Possibly the only DVD player with the best cost/quality ratio
Pros:
Excellent picture and audio quality.
Many output formats supported
Cons:
Setup may be cumbersome
Denon Link 2nd edition is a joke
The Bottom Line:
If you need an uncompromising picture and/or audio quality for an affordable price; look no further - the DVD3910 is it.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Surprisingly simple looking DVD player with a host of functions, lots of supported formats and superb reproduction quality for an affordable price.
Overview
I bought the Denon 3910 to complement the AVR3805 receiver. I got attracted to the 3910 because of the good reviews and fairly modest price (considering the feature set). The 3910 connects to the receiver using the DLINK connection, a single CAT5 cable only available as interconnect with Denon equipment.
The player supports just about any format you might think of, specifically;
Audio CD, SACD, DVD, VCD, MP3 (CD-R and CD-RW, fixed rate or VBR), WMA, JPEG (Kodak, Fujicolor CD-R or CD-RW).
Supposedly the unit does not support MP3 files on DVD, however, I haven't tried this myself.
Connections
- RCA outputs for 5.1 surround sound
- RCA outputs for standard stereo
- IEEE1394
- Denon link
- Optical PCM
- Coax PCM
- HDMI
- DVI
- Component video out
- Composed video
- S video
- RS232 for unit to unit remote control.
The DLINK is for Denon equipment only and promises to create a simple, automatic connection to your Denon receiver. With DLINK connected, the DVD player will tell your receiver about the format of CD/DVD and select your preferred settings. However, only with DLINK 3rd edition firmware this connection type is worth while.
Remote
The 3910 sports a big remote which is partically lit. The remote's functions are layed out clearly, most buttons where you'd want them. Compared to the AVR3805, this is a standard style remote (normal buttons, no fancy looking thing) that is quite stingy on the batteries (haven't replaced any of them after a year).
Setup
Though the DVD3910 shines in many ways, setup is cumbersome in particular when using the DLINK. When I purchased the unit with DLINK second edition which is not capable of carrying SACD signals. Therefore, my first setup involved both DLINK as well as analog RCA connections to the AVR3810 - a very messy setup that required me to select the particular audio output with every change of format. In some cases one even has to remove any CD, change the Setup, and cycle power on the DVD when switching between movie DVD and SACD. Good thing is that the firmware can be upgraded and the latest version (downloaded from Denon web site) supports SACD over the DLINK connection; no more silly format switching and all the benefits of the AVR3810 recognizing the DVD's output format automatically.
The DVD3910 has a large number of ways in which picture quality can be adjusted, including gamma correction
(for the particularly picky folks out there :-). I haven't found the need to make many corrections so far. The unit supports 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p and 1080i formats.
(Picture & Audio) quality
Much has been written about the DVD3910 quality, lots of online reviews are available. I certainly do not have the elaborate equipment setup as some but will have to say that I have never seen as good a DVD quality as coming from the DVD3910. The picture as well as audio is simply superb. SACD audio is detailed, and seems to transform the room into the area it was originally recorded in - absolutely fantastic.
