Denon DVD

If you’re looking to buy a car, you don’t automatically pick the £200 J-reg Vauxhall Cavalier. Your home cinema should be no different, and that’s why Denon makes high-end reference players like the 3800BD, which cost an eye-watering £1,600. Is it 80 times as much as a supermarket DVD player? Yes. Is it worth it? Let’s find out what you get for your titanic wodge of moolah.

Spending that much more on a Blu-ray player means you get more features, better connectivity and (hopefully) a much higher-quality picture. The Denon has both coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, as well as analogue 7.1 audio out. For video, there are two component outputs, one using RCA jacks, the other making use of the more sturdy, professional-grade BNC jacks. There is, of course, HDMI 1.3a output too, which can send lossless digital audio and 1080/24p video to whatever sound system and display device takes your fancy.

The 3800 comes in three colours: silver, premium silver and black. Like us, you’ll probably be wondering who, when faced with a choice between premium silver and boring standard silver would chose the latter. We’re not sure, but whichever paint does it for you, we’re sure the electronics are more important.

The good news on that front is that Denon is using the Silicon Optix Realta chipset for high-quality video decoding, and HQV picture processing to wring every last drop of information out of either DVD or Blu-ray video. 24p video support is a given, as are Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, which can be decoded internally and sent to the analogue audio outputs. Great news if you have a decoder that either doesn’t support lossless codecs or one that just doesn’t have HDMI.

Sadly, even high-end players like this come burdened with tedious regional coding, so don’t count on being able to play DVDs or Blu-ray discs from outside your particular region. Quite why the movie industry persists with this ludicrous way of controlling media is beyond us, but we have little choice to obey its will, like the good consumers we are.

So, is it worth the wheelbarrow full of cash? Hopefully. We’ll let you know when we get to review one, so keep an eye on the DVD & PVR reviews channel for that and other HD-format write-ups.

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Denon DVD

As much as we’d hoped high-end AV companies such as Denon and Arcam would choose to support both HD DVD and Blu-ray, it doesn’t seem to have panned out like that. Instead Denon seems to have plumped for Blu-ray only, with two models recently announced in the US, the DVD-3800BD and DVD-2500BT.

The DVD-3800BD boasts on-board decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, which it can pump out via the analogue outputs. There’s no mention of what version of HDMI the player supports, though. The DVD-2500BT is much the same as the 3800BD, but lacks the built-in audio decoding, but this might suit you if you already have the relevant decoder equipment.

Both players support secondary audio and video, which means they can offer picture-in-picture playback and extra audio commentaries. Additionally, both players have SD card sockets. Denon explains this as a way of accessing additional interactivity by allowing customers to download features such as subtitles, extra video or games, which can be placed on a memory card and played alongside the original disc content. This strikes us as a very clumsy way of doing what HD DVD manages with a built-in Ethernet connector.

We don’t have any firm pricing yet, but the DVD-3800BD will be $2,000 in the US. Denon has warned us this definitely won’t mean it will be the equivalent £1,000 when it reaches the shores of good old rip-off Blighty. We wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being more like £1,500 to £2,000 when it gets here. However you look at it, that’s an awful lot of moolah for a Blu-ray player, even one made to Denon’s exacting standards. -Ian Morris

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Denon DVD

While the forward march of technology usually results in lower prices for us consumers, it seems that a quiet revolution is starting in the world of DVD players. We seriously thought we would see DVD players given away free inside packets of Corn Flakes soon, but it seems like the latest icon of geek chic is a super-expensive DVD player that will sit right next to your huge 42-inch plasma TV.

The high-end AV fraternity are certainly a demanding bunch, but there’s not much they’ll find missing on this new Denon DVD-A1XVA. It’s been approved by THX with an ‘Ultra’ badge, which is its highest seal of approval. The best technology in the world doesn’t come cheap though — the A1XVA launches for £2,800 (and no, we haven’t accidentally added a zero — it really is the same as a top-of-the-range Apple Mac Quad G5).

The technology inside the monster player has some impressive heritage though — the Realta chipset is used by Fox and Warner Brothers to remaster Hollywood movies, as well as upscale standard definition video to 720p, 1080i and the new 1080p format. 1080p was the toast of this year’s CES, and the technology is so new that compatible TVs aren’t even available yet. Never mind, if you’ve got £2,800 to blow on the DVD-A1XVA then a quick trip to Harrods for a 1080p TV later in the year shouldn’t be too much hassle.

Like Denon’s DVD-2910, the DVD-A1XVA is less of a DVD player and more of a universal disc spinner, with support for high-definition audio discs including DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD. Denon describes the new DVD-A1XVA as its battleship DVD player, and if we dare to enter a skirmish with it we’ll let you know if it’s worth all the fuss. -GC

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Denon DVD

These days Tesco will sell you a DVD player for £16, so who’s gonna cough up £220 for the Denon DVD-1930? Crave, that’s who: because we care more about quality than cost in these high-definition days, and we can’t bear Scart leads to sully our DVDs on our glorious hi-def screens.

Denon’s DVD-1930 offers plenty of extra features for the price. Firstly, it can play a multitude of formats, including MPEG-4 and DivX. It also supports the high-definition audio formats SACD and DVD-Audio. The deal-clincher on the DVD-1930, however, is its high-definition upscaling and HDMI output. While we wait for the dust to settle in the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle, we have a decent DVD collection that we want to continue enjoying on a big-screen TV.

The DVD-1930 offers both component connections, and a fancy-pants HDMI output that Denon says will provide full 1080p upscaled pictures. Once we’d prized the Denon out of its box and hooked it up to our Hitachi 42PD5000, we noticed straight away that DVD pictures looked much more stable through component than via Scart — as you would expect. They were also considerably sharper. The only downside of this is that you can see the compression artefacts on the DVD, as it ruthlessly highlights any weaknesses in the source. The higher the DVD bit rate, the less of these picture problems you’ll see.

On the downside, the remote control is a bit bonkers: it’s not especially comfortable to hold, and it’s far too long. The setup menus on the DVD-1930 are also very basic looking, but they do the job and most people will only be going through the configuration drama when they first plug it in.

You may well have spent over £1,000 on your HD Ready TV, so it makes sense to buy a DVD player that can make the most of it. If you want a high-quality player to complement your TV, the Denon DVD-1930 is a great choice. –IM

Read the full review of the Denon DVD-1930.

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Denon DVD

If you want to watch films at near high-definition quality before the dust settles on the Blu-ray versus HD DVD hi-def format war, an upscaling DVD player is the answer.

Denon has concentrated its efforts on upgrading existing technology before becoming involved in any next-generation infighting. The new DVD-3930 uses state-of-the-art technology, which Denon claims produces a picture that rivals the latest high-definition formats.

The player exclusively features Realta T2 HQV processing that effectively converts and upscales standard-definition DVDs to 1080p resolution, which promises unsurpassed picture performance from your existing film collection — especially using the latest ‘Full HD’ flat-screen displays.

It’s the same technology used by major US broadcasters to generate HDTV images from standard material, and by Hollywood studios to remaster films. Apparently, if bought separately, the HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) technology used would cost close to £35,000 — which may explain the exorbitant £1,100 price tag of the player.

Universal compatibility means the player will accept all major audio and video disc formats, including multi-channel music DVD-Audio and SACD, and recording formats that carry WMA, MP3 and DivX files. As expected, connectivity includes an HDMI output that’s fully compliant with HDCP copy-protected content.

It’s refreshing to find Denon is supporting existing technology while other manufacturers are creating confusion with new formats, but we’re not sure about claims that picture quality will rival true high definition. Using 1080p upscaling may be able to improve image quality over 720p signals, but we’re hesitant to believe it will exceed true 1080p performance — but, then again, 1080p content is not widely available yet.

Denon’s DVD-3930 is available from October and we’ll be reviewing it soon. -RA

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