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Review of Marantz BD7003 Blu-Ray Player

January 26, 2009



The brand Marantz might not be familiar to most consumers. Marantz tend to cater to high end A/V segment. Accordingly, their products cost substantially more than your average Blu-ray players. The Marantz BD7003 is a complete A/V solution. The on board decoding of most High Definition audio makes it an ideal center piece of home entertainment system. Accordingly, it is constructed with premium audio and video components as well as the construction material.

The player is constructed in aluminum/reinforced resin according to manufacturer site. The player does feel sturdier than most other players. However, I'm not sure what advantage this adds to the player as it will most likely sit on your entertainment center. Also, the player is built with higher grade DAC, digital analog converter, which should provide better audio and video visuals. As with most other players, it supports 1080p at 24fps. It also supports MP3/WMA/JPEG support with SD card slot. The player does not come with Profile 2.0 as it only supports Profile 1.1. It also lacks RS-232C and IR in/out functions seen on the Yamaha player.

Does the higher grade DAC translate to better video output? Watching through several Blu-ray movie discs, I honestly could not differentiate it between your average $250-$350 players. This does not mean it is on par with these cheaper players. With optimal settings and equipments, one might be able to see the difference in certain circumstances. I however, could not. For good measures, I tried few DVD s for upcovnersion and it showed no real difference. The audio options are the main feature of this player. It can decode almost every High Definition audio as well as bitstream it to the receiver. It also supports the regular 5.1 and 7.1 channel analog audio.

This is solid player that is able to decode most audio formats. You could by pass the need for receiver with this quality unit. Also, the remote control was fairly nice. It is not cluttered and has back light which is missing from a lot of the remote controls from other manufacturers. This player retails for around $800.00 which might be little too much for most consumers. None the less, it is an outstanding player if you can afford it.

Rating:

 

Marantz BD7003 Blu-ray Player Marantz BD7003 Blu-ray Player
List Price: $549.00
Average Rating:

Description

The BD7003 offers Marantzs revered pedigree in engineering class leading universal players, which now includes Blu-ray playback, at an exceptionally competitive price point. The BD7003 creates a full High Definition 1080p image and outputs Blu-ray discs in a true film-like 24 frames per second...

Features

  • BD-ROM Profile 1 version 1.1
  • New solid reference standard chassis
  • DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD via HDMI
  • 12-bit/297MHz video DAC for high video quality
  • 1920 x 1080p resolution

Written by admin · Filed Under Exclusive Reviews, Marantz Reviews, Reviews 

Marantz BD8002 Blu-ray player reviewed by Theodore Vireday

July 4, 2008



Design:

The front of the unit is all glossy black with a thin strip of silver along the bottom. To the far left is the Power button surrounded by a blue light which unfortunately can't be turned off in the settings menu. All the graphics are in high-def and are easy enough to navigate.

Remote Control:

The included remote is average for a Blu-ray player. We liked the centrally located directional pad and the clearly labeled buttons. One of our gripes is the location of the standard playback controls. They are far from the directional pad.  There is a flip-down panel on the bottom of the remote but it's not a nuisance since it only hides some nonessential buttons like a number pad.

Features:

The main feature of this player is its ability to play Blu-ray discs. It can also play standard-definition DVDs and upconvert them to higher resolutions . Unlike Sony's PlayStation 3 and Sony's older BDP-S1 the BDP-S300 doesn't support SACD. This player has support for standard Dolby Digital and DTS surround soundtracks and it also has support for the slightly higher quality Dolby Digital Plus format. What's more important is that this player lacks support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. The connectivity is standard for the breed. There's an HDMI output which can handle both 1080p high-definition video along with high resolution audio. This player also has a couple of additional enthusiast-friendly features. One is the ability to output at 24 frames per second. We've tested a few players with this ability and haven't seen any increased performance with the displays we've used.

Performance:

We started off our test looking at Corpse Bride in 1080p on this player. This disc is extremely sharp and any difference in detail between the players should be visible. We found it very difficult to find any significant differences in the image quality between the players. This is even more so the case when watching at a standard viewing distance of around 8 feet for a 50-inch plasma. We took a look at some test patterns on Silicon Image's HQV test suite on Blu-ray in 1080p mode on both players. Like we said before there's really very little difference in Blu-ray performance among all Blu-ray players.

 

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Rating:

5 Blu-ray rating

 

Review sent in by Theodore Vireday.  Thanks!  Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com

Written by admin · Filed Under Marantz Reviews, Reviews 

George McNamee from Warsaw has sent in review of LG BH200 Blu-ray player

June 24, 2008



I obtained this player with the1.4 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load Predator  - almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc heavily using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. Few days ago I flash updated the firmware to 2.60 in about 14 minutes. See manufacturer's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.
I purchased a 46" HDTV and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player along with this Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units. Blue Ray load time isn't long at all. I bought "I am Legend" with Will Smith in Blue Ray format and was blown away by the clarity Blue Ray offers.  There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible.  Manufacture's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems unpolished at best. One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet this player is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet.

This player's plastic remote is reasonably good. It's well designed and compliments HDTV - the remote controls the TV's basic functions too.  It takes about 30 seconds or so once a disc is inserted for the movie to begin its menuing/playing sequences. The unit loads the movie info into memory during that time I believe. Some movie discs aren't produced to support the Resume functionality where you can watch a movie.  There is slight fan noise during dvd playback, which was only audible with the tv turned off. While the movie is playing, I couldn't hear the fan at all. The display on the front is a gray-blue. There are 4 brightness settings (High-Med-Low-Off), which can be accessed with one button on the top left of the remote. Very nice. With the display turned off, this is a very nice viewing experience. There is also an additional display button on the remote, which tells you the TRT of the disc, which chapter you are watching, time remaining in the chapter, and bit rate.

 


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Rating:

5 Blu-ray rating

 

 

Review sent in by George McNamee. Thanks! Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com

Written by admin · Filed Under Marantz Reviews, Reviews 

Mat Mumper from San Francisco has sent in review of Marantz BD8002 Blu-ray player

June 22, 2008



I bought this player with the1.4 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load Twister  - almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc heavily using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. Few days ago I flash updated the firmware to 2.60 in about 20 minutes. See manufacturer's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.
I purchased a 46" HDTV and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player along with this Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units. After I had updated the firmware to the newest version at the time than even Van Wilder played perfectly. The remote also works great I just wish that it was backlit.  There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible.  Manufacture's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems backward at best. One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet this player is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet.

The remote is as usual with other electronic devices.  It is extremely clutered.  It takes about 30 seconds or so once a disc is inserted for the movie to begin its menuing/playing sequences. The unit loads the movie info into memory during that time I believe. Some movie discs aren't produced to support the Resume functionality where you can watch a movie.  There is low fan noise during dvd playback, which was only detectable with the tv turned off. While the movie is playing, I couldn't hear the fan at all. The display on the front is a gray-blue. There are 4 brightness settings (High-Med-Low-Off), which can be accessed with one button on the top top of the remote. Very nice. With the display turned off, this is a very nice viewing experience. There is also an additional display button on the remote, which tells you the TRT of the disc, which chapter you are watching, time remaining in the chapter, and bit rate.

 

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Rating:

3 blu-ray rating

 

 

Review sent in by Mat Mumper. Thanks! Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com

Written by admin · Filed Under Marantz Reviews, Reviews 

Irene Caster from New York has sent in review of Marantz BD8002 Blu-ray player

June 21, 2008



I obtained this player with the1.6 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load Pirates of the Carribean  - almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc heavily using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. Few days ago I flash updated the firmware to 2.60 in about 17 minutes. See manufacturer's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.
I purchased a 46" HDTV and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player along with this Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units. Setting up was quick and straightforward - no problems here. I noticed that this Sony player weighs much less than the Toshiba HD-A20 HD DVD player.  There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible.  Manufacture's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems not convenient at best. One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet this player is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet.

Remote is reasonably good. No more fumbling around for 2 different remotes. The one area where this remote disappoints is that unlike the black aluminum Toshiba remote the buttons are not backlit.  I have a 60inch 1080p Sony tv and a decent 5.1 home theater-in-a-box sound system.After doing research I bought a (too expensive) "high-speed" monster HDMI cable rated to handle 1080p audio/video.  There is slight fan noise during dvd playback, which was only noticeable with the tv turned off. While the movie is playing, I couldn't hear the fan at all. The display on the front is a gray-blue. There are 4 brightness settings (High-Med-Low-Off), which can be accessed with one button on the top top of the remote. Very nice. With the display turned off, this is a very nice viewing experience. There is also an additional display button on the remote, which tells you the TRT of the disc, which chapter you are watching, time remaining in the chapter, and bit rate.

 

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Rating:

5 Blu-ray rating

 

 

Review sent in by Irene Caster. Thanks! Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com

Written by admin · Filed Under Marantz Reviews, Reviews 

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