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Redefining "Universal Player"

I saw some mention of how the ability to play Blu-Ray is now part of what is meant by "universal player". It's not a big deal in the grand scheme, but how can any player be considered universal that doesn't have a digital input? Seeing the latest Denon release is frustrating to me - looks like a great player, but no digital input. It just seems short-sighted to me.
kthomas
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,424 posts
 
Hmmm. I've had much more than a dozen players, including universals and BluRay players, none have had a digital input and I never even noticed.

And today, there's even a decreasing need for it as more and more players are simply transports which output digital signals to an AVR or prepro. So, we can just us another input on said AVR or prepro. No problem.

Kal
tvad
9,467 posts
 
I was under the impression that the term universal player described a unit that played all sliver disc formats, i.e. CD, SACD, DVD-A, CD-R (etc.), and now Blu-Ray.

I never thought it had anything to do with having a digital input.

Why would a source component have a digital input? I can understand a digital output, but the digital input requirement has me puzzled.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Tvad, you look at a digital output as understandable, because it is a transport which could use an external DAC. To others, a multi-silver-disc-playing box with an excellent DAC can be used as an external DAC when the next new silver disc or "transport" technology comes along (like BlueRayII or a HDD- or memory-based server).
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