Marantz BD8002 Blu-ray player gets June date for Japan
Filed under: Blu-ray
Relevant Posts
- Sony's $400 BDP-S350 Blu-ray player shows July 15th ship date (8 days ago - 43 Comments)
- Samsung's BD-P1500 gets firmware update, Profile 2.0 not included (9 days ago - 10 Comments)
- Onkyo to ship first Blu-ray player in late 2008 (8 days ago - 2 Comments)
- Pioneer reveals new Blu-ray players in Europe (14 days ago - 9 Comments)
- Panasonic's DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player gets reviewed (28 days ago - 23 Comments)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MadMike @ May 19th 2008 4:16PM
So what exactly is the problem with making them 2.0? My PS3 is 2.0, it doesn't take a special laser or anything, its the inclusion of Ethernet and a hard-drive and its some software to enable the internet stuff.
So WTF, and what's with the price? Is it just profit gouging or does it actually cost over $1,000 to build a frigging blu-ray player?
Sounds more like corporate suicide more than anything else.
Jake @ May 19th 2008 4:32PM
I too am wondering about the difference between profile 1.1 and 2.0. My suspicions are that the differences relate to features that make great logos on the outside of the box, but do nothing to improve the picture and sound quality.
Unfortunately, it does cost over $1000 to build a BD player that lives up to Marantz sound quality standards. That said, since most folks are connecting their BD players to an external processor via HDMI, all the money Marantz pours into making the analog audio outputs sound so amazing is probably wasted on most of the market. Notice that the top of the line Denon has ONE connector on the back, and that's an HDMI port. IMHO, that was a better way to appropriate the parts budget on a BD player. There is a small but loyal market for what Marantz is building, and those folks will undboutedly be pleased.
Bottom Line: you can't play Madden on the Marantz, so I think you made a wise choice in maximizing the return on your BD player investment!
andy @ May 19th 2008 6:12PM
What's funny is that I use a Marantz SR8002 with my Paradigm Monitor 11's, but I'll use the cheapest DVD player I can find (full featured of course, progressive scan and HDMI) to just grab the bits off of the disc. After all, it's digital. The bits are either there, or they're not.
I use the high end stuff, but I still just don't understand paying 2k for digital transports or digital cables.
FYI, my current player is a Toshiba HD-A2. Yes, the 100 dollar walmart special kind.
ngmitter @ May 19th 2008 7:48PM
Ya see, Jake, some of us don't use a receiver with HDMI inputs on it, and therefore must rely on analog inputs for our HD audio formats. Now take me for example. I currently run a Marantz Pre/Pro setup with an external 5 channel amplifier, which in total is about $1000, which is pretty cheap. If i want to experience DTS-MA or TrueHD, i'm now forced to spend over a $1000 additionally to get a good surround processor capable of taking an HDMI signal and decoding the formats.
Take other audiophiles and now you will really understand why analog output is desirable. Let's say you own Krell, Lexicon, Classe, McIntosh, etc and spent 5 grand for a processor and another 4 grand for your amps. Luckily, the amps will work with whatever you get it, so you keep those. But unfortunately for your unlucky ass, the awesome processor of yours has no HDMI and you need to upgrade. Either buy another 5K processor, or you can simply run analog inputs to your current receiver.
That said, why the hell does this thing cost so much? Can't Marantz or Denon, or somebody else make an affordable Blu-Ray player capable of 2.0 compliance and analog outputs? Come on, guys! Pay your engineers to do something besides play in Matlab!
DrXym @ May 19th 2008 5:37PM
Wow, that's an expensive drive. It's still tagged at $2k on their site:
http://us.marantz.com/Products/Blu-Ray-DVD.asp
I notice some of their DVD players aren't exactly cheap either - their DV9600 is $2000. Stupid money really.
dj496 @ May 19th 2008 6:00PM
At least it's a frikkin' good blu-ray player, but if I was a rich videophile/audiophile dude, I'd still want Profile 2.0 for this type of investment.
andy @ May 19th 2008 6:06PM
The Marantz US site lists it for 1999.99 MSRP "coming soon".