Denon DVD-1930

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Denons mid-ranged upscaled goodness

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4 Nov 5th, 2009 

8 Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful

Advantages:
excellent upscaling, wealth of play back features

Disadvantages:
feels cheap

Recommendable Yes:

Detailed rating:

Picture Playback

Sound Level

Range of Features

Durability

Value for Money

AgeUK

AgeUK

About me:

I am Age! I love films, games, music (hip hop), books and learning new stuff. All the good things ...

Member since:23.09.2008

Reviews:76

Members who trust:8

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.

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


 

Pictures of Denon DVD-1930
Denon DVD-1930 1_dg_av_DVD1930_back - Denon DVD-1930
Denon DVD-1930

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Comments about this review »

M.Newcastle 06.11.2009 18:23

Good review. I'm going to have to replace my DVD palyer soon, but am very attached to the current one so putting it off x

StephenPhillips123 05.11.2009 17:29

Good review.



More reviews »

Denon DVD-1930 - review by thewedge

Advantages: Good picture quality
Disadvantages: Flimsey remote

Denon DVD-1930 - review by thewedge thewedge 04.01.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Denon DVD-1930

Denon DVD-1930 - review by yiddoboy

Advantages: Does everything you could ever ask for
Disadvantages: feels a little cheap for the price and the remote is awful

Denon DVD-1930 - review by yiddoboy yiddoboy 30.12.2006 · Read review
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