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105 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Things you should know, December 1, 1999
By A Customer
Being a newbie, I admit that I am not an expert in home theatre systems. But using this DVD player with the rest of my system, my neighbors threaten to file a noise complaint to the police unless I let them watch movies in my living room for free. Here are some things you should know when setting this DVD player up with your amp, TV, speakers, etc.** Video Output ** This model also has three video outputs: Video output jack, S-video jack, and component video out jack. Of course you need three different types of wires for each one. Only the cord for the video output jack comes with the DVD. I recommend you buy Monster Cables for the component video out jack (relatively expensive, but worth it). You can definitely see the improvement in the picture quality. If you do go this route, then you must have a TV with component video in. Also, you must change the DVD player's settings (see pg. 42 in the instructions). If you don't, all you will get is black and white, and I seriously thought something was wrong with either my TV or the DVD. Took me a couple days to figure out that you need to explicitly change the settings. ** DTS & Dolby Digital 5.1 ** This model has a DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder built in, so you don't need an amp/receiver with a DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder (but you do need some sort of receiver with 2 front, 2 rear, center, and sub-woofer outputs to take advantage of DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1). If you do already have a capable amp/receiver, read below for more details. My ears couldn't tell the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1. However, you can definitely tell the difference between simple Dolby Pro-Logic and DTS/Dolby Digital 5.1. So it's definitely worth upgrading your system to handle DTS/Dolby Digital 5.1. ** Audio Output ** Read this if you have an amp/receiver with a DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder, and you want to connect this DVD player with it: You have two digital outputs: coaxial and optical, both use a different type of cord. Someone recommended that the coaxial was better than the optical, but I really don't think it matters too much. At least, I couldn't tell the difference between the two types. Of course the only cord that comes with this is the standard audio cord. If you want to take advantage of the digital outputs then you will have to spend more $$ to buy the appropriate cord. ** CD player ** This player also plays compact discs. I mistakenly bought a Sony CD player, so I could play CD's. This model is also capable of playing DTS encoded CD's! There are not that many DTS encoded CD's, but just like DVD's, the sound quality is tremendous. Listening to the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over", you can really place the instruments and you almost feel like you are listening to them live. In summary: If you don't want to spend big $$, and you are a newbie, then this DVD player is worth buying because it has all the necessary video/audio outputs. The picture quality is good. The only bad thing is the relative slow access time, so loading up the movie and skipping to different chapters is slower than I would like.
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