film processing. Video 1 passes all of our tests with the exception of the 2-2 test, and Video 2 passes all of the tests. I did not see any degradation in performance if the player is set to Video 2 and kept there, but Faroudja claims that the chip should be left in Video 1 unless you know the playback requires 2-2 cadence detection. In short, leave the player in Video 1 unless you see visible de-interlacing artifacts (jaggies, combing, jitter), and then try Video 2.

The downside to the 981HD is the inherent macroblocking issue that comes along with the FLI-2310 processing chip. This was covered in our Benchmark of the 971H, which suffers from it as well. The macroblocking problem manifests as large blocks of noise in darker scenes or large expanses of a solid color. Not all displays show the problem for some reason, but if yours does, it can make the image nearly unwatchable with some material. I used my standard tests clip from A Bug’s Life to test the severity and clearly saw the issue in the clip. I am using a Marantz VP11S1 1080p DLP projector in my setup, and it shows the problem clearly. At one point I had a Sony VPL-HS60 in my room that didn’t show macroblocking at all, so not all displays will have issues with this player. Oppo has an excellent return policy, so consumers have the opportunity to see if this is a problem with their setup and can return the player if necessary.

Conclusions

Oppo has yet again delivered one of the best DVD player values you can find on the market today. I am excited to see what they will come up with next. It would be nice to see Oppo implement one of the newer video processing chips like the ABT, VXP, or Realta. I would also love to see something from them in a next generation HD format. Until then, the 981HD is highly recommended product as a high resolution audio digital transport and 1080p DVD player.

Toshiba - HD-XA2

MPEG Maker: NEC MPEG Model: unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Optix Deinterlacer Model: Reon HQV     MSRP: $999.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

I got a lot of grief when I originally published my Benchmark review of Toshiba’s first HD DVD player, the HD-A1. At first people didn’t understand that the Benchmark tests only represent how the player did as an SD DVD playback device, plus they seemed like they wanted to completely overlook the functionality problems of the player because of the very nice HD playback. Being a reviewer, I can’t do that. This time around I am going to look at Toshiba’s newest flagship HD DVD offering, the HD-XA2. Just like the last time around, this Benchmark is based on its performance with standard definition material, because SD DVDs represent 99.999% of the available movies on disc right now. I will be following it up with a full review that goes over its performance as an HD DVD player with HD material, so keep a look out for that later.

The second generation HD DVD players from Toshiba are quite different than the first generation. The HD-A1 and HD-XA1 were on the larger side from a height standpoint and rather clunky from an operability standpoint. Their replacements have a smaller profile and are about half as tall. The HD-A2 and HD-XA2 are very similar in appearance, but the XA2 has some features you won’t find with the A2.

The XA2’s biggest asset is the ability to deliver a 1080p video signal from its HDMI output. This represents the first HD DVD player to have such an option. Remember that HD DVD (like Blu-ray) is encoded at 1080p24 on disc. Unfortunately, all of the first generation HD DVD players only offered a 1080i60 output from their decoders. This is very similar to most of the first generation Blu-ray players except they added a video processing chip after their decoder to de-interlace the 1080i60 signal to 1080p60. This is the same thing Toshiba is doing here except they are using a different video processing solution than we’ve seen on the Blu-ray side.

The XA2 uses an NEC decoder that outputs 1080i and feeds that to the Silicon Optix Reon video processing chip. I know of only one other DVD player on the market that uses this chip, the Denon DVD-2930. The Reon is a scaled down version of their flagship solution, the Realta. The Realta chip is the de-interlacing solution used in my reference DVD player, the Denon DVD-5910. I consider the Realta chip to be one of the best de-interlacing solutions on the market today.

The Reon is not much different than the Realta. Silicon Optix has scaled down its performance in some areas, but most of these areas will not impact the image quality much. The Realta was the first single chip video processing solution that I know of to handle mixed cadences that are rare, such as 8:8 and 3:2:2:3:2. While these cadences can appear in real world software, they are uncommon. The Reon drops support for these cadences but retains most of the other features of the Realta chip. This includes support for 3:2 and 2:2 cadences as well as the Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) video enhancement tools such as motion adaptive noise reduction and detail enhancement.

What this means for SD DVD playback is that you’ll get top of the line de-interlacing and scaling performance that is in line with some of the best DVD players on the market which cost a lot more. It also means that you can upscale DVDs to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p via HDMI.

The XA2 did extremely well with our DVD Benchmark tests for progressive scan performance. In its default mode, it passed all of tests with no issues at all, including 2-2 and our mixed modes. The recovery time of the Reon from video to film modes is also quite fast and better than what we’ve seen from Faroudja based solutions.

The NEC decoder does a fairly good job with our core video tests. The XA2 does not suffer from any signs of Y/C delay, and the chipset passed all of our CUE tests with standard DVD playback. I did see the slightest signs of CUE with HD DVD material, but it was extremely subtle. This decoder does fail our subtitles tests, so you will see combing with player generated subtitles. This is a decoder issue and cannot be fixed with firmware. Essentially the player is not generating the text to match the frames correctly, so you will see combing in the letters when they first come up or when they go away.

The XA2 is doing some minor pixel cropping with SD material. Four pixels were cropped from the left side of the image, and 1 was cropped from the top. We didn’t see any pixels cropped at 1080p with HD DVD.

One of my biggest complaints with the older HD-A1 was its user interface and extremely sluggish response times. Powering up the A1 took a long time, and loading a disc took even longer. While the HD performance made up for most of this, it is still an inconvenience. I am happy to report that this is not the case with the XA2. The power up time is still a bit longer than what you may be used to with a standard DVD player, but it is about half the time of the first generation Toshiba HD DVD players. Load times are very quick, with only a few seconds from the time a disc is inserted until it is playing. The layer change is quite slow though. Using our full bitrate layer change test, the XA2 was very close to a full two seconds of pause through the layer change. That is REALLY slow for a DVD player and can be distracting during a movie.

Conclusions

Well, I finally get to recommend an HD DVD player for standard DVD playback!! The previous HD-A1 was fine from a video processing standpoint, but its HDMI issues and tedious operability made it impossible to recommend for casual viewing or the average consumer. The XA2 is the opposite. The player operates like a standard DVD player, offers exceptional video processing performance, including 1080p support, and doesn’t have the operational quirks of its predecessor. For anyone looking to buy a great SD DVD and HD DVD player, this is definitely one to consider. Look for our full review, including HD DVD performance, very soon.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Sylvania - DVL1000F

MPEG Maker: Unknown MPEG Model: Unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310     MSRP: $89.99 Website: http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/ConsumerElectronics/

I don’t know about you but whenever I see the name Sylvania, the first thing I think of are light bulbs. But nowadays it seems like every manufacturer out there that has anything to do with consumer electronics is putting out a DVD player. Production costs on these things must be pennies for so many companies to be diving in.

The Sylvania DVL1000F is a pretty basic design. The case is larger than you would expect when you unbox it, but this thing is as light as a feather. I didn’t get to see what MPEG decoder they were using because the video board is actually upside down when you open it up and I wasn’t going to take it apart. They are using the Genesis FLI-2310 video processing chip though, which has Faroudja’s algorithms for de-interlacing and scaling. This chip always does well with our tests but brings some other problems to the table.

For those who don’t already know, the Genesis/Faroudja FLI-23xx series of chips have been around for quite awhile now. Genesis has already moved on to their new “Cortez” chip since this release, but it is still widely used in lower cost DVD players for de-interlacing and scaling. The problem with this chip is the random digital noise it adds to the image with some displays, especially in darker areas of the picture. It is very reminiscent of bad noise reduction that can’t be turned off and resembles large blocks of noise in darker regions. It is almost as if the player is doing some kind of retention of certain parts of the image at times. For anyone who has a display that shows this problem (some displays don’t have an issue with this for some reason), I always say steer clear. Even if you don’t see the problem right away, it will haunt you eventually. I have a $20,000 projector in my reference home theater room, and it shows the problem and makes players that use this chip a non-option for DVD playback. If you don’t know whether your TV will have this issue, make sure the retailer you buy the player from has a good return policy just in case.

Since I knew this player used the Faroudja chip for its video processing duties, I was very curious to see how it would do with our core video processing tests. I knew there probably wouldn’t be any surprises on the de-interlacing front, but you just never know how good or bad things can be when it comes to core video performance.

The 1000F did surprisingly well. The HDMI output does not clip head or toe room (a rarity in budget players) and didn’t have any issues with pixel cropping or Y/C delay. The MPEG decoder did fine in our CUE tests, and since they are using the Genesis chip, this player passes our 4:2:0 chroma test, which requires the use of a chroma filter. The component video output didn’t fare quite as well. It suffers from some rather severe Y/C delay, so you should stick to HDMI if you are considering this player. Out of curiosity I did some tests to see if this player's cross-color suppression function was appropriately turned off. This has been an issue with some other Faroudja-based players we’ve tested in the past. Thankfully, the Sylvania has this set to off, but I didn’t see anywhere in the menu to turn it on if you want to use it. This is a feature that is mainly geared towards video processors that may handle composite video signals which have chroma interference in the luma channels. I don’t think I’ve seen a DVD to date that needed this feature turned on.

The HDMI output supports resolutions up to 1080p but will not pass 480i. This is a limitation of the Genesis chip, which doesn’t have a pass through. While this is not a surprise, I would still like to see a manufacturer offer this option. It would allow the end user to bypass the Genesis processing and avoid the macroblocking artifacts associated with it. I guess you could get this result by using the component output at 480i, but then you would have to deal with the excessive Y/C delay. You just can’t win them all these days can you?

As expected, the 1000F did very well in our de-interlacing tests. The FLI-2310 always has, and Sylvania has appropriately included two modes for the chip. The FLI chip requires a separate mode to enable the 2-2 processing that it is capable of. The weird thing is this mode doesn’t seem to hurt any other processing, so I would suggest just putting the player in Auto 2 and leaving it there. This should deliver the best viewing experience regardless of the content you watch.

From a usability standpoint, the 1000F is pretty good, but I had a few nitpicks. The setup menu is very limited in what you can do. None of the features of the FLI chip are accessible, which may or may not be a big deal to the end user, but are always nice to have. Navigation is pretty fast, which is always nice, and chapter skips are very fast. The layer change was probably the worse part of the user experience and clocked in at a VERY sluggish 1.75 seconds. Any player that takes longer than a second for a layer change at this stage in the game is unacceptable in my book. Sad to see that a player that does so well in so many other areas has an issue like this.

Conclusions

In the Sylvania DVL1000F, we see yet again a design that is less than $100 but still does an extremely good job in video presentation and features. It is a shame to see that macroblocking is still an issue with the Genesis chip design, and I will continue to warn consumers that they should ensure that they buy a player using this chip from a retailer that has a good return policy as results can vary greatly depending on the display used. But if your display doesn’t have issues with FLI-23xx based players, this one is a steal for a spare player!

Video Frequency Response
Sylvania

Sony - DVP-NS75H

MPEG Maker: Sony MPEG Model: CXD9804R Deinterlacer Maker: Unknown Deinterlacer Model: Unknown     MSRP: $119.99 Website: http://www.sony.com

It has been awhile since I’ve tested a Sony DVD player, mostly because I just haven’t been receiving any to look at. I was pleased with their recent turnaround in performance when they started moving away from the previous MPEG decoders they were using. Although I like some of the decoders they used in the past for speed and core video performance, they weren’t paying off for de-interlacing and scaling duties.

The DVP-NS75H represents the best progressive scan player I’ve tested from Sony so far. Surprising because it is also one of the cheapest players they’ve released. I am not sure what MPEG decoder they are using here as it has the standard Sony stamp on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is a Mediatek design. The player is quite fast and performs very similar to some other MTK based players I’ve tested.

The NS75H isn’t the prettiest player on the block, but it isn’t cheap looking for its price either. The chassis is straightforward plastic, but it doesn’t look gimmicky either. Build quality is what I would hope for. Of all the players I tested this go around, it had the most impressive internal design with a decent power supply board.

From an operability standpoint the NS75H does quite well. It is very responsive, and its user interface is straightforward and easy to operate. The player has an HDMI output and supports upscaling to 1080i. Sony obviously cut back on the price by not including SACD, but with the dearth of new titles on the SACD format, I am not surprised. Those looking for high-end Sony audio should probably check out some of their higher priced offerings.

The core video performance of the NS75H is just above average for a progressive scan player nowadays. The player does not suffer from any of the CUE issues that plagued so many of Sony’s early DVD offerings, and it retains the full dynamic range of the image via HDMI and component video by passing below-black and above-white information. It does not use a chroma filter for 4:2:0 material, which is the only reason I am not completely sure this is a MTK based player.

Y/C delay is a problem with the component video output. The player has well over a full pixel of delay with this output. The HDMI output didn’t show any signs of Y/C delay and is definitely the preferred output choice for this player.

Pixel cropping is an issue with both outputs and rather excessive on the left side of the image.

In our de-interlacing tests the Sony did better than expected. It passed the majority of our tests and should do quite well with standard DVDs on the market. The player had no issues with 3-2 and 2-2 based material and actually did quite well with video based material. The video processor did a very commendable job with diagonal line processing using the HQV test disc. This is another reason I think they may be using an MTK MPEG decoder, as the results have been similar with other players using this chip.

The NS75H did trip up with some of the mixed flag material. I saw some light combing with our Galaxy Quest trailer clip around the planet and ship engine, and the player combed immediately with our mixed flag test. This has become common with just about every player out there using an all-in-one chip solution for their decoding and de-interlacing.

Conclusions

It is great to see so many low priced players starting to really offer decent video performance. In the early days there were some rare apples that popped up on occasion and impressed us, but lately I’ve seen some great offerings for people to choose from for well under $200. If you are looking for a solid progressive scan player with HDMI support for any room in the house, the Sony DVP-NS75H is one to consider.

Video Frequency Response
Sony

LG - DN191H

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 888 Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis 888     MSRP: $109.95 Website: http://us.lge.com/index.do

The DN191H is only the third player I’ve tested from LG, and so far I haven’t been very impressed with their track record. While this isn’t the highest scoring player from them in the Benchmark it is still probably the most recommended out of the group. LG has moved away from the Genesis/Faroudja solution and now relies on the very popular Vaddis decoder/video processing chips from Zoran. While there are certainly better chips out there to use, the Vaddis usually does a pretty decent job with the majority of DVDs.

The 191H is a very inexpensive DVD player and can be found for under $100 at most electronics stores or on-line. This makes it an attractive option for a second room or a bedroom player. The inclusion of HDMI at this price point and decent video performance are rarities even in today’s market.

The build quality of the 191H isn’t the best I’ve seen at this price point but it certainly isn’t an unattractive player by any means. The front face has a nice curve to it and is laid out in a subtle but regal way. The buttons on the top curve of the face are also a nice touch. The 191H sports an HDMI output and upconverts to HD resolutions of 720p and 1080i. It also features a 14-in-1 card reader for pictures and music. The 191H supports DIVX and MPEG-4 for personally made DVDs and video.

The LG is a decent player from a user standpoint. It isn’t the most responsive I’ve tested lately, but it did a decent job with menus and chapter skips. Load times could have been better though. The user interface is simple enough too. The layer change was quite fast and barely noticeable in our tests.

As I mentioned before, the 191H uses a Zoran Vaddis MPEG decoder for its principle video decoding and processing duties. We’ve tested this chip in lots of players, and its performance is nearly always the same. The Zoran does quite well with CUE but lacks some of the more advanced video processing required for state-of-the-art de-interlacing.

The 191H didn’t do as well as I would have hoped in our core video performance tests. The HDMI output suffers from Y/C delay, and it clips head and toe room. I don’t know why so many manufacturers have issues with these core video components. In the early days you could easily blame the HDMI transmitter for doing an improper colorspace conversion with the outgoing video signal, but since HDMI has been out awhile now, you would think that they would have gotten their stuff together in these departments. The component video output did not clip head and toe room, but it did have some rather severe Y/C delay. Basically you can pick your poison for the two outputs, but I think I would go with the HDMI output despite the clipping, as the Y/C delay wasn’t quite as bad, and the digital signal was a tad sharper.

The newer Zoran chips, such as the 888, have been doing a lot better in regards to CUE than their earlier (and higher line) offerings. This one is no different. The 888 passes all of our CUE tests and utilizes a subtle chroma filter with 4:2:0 material. This chip is one of the better ones out there with CUE and reminds me a lot of the Mediatek offerings in this regard.

For de-interlacing, the LG does about the same as any player that uses the Zoran Vaddis chip for this purpose. The Vaddis handles the most common cadences just fine but goes a bit awry when things get sticky. The 191H passed the common 3-2 cadence based tests and did a decent job with video based material as well. The diagonal line processing isn’t very good, so don’t look for performance like the Faroudja DCDi or ABT solutions.

The Vaddis didn’t do very well with some of the more difficult tests we threw at it. Some of our video and mixed flagged tests showed obvious combing or a complete lack of lock on. This can result in combing, a loss of resolution, or stuttering artifacts, depending on the material you are viewing. This may or may not be an issue, depending on the quality of the encode on the DVD, but we’ve definitely seen issues with this in real world DVD offerings. This is in line with most single chip video processing solutions on the market though and usually requires a higher quality de-interlacer solution to remedy. At this price point I didn’t really expect much better.

Conclusions

Not much more to say about this one. The LG is a very low priced player, and its performance is pretty much commensurate with the price tag. While I don’t think I would recommend it for serious home theaters, it would be fine for a spare room or a younger member of the family on a budget. Now if only I could get my hands on their new universal HD player!

Video Frequency Response
LG

Philips - DVP5960

MPEG Maker: Mediatek MPEG Model: Unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Mediatek Deinterlacer Model: Unknown     MSRP: $89.99 Website: http://www.consumer.philips.com

The DVP5960 is currently Philips' flagship DVD player and it sells for less than $100! It is really amazing how much price points have changed over the last few years. Here we have upscaling DVD players with HDMI outputs coming in for pennies compared to where they were just a little while ago.

Despite the fact that this is the highest priced standard DVD player from Philips (they have a Blu-ray player as well that is a re-badged Samsung), it isn’t near the quality level you would expect from a flagship design. Philips is obviously sticking to the budget minded mass market prices. This player is built like a $100 player and is extremely light in weight and features. That doesn’t make it a bad buy; I just don’t want people to think that this player is up there with the high end flagship players.

The DVP5960 has some nice features on top of its video playback. There is support for MP3 and WMA, and with the USB input, you can have a bit of a music or photo server anywhere you put it. Not bad for the price. This player does not support any of the high-resolution audio formats though, which is a bit of a bummer.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I started my video tests. It has been a LONG time since I’ve tested a player from Philips, and I don’t remember being particularly impressed with their previous offerings. I was curious as to what MPEG decoder and video processing solution they may be using, but once I got the player open, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to find out, due to the construction of their video board.

The 5960 did rather poorly with our core video tests. Both outputs (component and HDMI) have their issues, but the component output fared better in the long run. The HDMI output suffers from obvious Y/C delay, and it also clips head and toe room. This is becoming a problem that isn’t going away despite reporting it repeatedly to companies in reviews. The component output isn’t clipping head and toe room, but it does suffer from Y/C delay, and it is a little worse than the HDMI output in that respect.

The 5960 did very well with our CUE tests, which is finally becoming the norm. It does not have a filter for 4:2:0 material, so that ruled out some of the MPEG decoders I thought they may be using (Zoran or Mediatek designs). I’m really glad to see more MPEG decoders out there getting this right; now if only we could see the same with below-black and above-white!

After testing out the core video section, I ran some tests to see how the 5960 holds up from a usability standpoint. The menu system is all right, but could use some more flexibility, as they are almost too simple. I was impressed with the speed of the player though; menus were quick to navigate, and chapter skips weren’t an issue. The layer change also clocked in at a decent half second.

On the de-interlacing side, the 5960 did far better than I was expecting for a sub-$100 player. The all-in-one solution did quite well in our tests and passed the majority of the main tests, including most of our 3-2 cadences and all of our video based testing. This player handles a standard 3-2 and 2-2 cadence with no real issues at all. It did fail our bad edits test and our mixed flags test, but that is pretty common for a player with this type of design. This can result in some occasion combing, but only with a small amount of content on the market nowadays.

Conclusions

It is nice to see that even at less than $100, a consumer can still find a pretty decent DVD player. Here you get HDMI support, upscaling to 720p and 1080i, and rather decent video processing. While I wouldn’t recommend it as a reference design or the mainstay in a high performance home theater, it would probably please the majority of the mass market in almost all applications. If you’re looking for a budget player that delivers a solid video experience, this one is worth looking into.

Video Frequency Response
Philips

Samsung - HD-960

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 886 Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2301     MSRP: $219.99 Website: http://www.samsungusa.com

The Samsung HD-960 is their newest DVD player to offer HDMI support and upscaling resolutions of up to 1080p. 1080p output is only a year or so old, and there are a limited number of players out there with this resolution as an option. Samsung delivers it at a very attractive price point with the 960.

The HD-960 is a pretty cut and dry DVD player from a build point. The construction is very typical for this price point, with it being small and light. This is not a universal design so support for SACD or DVD-A will not be found here. You do get support for just about everything else though, including WMA, MP3, and DivX. The back panel has all of the normal hook-ups including component, HDMI, and Toslink digital audio as well as coaxial analog audio connections.

Looking at the inside of the player reveals a Zoran Vaddis 886 MPEG decoder and the Genesis/Faroudja FLI-2301 video processing chip. I haven’t seen this combination many times before, so I was curious to see how the two would play together.

The Vaddis 886 appears to be very similar in performance to the 888. It did fairly well in our core video tests, with the exception of pixel cropping. The player clips quite a few pixels from the active image, with 9 from the right side and 3 from the bottom. The player also failed our Y/C delay tests with over a full pixel of delay visible between the luma and chroma signal on both HDMI and component outputs.

The Vaddis 886 passed all of our CUE tests, and the Genesis chip provides the necessary chroma filtering for our 4:2:0 ICP test. Thankfully, the cross color suppressor is defaulted to Off, so there are no issues with chroma that I could see at all during playback. The HD-960 does pass the full video range and does not clip head and toe room, so below black and above white information are retained regardless of the output used. This is nice to see, and a rarity these days. The MPEG decoder does not pass our subtitles test, so you will see combing with player-generated subtitles during normal viewing.

The Genesis FLI-2301 performed as expected in our de-interlacing tests, with the exception of our mixed flags testing. Faroudja-based players normally pass this test with no issues at all, but in this case the player failed. A chip setting must be configured to Off in this design (not something the consumer can change), and I imagine Samsung could remedy this issue (along with the Y/C delay if they were so inclined) with a firmware update. It also does not support 2-2 cadences properly, which requires a separate video mode with the FLI chip.

Another oddity with the HD-960 is its sluggishness to transition from a video mode to a film mode of de-interlacing. The Faroudja solution has always been slower than most de-interlacing solutions out there, but it normally takes about 15 frames at the most. The 960 took almost twice as long. This led to a fail mark for our recovery time test despite the fact that it does pass the test for transition. This is the first time I’ve seen a player using this chip have so many problems with these tests and wonder if the chipset was shipped to them in the wrong configuration or if Samsung implemented it wrong.

Like all FLI-23xx-based DVD players, the Samsung has clear signs of the “macroblocking” artifacts that are associated with this video processing solution. Using my test clip from A Bug’s Life showed obvious video noise in the darker segments and large solid colors. Like every other player I’ve reviewed with this chip set, I recommend interested buyers purchase from a dealer with a good return policy. Since this issue only manifests on some displays (largely digital ones), buyers should try the player at home on their own displays to see if it will be a problem for them.

Conclusions

Overall, the Samsung HD-960 represents a decent value, given its 1080p support and price tag, but I would have a hard time recommending it. The Faroudja processing used seems to be implemented poorly, and the player has a few bugs it needs to work out to be competitive over some of the other players near its price point using the same solution.

Video Frequency Response
Samsung

Sony - BDP-S1 Blu-ray

MPEG Maker: Sigma Designs MPEG Model: unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Sigma Designs Deinterlacer Model: unknown     MSRP: $999.95 Website: http://www.sony.com

The Sony BDP-S1 represents Sony’s first dip into the world of standalone Blu-ray players. I was actually surprised that they weren’t the first company out there with a Blu-ray player, as they are one of the principle founders of the technology. Sony claims that the player was delayed to the market to ensure compatibility and proper operation, which does seem wise, given the rather rocky start that we saw with Samsung’s first offering.

This is the third Blu-ray player I’ve looked at for our DVD benchmark. Remember that the DVD benchmark revolves around the player’s performance as a standard DVD player. We are working to create a benchmark for high definition players from both formats, but for now we will continue to explore how well these players do with the majority of the video library out there, which is without a doubt DVD right now. I will make some comments about HD performance as well, but I will limit those as a full review will be published that will cover the Blu-ray aspect a lot more.

The Sony BDP-S1 is the first Blu-ray player to not rely on a stand-alone video processing chip for the majority of its video processing duties. Both the Samsung and Panasonic players that we reviewed before put in a video processing chip to handle its de-interlacing duties for both SD and HD content. While this may be a good thing for SD performance, it can take its toll on HD performance, depending on how good the video processing chip is with HD de-interlacing.

The BDP-S1 uses the new Sigma Designs decoder for both SD and HD content. On the HD side this is a big plus, as the Sigma chip allows for a pure 1080p24 video stream that is untouched after the decoder. No other player has offered this yet. It also allows for a 480i video stream for standard DVD playback, another feature no other Blu-ray player has offered to date. This is a great feature for anyone with a stand-alone video processor, as it allows a native 1080p24 stream for BD playback and a 480i stream for DVD playback without ever having to select the output resolution for each source. Most players need to be switched every time. Keep in mind this is only a benefit if you display supports a 24p source, as the direct mode does not output 1080p60; that is a separate resolution that will have to be selected independently.

For our DVD benchmark tests I ran the player’s output in 480i and 480p most of the time, with a few tests done at the higher resolutions (pixel cropping). The BDP-S1 upconverts standard DVDs to 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p via HDMI, but the component output is limited to 480p. 1080p24 is not supported with standard DVDs, only Blu-ray. All of the video processing is done in the Sigma chip. We’ve tested lots of Sigma Design’s MPEG decoders in the past, and while they do offer a lot of great features (wireless support, DIVX, WMV-HD), they usually don’t do that well in our testing. This implementation is definitely better than most I’ve seen with a Sigma chip, but it still comes up short of the better DVD playback designs.

The biggest drawback for DVD playback with all of the Blu-ray players I’ve tested to date has been core video performance. Both the Samsung and Panasonic players use standalone video processing chips that are quite capable when it comes to de-interlacing and scaling, but the decoders have had a lot of issues before that ever happens. This isn’t really the case with the Sony.

Pixel cropping was pretty much a non-issue. With a 480p output, only one pixel was being cropped from the left side. The only other resolution with pixel cropping was 480i, which had 4 pixels cropped from the left side.

This player retains the full dynamic range of the luma signal and does not clip head or toe room with standard DVD playback. In other words, below black and above white data are retained. I could not verify this with HD playback because the player does not support BD-R or BD-RE discs at this time. My Blu-ray test disc with native 1080p material is on a BD-RE. I was surprised that Sony, of all companies, couldn’t support BD-R playback, but Samsung and Panasonic could. You would think the inventor of the format could do most of what it is capable of, or at least more than the other companies could this early in the game.

There is some slight Y/C delay with 480i and 480p via HDMI. 720p, 1080i, and 1080p were all fine with no signs of Y/C delay. This player does not show any signs of CUE, regardless of the signal type. This has always been a strength of the Sigma Designs chip, and I’m glad to see the performance here is no exception. This does mean that they are using some type of filtering for ICP though, but that is to be expected.

From an operability standpoint, the BDP-S1 is a very good player. The initial power up sequence is a bit sluggish, but once it is on, the responsiveness of the player is quite good. Menu navigation is average to above-average, even with some of the more difficult Blu-ray Java features. Some of the buttons on the front panel aren’t as responsive as I would like, but using the remote control remedied this issue. The layer change was my biggest complaint. Using our high bit rate test, it clocked in at a sluggish 1.5 seconds, which is definitely enough to be noticeable during DVD playback.

On the de-interlacing side, the Sony did fairly well, but falls short of what most of the other Blu-ray players will provide with their separate video processing chips. The Sigma chip is a flag based design, so as long as the flags are good, you shouldn’t have much of an issue. Unfortunately, that is not always the reality, so combing will probably be evident from time to time.

The BDP-S1 failed all of our alternating cadence tests, including the rather basic alternating 3-2 pattern. Usually this test is a non-issue for even the most entry level players, but the Sony could not lock on and stay in film mode at all. Using our mixed mode test, the player regained its lock with film based material extremely fast, showing that the player is indeed using the flags and not relying on cadence detection.

The Sony does support both 3-2 and 2-2 cadences, so most DVDs should play back fine with the full resolution of film based de-interlacing. I would still recommend using a different DVD player if you buy this for Blu-ray playback, as there are several sub-$200 DVD players that will outperform this one for DVD playback and de-interlacing.

On the HD side, I was quite impressed with the Sony. The video was as good as I’ve seen from any other player at this point, and its support for 1080p24 was welcomed. Unfortunately it does not support decoding of Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master audio, but I’ve heard rumors that support (a downloadable software update) for at least Dolby TrueHD is in the works.

Conclusions

Overall, I can’t recommend the Sony BDP-S1 as a standard DVD playback device, but if you are just looking for a Blu-ray player, then this one is definitely worth a look. While I don’t think it is as future proof as the Panasonic design, the available 1080p24 output is enticing for those of us with displays that can take advantage of it. Be on the look out for the full review soon.

Video Frequency Response
Sony

Sony - BDP-S1 Blu-ray

Sony - PlayStation 3

MPEG Maker: unknown MPEG Model: unknown Deinterlacer Maker: unknown Deinterlacer Model: unknown     MSRP: $599.99 Website: http://www.sony.com

I really don’t expect much when I start doing Benchmark tests on a video game system. DVD playback is probably the least of the designers' worries, and just basic playback performance is more than enough for their agenda. But, I think that designers who are touting their product as a media console and not just a video gaming machine have more of an obligation to ensure at least a decent level of performance in all areas of media playback, including video and audio.

Recently, I tested Microsoft’s new venture into the world of console gaming, the Xbox 360. The 360 performed very well in our DVD benchmark and positioned itself as the only game machine I’ve tested to date that I would probably recommend as a DVD player. The 360 launched a year before its competition, the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Nintendo Wii, so I was wondering how much Sony and Nintendo would put into their next generation consoles to combat the 360’s strong points. Nintendo opted out of the media console market and launched a system strictly designed for gaming and interactivity with the Wii, and it does not include DVD playback, but Sony went all out, and not only included DVD playback, but also support for Blu-ray (BD), one of the high definition disc formats.

For this Benchmark, I am going to stick with standard DVD playback like I’ve done with previous Blu-ray players. I will be following the Benchmark with a full review of the PS3, including its performance as a Blu-ray player and video game console.

Months before the PS3 ever released, I would have guessed that it would be an average DVD player and below average Blu-ray player. The PS2 was anything but impressive as a DVD player, and despite the rather high price point of the PS3 as a game console, it is only about half the price of the competing stand alone Blu-ray players. This would obviously lead me to believe that Sony designed this as a video game console first, with the BD and DVD playback section being passable at best, and enough to maybe lure some tech savvy owners into stand alone BD players at some point. Evidently, this is not the case.

The PS3 represents one of the best BD players I’ve used to date. It is fast, the image quality is excellent, and it supports more of the BD functions and features than just about any other player. The fact that it does this for nearly half the price of the other BD players out there is almost embarrassing, and rather disappointing when you think about it. As a standard DVD player, however, the PS3 may represent one of the worst progressive scan players I have ever tested. Surprising, considering its BD performance.

The PS3 is the only game console to feature an HDMI output to date. Given this feature, I was fully expecting to see support for upconversion of standard DVD to high definition resolutions like most HDMI-based DVD players. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen here. The PS3 only outputs 480p for DVD playback. Personally I would have rather have seen 480i as the only DVD output resolution given how bad this player does with its de-interlacing.

The PS3 has no film-based de-interlacing support. It is essentially locked in video mode the entire time, so as the cadence changes, resolution is compromised. This is pretty much unforgivable at this stage in the game and embarrassing compared to every other DVD player I’ve tested from Sony. Why this is the case I have no idea, especially since DVD is the only thing the PS3 is de-interlacing (the PS3 does not de-interlace 1080i to 1080p for BD content, it only outputs what the disc is encoded).

Core video performance was about average. The PS3 allows you to select from two separate color spaces via HDMI: RGB and YCbCr. Neither of them passes below black information, so head and toe room are clipped. There is also some minor pixel cropping with DVD playback (BD playback had no pixel cropping).

On the plus side, the PS3 does not have any issues with CUE or Y/C delay when viewing DVDs via HDMI. I’ve seen reports that it does have CUE issues with Blu-ray playback using 4:2:0 material.

The PS3 passed all of our tests that relate to video-based material, which was expected since this player is essentially in a forced video mode. This includes 2-2 material. I could not get it to lock onto a single 3-2 based pattern, regardless of how much time I gave the player to do it.

From a usability standpoint, the PS3 does quite well. The transport is fast, and I really love all of the information available when you press display (bitrates, video codec, etc.) I highly recommend picking up the PS3 remote if you plan on using the console for movie viewing, because it alleviates a lot of the frustration that can come with using the controller as a remote. The only drawback is that the remote is Bluetooth-based, so you cannot program your HT remote to mimic it. My only other gripe is that the player does not start-up a disc when it is inserted. You have to navigate to the video selection in the main PS3 menu screen and select it.

Conclusions

It is a shame that Sony put so much work into the PlayStation 3 in some areas but not in DVD playback. The lack of a film mode for de-interlacing and no support for upscaling are rare in progressive scan DVD players these days. While I would still recommend it as a Blu-ray player, anyone considering adding the PS3 to their home theater rack should probably keep their standard DVD player as well.