Hi Laurence,

Ill try to help you evaluate the situation.

The first question as I see it is, are you happy with your Tag player right now? If the answer is yes, then I don`t see any downside to waiting. Waiting gives you the benefit of seeing where things go in the market.

What processor are you using now? 861?

if the answer is yes to the 861, then you will be able to:
1- listen to DVD-A with 861 v3 or v4 (I don`t know the v# for the 800); and

2- decode Dolby digital and dts inside the 800 and that allows the 861 to upsample the soundtracks. this produces a more "high-fidelity" sound out
of movie soundtracks. I would continue to describe it as "cinematic" and "wide". It sounds great. But there is one issue that some of us have found
and that involves the lack of bass when using this. I found that with v4 in my setup with digital speakers this issue has gone away, but others tell me they still have it.

Regarding the loss of bass with the 800+861 upsampling movie soundtracks: It seemed to a few of us that it was more than just the LFE track. I did measure that the LFE track with the 800 decoding was 10db lower than the 861 decoding. the fix for this would seem to be to have the 861 add +10db to the LFE channel. When this was done the resulting sound still seemed to lack the cinematic weight that the soundtracks decoded by the 861 had. This was with v3. With V4 in my setup, I`ve measured the LFE track as equal between the 800 decoding or the 861 decoding. Also, just listening between the two does not have any loss of bass with the 800 decoding. I am using a bunch of DSP speakers without a sub. Deniz tells me that with V4 in his system he still thinks he missing some bass with the 800 decoding the soundtrack. Whats different in our systems? He`s using a sub and analog speakers. I wouldn`t want to say that`s where his issue is, but my inclination would be to look at trying measurements w/o the sub to eliminate the sub as a factor.


so that`s the audio side, now here`s what I see on the video side.


What video processor and what display are you using?

I am using a runco 5000ci with ~30' throw distance on to a 96" wide 16:9 screen. I sit ~14' from the screen. This is important because video
artifacts (defects in the image) will be easier for me to spot vs someone watching a 42" plasma sitting 10' away.

I`ve never seen a tag DVD player except once at a show and it wasn`t playing anything- it did look nice though- so I can`t comment on a comparative
basis.

As far as video quality three things strike me about the 800.

First the 1 bad thing: the chroma bug. On a large screen, this is very easy to spot and I happen to find it annoying. If you don`t know what this is, or have a smaller screen, you really won`t have to worry. This also is why I asked you about a video processor. Not that this truly makes up for it, but the Faroudja video processors will mask the chroma bug. I don`t know exactly how they manage this, or if it`s intentional or not. One thing though is that the chroma bug is not unique to the 800- many DVD players are affected. For a long time only Panasonic players were the only ones I knew about that did not suffer from this.

FYI, according to the web link I put at the bottom, it seems your Tag player does not suffer from the chroma bug. You can search around their site to learn exactly what this is and why its annoying.

The good things are 1- no perceptible added ringing and 2- color rendition in the form of “natural colors”.

So is it worth it? Well, depending on how big a screen you have the ringing will be either too easy to see or not. I`ve noticed that ringing and a players high frequency performance are often related- usually players that give good higher frequency performance introduce some measure of ringing. The 800 has some roll off- but not too much- and it seems to me that what Meridian has done is to figure out the right amount of performance to keep while managing to keep ringing imperceptible.

The colors, compared to my previous DVD player- the Panasonic H1000- are more subtle and realistic. This is a very nice player, but compared to the output of the 800 the colors seem to have a little less depth and skin tones look less “real”.

In so far as the other high-end players- I`m skeptical and the reason is with the 800, Meridian built their own DVD player from the ground up. I don`t know about all the companies you listed, but many will use someone else`s player as a base and build on that. To me there is something inherently wrong with this because having a player that was built to the highest standards from the ground up like the 800 is something that you can say makes it worth it- why settle for the compromises that go into a $200 player. For example, many companies use a pioneer player as their base. Lets just say I am less than fond of this players output. Now any high end company will see the same things and have to devise all kinds of work arounds. It is s shame the 800 has the chroma bug, but that is it. Many of these other players will likely exhibit the chroma bug and other artifacts.

If you`re going to consider another player, I can only recommend players by Panasonic as they seem to build some pretty good DVD players. This is what I would look at for another room if I needed one.

800 upgrade path- aside from the obvious that it`s upgradeable, I can`t tell you the history. Sorry.

I can tell you that I am overall very happy with my 800 and there is no buyers remorse here. There is nothing wrong with deciding this player isnt worth it because it is expensive and there are others that do much of what the 800 can, but I think if you look at the facts, Meridian does take it a step further in many areas and to me that makes it worth it. The relevant question now is: does that make it worth it for you. Thats your call. Let us know.

here are a few links you may find interesting
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-meridian-800-dvd-player-10 -2000.html

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_1/meridian-800-dvd-machine-1-2001.html

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_10_2/krell-dvd-standard-dvd-player-6-2003.html

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volu...-report -chroma-bug-4-2001-list.html [/URL]

I hope all this helps you out. Im by no means an expert, but I have spent some time forming my opinions.

[This message has been edited by JerryL (edited 08-03-2003).]

Best regards,
Jerry
Main System: 861v6, DSP8000s in corners, DSP7000s Center and Sides, 1-9 humans.