After our initial first look of the Denon DVD-5900, it quickly became apparent to us, that this player was plagued with a Contrast Bug. We patiently waited for a second player from Denon to verify our objective analysis and visual observations prior to reporting this to our readership. As a result of testing the first and second players, we are now confident that the DVD-5900 has a Contrast Bug. We are hopeful that Denon can resolve this with an easy firmware fix just like they have resolved other operational issues with previous players. We will report their feedback to this issue when we meet their engineers at CES 2004.
Very interesting. My compliment to Audioholics; one of the few places where you consistently find informed, critical, but fair pieces on equipment and how to set it up. I am awaiting Denon's reply.
Thanks for the heads-up, Gene. *I just cancelled my 5900 order with Elegant Audio. *First the inactive DVI output delayed shipment, and now it's the contrast bug, but I'd rather wait until they get it right.
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Theater: Sharp XV-Z9000U (720p), Denon AVR-5803, Sony DVP-NS755V, Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD, Anthony Gallo Reference3 fronts, Axiom VP 150 center, Axiom QS8 surrounds, Mirage BPS-400 (dual active 12" bipolar sub). Zone 2: Axiom M60s.
Bedroom: Panasonic TH-50PZ85U, Sony PS3 (shuttles between theater and bedroom), Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD.
I guess I'm in the minority, but if I could afford a 5900, I'd take one in a heartbeat. I'd use it for music and use my DVD-2200 for movies. If you can believe the initial reports, it's among the best sounding hi rez universals at any price.
Of course, my DLP FPTV can't really do black anyway, so I probably wouldn't know the diff!
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You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. - Naguib Mahfouz
Hi guys thanks for the feedback. In actuality, setting the player to 0IRE resolves much of the problem we have noted in the article. However we still feel the DVD-2900 offers a more dynamic picture at least via component video outs with our test displays. We will be gearing up soon to test DVI output as well. Rob you are correct, the DVD-5900 has stunning audio playback in all modes of operation. However configuring between Dlink and playing multi channel SACD can become somewhat confusing and annoying. I will detail this in my review.
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Gene DellaSala
President, Audioholics Pursuing the truth in audio & video...
Gene,
Not to nitpick, but the graph that you show is not a luminance graph, but the RGB report from Colorfacts. What was your measured luminance from the 5900? Also, your display is not calibrated to D65K with your blue being at 140% (probably closer to D85K). Finally, Red Push is a Color Decoder issue, not a grayscale issue. A properly calibrated display should have equal parts of blue, red and green at all measured IRE's from 20-100 IRE. Some displays do this better than others. In my case, I have a Hitachi 57SWX20B. There is a blue hump in the middle IRE's of about 10% which causes grayscale to jump from D65 at 20IRE to elevate to D72K in the middle IRE's. The only way to correct this is with an external scaler that has gamma control on it. I tried using the 5900 gamma controls, but to no avail (through DVI and component).
One last thing, the DVI port on the 5900 elevates the blue by an additional 10% in the middle IRE's (at least with my hitachi). I don't have another DVI TV to see if this is inherent to my TV or with the DVI port in general.
Gene,
One last thing. Did you use AVIA to do your grayscale setting or VE? If you used AVIA, then your grayscale is really messed up because there is chroma added to the grayscale windows in AVIA. AVIA is only good for color decoding, not grayscale.
We did the test with the blue set down lower on another display. *Let me point this out that we have discussed this subject with many ISF and non-ISF technicians. *The blue is typically pushed to a higher level to compensate for our eye's difficiency in seeing this color. *When we turned up and down the blue driver (BDRV) and blue cut-off (BCUT) on the display, the only thing it did was add or subtract a blue hue, it did not alter the overall brightness of the black 0-IRE window.
As for your comment regarding the AVIA DVD, there is indeed rumor that this disk is not accurate for grayscale. *We discussed this subject with both Milori and Ovation Software, the creator of this DVD. *Both parties indicated that this is indeed a rumor. *They did state that there is a slight problem with the grayscale, but not enough to be measured or observed.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that our own observations showed that the contrast improved with the DVD-2900 on two different monitors. *This was in instant observations. *Keeping the calibrations the same for the TV, and changing the DVD player only, should provide a fair comparison of the black window, somewhat regardless of the settings. *We altered many settings before concluding that the contrast ratio of the 5900 is less than that of other players and the DVD-2900.
Gary Kuo has directly stated that AVIA is flawed for Grayscale. This is not a rumor. Also, every DVD player is different in its output. When you change the DVD player, brightness, contrast and grayscale needs to be redone to ensure proper calibration.
As far as the blue being at 140%, it is dead wrong. Your display is not calibrated to D65, plain and simple. Also, can you please post the luminance graph so I can see what it looks like. The only true way to test for contrast is with an O-scope, not through a display. There are too many other things going on that can affect this.
Linear Mode
