Have your say & ask the experts

 

I'm on the brink of changing some of my hifi to fully embrace digital. I'vecurrently got all Arcam kit and have bought Arcam for many years with a briefinterlude because of a bad experience with their first AV gear.

Currently my digital music and movies are on an ipod fed to my A22and Plasma, though I'm not particularly happy with the Apple route as itinvolves iTunes and a lot of faffing with re encoding, as well as onlycomponent output for the video.

Ideally I want a DVD player that has a USB input and that canconnect without problem to an external drive such as a WD passport and readmultiple digital files easily. This would then output via HDMi to the screenand via coax or phono to the amp.

Likely suspects at the moment include the Cambridge Audio DVD99and OnkyoDV-SP405. Neither of which are said to offer stellar performance for music butare adequate. How would they stack against the Arcam? Are there likely to beany products on a par with the Arcam available soonwith USB input?

 

How about a PS3?

Sounds just the thing, though not entirely sure what you're trying to achieve? Re-encoding what for what purpose? I am thinking Apple TV or Mac Mini (the later because it can play DVDs stored as VOB files, not sure whether the latest Apple TV firmware has allowed that yet).

Thanks for the replys. Basically I have several hundred CD's that I'm slowly working through ripping, but will undoubtedly be keeping some as they are original releases, so I'm looking for a solution with good CD replay, quiet transport for movies, and the abaility to add larger storage.

With the Ipod I have to re encode avi's to playback on the TV and I hate the itunes user interface to manage files and get them onto the ipod iteself.

A single good quality DVD player for CD and DVD replay with the ability to connect to external USB HDD is much more attractive. Never thought of a PS3 but what is it like for CD and DVD quality? Plus as the player is almost next to my ear when watching and listening it needs to be quiet. 

Well, PS3 is a great DVD player now (since the 2.50 firmware update) but CD performance is lacking, but this will be true of virtually any DVD player you get to play CDs. If you're streaming from a NAS though and out through the optical port to something with a decent DAC, this will be much better - many people rate it higher than some quite expensive CD players.

The noise front could be an issue - most of the time it is pretty quiet, but if the fan comes on and it's by your ear, you will know about it.

If AVIs are the key, an Apple TV (though you're dependent on iTunes, sorry) or windows media extender (WMP) sounds like the job. I think linksys do one with a built in DVD player, the 2200 or something, but it's a bit of a dear solution when you could get a 100 quid media extender and a cheap DVD player

JohnDuncan:

If AVIs are the key, an Apple TV (though you're dependent on iTunes, sorry) or windows media extender (WMP) sounds like the job. I think linksys do one with a built in DVD player, the 2200 or something, but it's a bit of a dear solution when you could get a 100 quid media extender and a cheap DVD player

You can get the DMA2100 (same as the 2200 but with no dvd drive) for under £100 now on Amazon. I have one and they are very small little boxes. They can be connected to your screen via hdmi and also has component, coaxial and RCA connectivity. You can stream all your music from your hard drive wirelessly.