Cary Audio Design intros DVD 8 upscaling universal player

If you're still a fence sitter in the HD DVD / Blu-ray war, and you just can't part with that sweet sounding 5.1 audio collection, home theater boutique Cary Audio Design has a new universal player that should fit the bill quite nicely while the high definition blows are being thrown. The DVD 8, debuting at CEDIA, plays nice with DVD, SACD, and DVD Audio, and sports the oh-so-touted 720p / 1080i upscaling thanks to its component / HDMI (with HDCP, no less) outputs. The device features an impressive 24-bit Cirrus Logic 4360 DAC, as well as digital and analog 5.1 outputs to meet multi-channel expectations, and apparently supports both NTSC and PAL playback. If you're looking to consolidate that home theater setup while waiting for the ever elusive HD DVD / Blu-ray combo unit, the DVD 8 will begin shipping later this month for a currently undisclosed (but presumably costly) amount.

[Via Talk About: CEDIA]

[Ray @ Sep 9th 2006 6:27PM]

JUST SAY NO TO UNIVERSAL PLAYERS

Format wars do not benefit the consumer, and the adoption of a universal player will just give us another generation of DVD-R DVD+R issues.

[Vik @ Sep 10th 2006 7:32AM]

This is actually surprising coming from Cary who is generally known for it's tube amplification and less known for its digital players. I would expect a bleeding edge universal player like this from the likes of Krell or Meridian. Just goes to show you that traditional audiophile companies who once concentrated on 2 channel sound are heavily and irreversibly invested in the emerging HT market.

[Seer S @ Sep 12th 2006 12:22AM]

Why does it need HDCP?

[Joy @ Sep 21st 2006 9:30AM]

MSRP is $1200 on this player.