Denon - DVD-5910

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: Vibratto Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Optix Deinterlacer Model: Realta HQV     MSRP: $3500.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Denon has clearly established themselves as a leading force in DVD technology. No other company has pushed the envelope as far as they have in features, design, or execution. Like any company, they have had their share of hiccups, but that is almost to be expected when you are at the bleeding edge.

The DVD-5910 is their latest flagship offering and the followup to the DVD-5900, but actually has little in common with its predecessor. I would almost say it has more in common with the DVD-9000.

This is just about a completely new video player from the ground up. The only thing I could find that was the same as in the 5900 is the ESS MPEG decoder. And that is one of my sore spots. The ESS chip seems to be getting worse in regards to chroma performance. Even with the advanced chroma filters this player has, it barely passes our tests. I really hope Denon moves past this ESS chip and finds one with better performance in this area. Chips from Sigma Designs, Mediatek, and Mediamatics do just this. Because the filters do mask the problem (although just barely), this player gets a borderline score for our chroma test for 3-2 alternating flags. This means the player passes these tests but only with the filters. The nice thing is, this player doesn’t suffer from the flicker problem like the DVD-2900 and previous Mitsubishi MPEG decoder players did.

The first breakthrough feature on this player is definitely the inclusion of Silicon Optix’s new chip; the Realta HQV. This is, in a nutshell, a new chip based on the Teranex video processor. For those not familiar with the Teranex, it is a $60,000 commercial video processor that has long been considered the de facto video processing standard. This chip offers true 10-bit processing end to end and is one of the only chips on the market that will do true 1080i to 1080p inverse telecine de-interlacing. While this chip does offer a full scaling capability, Denon has chosen to only use the chip for its I/P conversion and video post processing. As a de-interlacer, the Realta is the best I’ve seen. It combines the features I love about both the Faroudja and Silicon Image chips and doesn’t have any of their drawbacks.

This chip recovers from a cadence break faster then the Faroudja and stays in film mode longer. It also has incredible video de-interlacing capabilities. I called up the famous Faroudja flag waving in the wind test to see how it would do. Previously only Faroudja based de-interlacers with DCDi technology would render this flag perfectly with no obvious jaggies. The Realta performed every bit as good though. I also tried some of my harder tests, including a clip from the recent Blue Man Group DVD-A The Complex. This disc features a music video with Dave Matthews and always causes problems for de-interlacers. Comparing the Realta with the Faroudja solution revealed far less combs and more stability in the image. This chip also doesn’t exhibit any of the macroblocking issues associated with the latest Genesis FLI-23xx based video chips. The only area that the Faroudja solution eclipsed the Realta processing was with diagonal lines. The Faroudja showed less jaggies with extreme diagonals then the Realta. I know Silicon Optix is still tweaking their performance in this area and I look forward to seeing what advancements they’ll make in this regard.

On the video post processing side, this chip is really quite impressive. Denon has incorporated some of the noise reduction features this chip offers. Normally, I am not a big fan of these filters, as they usually tend to hurt the image more then help it, but in this case, the benefits are quite obvious. Turning the filters on, and using material that was pretty bad in terms of artifacts, definitely cleaned the image up without adding any unnecessary ringing or softness. This was readily apparent using the Silicon Optix demonstration DVD. I would still only recommend this for badly authored DVDs and only at the end users discretion. Since Denon offers five individual picture memories, one could easily tailor one for badly authored DVDs and one for better discs.

This player has three progressive modes to choose from; Auto, Video 1 and Video 2. We recommend Auto as it does everything correctly. In fact, we are still kind of puzzled as to why Denon included two other modes. Video 1 is a forced video mode that doesn’t do anything that Auto can’t do and Video 2 is pretty much identical to Auto.

For scaling, Denon turned to one of the companies that is a personal favorite of mine; DVDO. I use DVDO’s iScan HD as my reference video processor. I had my Denon DVD-5900 SDI modded and fed the iScan HD for all of my I/P and scaling duties. The scaling solution in the 5910 is not the same as the iScan HD, as this processor is true 10-bit processing while the iScan HD is 8-bit but I could not really tell a difference with the material I played during my tests.

As much as I love the inclusion of the DVDO scaling to this player; it is also the source of my biggest gripe. The 5910 only supports three NTSC resolutions via HDMI or DVI; 480p, 720p, and 1080i. This is a glaring oversight in my opinion and really the Achilles heel of the player. It supports two of the best scaling solutions the market has to offer today, yet it does not take advantage of them to the extent I feel they should. In my opinion this player should have come pre-programmed with most, if not all, of the common resolutions available. I was expecting at least the pre-programmed resolutions one finds with the iScan HD processors. There are way too many odd resolutions out there right now because there are so many display technologies. The drawback of not supporting these resolutions means that the end display has to rescale the image to its native resolution and therefore negates the advantages of having these spectacular resolutions in the player. I also think the 5910 should have supported custom resolutions similar to the Bravo and Momitsu offerings. This would allow anyone to dial in the resolution of the display and achieve 1:1 pixel mapping, which should be the goal of any videophile. This tends to produce the best picture from almost any given display as most if not all of the internal video processing is bypassed and the full benefits of the player’s processing is shown.

At the price point this player comes in at, I think it is a glaring omission by Denon’s engineers. The reality is, I can buy a DVD-5900 or DVD-3910 and feed its digital signal through either via DVI or SDI, to an outboard scaler and basically outperform the 5910, and it would still be cheaper. The de-interlacing and scaling performance would take a bit of a hit but I would still save quite a bit of change. Granted you also wouldn’t reap the other benefits this player may bring to the table such as a huge step up in build quality and what might be an improvement in audio (we have not started our tests on the audio side of this player yet) but this will probably depend more on what you are currently using in your own setup. I tested this idea in my own setup. My reference setup is comprised of a DVD-5900 that has been modified with a SDI output and feeds an iScan HD for video processing. The iScan is sending a 1:1 resolution to my plasma via DVI. The difference between this feed and a standard 480P feed via DVI is startling. This has been the case regardless of the digital display I’ve tested it on at any resolution. The fact is most of the inboard processing in consumer displays does not match the quality you’ll find in outboard processors or high end DVD players. If your display does indeed have a resolution that is different from the standard 5910 modes, going with an outboard scaler would still probably be the preferred route.

On the flipside of this coin, the 5910 is pretty much doing what every other player out there is doing right now though. Other than the previously mentioned Bravo and Momitsu, there aren’t really any custom resolution players available. And the scaling and de-interlacing of this player are unmatched from anything I’ve seen to date. So if your display does use a native resolution of 480p/720p/1080i, the 5910 is by far the de facto standard in this regard. (Just a note, those of you with ED plasmas or 480p projectors be aware that the native resolution may not be true 480p, which is 720x480. Most of these displays use 853x480 to achieve square pixels so the display will have to scale a 480p signal.)

As to the analog side of this player, the core tests went well, but there is some room for improvement. The player does have some pixel cropping that is exaggerated by the player’s output setup. If you leave the player in a default mode, it is clipping a combined 7 pixels from the sides of the image and 1 from the top. The 5910 has an almost perfect white level of 101 IRE and passes a below black pluge signal. The analog video frequency response was ruler flat and there is absolutely zero Y/C delay.

The digital output is slightly different. This player has a choice of either PC (enhanced) or Studio (normal) RBG levels for its DVI or HDMI outputs. It also has the ability to output a pure YCbCr video stream via HDMI. While this player does output a below black signal using Studio RGB levels, it is clipping above white information in the default contrast setting within the user picture settings. This is quite obvious using the reverse gray ramps on Digital Video Essentials. If you set the contrast level to -2, the player passes the above white information properly. We saw something similar to this with the recent Panasonic S-97. I don’t know why Denon overlooked this, as it was not a problem on the 5900, 3910, or 2910 players.

The digital output also has very slight pixel cropping. If you look at the pixel cropping test pattern on AVIA in the default setting, there are about 3 pixels cropped from the sides combined, but these are not affected by the position of the image.

This player also has an “Auto” selection for its output resolution via HDMI or DVI. This is for displays that will communicate what their optimal resolution is, but this is rarely correct, so be cautious when using it. When selected, it will indicate the end resolution, so there is no concern of whether it “might have” selected the proper output resolution. We tested this with the new Samsung DLP front projector, and the player automatically selected 480p, despite the projector having a native resolution of 720p. This confirms the fact that the feature may not always work as designed.

On a usability scale, the 5910 gets big points. This player has a faster user interface than my DVD-5900, but is still not quite to the level of the DVD-2900. Menu navigation is fast for the most part, but there were some times that the player staggered a bit once an entry was made. All of the menus are easy to navigate, and the player still features five different user setup memories for advanced picture settings.

From a build standpoint, the 5910 is an absolute tank. Denon went away from the standard connectors on the back panel and added some beefy ones that are well spaced, reminding me of the DVD-9000. The new remote is completely backlit and even offers full operation of the DVI/HDMI outputs and SACD modes.

Without a doubt this is the best DVD player I’ve used from Denon so far, but it has the potential to be so much more. Hopefully, Denon will provide a software update that offers the flexibility in video processing that the 5910 deserves. At $3,500 consumers will expect, and want, that kind of performance.

Denon - DVD-3910 DVI/HDMI

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: Vibrato II Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310     MSRP: $1499.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

The Denon DVD-3910 has garnished a lot of excitement from Denon fans. The successor to the very popular DVD-3800, the 3910 is in many ways the same as the flagship DVD-5900. But this player offers new features, including an HDMI output, and yet comes in at almost half the price.

The 3910 is based on the same video circuit as the DVD-5900. It uses the same ESS Vibrato II MPEG decoder and the Faroudja FLI-2310 de-interlacer/scaler chips. Denon has dropped the BNC component outputs, but added an HDMI output to compliment the DVI output that is also present. This was a great move. Most HDMI players out there re-map the RGB output to PC levels when they are converted to DVI. By offering both outputs on the same unit, this eliminates the problem. The video output can be selected in the setup menu for either PC RGB levels or Studio RGB levels. Unless your display is set up for PC RGB levels, we always recommend using the studio RGB output which allows for below-black and above-white information. Like the DVD-5900, this selection is called black level enhancement. With the enhancement setting “ON”, you are using PC levels. With it “OFF”, you are using Studio levels. There is also an IRE setting for 7.5 or 0 in the picture setting menu for the analog outputs.

The DVI and HDMI outputs offer three different resolutions; 480p, 720p and 1080i. I was a bit disappointed to see a lack of 480i support for HDMI. By supporting this resolution it would allow the end user to send an unprocessed digital signal to an outboard scaler if they wish. So far we have only seen this option from Pioneer and Arcam, but hope to see more support for it in the future. Both the DVI and HDMI outputs are HDCP compliant so they will not work with an incompatible display. This includes uncopyrighted material as well. The component output only supports 480i and 480p, as well as their PAL counterparts.

The test results for the DVD-3910 were almost identical to the DVD-5900. This player uses the same modes for progressive scan playback. Auto 2 should be used with PAL or video-based material, and Auto 1 should be used for normal NTSC film-based DVDs. The big surprise was the utter lack of the “macroblocking” artifact associated with the Faroudja chipset. This problem was quite obvious on the DVD-5900. It manifests itself on the 3910 with component 480p output, or 1080i digital output. But the level is so miniscule, you would be hard pressed to see it. Like I have said before, the results may vary on any given display, but we tested it on an NEC plasma and an Hitachi CRT-based RPTV. There were no artifacts at all via DVI and HDMI at 480p and 720p. The image looked identical to the same display being fed from the Denon DVD-2900, which uses a Silicon Image video processor. The other resolutions should very subtle signs of the problem using the test material I have used with all the other Faroudja-based players.

Another change we noticed was the analog frequency response. While it was quite good, it wasn’t quite as flat as the DVD-5900, which has a slightly better analog stage and filtering. The component 480p output didn’t have any Y/C delay and its white output was at the upper limit of our passing score, 102 IRE. Pixel cropping was a bit excessive on the sides of the image. The right side was clipping 7 pixels and the left was clipping 2. With the DVI output we noticed some Y/C delay but Denon sent us a firmware update during the tests that completely eliminated the issue.

In our usability tests, the 3910 fared well, but not quite as good as its predecessors. The layer change clocked in at a quick half second, but that is a step down from the previous seamless layer change Denon was popular for. Overall, navigation was also a bit slower then the previous DVD-3800 and 2900 and more on par with the DVD-5900. One of the complaints Denon did address with this line is the power switch. The front panel now has two different options, a standby and a hard switch. The standby switch will also close the drawer when depressed, a popular gripe with the older Denon models.

The 3910 is a top notch offering from Denon. We will be following the benchmark test with a full write-up in the near future that will include a detailed take on the audio section of the player. Given that this player performed nearly as well as our top performer, the DVD-5900, it’s a steal at this price and highly recommended.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-3910

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: ESS Vibrato II Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310     MSRP: $1499.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

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Denon

Denon - DVD-5900

MPEG Maker: ESS Vibrato MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310     MSRP: $2000.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

The DVD-5900 is Denon’s newest universal player option and a bit of a step up in terms of features from its DVD-2900 offering. The 5900 combines the MPEG decoder of the previous DVD-3800 and DVD-9000 with the new Faroudja 2310 deinterlacer. Denon went this route to support the DVI output which offers three output resolutions of 480p, 720p and 1080i. The 5900 is a very solid offering overall with the principle complaint being a somewhat sluggish navigation system compared to their previous players. It has a large number of setup parameters allowing the end user to really dial in their picture to their taste.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-3930CI

MPEG Maker: Unknown MPEG Model: Unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Optix Deinterlacer Model: Realta HQV     MSRP: $1499.99 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Denon is one of my favorite companies when it comes to DVD players. For the past few years they have been delivering outstanding quality and performance across a good majority of their price points and set the bar for what I feel a DVD player should be. To this date their flagship player, the DVD-5910, remains my standing reference for a DVD player regardless of price. The DVD-3930CI takes a lot of the performance of the DVD-5910 and scales it down to an attractive MSRP without skimping on video quality or features.

The DVD-3930CI is very similar to the 3910 in terms of build and appearance. The chassis is quite large and heavy, and all of the buttons and connectors are of a quality few players can match. You just know that a lot of effort was put into the design and manufacturing of the product. Even more impressive is the internal design. The power supply section of just the audio board is better than most DVD players I’ve seen costing several times as much. In fact, it appears almost like a receiver than a DVD player when you look inside!

The back panel has some very nice touches. All of the analog connectors are top quality and remind me a lot of my DVD-5910. They’ve even included BNC connections for the second component video output, allowing for high quality connections to displays or video processors. The 3930CI supports Denon’s proprietary Denon-Link connection for all audio playback sources and HDMI for video and audio. The Denon-Link output supports all audio standards, including SACD and DVD Audio. The firewire output featured on the DVD-5910 is not included. The HDMI output supports a wide array of video output options including 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. It also supports YCbCr and RGB colorspace outputs and pillarboxing of any display resolution.

The biggest difference between this player and my reference DVD-5910 is the omission of the ABT scaler. Instead, the 3930CI incorporates the full feature set of the Realta HQV chipset, including their keystone correction. This allows you to place a projector at extreme angles to a screen and do keystone correction from a higher quality scaler than what is typically found in most projectors. While this feature works quite well on its own, we always recommend setting up a projector straight on to the screen so you don't have to do keystone correction, but it's there if you don't have a choice in the projector placement.

I didn’t find much, if any, difference between the scaling of the ABT chip in the 5910 and the scaling in the 3930CI. Both are excellent, with a small edge going to the 3930 using a luma burst test pattern. The 3930 showed a bit less ringing in the upper frequency range. De-interlacing performance was the same, i.e., superb. The HQV chip passes all of our tests without the slightest problem and represents one of the best de-interlacing solutions on the market today. I even tested this player with the AVIA vertical test pattern that has been causing problems for this chipset in some projector designs. Like my DVD-5910, the 3930CI has no issues at all with motion in the vertical direction and kept the cadence locked at all times.

Another new feature for this player is its 480i support via HDMI. This is nice for anyone looking to hook this player up to a stand-alone video processor, but I don’t think it is of much use. Outputting 480p will do just as good of a job and will take advantage of the player’s superb de-interlacing capabilities.

The only place this player ran into some problems was with our core video performance tests. When I opened the player, I was unable to find out what MPEG decoder they were using, but I think it is still the ESS chip found in so many other Denon designs. The 3930CI failed two of our CUE tests, including material with an alternating 3-2 cadence and our 4:2:0 ICP test. This means that the player is not incorporating any type of CUE correction filter even though I believe the Realta chip has this capability.

The analog output was a bit hot for its white level. We measured 105 IRE, using a gray ramp and a digital oscilloscope. The HDMI and component outputs were both devoid of any Y/C delay, and neither suffered from any pixel cropping, regardless of output resolution.

The player itself is very responsive with navigation, chapter skips, and general setup. The player handles layer changes perfectly, with absolutely no delay, even using our high bit rate tests.

Denon has designed some new menu items for their setup, and some of it I like in respect to my reference DVD-5910, but nothing new stood out too much. All of the noise reduction and sharpening tools of the Realta are included in the picture setup memories, and their performance is identical to the DVD-5910. Contrast and brightness settings were also perfect in their default settings, a problem I had with the DVD-5910.

Conclusions

So, is the Denon DVD-3930CI better than or equal to the DVD-5910? No, the 5910 is still the king. While I think the 3930 is every bit as good in terms of de-interlacing and scaling, the 5910 has some refinements that the 3910 is lacking (CUE filtering most notably). I also like the flexibility of audio outputs with the 5910 (Firewire) and the build and sound via the analog outputs. But, for its price, the DVD-3930CI comes VERY close. Those looking for the same level of video prowess at a lower cost need not look any further. Denon has continued to set the bar at their price point and delivered one of the best DVD players I’ve seen to date.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-1600

MPEG Maker: MEI MPEG Model: MN67753IKA Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI2200     MSRP: $499.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

This player is based on a Panasonic design and includes the same MPEG decoder and deinterlacer found in the highly-regarded Panasonic RP82. We found it to be very similar to the RP82 in video quality overall.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-2900

MPEG Maker: Mitsubishi MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Image Deinterlacer Model: SiI504 / MC504     MSRP: $999.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

The 2900 is Denon's first foray into the "Universal" SACD/DVD-A combination player arena.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-3800

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: Unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Image Deinterlacer Model: SiI504 / MC504     MSRP: $1199.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Deinterlacing

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Denon

Denon - DVD-9000

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Image Deinterlacer Model: SiI504 / MC504     MSRP: $3500.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Note: The unit we received was one of the first ones with the new MPEG decoder chip.

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Denon

Denon - DVM-2815

MPEG Maker: unknown MPEG Model: unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2200     MSRP: $469.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Here is yet another Denon player that comes in at a good price and has Faroudja processing. This player is almost identical to the DVD-910 but adds multi-disc capability and DVD-Audio support. The 2815 was a bit sluggish during layer changes as well as navigation. I also found a discrepancy in the instruction manual. The manual states that the crossover for bass management is 100 Hz, but the Denon website states it as 80 Hz. I was unable to test for which was accurate. The level setup seems to be the same as the DVD-9000, 3800, and 2900, though with the truncated sub channel. Overall, this player did quite well with our testing, and it is a nice option considering its price point.

Denon - DVD-2910

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: ESS Vibrato Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310     MSRP: $699.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

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Denon

Denon - DVD-910

MPEG Maker: unknown MPEG Model: unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2200     MSRP: $329.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

This was probably the biggest surprise next to the new Sony for me in this shootout. Denon’s new DVD-910 did quite well despite its lack of overall features. Many of the problems associated with the 900 model are now gone.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-2200

MPEG Maker: Mitsubishi MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Image Deinterlacer Model: Sil504     MSRP: $629.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Deinterlacing

The DVD-2200 is Denon’s least expensive offering that features their preferred Silicon Image deinterlacing solution. This deinterlacer has always tested well and is one of our preferred solutions. As expected, it did nicely in the de-interlacing tests, but is only recommended in Mode 1. Mode 2 had a tendency to drop out of film mode too quickly.

The Basics

The DVD-2200 is Denon’s entry level universal player. It is very similar to its big brother the DVD-2900. However it features a slightly smaller power supply and different audio DACs. Some would be happy to find that they have included a bass enhancer for the multi-channel setup, which was sorely missed in the 2900.

Like the 2900 some of the drawbacks of the 2200 stem from its Mitsubishi MPEG decoder. While tweaked better than Pioneer managed to do, it still suffers from a few quirks. The most obvious is the chroma upsampling error (CUE) with 3-2 alternating flag material. You’ll find this mainly in Buena Vista titles, especially their animation. The result is a stripping and flickering in solid colors.

Some other drawbacks come from the white level of the player. It measured out at 106 IRE, when it should be at 100 IRE. The 2200 offers some user adjustable contrast settings that can bring this down, but one notch off resulted in 97 IRE which is a bit low for our spec.

Overall this is a solid player with minor quirks, but given the performance of other low priced offerings like the DVD-1600 and DVD-910, I was hoping this one would test out just a little better.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-1910 DVI

MPEG Maker: unknown MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2301     MSRP: $269.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

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Denon

Denon - DVD-1910

MPEG Maker: unknown MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Faroudja Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2301     MSRP: $269.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

It was inevitable that Denon would eventually release an inexpensive DVI-based DVD player to the market. The DVD-1910 has some obvious advantages compared to the rest of the low cost DVI player market, but it also has some disadvantages.

The 1910 is a very low budget design. The chassis is very small, and extremely light. Those looking for the sturdy and robust build of Denon’s higher profile line will be very disappointed. But the insides of this player, from a video standpoint, are pretty impressive. The biggest drawback in the lower line of DVI-based DVD players has been the de-interlacer and scaler. While designs from companies like Momitsu and Bravo do a good job, they don’t quite equal the performance of the higher line Faroudja and Silicon Image solutions.

The 1910 features the Faroudja FLI-2301 de-interlacer/scaler chip. It was made specifically for DVD applications as opposed to the FLI-2310 chip found in their higher line offerings, the 3910 and 5900. That chip was actually made for implementation into display technologies. The performance aspects appear to be exactly the same, both on paper and in our tests. The 2301 chip did quite well here. The only fault we found was with material mastered with a 2-2 cadence, which is always a hit or miss with the implementation of the Faroudja chip.

The unfortunate side of implementing the FLI2301 chip is the presence of the “macroblocking” problem. This manifests itself as blotches of digital noise mainly in backgrounds. This noise is essentially an enhancement of MPEG artifacts that are already inherent in the DVD transfer, but at times grossly exaggerated. In our study of the problem, we have found that the end user’s display plays a key role in the issue. It seems that displays that have their own necessary internal scalers tend to exaggerate the problem to almost unwatchable levels. This has been most noticeable with plasma displays, with an emphasis on the popular Panasonic line. Bottom line is, be wary of coupling this player with a display that has to do its own scaling inside. I would recommend hooking up the player to a similar display, or under ideal circumstances, to your own display before purchasing. If you don’t have that option, I would make sure the store you buy from has a good return policy.

We were unable to determine what MPEG decoder the 1910 is using. The chip is mounted on the underside of a video board and inaccessible. It did do rather well with our tests though. The chip passed the main chroma tests and the Faroudja did an adequate job of masking artifacts associated with the more difficult material. The 1910 passed a below-black pluge pattern regardless of the output used, and its white level was at the high end of our acceptable standard, 102 IRE.

There have been reports that this player has a tendency to reproduce blacks with a lean toward green. I didn’t see this with my review unit regardless of the output used. There is a black level tool that can be accessed via the “mode” button on the remote. I used an O-Scope and a gray ramp to try and figure out what this option was doing, as there was an obvious change to the level of blacks when turning it on and off. By turning the black selection “on”, the ramp clips black levels at the NTSC standard of 7.5 IRE. When it is turned “off”, the black level maps down all the way to 0 IRE properly. We recommend that you leave this selection off to take advantage of the lower black levels associated with YCbCr video.

The analog video frequency response was surprisingly good for a budget player. The response has a slight dip in the upper frequencies, but fine detail was still preserved with the material I looked at. Pixel cropping was a bit excessive on the sides of the image. The right side was clipping 7 pixels and the left 2.

The user interface was on the sluggish side, especially compared to Denon’s higher line of players. The layer change was a full 2 seconds long, which is unsatisfactory. Menu navigation was also very sluggish.

I was happy to see Denon finally put out a budget minded DVI player. The fact that they coupled it with a de-interlacing chip like the Faroudja almost makes the player a steal. I really hope Faroudja can come up with a fix for the macroblocking artifact issue, and until then I suggest that you demo any player using the FLI-2301 chip before committing. Otherwise this is a very nice entry offering for Denon.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-900

MPEG Maker: Unknown MPEG Model: Unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI2200     MSRP: $329.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

Deinterlacing

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Denon

Denon - DVD-2800

MPEG Maker: ESS MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Image Deinterlacer Model: SiI503 / MC503     MSRP: $950.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

This player was eagerly anticipated by many people, as it was the first reasonably-priced player with the Silicon Image chipset in it. Sadly, the early shipments were marred with a variety of production problems and firmware glitches. However, at this point the production problems have been ironed out as far as we can tell, and our final review sample performed quite well. Apparently there are some units in stores with different colored dots on the box to indicate, perhaps, the manufacturing run. We do not know what the codes mean, so you will have to work that out for yourselves.

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Denon

Denon - DVD-1710

MPEG Maker: unknown MPEG Model: Deinterlacer Maker: unknown Deinterlacer Model:     MSRP: $179.00 Website: http://www.usa.denon.com

The DVD-1710 is Denon’s new entry level player. This no frills offering is similar in build and features to the DVD-1910, but lacks the DVI output and Faroudja chipset.

The 1710 looks to be based on a Panasonic chipset, but it was very difficult to tell. The MPEG decoder had been blacked out except for a serial number. There is also a possibility that it is based on a Mitsubishi chip.

The MPEG decoder is handling all of the duties, including de-interlacing, and overall is a pretty basic entry with mediocre abilities. The chip is flagged based and had a hard time with our tests overall. The chip is not motion adaptive and drops into video mode at the slightest sign of a cadence break. I think it is fair to say that this is the lowest performer we have seen yet from Denon.

On our core tests, the 1710 did better then I expected. The player will pass a below-black pluge signal, and its white level was at the extreme of our passing criteria at 98 IRE. Since the white level is a bit low, perceived and measured contrast will be a bit on the lower side, but not by too much.

The player passed all of our chroma tests with the exception of the interlaced chroma test. That was expected since it takes a special chroma filter to pass. Only Faroudja and DVDO have managed to make a chroma filter for this problem so far. The video frequency response was quite a bit better then I was expecting and even bested the DVD-1910. The response has a slight up shift as frequency goes up, but I didn’t see any annoying artificial ringing in the image from it.

Pixel cropping just barely made the borderline score. The player crops 5 pixels from both the left and right side of the image. I don’t understand why a manufacturer would allow for cropping on the sides of the image where it can hurt the image more than the top and bottom. The 1710 passed the Y/C delay tests and measured out at about 4 nanoseconds of delay, which is within the consumer spec.

For our usability tests, the 1710 didn’t fare too well. The transport is on the slow side, especially with menus. Response from the player was slow, both with inputs and chapter skips. The layer change clocked in at just over 2 seconds, which is unacceptable. There are a lot of inexpensive DVD players out there that are very responsive and feature almost no layer change at all. Denon is a company that usually stays on the cutting edge and these are things I would expect from them, even at this price point.

Overall, the DVD-1710 is a below average progressive scan player. I wasn’t expecting much at this price point, but I expect more from Denon. There are quite a few players near this price point that will outperform this player, notably the entry offerings from Pioneer. If you are looking for a solid low price offering, this is probably not the one.

Video Frequency Response
Denon