It's a point that's been made many times: why would youspend AU$700 on a DVD player when you can get one for 40 bucks at Aldi? Well,in this high-definition age, you would be doing yourself an extreme disservicefor a start.
Denon DVD-1930
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Features like PAL progressive scan and component outputsmight now be commonplace on budget players, but mid-level machines like theDenon DVD 1930 offer that little bit extra.
Design
The Denon is an upscaling DVD player with HD output and afilofax full of compatible formats. It's available in a choice of silver andblack, and shares the Denon component "look". In fact, it sort of resembles aperformance street car in that it looks hunched and ready to pounce.
Build quality is good, and the casing is brushed metal andnot plastic like some others, which lends the product a touch of solidity andclass. It's also reassuringly heavy -- which usually means it's filled withhigh quality analog versus cheaper digital electronics -- and feels like atrue hi-fi component.
Features
This is one of the most fully-featured players at this price-- with the other notable being the Marantz DV6001 -- but for our money thecosmetics and build on the Denon put it slightly ahead.
For your seven minties, you get upscaling and pictureprocessing by video experts Faroudja, as well as compatibility with DivX, MP3,SACD and DVD-Audio. It features a 5.1 analog output which will come in handy for fans of SACD, as the HDMI version is only 1.1. This will still mean it plays DVD-A via HDMI, however.
One of the welcome features that the Denon DVD 1930 brings isthe 2MB of buffer memory used to decrease the jarring effect of a layer changeduring movies.
Performance
As a CD player, the DVD 1930 has a warm, detailed soundwhich complements the more exciting sound of Denon receivers. In a perfectworld, "signal in" to a receiver should equal "signal out", but unfortunatelythat's not the case. Some components are tailored to be great for home cinema, witha bright, involving sound ... and some are designed to be best for music, withbetter bass and less "tizz". The Denon is somewhere towards the latter, and socombining it with a bright amp should cancel the excitement levels out leavingyou with a neutral, more natural sound. At least that's the theory.
We tried the Denon with receivers from several differentmanufacturers, including Pioneer,Marantz and Denon. Strangely, the DVD 1930 sounded best with the Marantz formusic and the Pioneer VSXAX2AS-S with surround sound, and not its own stablemate. The Denon AVR 1707 we used is great for a budget amp, but is outclassed by thisplayer. The DVD 1930 really needs a mid-to-high level receiver to bring out itsbest.
DVD-Audio and SACD also sounded excellent, and could only bebettered by a player costing several times this amount. Coupled with the rightequipment, the Denon gives a true hi-fi performance, and one which should serveyour music selection well if you don't want to shell out for a separate CDplayer (which every music fan should do anyway).
Video, however, is where this player best excels. And nomatter whether you're using a 576p image or up to 1080p upscaled the results arepretty much mind-blowing. We used several 1080p screens to test the Denon'scapabilities, and only when using the AU$15,000 Panasonic 1080p projector did wesee a vast difference between it and Blu-Ray.
The onboard video processor is the excellent DCDi fromFaroudja, which is the best available at this price point. But we'll have tosay, that on occasions, the results of upscaling were fairly patchy. Somescenes looked best with no upscaling while for others 1080p or 720p gave themost outstanding picture. Upscaling to 720P removed a lot of judder from thefinal scenes of Mission Impossible 3, where there is a pan across Shanghai rooftops, and in fact there were more stuttering visuals in the Blu-ray version! Impressive.
However, some of the higher resolutions actually added noisethat wasn't in the original 576p version, for example. It appears videoprocessing gives in some areas but takes away in others. But overall, theresults were excellent -- images burst with life, and were untroubled by quickmovement.