Question for You HT Techies...

[M_A_C]

OK, I was having a discussion with a freind here at work. I have just gotten a Panasonic DVD-RP82s, replacing my Xbox as my primary DVD player. So, as you can probably guess, I love the pannay alot, and I was telling him that even the sound, sounds better. The highs sound higher, and the lows sound lower. I can actually feel the hits in Fight Club! He says with a digital connection and the same reciever doing the decoding, that there should be absolutely no difference in the sound, seeing as it's the same 0's and 1's. I kinda agree with him in theory, but I told him that I can hear the difference, heck I even thought I heard a difference between the Xbox and the PS2 (PS2 being better sounding). He says it's just the placibol (sp?) effect, because I want to like my new DVD player so much. I told him there has to be a difference in the way the different chips send the data to the reciver, otherwise why would anyone buy more than a $89 dollar DVD player, other than more features.

So anybody know? Is there a difference between digital sound quality in different DVD players? Or are all the 0's and 1's the same.

[M_A_C]

Nobody knows???

[coleslaw]

Sure, the binary data is all the same! It's the method by which the player decodes that data that matters.

[Apex]

You're right. There are a lot of other considerations than just 1's and 0's, unfortunately. Consider jitter for instance. There are CD players that are upwards of $10-15k.

The RP82 definitely has better internals than the Xbox, though not as good as many other DVD players. The RP82 has 8-ch, 192kHz/24-bit audio DAC's. The $3500 Denon DVD-9000 has 8 Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192-kHz PCM 1704 Audio DACs. Even the SPDIF output on different sound cards vary quite a bit. The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card's SPDIF out gives you way WAY better sound than your typical Sound Blaster Audigy 5.1 or Turtle Beach card.