Yamaha DVD-S1800BL 1080p Upconverting DVD SACD Player

5 comments

1. 

   James T. Enos on December 20, 2009 at 11:35 pm

   Product arrived timely and in good condition. Matches nicely with my Yamaha receiver and looks good in black. Good manual. Good onscreen. Will probably buy another one for second system.

2. 

   Eating Pie on December 21, 2009 at 12:52 am

   Amazon had a Blu-ray deal for $99.00, though it looks like it’s ended ($129.00 is typical price point now). Other retailers like Wal-Mart still have them. If you can sacrifice SACD, this is a much better way to go. For just $20.00, you get 6x the resolution of DVD. And EVERY Blu-ray player does upconverting.

   Yes, 6 TIMES more resolution in video. And the audio quality is lossless (DVD is *very* lossy, it’s like an MP3 vs. a CD/SACD).

   Again, $20.00 more for this functionality. If you (or the person you’re gifting) has an HDTV, Blu-ray is much better than DVD. And if you don’t, you’re future-proofing with no need to by Blu-ray when you upgrade.

   Yamaha makes great products, and this is a highly rated DVD player (I gave it 5 stars). But given the slight difference in price for Blu-ray, it’s really not the best way to go.

3. 

   Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabadoo on December 21, 2009 at 2:15 am

   I recently upgraded everything in my HT setup, purchasing a new Yamaha RX-V1800 receiver, as well as Polk RTI A7 front speakers, Polk RTI A3 rear speakers, a Polk CSI A6 center channel and a Polk PSW505 subwoofer to go along with my PS3. After sampling some hi-def audio (the PS3 can play SACDs), I purchased this player to take advantage of its ability to send DSD signal straight to the receiver for maximum sound quality on SACDs. I also wanted to be able to access the DTS 5.1 tracks on DVD-A’s instead of settling for the Dolby 5.1 mixdowns you get with a standard DVD player. I ended up getting a great deal on this here at Amazon.
   
   So far I’ve had this item for about a week and I’m very happy with it. I’ve tested it with CDs, DVDs, DVD-A’s and SACDs, and not only is the sound quality excellent (upsamples CDs too), but I have not experienced any of the problems I’d heard about with some other multi-format players. Load time is pretty good for all formats (including standard DVD), and with the discrete analog connections, SACDs sound phenomenal. I have a small but growing library of probably 50 or so SACDs/DVD-A’s, so this unit has really allowed me to enjoy these titles with the best possible sound quality. Setting this unit to ‘Audio Direct’ and my receiver to ‘Pure Direct’ allows me to hear the straight signal right to the Polks; their dynamic range is really showcased when running multichannel SACD or DVD-A.
   
   In addition to the hi-def sound benefits, the DVD video upconverter is substantially better than my PS3. Picture is clear and very sharp on my 46″ 1080p Samsung, with very few visible artifacts and little to no quantization. Sound quality has fewer artifacts as well in comparison with the PS3.
   
   This unit can handle MP3 or WMA discs, VCD, CD-R and CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW, and can read both PAL and NTSC formats. With this unit you’re pretty much all set for everything out there save for Blu ray.
   
   The DVD-S1800 has an HDMI connection for A/V sources, component in for Video, stereo analog in as well as optical, digital coaxial, and multichannel analog for audio connections. You can pretty much configure this any way you want/can based on your HT’s connection capabilities. Obviously, HDMI for A/V and multichannel analog for audio will provide superior sound/picture quality. The on-screen menu provided via HDMI to TV is easy to use as well.
   
   The look and feel is very nice, matching my RX-V1800 in design perfectly with a brushed black aluminum front. It’s not too heavy, weighing about 10 lbs., and it isn’t very deep either (about 11″).
   
   Big fan of this unit. This all-purpose catch-all nicely complements both my receiver and the PS3, bringing me totally up-to-date in terms of next-gen audio and video. I especially enjoyed listening to the multichannel layers of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon SACD, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue SACD, Beethoven’s Symphonies 5 & 7 SACD, as well as Yes’ Fragile on DVD-A.
   
   This is a great and inexpensive way to jump into hi-def audio. Even though neither SACD or DVD-A have really taken off thanks to the rise of compressed music, there are a number of excellent rock and especially classical and jazz albums out there. For me it was worth it, as the 5.1 sound and increased signal resolution really brings out the details that are often hidden or obscured in lesser audio formats.

4. 

   SSingh on December 21, 2009 at 2:36 am

   Very easy to use, great quality of video as well as audio. Great value for money as I bought it on the Gold box deal. Play all kinds of discs.

5. 

   Gadgester on December 21, 2009 at 2:59 am

   I bought this Yamaha to replace a nice upscaling DVD player from Toshiba which my son broke. I chose this Yamaha for both its upscaling reputation and its SACD support. Feature and performance-wise, I have been very happy with the product.

   As a DVD player, the S1800 supports DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-Audio well, in addition to DVD-Video. For DVD-Video, upscaling to 1080p appears to work really well, even though this is a model from 2007 (hence the big discount offered by Amazon.com). I have played a variety of DVDs from Pixar animations to old Disney classics to recent action titles and so on, and all look really nice on my Sharp 1080p LCD TV.

   One good thing about the DVD player is it’s quite fast, at least compared to most other DVD players. From loading a DVD to recalling the menu, there’s no trying the user’s patience with blank screens. Another good feature is, as with other upscaling players, by default all 4:3 DVDs is displayed stretch on a 16:9 screen if you use the HDMI connection (and who doesn’t nowadays?), but there is a menu item (Setup -> Video -> Widescreen Format -> Pillar Box) that manually overrides the stretch, so you can make 4:3 content look right on your widescreen TV. Just remember to set it back to “off” for 16:9 content. Yes, this is a hassle (i.e., no automatic switching), but this beats the hell out of all those upscaling players on the market that don’t let you unstretch 4:3 content over HDMI at all. We watch a lot of kids’ TV shows, so this is a really welcome feature. (Maybe I should buy another unit and lock the widescreen stretch on each…)

   As an SACD player this unit takes advantage of Yamaha’s experience in building hi-fi systems. Sound quality from my SACDs (classical music) is truly amazing, revealing subtle details that even my best CD deck failed to reveal before.

   I have not tried the DivX playback feature, nor the VCD/SVCD support.

   While the features and performance are laudable, the remote and the manual are truly miserable. The remote has a big round power button, but the idiot who designed this made it to *only* turn on the player, not turn it off. For the latter function you use the smaller Standby button, which *also* turns on the player! Most of the buttons are small, and there is no eject button on the remote. Must be a Japanese thing, since this seems common on Japanese-brand DVD players. The manual is very difficult to understand. First, it was written by some idiots. Second, it was written for the UK/Europe/Russia market. Luckily, you can figure out 95% of the features and connections on your own, unless you’re a complete newbie to DVD players.

   As to the question why you should get a DVD player while you can now buy a low-end Blu-ray player for as low as $20 more, the answer is twofold. First, upscaling DVD players are still better at playing DVDs, especially one like this Yamaha which loads DVDs fast. Second, if you watch a lot of DVDs, you may not want to tax the laser mechanism in a Blu-ray player, which works better reading Blu-ray discs. Finally, for this model specifically, some of the extra features like DVD-Audio and SACD support are not found on Blu-ray players.