Page 1 of Picture Enhancement

I currently have a Toshiba SD220e player linked by a cheap (£12) component video cable to a 32` Toshiba PictureFrame1 TV(has 100hz,DD5.1 optical input and speakers) and am basically torn between upgrading the player or investing in some better interconnects, in the hope of pushing up the picture quality. At the time I bought the dvd player it had won several awards in various budget player categories.

I don`t really want to spend any more than £200 , what would be best - a new player or cables?

This item was edited on Monday, 25th April 2005, 21:14

Why not do both? Im no expert but if your player is a few years old (dont know if it is?), then maybe buy the best of the budget players out now, say the pioneer 575 (£109 from Richer sounds last i looked), and but some interconnects as well. :)

Nick

Am I likely to get a noticeably better picture with higher quality component video leads than my rather cheap JVC cheap ones(£12) ?
They look to be gold plated but i`ve absolutely no idea about leads and what i should expect to pay in regards to getting a better picture.

I`ve probably had the player about 3 years now, and it basically came pretty much out on top compared to other budget players at the time.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 26th April 2005, 17:23

Im sure there`s others on here who know more. But i would guess that a newere player will be better, and prices have come down alot too. So a top budget player id probably £100 or so when it was probaly £200 3 years back (pleas correct if im wrong).

As for leads, you could try a RGB only scart for starters, that should make a differnce (providing your audio is sent by a differnt route i think?). £40? maybe.

Picture should be better, whether you will notice or not may be a bit down to you.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 26th April 2005, 17:42

Interconnects seem to be a bit of an Emperor`s New Clothes thing. I`ve had reasonably expensive (I consdider £30 to be expensive for a 1m bit of cable) and I`ve not really noticed any difference over the £2 SCART cables from highstreet electronics stores. I`m sure there are those who would argue that if you spend £400 on interconnects it must be better, but those are the probably the same people who would argue that either optical or digital audio connections are better. I defy any normal human being to tell the difference in a blind test.

You`ll be much better off with a new player. The latest Pioneers use 12-Bit DACs instead of the older 8-Bit, and they offer excellent video quality for the money. You don`t need to spend £500 to get a good looking picture nowadays. The price of players has come down so much that an £80 Pioneer DV370 looks better than an older £250-£300 Toshiba/Sony/Pioneer deck.

Unless you have money to burn (which you don`t as you`re on a budget), stick with a Pioneer DV 470 or 575 (the latter if you want the DVD Audio playback). I have a 370 that is used with my 32" Toshiba prog scan set, and the image is superb. I`m sure there`s better out there, but it does a perfectly good job in my living room.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 26th April 2005, 18:13