Very good HDMI signal upconversion, great color, detailed sound, easy to use. Passes below-black to TV. Includes bass management (but not for 2-channel SACD or DVD-A). Small footprint. Versatile.

Pricy. No subwoofer output with stereo SACDs. Difficult to program. Knda flimsy. Who wrote the manual? Documentation is impossible to understand. Took me several hours to get multi-channel CD output and CD stereo.

I bought this because I have an HDMI-capable HDTV and I wanted to see DVDs as clearly as they coule be played, and my old Toshiba 2200 DVD player was starting to play freeze a lot. This player is one of the new upconverting models, so you can send a 720P or 1080i signal to your TV rfom the 480P DVD. I also wanted a player with SACD analog outs because my receiver has no digital inputs and I needed 5.1 wiring to play movies. I could also, if everything worked, retire my Sony CD player to another room.

I bought this player from Amazon from an authorized dealer as a b-stock item (factory refurb) and saved almost $100). Out of the box it had a remote control problem which I couldn't resolve until I had it taken in for warranty repair (see below). Once it was fixed, it worked well. Setup is a bit cumbersome because the manual is hard to decipher and the OSD is not very intuitive. So I bumbled through it without directions and finally got most of the functions to work.

I now play DVDs upsampled to 720P, which look very clear, and SACDs as well as standard CDs. The 1920 is very musical, sounding at least as good as my old Sony CD player connected to an outboard SoundStream DAC, if not better. My old DAC has 18-bit Burr-Brown converters and the Denon has better 24-bit Burr-Brown DACs. The video processor is Faroudja's DCDi Progressive, which works fine with my Vizio LCD flat-panel. I also played computer-burned VCDs, which looked colorful, if not as sharp as a DVD, and action was a bit choppy, but that was probably the encoding from the downloads. The player ran CDRs equally well as CDs, with good musicality, warmth and a clean reproduction. Has circuit pass-through which kills the video processing when playing CDs; I didn't notice a difference with this feature active.

What it DOESN'T do is reproduce stereo SACDs with any low-end audio. If you have a subwoofer to augment a small speaker array, SACD playback in this player will disappoint, because you must use analog 5.1 outputs to get the SACD signal to your amp, and 2-channel SACDs have no .1 (bass) information to feed to the sub. So while SACDs sound demonstrably more detailed, they are also bass-free.

Documentation is cluttered and written in poor English. Everything's shoved together and details are lacking. There's no good troubleshooting information to speak of. If you can't figure something out, your best bet is to talk to the dealer's sales staff who, thankfully, are usually knowledgeable about the product.

This player has some flaws but does what it says it will, and the video and audio are indeed better than you'd get with cheaper components.

Customer Service

Mine arrived with a drop of oil covering the inside of the IR receiver, so the remote didn't work. Denon authorized service sat on it three weeks until my girlfriend physically demonstrated the problem at the depot, then they fixed it in a few days. Dealer was helpful.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Sony DVD players

Clarity, soundstage, versatility, ease of setup, amusing manual (Denon has never bothered to learn proper English and I love them for that), brilliant video, astounding surround sound, solid build - just about EVERYthing!

Haven't found one yet.

Yeah, I know, a month or less is hardly time enough to get to know a machine, but I've got nothing but time - at least til the doctors figure out how to untrap this nerve that keeps my right hand from functioning and let me go back to work. So I finally invested in some quality. No disrespect to my replaced Sony DVP-NC80V, which actually can play every DVD-A I've handed it, but because I just didn't trust the long-term prospects for all that plastic, it wasn't a high-end product, and, dammit, I wanted to really hear my music! I'd sold enough stuff on eBay to afford it, so I did my homework, took out my machine-killing HDAD of Alan Parsons' "The Eye in the Sky", and auditioned a few better, single-play machines, as we had both realized here just how infrequently we actually used the carousel function (like once) except in the bedroom, so that one gets to stay. Now, in our main room, playing through the Sony DA777ES receiver and B&W 600s3 fronts, CC3 center, and a/d/s L200 rears, is a Denon DVD-1920, and where the heck have they been hiding this thing??? This sounds worlds better than my old Sony CD75ES for redbook CDs...I mean WAY better, with incredible detail, warmth, all that stuff. You know. With SACDs it is yet another dimension. And with DVD-A and DTS, well, I've always been pretty much a stereo guy - like, that's how most of the engineers intended it to be heard, right? Even Parsons! Yep, although he worked a lot with Quad before it died, the HDADs of his three most notorious works are all DVD-As that only play in stereo! ("On Air" is an exception and it makes sense). So anyway, for a very reasonable price I've got here something that feels and look solid (at least until you pick it up, as it only weighs 8 lbs., so as one wag said, "don't carry it around." It's a nice fit, depth-wise, compared to the Sony, which was 5" deeper to accomodate the stupid carousel (which was bound to break eventually), and I can SEE THE DISPLAY on this one! Brilliant! And of course the video is impeccable. No need to go into detail here: it is as good as my eyes can stand. If my WIFE notices the difference then we can all be certain it is INCREDIBLY good. Sonically it is astounding. The Sony played all the same discs - but not with this kind of depth, neutrality and detail! Holy guacamole! If your budget allows for it and you're not so lazy you can't get up and change a disc every 45-60 minutes, then this is a no brainer. UNbelievable!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-NC80V, DVP-NC685V, DVP-NC650V, Sony STR-DA777ES, Sony STR-GX700 ES, Rotel RB850X, Yamaha M-40, AudioSource Preamp/Tuner2, B&W DM-17s, B&W DM600s3s, a/d/s L-1230s, a/d/s L200s, etc.

Picture quality

It does seem a little cheap if you pick it up, it's very light. But, it looks great so don't carry it around and you'll never know.

I started out with the Samsung upconverting DVD player (model?) that's had great reviews and was completely unimpressed. The Denon has been awesome. The picture quality was heads and tails better than the Samsung or any other PS DVD I've compared. It's pretty basic but allows you to tweak most everything someone at my level would want. VERY impressed with it, especially in the price range I was in. I figured I'd go for a bargain now and wait for the Hi Def to come out at a decent price in a year or two.

Similar Products Used:

Samsung upconverting DVD, Toshiba PS, Hitachi PS, Panasonic PS

Excellent Sound Quality Excellent Picture Quality Plays SACD's and DVD-Audio

Must exit movie to get to setup menu

Purchased this unit when my Cambridge Audio DVD-300 bit the dust. Originally I purchased the Denon DVD-1720 and was stunned at the video that the unit put out. However, the audio of the DVD-1720 was a bit on the hard side and was a bit weak in bass. I took the unit back to Sound Advice and traded it for the DVD-1920. I am very pleased with the exchange. Audio in movies, SACD's and DVD-Audio is stunning. IT stomped on my Cambridge Audio unit in both picture AND sound quality. DVD-Audio and SACD's have a incredible smooth and detail sound. Bass response is solid, smooth and warm (for some reason most of the DVD players I have tried are bass shy in audio only applications). Overall, the quality of this unit reminds me of much higher priced units like the Denon 2900. This unit transformed my main home audio system into a solid main listening system as well. I am very happy with the purchase.

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Audio DVD-300, Toshiba 3950

This is a good player - reasons I bought this payer: 1) price; 2) universal payer – plays nearly everything; 3) Faroudja & Burr Brown chips; 4) HDMI up conversion; 5) Can pass DVD-Audio thru the HDMI connection Actually the last feature I can’t use until I replace my old Marantz SR5400 receiver so I can’t say how well it will work or even if I would use it considering it won’t pass SACD. This player has excellent picture quality – colors are crisp, clear, very detailed with smooth motion. Up conversion to 720p or 1080i with the HDMI output is flawless – sitting at my usual spot I can’t see much of a difference between this player and an HD broadcast of the same movie. Sitting half way – 6 feet or closer from my 52in DLP I can see the difference though picture quality is still excellent. I can’t complain about the sound quality either, nor can I compare it to anything else this being the first DVD-A / SACD player I own. To my ears I don’t know how it could get any better than this. For good CD recordings the sound is natural and very detailed. For the few DVD-A and SACDs I have, the sound is just perfect - neutral, natural, very detailed. (my system: energy speakers all around and a very music friendly velodyne SPL1200R). On the downside – not a great remote but buttons are easy to find. Build quality is good but I do see plastic inside looking in from the disk tray – for the price I can’t complain about this. I also hear some disk spinning noise when close to the player – not consistent seems to happen when the disk is first loaded, goes away when playing.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Panasonic

picture quality good

audio quality bad, very bad

I had been researching universal players that could play DVD, DVD Audio, SACD, CD,ect for under $500 and after much research narrowed it down to Denon's DVD-1920 and Pioneer's DV-45A. I made the mistake of choosing the DVD-1920 first and was very disappointed by the poor sound quality of this unit. My once full, warm sounding speakers and soundstage sounded thin, cheap and plastic. Although the video quality was very good i would not recommend this unit if you are just as picky about audio quality. I returned the Denon and got the Pioneer DV-45A instead and was more than pleased with its performance. It will play any disc you put in it and it sounds 100 times better.