Denon DVD upscaling and all the other features (Denon DVD 1910)

Member Name: agewills

Product:	Denon DVD 1910
Date:	05/11/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very good quality, lots of features and playback

Disadvantages: feels cheap (just because its light)

This review is actually for the 1930, the newer model. The newest in this range is the 1740 as the 1900 series is discontinued.

In the modern era (the naughties) the call for DVD players is still strong. The question is though, why would you buy a DVD player when in this time of High-Definition, Blu ray players are becoming more and more common, cheaper and present in most shops? Well, there might be a few reasons. Perhaps you have a large DVD collection and don't want to start again with blu ray and aren't jumping on the band wagon. Or maybe you have a blu ray player that isn't so great with DVD play back? Or some other reason. I bought this Denon 1930 a couple of years ago, before Blu Ray took a foot hold and before I ordered my PS3. I have got a reasonably large DVD collection and I wanted something good that could do the old discs justice. Denon have a certain way with these things.

The aptly named Denon DVD 1930 is now discontinued. Like other Denon products it was one in a line of DVD players in its range, it was followed by the 1940 but now seems to be discontinued altogether. Unless you want blu ray playback, the current model is for upscaling DVD play back alone is the 1740. Which as you can see is a couple of models down, but no doubt still a shining example. The Denon range goes up into the 3000 series and then the flagship DVD-A1UD which would set you back the princely sum of £4,500! It looks like it would play EVERYTHING though.

The 1930 is a good example of an upscaling DVD player. When it first arrived along the similarly designed AVR 1907, at my house, I was pleased to see the eye catching design. I must say at this point that I was rather disappointed with the weight of the product. Which might seem like an odd thing to say, but I'd paid nearly £200 and it was very very light. So I felt like that made it seem cheap. But once its in your hi-fi stand that though fades away. The aluminium front seems to ooze quality and even when on standby it looks nice with the red ring around the power button (not, there is no off switch - only the standby button, if you wanted to reduce your carbon footprint, you have to turn it off at the mains).

Once running, I quickly enjoyed the 1930's features. Plugged into my full 1080p tv via an HDMi cable and running to the amp with optical cable, I was able to enjoy the top quality the DVD collection had to offer. The sound quality and picture quality is top notch. The Upscaling feature takes most DVD's and fills in the gaps, making them look full HD. Its worth noting here that the technology cannot make it actual 1080p, as the pixels aren't there due to the compression, so if you ran the same film on Blu ray, side by side, you'd still notice the difference, but its far better than running the DVD on a normal DVD player to an HD tv, you get some of the benefits.

The 1930 plays a wealth of audio/visual treats. Everything from Kodak picture discs to CD's, Mp3s, Super Audio-CD's, WMV's, DIVX's, all the stuff to make audio-visual geeks get excited. For the average joe, all you need to know is, it will make your DVD's look lush, play your music and even display picture discs copied from your PC.

The rear of the box has a number of outputs. SCART, HDMI, Optical, Co-axial. All the things you could need. So that's not a worry. The remote is satisfactory, its another thing that feels a little cheap, but it does a good job and has plenty of buttons without being too confusing.

In these modern times, it might well be worth shelling out for a blu ray player, but Denon's DVD players are still good. Upscaling means its pretty future proof and stands out amongst the rest. It's a very good player and I'd easily use it to play standard DVD's rather than my PS3, which while it's a good Blu Ray machine, isn't as good with DVD's. Another one in the bag for Denon.




High Sound Quality from CD, DVD-V/A and SACD


Pure Direct Mode


Bass Management for DVD-Video/Audio and SACD


Delay Time adjustment for DVD-Video/Audio


High Quality 24-Bit, 192 kHz Audio DACs


HDMI 1.1 Multichannel Digital Audio Output


Perfect Picture Quality


HDMI 1.1 Output with scaler (720p / 1080i / 1080p)


Discrete Video Circuit with 11 bit/216 MHz Video DAC for Progressive


Faroudja Progressive Scan with manual mode selection


DivX 6 Decoding


Aluminium Front

Summary: A very good Denon product, even for a entry level.

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