Harman Kardon DVD 31 Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Good A/V quality, with some annoying issues
The audio and video of this DVD player is what you would expect for a $350 unit - very good. It would be nice if it played SACDs, as most of HKs competitors equivalently priced units do. A nice feature is audio delay adjustments for each channel (in terms of ft or meters, not ms), allowing better system setup if you have a receiver lacking this ability. Most buying a DVD player of this caliber have a receiver to match, so this probably doesn't add value to many people's system. Spending 6x what a base DVD player costs at WALMART should guarantee *quality*, and you get it, just as in every other unit of similar price. I think what sets something apart from its competition is the little things you notice. The first thing anyone, audiophile or not, notices, is the intense blue LED that continually draws your eyes away from the TV. I mean honestly, did they not look at this thing in the dark and notice the blinding blue power LED, which is the *one* light that does not go off when you turn the display off?  It's nice that all the other lights go out, but that feature is pointless with the remaining laser-like 'on' light. Another thing that annoyed me is that the website picture shows an SCART and gold connectors on the back, while my unit has no SCART (I think this is a foreign thing so I don't care), and no gold connectors. Realistically, I'm sure there's no noticeable difference without gold connectors, but it seems shady to show it with gold connectors, and to not have them. Finally, a real engineering design issue that directly affects the units functionality and performance: It is NOT capable of digital output of DVD-Audio signals! The manual claims that 'The current digital formats do not support the high bit rate of the DVD-Audio format'. Oh but wait, HK's own AVR 520, a receiver from several years ago, is capable of receiving both 96kHz AND 192kHz digital bit streams (at least in stereo), so obviously the format supports it. To make matters worse, the player isactually capable of 96kHz digital output! (Just not when you're playing the music on a DVD-Audio disc.) For example, on the home screen of R.E.M.'s greatest hits, the AVR 520 recognizing the audio as 96kHz digital, but once you play the music, you have to switch to the analog connection to get anything.  Compounding things, the player is capable of limiting the PCM digital output to lower bit rates, but apparently not for DVD-Audio. In the end, with analog connections DVD-Audio discs still sound amazing, but using the digital connection would theoretically improve things.    UPDATE 1 YEAR OLD - My unit can no longer recognize DVDs.  A few CDs still work.  This is the 3rd CD/DVD player I've had stop working within 18 months of purchase.