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DV88 DVD PLAYER

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is the fastest growing entertainment format the consumer electronics industry has ever seen. In just a few years the population of players has exploded, but until now few players have really impressed when replaying CD discs. In our experience, a dedicated high quality CD player outperforms all but the most expensive DVD players costing many thousands of pounds.

The Arcam team of audio and video experts were given an extremely demanding brief: outperform the competition in all areas of performance, at a price that is realistic compared to that charged by specialist AV manufacturers, and reproduce CDs to a sound quality level comparable with our entry level CD players. They have answered the brief with a landmark product. The impact of the DV88 on the Audio/Video world is as significant as that made by Arcam's entry into CD player manufacturing. There is plenty of life left in CD players, but at last those who want the best of both worlds in a single playback machine have a choice in the DV88 which performs brilliantly on both movies and music.

The video performance is extraordinary; the stability and sharpness of the picture is immediately impressive. The player uses parts and techniques more commonly seen in sophisticated/specialist broadcast equipment to great effect.

The audio engineering, as you would expect coming from Arcam, is also state of the art. A great deal of care has gone into this part of the design. We are using separate clocks and power supplies for video and audio, in addition to the latest generation Digital to Analogue converters.

The DV88 comes with all the video and audio outputs you could possibly need and, as well as play back of regular DVD-Video discs and CDs it will also, unlike many well known machines, handle CD-R and CD-RW discs plus HDCD and most MP3 encoded CDs. The custom-designed remote control gives access to a whole host of DVD commands as well as the ability to operate the volume controls on Arcam home cinema amplifiers and the AVR200 Receiver.

For systems which feature a high performance plasma display or a projector you can specify a DV88P which includes a progressive scan board. This sophisticated video processor produces a result which gets even closer to film and is strongly recommended to those who seek the ultimate in video quality.

One of the most significant parts of the design concerns the planned migration path to DVD-Audio. Once the specification concerning copyright protection is fully confirmed and a reasonable selection of software is available, we expect to offer extra boards that will allow the DV88 to output multichannel DVD-Audio of the highest quality. This will help protect the investment our customers have made in the player, and provide a way of avoiding some of the built-in obsolescence issues that concern many who are wanting to make a purchase that will be valid for many years to come.

DV88 DVD PLAYER - DESIGN DETAILS

Arcam's approach to DVD sets out to achieve a level of performance that sets new standards for the playback of both movies and music. This performance has been achieved by a dedicated team of Arcam engineers, who have a deep understanding of the issues that can transform a player's sound quality from merely competent to class leading.

Drawing on more than two decades of class leading audio engineering expertise, they designed high performance analogue output stages, preceding these with the latest 24 bit multi-level delta sigma digital to analogue converters, using four DACs in dual differential mode for exceptional conversion accuracy. Unusually, these DACs are capable of working at sample frequencies of up to 192 kHz and are thus DVD-Audio ready. Unlike conventional DVD players, our designers also specified two separate low jitter master clock circuits for the video and audio paths for maximum precision in music and movie playback. And the precision pulse transformer they fitted in the SPDIF digital output circuitry makes the DV88 an excellent CD/DVD transport, ensuring exceptional sound quality on multichannel Dolby Digital and DTS encoded movies. Add all of these advanced design features to separately regulated, low noise linear power supplies for the audio sections and in the DV88, Arcam has a player which sets a musical reference point for all home cinema enthusiasts who refuse to accept the second-rate sound delivered by conventional DVD players.

The DV88 supports all the major video connection standards, with component (YUV), RGB, S-VHS and composite video outputs. It uses broadcast quality parts in its video output circuitry and uses design techniques and component quality usually only seen in the professional video industry, resulting in state-of-the-art video as well as audio performance.

The modular multi board construction and flash programmable memory employed in the DV88 gives us a flexible platform from which to upgrade a DVD Video player. For example, when the standards are finally decided, it will be possible to rebuild the player to provide DVD-Audio playback capability. This will help ensure that you can keep up with developments that are planned for DVD-Audio and access the best this exciting new format can offer discerning music lovers.