I'm a little disappointed. The machine is great for progressive video on a widescreen TV, but it can't read DVD-R discs that home enthusiasts are starting to burn?

According to this web page, which is the only one I've found that specifically mentioned compatibility with the DVD-2800:
http://www.elvic.nl/gb/video/dvdgb/dvdburngb.htm
it appears that DVD-R media does not play.

Can anyone test this firsthand? Furthermore, I'm wondering if it can be made compatible via a firmware upgrade in the future.

Solidly Built, Looks Great. Picture and Audio aqality is phenomenal.

Remote control is a piece of crap

Watched the movie 'sense and sensibility' on this set. You can actually see various shades of green grass ( like when it rains, when it is morning), the reds on the fruits on the dinner table, skin tone and close ups look very real.Awesome video quality. My unit was manufatcured on Sept 2001 in china. It had no black dot next to serial number. But i am guessing it has the latest firmware. I couldn't detetct the chroma bug even on the Toy Story movie. Even if it exists it is difficult to find one ( i could easily do that with my Sony).

Some good movies to watch on this set:

Matrix: Note the pox marks on morphieus's face
Thomas crown affair: See the colors on paintings, Renee Russo's face close up
Jurassic Park III: See the close up of the Dino skin
Bug's life and Toy Story (1,2) and ofcourse sense and sensibility ( If you don't like the story just watch the landscape and see the power of DVD 2800)

My setup:
Mitshubishi WS 65809 RPTV
Yamaha Rv1 reciver
Yamaha CDC 775 cd player
Dennon 2800 progressive DVD player
Bose cube speakers
Klipsch ksw12 subwoofer

All aduio outputs use Monster Optical cables. All other cables are monster and i use monster companent cable for the DVD video..

Similar Products Used:

Evaluated: Pioneer DV 37

CD-R/RW, HDCD and MP3 compatibility (with good user interface), fantastic CD player, both PAL and NTSC outputs.

USA version is region 1 only (I hope there will be a software `solution' to this as it is there for European version :))

This is probably the best deal under $1000 if you are looking for a multiformat DVD/CD combination with excellent CD part. CD specifications are really awesome, this player should outperform many dedicated CD players. I am using (Monster) optical cable between the Denon and my Sony STR333ES and then Monster cables to Jamo Classic 10 speakers. All components are pretty synchronized and in the same price/quality range and everything sounds and looks (Sony Wega TV) good. DVD picture is much better than with my old Sharp DVD player and DVD sound is simply non comparable at all. MSRP is $799 but you should be able to buy it cheaper. My unit is manufactured in September 2001 and DOES NOT HAVE THE BLACK DOT but the version of the firmware is the correct one and there are no any bugs mentioned on this forum. MP3 interface is very intuitive and similar to file system browser on any GUI computer platform.

Similar Products Used:

Sharp DV-600U

INCREDIBLE PICTURE, HDCD & 24/96 DIGITAL OUTPUT

NONE THAT I CAN FIND

I DON'T UNDERSTAND ALL THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS. BUT WHAT I REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND IS HOW SO MANY REVIEWS ON THIS SITE ARE POSTED BY PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN OWN THE PRODUCT THEY REVIEW. THE PERFORMANCE OF MY 2800 HAS BEEN FLAWLESS. IT PLAYS EVERYTHING I THROW AT IT AND HUMILIATES MY SONY 7700. I ALSO USE THIS UNIT AS A TRANSPORT TO SEND DIGITAL TO MY P1A/P3A UPSAMPLER/DAC FOR TWO CHANNEL LISTENING. BETWEEN MUSIC AND DVD'S I EASILY USE THE 2800 50HRS OR MORE A WEEK AND HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM. IT IS THE ONLY PEICE UNDER $3500 THAT USES THE PURE PROGRESSIVE SILICON IMAGE CHIP, OUTPUTS 24/96 AND CAN DO HDCD. I VIEW THE 2800 IMAGES ON THE PANASONIC TAU 34 HD MONITOR WHICH HAS BEEN ISF CALIBRATED AND THE PICTURE IS STUNNING. THE ONLY THING THAT LOOKS BETTER HDTV BROADCAST. I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD IGNORE MANY OF THE REVIEWS OF THE 2800 AND TRY IT FOR THEMSELVES.

Similar Products Used:

SONY DVP-7700

Image/Audio quality, Build quality

Nothing aside from the remote.

Image quality is my number one concern with a dvd player, not audio.

This is as close you can get to film-quality with a dvd player under $1000 on an HD ready RPTV, period (I'm using a Toshiba 50HX81). I'm pretty sure of that now after auditioning virtually every player in the $2,000 and below range. The SD9200 is the closest rival but with it's dismal deinterlacing performance with the Genesis chipset and it's higher price tag (due to it's ability to play DVD-A) the Denon is still clearly the winner in my book. This is not to say that the Denon will in fact give you film-quality images. Not by a long shot. I don't think a dvd player/TV exists that can. Video is inherently different. I'm a cinematographer so I know what I'm talking about. You'll get a decent aproximation but it's still not the same thing. Film-quality does not mean a "soft" image. Film has a much higher "virtual" resolution than any TV or dvd player is capable of displaying. Not to mention the fact that we're talking about grain with film and pixels or scan-lines with video. That being said, the Denon in progressive mode can, in my opinion, almost give you a 16mm film-look (as opposed to 35mm film used in almost all theatrical films) or better at times. You get much better depth and dimension in the image than with other players. The picture just looks/feels "big". Colors are properly saturated, with fairly accurate reproduction, and the blacks are black.

At any rate, there may be a player that will someday (hopefully sooner than later) surpass the video quality of this player but for now this is as good as it gets.

Similar Products Used:

Tosh SD9200, Philipps Q50, JVC s60, others too many to mention.

Amazing interlaced picture, price, built like a truck, plays more than just DVDs. Actually plays discs from Germany, in PAL even! What a bonus!

The manual isn't a pamphlet, it's a novel! Does any unit need this much literature? The remote is so bad, it creates fear and loathing in my cat.

The Good:
My eyes have died and gone to heaven! This is a great DVD player. Set it up, sit back and be amazed. Crystal clear, film-like picture. The set up menu is a tad tedious, but workable.

I bought a DVD/CD in Germany that I thought I would never be able to watch. I thought I was just stuck with the CD portion of it. No, no, no... Not with this Denon. I can not only play the disc, but I can watch it in NTSC (in color but fuzzy), Multi (clearer, but in B&W) or in PAL (B&W and it looks great). It is a filmed concert, so the B&W doesn't bother me in the least. I am not sure why it comes out in B&W. I do not have a PAL TV set, so maybe that is why. If anyone knows, let me know.

The Bad:
Someone should tell Denon, if they are going to come out with useless owner's manuals, try to make them shorter.

The Ugly:
The pointless and excessive literature is nothing in comparison to the dreadful remote. It's poorly designed and cumbersome. I have programmed its contents into my marginally better Aktis, so I plan to pitch the DVD remote.

In sum:
Regardless of the minor (maybe personal) problems with this machine's accessories, I am very pleased with my purchase.

Similar Products Used:

JVC, Pioneer, Sony

Excellent image quality in RGB. Very good sound.

Manual of weak quality. It lacks a function to turn off the display

The image presents a quality notable when linked through RGB, the same not happening when the connection is S-video

Similar Products Used:

Arcam dvd88

Best picture quality around at this time.

ehm... You have to upgrade the firmware

This is a great player but it needs to be firmware upgraded.

I found this site containing the original #5248 firmware upgrade. It includes a modified one enabling PAL/Progressive playback and regionfree 1-6 to !!!
(Simply burn them to CD-R and follow instructions in readme file).

It's in german, so use babelfish at altavista.com to translate or something like that:

http://www.tsn-cd.de/dvdplayer/2800firmware.htm

http://world.altavista.com/tr

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer dvd-535

Picture quality, sound quality, build, MP3, CD-R/CD-RW with MPEG-2/AC3 playback

Almost none, little error in time display when playing VBR MP3 files

This is really unbelievable, what¡¦s all this crap about bugs and errors with this player? I own this player for some time now and I am completely stunned by its performance. At this price, there is no better player out there¡K Ignore all the negative reviews, this player rocks! (No, I am not a Denon employee, I even bought this player after a sync problem with the DVD1500 since it is a stunning device).

What to tell about this player? The picture blows me away, it is just incredible, it seems like every frame is a high-resolution picture with perfect detail. I¡¦ve got the same feeling of sensation when I upgraded from VHS to my first DVD player and I do not even own a tv capable of progressive scan, yet. The sound is also very good, since the used D/A converter is a good one, this of course too since the player is capable of HDCD¡¦s and therefor a good analog out is required to make this feature useful. The build of the player is also great, it looks good, feels good and the playing mechanism is silent.

What I also use a lot is the MP3 playback feature of this player. Although MP3 is of course not an outstanding media, some ways of compression (L.A.M.E. encoder and VBR setting 1 generate MP3¡¦s around an average of 200 kbps) sounds really great and is hard to distinguish from CD. The only problem with this player is the problem of time display using VBR MP3 files. The files all play perfectly, no problem, but the time goes too fast. Another problem is the time limit of 99 minutes on the display. If you¡¦re MP3 file is bigger, it will continue playing it only the time will overflow again to 0:00 and counting¡K But these are all just minor things I do not care about. You don¡¦t even need to use the OSD to play MP3 files, just use normal CD controls.

Currently this player is my digital eat-it-all. I use it to play DVD¡¦s, CD¡¦s, MP3 CD¡¦s and even home made MPEG-2 movies with AC3 sound in VOB files. These files are selectable through the OSD just as with MP3 files. Be ware though that since the player is a 4x speed CD-ROM drive. A MPEG-2 movie on a CD-R or CD-RW (yes, it reads CD-RW¡¦s too!) may no longer use the maximum data rate of 9800kbps for DVD but needs to be set back to 5500kbps and a 448kbps AC3 stream to make sure the 6000kbps limited by CD is not surpassed.

My end conclusion is simple. It is quite an expensive player, but it is double worth its money. I saw a review in the What HiFi? recently (september 2001), and they rated this player as a supertest winner with 5 golden stars. It is really a remarkable player and I love it in every way. I recommend it to everybody who is willing to spend some more money on a great DVD player instead of a standard player.

Too bad I can give it only 5 stars ļ

It can be made region free to play the regions 1 and 2, please check your dealer!

Similar Products Used:

RealMagic Hollywood Plus, Denon DVD1500, Pioneer DV535

Built-quality. Great picture. PAL and NTSC playback.

Digital output has problem. Remote is ugly.

Great picture and 2-channel sound quality.
Shaky digital output. I hooked up this player with my
Sunfire Theater Grand II preamp and Martin Logan
speekers. There are audio drop-outs and my pre-amp's
multi-channel light will blink. No other DVD players
have this problem. And, if I hook up this player with
other kinds of preamps, this problem does not exist, either.

The service department of Denon does not consider this
as a problem, since it works with other pre-amps. But
I still have problem with this pair. Don't know which
one is at fault.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-37. Sony NS700P.