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Originally posted by Smart Little Lena:
Poor performance is subjective when you’re factoring tradeoffs. (dual Vs single HighR audio formats and video Vs audio preformance) The shootouts all involve video performance of the players (some might argue their main function)


Exactly, but bear in mind that these reviews are not just "well I feel it's better": they are a set of criteria that's listed prior to the shootout and explained in great detail. The tests are therefore repeatable and unbiased.

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And if that is your sole concern, you should separate your video performance from you audio player/s completely and get a Bravo DI player if you have a DVI LCD/plasma/DLP enabled display or FP. Then you can achieve what some reviewers have called “reference” quality video, for 200.00. This particular unit recommended only if you have a DVI connection as it eliminates all D/A video conversion if you do.


True, although I've heard that the picture improvement is not of the same order of magnitude that you get when you eliminate D/A and A/D in audio. That is, apparently, the picture improvement with DVI is not a huge one. I can't confirm or deny this, since I haven't seen it, but that seems to be the scuttlebut from the cogniscenti.

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But when your factoring performance across the board, Last I was keeping track the Pioneer would beat the Panny in sound.


Actually, I've heard from a number of sources that the Pioneer Elite players' audio is awful. The only reason I didn't bring it up earlier is that I don't recall the source.

If you're interested, go to the SMR forums and post a thread on this topic. I'm betting that Stuart might be able to point you to reviews and/or tests that back this up.


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If my priority was the BEST A & V. I’d break up my purchases into single units. Possibly try the Bravo then shop for audio players separately.


I agree that this is the best approach. My Panasonic player also has DVD-A, but this was a side-effect: I bought the player with the best video available, and it happened to have DVD-A. Until more discs become available, I'm not terribly concerned with DVD-A performance in my system.

Jeff