The £170 DV4001 is an attractive DVD deck with the kind of robust build we'd expect from Marantz. It boasts a thick aluminium fascia, a double-layer bottom plate and shock absorbing feet to set it apart from the swarms of balsa-wood budget players

Marantz has been a strong and continued supporter of multichannel high-resolution audio sources like DVD-Audio and SACD, and its new, low-cost DV6001 universal player continues this trend

Supermarket chain ASDA, is selling DVD decks for just £9, so you might be amazed that people will still pay over £100 for one. What sets players such as this one apart, however, is superior build quality and internal components

At first glance, you might think that the Marantz DV7001 is a bit of a King Canute - a DVD player failing to stem the tides of HD DVD and Blu-ray. Maybe DVD's days are numbered - but thanks to players like this, it's not going to go down without a fight

Until relatively recently, the idea of a disc spinner that could take virtually anything we had lying around was a catch-all solution we were really keen on - especially since brands such as Marantz then added upscaling of DVDs to near HD quality

You may well wonder why anyone would pay £600 for a DVD player when you can pick up a high definition HD DVD player for considerably less money. The answer is that the Marantz DV7001 is optimised for DVD playback and will deliver a superior picture

Unlike the lively, 'which is better: CD or vinyl?' debate of the 1980s, there can be no such discussion about DVD and HD. Hi-def is four times sharper, end of discussion. So how can it make sense to spend more money on an inferior format?