I am not familiar with anything comparable to this dream machine: my two previous CD/DVD players were the Toshiba’s HD-A2KU and the Onkyo’s DV-CP701.
The Marantz UD8004 is one notch below their flagship, the UD9004, at more than twice the price. Is the sound/picture quality of the 9004 worth an additional ,0000? I will probably never know.
I walked into a high-end stereo store, and this is the machine they had hooked up. Even though they carried other brands (some more expensive than the UD 8004), this is the one the tech swore by.
The UD 8004 is a hefty, serious and stylish machine. This a Universal Disk Player, which means you have it all in one machine. It plays everything, expect HD DVDs (apparently this is a dead technology, so don’t worry about it). Read more...
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Outstanding player. Picture quality for Blu-ray is as good as it gets and the up-conversion on DVD’s is excellent…cannot ask for better. Onkyo must have used some magic here; since it has played every Blu-ray and DVD put in it. Have played well over 100 DVD’s, including DVD-R’s. As for Blu-ray…around 60 to 70 – All four Rambo’s, Die Hard’s, three Matrix and both Underworld movies, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Indiana Jones Kingdom, Fifth Element, Ghost Rider, Dirty Dozen, Eraser, Rocky Balboa, Stargate…etc. All played perfectly without any firmware update. As for BD Live 2.0 … simply put; it is another way of control and to send commercials. Read more...
Feature
- Plays Blu-ray Disc, DVD Video,Audio CD, CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL*1
- HDMI Digital Output (Version 1.3a to Support Dolby® TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Deep Color, x.v. Color)
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*** The Sherwood 5004 is a reliable Blu-Ray player. It performs excellently and is very similar to the Momitsu 899. I have set up my player to take advantage of all BD-Live 2.0 features. I am pleased to report that the player performs these functions very well indeed. It loads and plays BD-Live content much faster than does my older Panasonic BDP-35.
Using the HD Bitstream setting sent through HDMI cables to my Pioneer VSX-91TXH Receiver, I have found Dolby True HD and DTS Master Sound to sound splendid whether the movie/music is encoded at 7.1, 2.0 or 1.0 channels. Immediately prior to the install of the player, I re-calibrated the room and speakers using Pioneer’s built in sound analyzer. Read more...
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UPDATE AS OF 11/25/09: I have experienced the random FREEZES that others have reported to plague this player. The player will freeze and then resume after 5-6 seconds. Very annoying.
UPDATE AS OF 8/18/09: This player is definitely growing on me. The Audio Quality from the Burr Browns is nothing short of top-notch. Powered off Eject times dropped by nearly 5 seconds to a reasonable 13 seconds w/ FW update done easily over net. My recommendation is to use NR setting of 3 for DVDs (it is not available on BDs thankfully). I would say DVD upconversion is identical to the Oppo 99% of the time in realworld use with a reasonable sized display – 50″ in my case. YMMV. Really like this player, but I stand by my comments re pricing – needs to be 0 at a maximum to compete. Read more...
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UPDATE AS OF 11/25/09: I have experienced the random FREEZES that others have reported to plague this player. The player will freeze and then resume after 5-6 seconds. Very annoying.
UPDATE AS OF 8/18/09: This player is definitely growing on me. The Audio Quality from the Burr Browns is nothing short of top-notch. Powered off Eject times dropped by nearly 5 seconds to a reasonable 13 seconds w/ FW update done easily over net. My recommendation is to use NR setting of 3 for DVDs (it is not available on BDs thankfully). I would say DVD upconversion is identical to the Oppo 99% of the time in realworld use with a reasonable sized display – 50″ in my case. YMMV. Really like this player, but I stand by my comments re pricing – needs to be 0 at a maximum to compete. Read more...
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