No hitches playing any dvds, even rentals full of scratches. Good picture and sound. Plays cdr's fine.

Only had one lip sync problem, playing Pulp Fiction interview with Tarrantino...it was out by a few seconds!
Colours occasionally get a bit pulsating on backgrounds.
Remote is pretty lame. It must be aimed directly at the unit to work. Keys need to be pressed hard to get a response.

This is my first dvd player, and so far i am very happy with it. The reviews here have seemed pretty negative, but i went and purchased one as it plays cdr and i wanted to keep a matching family with my Denon avr1601 amp.
So far its been great. It does have a few down sides, mainly the remote and the price ($999au)
It does however do what i want it to do very well. All dvds play well, scratches dont seem to effect it much, although it has pixelised sometimes, requiring me to stop the dvd and hit play again.
Ive only ever had one problem with lip synching, so i guess that is acceptable, since ive played quite a few discs, being new, rentals, regions 4 and 1.
Although it does have the odd problem, it is a very good unit, and I would recomend it to anyone after a new unit.

Similar Products Used:

None

Update!

Just got word from my salesperson at Progressive Audio that Denon has recalled the entire DVD-1500 line for replacement of a faulty EPROM inside the electronics of the unit. Evidently, the new chip is supposed to remedy the lip syncing that so many of us have reported before.

I ought to be hearing from the rep in about 3 weeks he said and I'll try out a fixed unit with a faulty one and see if I can see and hear the difference.

Now since this is an update and not really a review, I guess I'll simply have to give it another rating, but I'm going to increase my overall rating from before due to Denon's response to this situation. Their reaction to this problem pleases me to no end, if only to acknowledge that there is a problem.

Sound quality, Looks, Ease of use.

Picture Quality.

I owned this unit for 2 weeks after searching for months on
purchasing a DVD system. After watching The Matrix & Blade
I realised the unit had a problem with dark backgrounds and the picture seemed to pulse. I returned the unit with much debate to the Outlet. After trying several other DVD players and another 1500 we found the player had the problems with Warner Brothers & Village Roadshow discs. We
contated the Denon Rep and was told the 1500 unit was bulit to a price to suit the current market!!!!!
The problem does not seem as bad on 100 HZ tv's but with my standard 50hz tv it is shocking at night. The Australian
distributor also said they know of the problem but that is what they are..........

Very cheesed off as I did not want to go down in audio quality so I opted to go upto a Denon 2500 which is an older model but has a great picture.


I recommend to try the unit on your own set or similar with a common DVD in your area.

Still waiting for Denon's response to my email on the lack of support.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 2500 dvd

picture, sound quality

I've watched a dozen DVDs now and haven't experienced any of the problems others have listed here. The picture on my Sony Wega 32" is breathtaking (using the S-Video connection) and the sourround sound is wonderful (using the optical connection to Denon AVR 1800 with Energy Take Five speakers). The quality of audio CD playback is also very good.

Audio, Video, plays CDR'S

Long load time to load a cd/dvd and slow to skip tracks on a cd etc.

I paid $1000 Australian for this as i had specific needs in that i had to be able to play cdr's. I am very happy with its a/v performance. The audio is the best i have heard from any dvd player. The video quality is not the best I have seen, but it is about the same as the toshiba, but better than the pionner.

Unlike most dvd players I would definately say this player with is Burr-Brown DAC's has the ability to play cd's better than most standard cd player out there.

FF/REW are seamless, but the long load (10+secs) time and cd track seeking is very slow and annoying at times.

I have had it for 2 weeks and am yet to find a disc which it can't play and have never experienced any lip sync problems like some other reviewers have.

And for the idiot that complained about it not having a dd decoder onboard, why did you expect it to have one for this price. It's a bit like saying a $200 amp is crap as it does not have 5X200 per channel. Also, why do you want one when your amp can do it (better) anyway??

Similar Products Used:

Pionner 525, Toshiba 2109

Picture, sound, build quality ...

Remote is pretty sad ...

I recently purchased this Denon 1500, which is the apparent replacement for the 2500. It is the entry level Denon, and they dropped the MSRP to $500 (from $650 or so on the 2500).

Most of the features are about the same, and Denon added most of the remote's functions to the front of the unit (which does make for a lot of buttons).

The picture is crisp, and I haven't taken advantage of the sound to its capabilities. I have watched a dozen or so movies (including Matrix) and the performance has been great. I think I noticed a layer change on Matrix, but it wasn't a problem. I was scared off of Sony after hearing of sync issues. None of that here (so far).

I haven't had this unit for a long time, and hope to explore all the features. I was nervous buying it without any reviews, but the price was alright. I have had good experience with Denon products in the past, and that had a lot to do with my decision. A friend purchased the Toshiba 3109 for $100 less, and is really happy.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DVD 2500; Toshiba 3109

Audio

Video is kind of dark

This DVD player rocks! The audio is superb and the video function would be perfect if it wasn't so dark.

For all those having sync problems, it's just a bad EEPROM chip that Denon can replace and the sync problems will be gone. The one I bought from Ubid was refurbished. When I got it though, the unit was still in it's original packaging. So I suspected that Denon recalled some of the units and fixed the sync problems. My DVD1500 has no sync problems at all.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Sony, Pioneer

Golden front

Has serious problems with playing numerous DVDs
Remote control is ergonomical joke
Rather loud noise of disk mechanism

I bought this together with the 3801 receiver (which by the way is a good piece of equipment) without long checks beforehand; and didn't know this page then, which would have saved me the Denon DVD 1500 experience.

The first disappointments were the cheapish remote control and the rather loud playing noise - sounds more than a cheap computer device than a jolly expensive brand consumer product. But then a cheap computer dvd-drive is just what you find behind the golden front. But i was going to live with it, since some review sites actually said that this was one of the more silent DVD players on the market.

But what makes this product totally worthless is the amazing number of DVDs this player has problems to play. For instance (all errors were checked with Sony and Pioneer players and didn't occur there, so it's not the DVD's fault):
- freezes at the end of '1979' on the Smashing pumpkins Greatest Hits DVD, won't play 'Zero' but jumps to next track
- skips chapters erraticly on several 007-DVDs, Matrix and some german language only DVDs
- freezes at some scenes of "Some like it Hot", but pushing Pause/Play resumes operation
- wouldn't play "Patriot Game" at all (but then this may not be a mistake but some internal taste check chip detecting M.Gibson :-)

So what's the use of a DVD player that won't do the simple task of playing DVDs?

The repair shop which handles Denon's warranty cases here in Berlin couldn't help me either. They checked the EEPROM problem mentioned in other reviews but it was already the new type. Basically they just suggested I should live with the problems.

So now I'm trying to find a dealer who takes the Denon in commission for a new player.

I suggest that you refrain from buying the Denon DVD1500, but I guess you already got that message...

Similar Products Used:

Several Sonys and Pioneers i tested to replace this, they're all better (because they work fine)

Sound quality is good, though not stellar.

Fails to properly play, or even allow some disks to play

I am completely tired of dealing with this box. I bought the Denon based on its reputation for build quality and performance, yet I continue to rack up a number of DVD's that this machine will not play.

This evening sat down with the family to watch the "Patriot" and the box would go to the "Main Screen" then, when selecting PLAY, it would jump to the "Special features" screen. Just no way to get the movie started. Selecting "Scene Select" would jump to the proper menu, but when you try to jump to a scene it jumps back to the Main Menu. This happens on our kids copy of "Stuart Little" and many others.

We rent a lot of movies from Netflix and BlockBuster, so I am used to some scratches and potential disk damage that might affect the performace, however I can take the very disk I am having trouble with and put in the PS2 or our iMac DV and it works EVERY time. Even our brand new copy of "The Matrix" has playback problems so it's not a damaged disk.

When he works it's great, but that is getting increasingly less often and my patience is at it's end.

Sadly it doesn't weigh enough to make a good anchor.

Similar Products Used:

iMac DV, Sony Playstation 2

build, sound, picture, no layer change interrupt, fast forward/rewind capabilities

some weaknesses of the software, said to be a common problem for digital broadcast systems.

I read the reviews here before, and wanted to buy the Marantz DV-4100. I needed a quality player with good HIFI-sound and CD-R capability, with no built-in decoder. At last I was in a local shop, where the clerk convinced me to buy the 1500 - they would use it for demonstration, it was said to play everything other players didn't. It was a shelf example, in gold, so I got 5% from the price.As I'm a denon-fan (previous stereo amp, and now the AVR-1600), it matches my system. So far I played some DVD-s: Music: Madonna Girlie show, Madonna live in Italy, G. Michael Ladies and Gentl., Celine Dillon, Films: As good as it gets, Matrix, six days seven nights, Gladiator, Bug's life, My fair lady, still have 8mm, 5th Element and Contact. I have so far following problems:
once the whole thing freezed during the girlie show. Switch off and on helped. Never again. I put in Bug's life, it wouldn't play, then I forced him :o) by pushing play again. It started but the picture was distorted. Then I took it out, switch off and on, put back, and then I didn't have the problem any more. The pioneer was much worse, ff and rf was not usable.
I give 4 stars because I hope, I am not going to have more problems ( I would be glad). I am completely satisfied with the sound and picture quality, and that is what counts to me. Anyway, I haven't experienced the lip sync problem (how much is the delay?), and the Matrix runs w/o problems, w/o background flashes, etc.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer 525