Denon 3800 BDCI

[BobPrill]

I'm considering the purchase of this Blu-ray player. For $1700, am I getting my moneys worth or should I hold off. I bought the Denon AVR 4306 at first shipment a couple of years back and it seemed to be outdated a couple of months later. I don't want to make the same $$$$ mistake. I do realize new technology is always in process, but I have a wife to deal with!!! Thanks.

 

[mike c]

IMO, 1700 is much too steep a price to pay just to play BD's.

now unless the denon BD player can brew beer, make coffee or some other special feature ...

 

[davidtwotrees]

I think you have the classic audio internal debate. And the old law of diminishing returns rears it's head, as well. Is the Denon 6 time better than the entry level Insignia and other units for $300? Nope, no way, Jose. Is it twice as good? MMMMMMMMMaybe. I would hope all internals were of higher grade quality, dacs, caps, wiring, vid chips. Most here are waiting for the Oppo player to come out at $500 ish dollars. I, personally am waiting for the LG Blu with streaming Netflix capability myself.
I'm not married, but if you was smart about it, you'd make sure your sweetie pie was aware of your inner struggle between the $1700 unit, and the $500 unit. That way, when you buy the $500 unit, you look like a star...........and a good spouse. Smiles.
Have you asked yourself all the right questions on your Denon purchase? How many movies a week do you watch? Are you sure the jump in picture quality is worth that much to you? Are you willing to invest in a format that isn't sure to be around for very long? Is there nothing else in your system that would better serve a $1700 investment?
(Like a subwoofer, or new front speakers.)
Just checked on ebay, and the 2500 model is closer to $800. The 3800s were going for under $1500 shipped, so there are some deals out there...........good luck!

Now, if you make $300,000 us a year, buy the Denon and make yourself happy.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I own a DVD-3800BDCI.

I think it's great and worth my money.

But everyone thinks differently.

Yeah, the question is how long do you want to wait?

Denon is working on a Universal Player that will play BD, DVD, CD, SACD, & DVD-A. But that may be next Summer.

Home Theater Magazine did a review on the DVD-3800BDCI (along with the Sony 350 and Samsung-something model) on their latest issue, which probably won't show up online until October.

Basically, they said the Denon's Video performance is about the best they've seen in any blu-ray player out there.

Hightlights include the ability for Digital Noise Reduction on ALL sources including blu-ray movies, Burr-Brown PCM-1796 DACs (same ones used in Denon AVR-5308CI & AVP-A1HDCI), and Silicon Optix Realta (same one used in Denon AVR-5308CI & AVP-A1HDCI).

And it does internal decoding for TrueHD & DTS-HD MA and sends out PCM via HDMI or Analog 7.1 to your receiver.

It even has a slot for a Secure Digital card in the front for Music or Photos.
In other words, if you have an 8G SD card with 10,000 songs on it, you are set!

 

[mtrycrafts]

IMO, 1700 is much too steep a price to pay just to play BD's.

now unless the denon BD player can brew beer, make coffee or some other special feature ...

Make coffee, for movies? I'd want it to pop popcorn with a blu

 

[jostenmeat]

Something I've posted on a couple of occasions regarding Denon BDP's greater prices. Example:

. . . Decoder chips in players are cheaper than those in receivers because they don't need surround processing, post-processing, room correction, and A/D conversion. But, companies can't wait forever for chip companies, so Denon used receiver decoder chips, and just turned off most of the features. This is partly why ADTG's 3800 player is so expensive and overpriced.

However, I'm sure the Denon is one very fine piece of equipment. Just overpriced is all, IMO, and that's coming from someone with a pretty big sweet tooth for nice AV gear.

The Panny BD-30 is $274 right now, free shipping. It cannot internally unpack, and looks bad with SD, but gee, with all that money in the pocket, you could buy a full suite of room treatments, or a beefy sub, or upgrade the front three speakers, or . . .