TAG McLaren DVD32FLR
DVD Transport

Power Decks

TAG McLaren DVD32FLR

For TAG McLaren's second DVD player, out goes the DVD32R's elaborately engineered top-loading floating suspension mechanism. In comes a conventional front-loading mechanism, which has allowed a significantly lower selling price, without any major changes to the internal clockwork. Of course it loses out aesthetically. The new taller form factor doesn't work as well as the familiar slimline one, and the tiny control buttons look lost against the expanse of front-panel metal.

Still, less is more; well, it is in this case. The TAG engineers worked hard to deliver as much of the AC32R's performance as they could from the new model, which is an enormously solid player with a separate sub-chassis for the mechanism, and a sorbothane isolating feet. The AV32R circuit board has been retained, and the new player also keeps the proprietary TAGtronic T2L interface, which links the players' master clock to the matching AV32R processor, providing a 'low noise, ultra-low jitter reference' adjacent to the output DACs. This is an established (if rare) provision within compact disc players and processors, and TAG is the only manufacturer to our knowledge using the technique with DVD.

Upgrades

Another feature retained by TAG McLaren is the upgrade programme, which will bring firmware and hardware updates, including one that is already on the roadmap for DVD-Audio. Currently available and supplied for test is the PM192 deinterlacer/line doubler (£1,095) which is based on the powerful Silicon Image Sil504 with motion adaptive processing, and which, uniquely, provides a composite and an S-video input from an external source (a Sky+ box in my case) for processing on its way to the SIM2 projector.

Of course the DVD32FLR has a variety of value features (aka 'toys') including various trick play and repeat modes, but it also has some potentially genuinely useful features that are rarely, if ever, found in CD players, including a video test pattern generator to help with screen setup (it's particularly useful with projectors). The TAGtronic bus-wire data link ensures a complete TAG McLaren system sings from the same songsheet, for example by linking display brightness, routing commands between components and displaying messages from the AV32R processor on screen. But there's no Scart socket (the component outputs can be configured to deliver RGB) as the designers regard it as technically inadequate. So why did they include a composite output?

There's no analogue audio output either, so CDs can only be played through an amplifier with a D/A converter, which rules out most stereo amplifiers. Coupled with the AV32R, using the DVD32R as a transport, compact disc replay is powerful, authoritative and has clean textures and abundant detail, with just hint of hardness that was absent on the Marantz DV12SI, one of the few worthy DVD rivals when used as a CD spinner.

Raising the bar

To all intents an purposes, picture quality on a glass screen is identical to the DVD32R (which was available during these tests), but again it takes a high quality projection screen to show what the DVD32R can do. In the relatively short period in which the DVD32FLR has been available to me, it has provided faultless operation, setting a standard of quality for the other players in this test to live up to.

The comprehensive setup wizard is a joy to use, and the player delivers rich, velvety lowlights, and superb image definition along with a degree of subtlety and freedom from noise or obvious MPEG artefacts that matches the best of this group. With the optional progressive module, the DVD32FLR, scanning-line structure essentially disappears and motion artefacts are reduced, and the player provides a genuinely cinematographic experience. Colour reproduction has real depth and solidity in both cases, with image resolution consistently high.