Audio/Video Chat → DVD Player setup

I almost bought a used DVD player yesterday (to use as a CD transport), but the manual indicated that you need to hook it to a TV to set up various parameters (including the digital output, which is the most important thing for my situation). Can any of these players be configured using the front-panel display, or do they all require using a menu on a TV screen?

Some cheap players do not even have a front-panel display, so these obviously need a TV, but a cheap player would probably not be a good transport anyway (too much jitter in the digital output signal).

I stopped watching TV years ago, so I do not have a working television or video monitor. I suppose that I could buy a small TV in Walmart, etc., use it to set up the DVD player and then return it to the store, but that seems like a lot of trouble.

Could you set it up at a friend or relatives house,I think the settings would hold till you get home?

Yes I could, but I do not like to impose on others like this.

Do you have a computer monitor with an HDMI input? That would work too if the DVD player has an HDMI output (many of them do these days).

But yeah, not much choice there, I have yet to see any DVD player that can be configured from the front panel display. All the ones I've seen require a TV/monitor to be able to use the menus.

I suppose that I could get a composite-to-VGA adapter, which would enable the use of pretty much any computer monitor.

Thanks of the feedback that a TV is pretty much essential. Heard about someone selling a top-load CD player (with a coaxial digital output). If I can get this, it would likely do the job as a CD transport, so that I would not need a DVD player. It has no remote capabilities, unfortunately, but one cannot have everything.

Its possible you could use the manual and just press the correct series of buttons blindly. It will be difficult though. What model CD player is it? What settings do you wish to adjust?

It was a Marantz (do not recall the model number). I needed to set the digital output for PCM, rather than DTS. Perhaps it was already set the way that I desired (impossible to know, without being able to see the setup menu on a TV screen). I might also have needed to change some other settings (not sure what, but I saw that there were a lot of options available when I looked at the manual).

Anyway, since the top-load player is designed specifically to play CD's (rather than CD playback being an afterthought), that will likely be a better choice, if I can convince myself that a remote is not needed. The top-loader is also less wide, which will save precious space.

I've found DVD players to be poor CD transports. I tried several brands/models and the mechanical disc spinners were obnoxiously loud. In addition, and depending on your level of audio voodoo tolerance, the video signal is always on providing a potential source of signal noise.

I use a bluray player as a transport since I have SACDs and audio Blurays which has a button to turn off all video electronics, or at least make me think it does. Neato.

Also bear in mind that most DVD players output audio at 16bit 48khz. CD is 16bit 44.1khz. If you're a purist then you may not want to go this route because of the resampling.

Thank you for this info- I did not know that the output frequency is not 44.1 KHz when playing a CD. As I recall, the instruction manual said that there were a few options for the digital output, but I do not remember what they were.

When playing music through iTunes, I always use the 44.1 KHz setting for files that were ripped from a CD- in my system, this sounds better than the higher-frequency options. I also find that the 16 bits option sounds better than 20 or 24 bits (perhaps because iTunes does not do the best job at creating the extra 4 or 8 bits).

I was recently auditioning an Audioquest Dragonfly v1.2 DAC and it turns out that an old M-Audio SUPER DAC 2496 sounds better to me; perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the M-Audio has a 16-bit option, but the Audioquest is fixed at 24 bits. The Dragonfly has gotten many good reviews, but, in my system, it did not sing the way that the SUPER DAC can. Needless to say, one DAC went back to the store and the other one earned a place in my system.

I do have to ask what is CD Transport? I only ask because I tend to think of the machine as CD Playback.

is there a difference?

Using a digital out on a CD player so that you're bypassing the internal DAC/amp in order to pass the signal to another device to handle those components.

There are also dedicated CD transports, which do not have any DAC or analog circuitry- the only output(s) they have are digital; these are typically sold exclusively to audiophiles. Here is an example of one: »www.musicalfidelity.com/m1cdt/

I guess its the transport term that confuses me as I connect transport with those things people put CDs in to carry them somewhere.

I guess its like TV and Monitor. They are different but in the end its the same end purpose. (TVs have tuning ability and Monitors do not. The term is a bit archaic today as you can use a flat panel TV on your computer just the same as a monitor)

If I put a CD in my computer and play it through my digital A/V receiver I am doing essentially the same thing. My computer is connected to a digital audio coax input in the receiver. The computer is not doing any digital to analog conversion.

Yes, this would do the job, but external DAC's typically are higher-quality than the ones which are built into a receiver (unless you have a very expensive receiver).

I am not an audiophile so I don't need a very expensive receiver. I would call mine middle of the line with a MSRP of more than $700 but I purchased it for $400. I don't need special speaker, coax, optical, network, USB or power cables either.

Getting the D-to-A conversion circuitry away from the electrically-noisy computer internals will have definite sonic benefits, no matter how good the DAC inside of the receiver is.

Problem solved! It dawned on me that a TV is not needed, and neither is audio- a video monitor is sufficient. I bought an old portable DVD player which has video input capability- this will work as a monitor. I have not tested the DVD playback function yet, but I do not care if this works or not.

Perhaps the DVD players which you tried were loud, but I cannot hardly hear the playback mechanism of the Integra DPS-6.5 SACD/DVD player (from about a foot away) that I picked up this morning. I have not checked yet to see if the video can be turned off while playing CD's.

The main reason I bought this is that it has both Toslink and coaxial digital audio outputs- I need to burn in a DAC and these SPDIF signals will help- I will leave the player and DAC on continuously for at least a week.

Cool, what DAC are you burning?

Antelope Audio Zodiac- word on the forums is that this takes a long time to settle in. Some reports have indicated that it can require as much as 800 hours to reach the final sound, but I hope that it becomes listenable well before then.

Still not certain that it will even arrive- the Amazon partner I ordered it from said they only had one left- if the website is wrong and they don't have any, then they won't have anything to ship.

So far, I have not heard that it has shipped (it was ordered on Thursday morning) and I have not heard that they cannot ship it, so I don't know what is happening. Need to make some inquiries on Monday.

Got the Zodiac this morning. I expected it to sound very bad right out of the box, but it has immediately identified itself as a true high-end piece and it can only get better with time. May not even need to hook it up to the DVD player to help with break-in.

For the first month or so, I will leave it on continuously (no using the Standby mode).

This is the company's least-expensive DAC (the others come with a BIG cost premium over the cost of the base model)- the higher-price ones must be really exceptional!

They market an upgraded power supply for the Zodiac- I might treat myself to that for a Christmas present. In the meantime, the stock power supply should do a "good enough" job.

After I get some hours on it, I want to experiment whether it sounds best through USB, Toslink directly or Toslink converted to coaxial SPDIF (I am using the latter connection method initially).