Denon 1920

[supervij]

I was at one of the few high-end stores in my town the other day, and I asked a salesguy about the new 1920. He said that specs-wise, it looks great. But he said it was strange that the unit was so light. He then told me that Denon had been bought out by some huge Asian company, and that the players that had come out since that buy-out had all been much lighter in mass than players that were constructed before the buy-out. He even said that because of that, he'd rather have one of the earlier, heavier players. More solidly constructed and more durable, he said, and seemed to imply that Denon may have skimped on internal components for the 1920.

Does anyone have the 1920, or has anyone read anything about it? It hasn't appeared in the Benchmark yet, but I'm really curious about it. And how important is mass for a DVD player? (I remember someone suggesting a 33 pound minimum for receivers . . . is there a comparable figure for DVD players?)

cheers,
supervij

 

[j_garcia]

Denon was bought by a holding company, which owns Marantz, McIntosh and at least one or two other companies that I can't remember off hand. Each is still independently operated as a separate entity, so there should be no change in quality at all. Yes, the newer players have gotten lighter, but they still get good reviews, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I have seen one person review the 1920 and it was positive. I don't know what they have to compare it to, so I can't say how useful it was.

 

[supervij]

I'm not taking this one person's assessment to heart; I prefer to hear from as many sources as I can. I'll look for that review you mentioned; glad to hear it was a good one. Despite my happiness (most of the time) with my Pioneer 588A, I still lust after the some of those Denons!

cheers,
supervij

 

[Duffinator]

Denon was bought by a holding company, which owns Marantz, McIntosh and at least one or two other companies that I can't remember off hand. Each is still independently operated as a separate entity, so there should be no change in quality at all. Yes, the newer players have gotten lighter, but they still get good reviews, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I have seen one person review the 1920 and it was positive. I don't know what they have to compare it to, so I can't say how useful it was.

Denon is owned by D&M Holdings, based in Japan, and it's a publically traded. D&M standing for Denon and Marantz. They also own McIntosh, ReplayTV, and just purchased Boston Acoustics. I seriously doubt that any of the brands quality has diminished since the merger a few years ago, just look at the Denon 5805 if you have any doubts. The sales guy maybe confused because many electronics products are no longer made in the country where the company was founded. This is no surprise and is happening with all manufacturing as companies look for the lowest cost labor in order to compete globally.

http://www.dm-holdings.com/eng/

 

[kay]

The Denon DVD-17xx and 19xx share a common chassis - and it is indeed rather "lightweight" as it is their entry-level model. It is still bigger and heavier than your typical "slimline" supermarket special DVD player, just can't really be compared to their 29xx and higher series players. I've seen receivers smaller than the DVD-2910

 

[j_garcia]

The 1920 looks to be Denon addressing the fact that there is a market for a lower cost universal hires player. I'm sure their thinking was that people interested in hires would be looking for a more upscale player, but there is a market for an under $500 universal player. I don't know if the 1910 was any good, but the 910 was a POS.

 

[zoran]

The 1920 looks to be Denon addressing the fact that there is a market for a lower cost universal hires player. I'm sure their thinking was that people interested in hires would be looking for a more upscale player, but there is a market for an under $500 universal player. I don't know if the 1910 was any good, but the 910 was a POS.

Does it do Pal to Ntsc as 1910 did?

 

[j_garcia]

Does it do Pal to Ntsc as 1910 did?

That, I don't know. I think you can download the manual form Denon's site already.

Here's the "basic" review I read:

I just bought this player last weekend and really like it so far. That being said, I have no HDMI on my receiver or TV so my experience is limited to component video/analog audio. With my setup I have observed no macroblocking and the PQ is outstanding. Navigation speed and layer changes are not seamless but not annoying either - faster than anticipated for the 2mb buffer (and much faster than my old Samsung P721).

The remote is quite responsive - point it just about anywhere and it works. One minor annoyance for HDMI users will be that the remote doesn't let you cycle through the scaling options (720p/1080i etc.) - that must be done on the front panel of the unit.

For audio setup you are limited to 80Hz crossover and speaker distances give you a minimum increment of 1 ft (as opposed to the .1 ft that the Denon 3805 AVR gives me). I havent tried any multichannel yet so I'm not sure if thats going to be a problem in my room.

I think its a great "holdover" until HD DVD arrives...

 

[supervij]

All I could find was one basic editorial review that gave no useful information whatsoever. Thanks for reprinting this review!

 

[Khellandros66]

1920 has this afaik

216Mhz 12bit Progressive
108Mhz 12bit Interlaced

192kHz/24bit BB DSD DACs x 3 (2channel per dac)

~Bob

 

[alex1971]

The 1920 does not have 3x2 DACS

For Audio it has ONE 8 Channel BurrBrown DAC ! But a good one.. ;-)

Does anybody know which Videodecoder Chip is inside the DVD-1920 ?

ESS (like in DVD-2910 and DVD3910) ?
Zoran ?
MTK ?

I can't find any Review ....