Harman Kardon DVD31DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: no SACD and has issues with some DVD-audio discs
Review: I have been a loyal HK customer for years now. but i am a little let down in this device. i have the new NIN Downward Spiral DVD-audio disc and it has trouble playing. i took the disc to a friends and put it in his pioneer and it worked perfectly. i cant seem to get an answer out of hk as to weather this is just my unit or all of them.

Rating:
Summary: Most underrated of the psuedo-HD players
Review: Let me begin by saying, while this player does NOT offer HD upconversion, it outperforms the Sony and Samsung upconverting HD players. I carefully compared the three models on my Hitachi 51 RPTV, and found this to clearly be the best. Picture quality its stunningly superb, suprising deep color and incredible sharpness. I saw absolutely NO benefit from using a high-quality DVI connector as opposed to high-quality component cables. The player also offers DVD-Audio which is phenomenal when set up to a higher end sound system. And finally, in my opinion, this unit is the best looking DVD player I've seen on the market. The only flaw I've come accross is with the remote, which lacks volume buttons, and although lighted, it's still hard to make out which button is which in the dark.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic DVD player--better than Denon, in my opinion
Review: Pro's:
Beautiful picture, beautiful color, flawless sound--has built in Wolfson audio processors! If you don't mind not having HD upconversion, this is a fantastic DVD player. Built in DTS and Dolby decoding processors are the best I've heard on any DVD player yet; even over Denon. The closest I've seen comparable to this DVD player for the same price is the Toshiba S 5970. This one even plays SACD's and HDCD's, which it's predecessor the HK DVD22 did not. Only wish Harman would come out with an upconverter DVD player--it would blow everything else on the market away!

Con's:
No HD upconversion--even though the picture is virtually flawless. HK has reported numerous issues w the DVD22 player's digital optical outputs (which is why they're phasing it out), which were supposedly corrected with this model--I have not had to return this one yet.

Rating:
Summary: Great Player, But no HD output and not compatible w/SACD
Review: The above review pretty much sums it up, but one correction. This player is not compatible with SACD's and I found that to be the player's only weakness. But if you have an HDTV, you may want to opt for a player with the DVI output to get the 1080i.