DVD-C750 Viewing Evaluation

After reading the benchmark test results, you are probably under the impression that this DVD player did not perform well. As stated previously, the tests utilized are very rigorous. None of the DVD players that I have tested to date have received all 10's and none have even passed all of the tests. The Yamaha DVD-C750 was the first DVD player to be tested with this new benchmark in a formal review. Others will follow and many will likely do a lot worse than the DVD-C750. In normal installations, with normal content (non-test environment) the Yamaha DVD-C750 will be a good performer.

The viewing evaluation is also very subjective and is based on the reviewer, the material used for the review, and the display system. Most often, reviewers and users will use reference based DVD's to evaluate their DVD player's performance. In this reviewer's opinion, DVDs that are reference quality, like Finding Nemo, are not always good DVDs on which to base a viewing evaluation. Reference quality DVDs like this make every DVD player and display device look good. For this evaluation, I chose Star Wars Episode 1. This DVD has a very good transfer, not reference due to edge enhancement among other things, but still very good. The other DVD I chose was Casper, it has an average transfer quality. Using this mix will give a pretty good idea of how well the DVD-C750 will perform, not only with very good quality transfers, but also average transfers.

The Yamaha DVD-C750 video performance was good to very good. In many cases its video performance surpassed that of many DVD players above its price point. I would recommend this DVD player for installations on screen sizes no larger than 60"with the appropriate seated viewing distance. With that size screen and viewing distance, the minor flaws will be undetectable and you will get a nice detailed picture. I was very impressed with this player's sharp image. The colors produced were very rich, flesh tones looked natural, and the overall picture looked smooth and free of artifacting on the 70" Hitachi LCD. The images below are actual screen shots of the picture produced by the DVD-C750. Any deviation in the picture quality of the image from the accompanying description has more to do with the digital camera I used than the actual performance of the DVD player.

DVD: Star Wars - The Phantom Menace
I used the Pod Race scene is Star Wars: The Phantom Menace for evaluation. There is a lot of motion in this scene and the vibrant colors really allow you to see whether noise is present in the background and open areas of the scene. The colors of the desert looked very natural, with excellent detail, and the fast moving pans had no break up, judder, or stutter.

The background remained fairly noise free. In addition, this scene is full of a tremendous amount of horizontal and angular motion, which wil serve to test any DVD player's ability to keep up with eliminating jaggies and other motion articfacts while still preserving the original picture detail

DVD: Casper
The next shot is from the Casper DVD. I like to use this particular scene to see how much noise is generated in the area of the stained glass windows. The area around the windows is pretty dark so it is very easy to detect noise and loss of detail on the steps than go up. There are many straight lines in the scene so it is also easy to see if how this DVD player is doing with jaggies as the camera pans around the room. Scenes like this are a treasure trove of diagnostic scenery and it's great to see how well players fare on the material.

The DVD-C750 had very little noise and the steps were very detailed. Many DVD players have trouble with this particular DVD and scene due to its inherent complexity combined with the camera motion within the room

In the subsequent photo, the dress has a lot of fine detail and is bright white against flesh tone. The mechanical arms are black and the background is well lit. There is also a lot of movement in this particular scene. The DVD-C750 did a very good job of accurately producing the scene without noise. The flesh tone looked accurate, the black appeared black, the white looks balanced with no indication of blooming and there was no ringing around the objects. The images in the background remain well defined.

The car in the above pictured scene is traveling down the track at a steep to shallow angle. There are many straight edges. The walls have texture and there is light cascading through the windows. There are lights hanging from the track and most all of the scene is focused. Many times in this scene, the hanging lights will look pixilated; the light cascading through the windows will have a lot of mosquito noise; and the texture on the walls will not be defined and will blur together. The DVD-C750 did a very good job with this scene. Everything was well defined and the images were sharp though I noticed bit of mosquito noise in the light cascading through the windows and some flashing on the wall textures.