This is audioreview.com not videoreview.com I agree with "DVD ..." guy, this player does no play cd's as well as a Denon 1650, or a Rotel 971 ($699). The best sounding DVD player (with cd's) is the Cal CL-20. It blows the cd capability of the 5000 away!. This unit IS 5 stars with video reproduction, on par with the Cal Audio and just below the Theta.

High quality picture, Great sound.

Price.

I purchased this unit to replace my Sony 7000 due to it's lack of DTS about 4mos ago. I have since been wondering if I did the right thing. Sure the Denon has excellent video and great sound, but so did the Sony. The difference between the two units in my opinion is minimal, harldy worth the 2-Grand I shelled out for the addition of DTS on the Denon. After reading the XBR 250 reviews on this sight, I took the advice of several reviews and ordered some $75 Canare component video to replace my $250 XLO component cables. I have to be honest and say that even after reading the reviews about the Canare cables, I wasn't expecting Much if any difference in the cable change, but for $75 bucks, I felt like "what the hell, why not". Well, when the cables arrived the first thing that I noticed was how good the looked. Definitly high quality cable. Upon hooking these cables to my Denon 2500, I stood in awe at the picture being displayed on my Wega. These cables absolutely killed my friggin $250 XLO's. In disbelief I quickly swapped the cables back to the XLO's. It was even more clear than before, these Canare cables proved to be far superior in every way; better color saturation, less color bleeding, far less video noise, and less flicker on a paused image. I can't say enough about these cables. Damn it's nice to pay less and get more for a change. These cables really alow my 2500 to shine. By the way does anybody want to buy some XLO's for real cheap! Oh well anyway, know I feel very godd about the purchase of my Denon 2500. Oh yea, by the way if anybody is interested I purchased these cables from Custom Audio/Video Connection ph #(830)625-6745. See ya!

Similar Products Used:

Sony 7000 hooked up to my XBR 250 Wega.

Sound Quality, Picture, Tracking

NONE

I have had no problems with the picture or any other digital artifacts to speak of. The Sound mates perfectly eith other Dennon Receivers. I like the build quality as well.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Sony

Good picture and sound

Optical Pickup!!! Replaced twice already!!!

I bought mine in Nov.of '98 and had it serviced 02/99 & 11/99 due to optical pickup failure (error: H02/No play/No Disc). I am also using the first generation Panasonic DVD-A300 since 03/77 and find not even one glitch.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVD-A300
Sony DVP-7700

Picture, sound, build and uncluttered front panel.

Disk tray, too flimsey for product of this caliber!

I bought Dennon-5000 after I was disappointed in Sony DVD-530D. I have used it for about 4-5 months and am very pleased with it's performance. I had little hickup as on a particular DVD, it was getting stuck. The dealer Magnolia HI-FI was more then happy to replace the unit (and did!) without any hassel at all. No more problems ever again, and we have watched quite a few movies. Build qulity is very solid, picture quality is excellent (I am using it with Sony XVR3600 through S-Video input) and I am impressed with sound quality as well even though I am using my TV for sound right now! My only complain is very flimsey disk tray. I would like Deneon to use a much more sturdy tray and hopefuly if they do change it, then it would be nice if tray's on existing units could be retrofit.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD530D

Now that I have given the DVD5000 a good 3 months of use, I can say it is the best out there. My first reaction was that it was top notch in video and sound playback. But now, after about 10 - 15 DVD movies and countless CD playbacks, I feel pretty qualified to review it. Some of the material used as I evaluated it were 4 of the Chesky 24bit DVD Audio pieces; several JVCXRCD 20bit CDs; several Mobile Fidelity CDs; Terminator 2 DVD; Eraser DVD; LA Confidential DVD; Backdraft DVD; and Face/Off DVD. This list of software is by no means comprehensive. It is merely a sampling of some of the better software titles I have seen or heard since I bought the DVD5000 in November.
Yet another of my review criteria includes my testing some other CD/DVD players at audio stores with most of the same receivers/ amps and speakers that I own. The others I tried out were the Meridian DVD (can't remeber the model#. 524?);
Sony 7700.

The Denon simply was better sounding and had a better picture than the others. No matter what was played on any of these players, Denon's DVD 5000 beat out the others. The sound reproduction was not even believable. I can't go into any other crazy detail or data that means nothing to me or many other people who only care about the bottom line: quality. Sound quality and video quality are the best. Period.

Anyone who wants to try this out, go to a dealer with your own software to try out on a few different ones. It is pricey at $2500, but it performed better than the even pricier Meridian.

And speaking of cost, at least 3 people at these stores told me they consider the Denon the "best sounding CD player" you can get for under $12,000. One guy said you need to go all the way to the Krell $20,000 to see incremental improvement. And even then, he said, the difference is ever so slight and only an "incremental" improvement.

Argue with me if you must -- you know who you are -- but the bottom line is you will not find ANYTHING better thatn this. If price is a MAJOR issue, go with the Sony 7700. However, if you can afford to stretch, this Denon DVD 5000 is the way to go!

Enjoy!

To DVD; actually, I had THE Denon Western Sales Manager tell me that the 5000 is significantly better than any CD player they have right now. I work in this industry; I would assume, since he knows he can't lie to me without me knowing it, this is what he tells sales people across his region. He would not do that if he was worried about shooting down some of their CD sales, which indicates he is being very accurate. I've been around all of their stuff for quite some time now, and since they practically invented everything from the CD to the machines radio stations use to play them, I'm inclined to believe the guy. It sounds to me like you drink too much coffee, DVD an "Audiophile" (shudder); relax and enjoy the ride.

Where's "DVD an Audiophile"---oh, there he is; hiding under a rock when he saw me. Listen, let's compare apples to apples. Notice that the DVD5000 has something critical in its name---DVD! Don't talk about its CD performance when it wasn't really built to be a CD player. I would buy a DVD player to just do DVDs even if it cost $2000, and a CD player solely to do CDs for the same money. I really think people enjoy bashing products because their loyalties lie elsewhere, and not because of the actual performance. It is a DVD player, so base you usually short-sighted reviews on the video and digital audio (from movies).

I've had a DVD-5000 for three months or so, and the only thing that bothers me is the auto-shutdown feature - especially the fact that you don't seem to able to disable this feature.
If the DVD-5000 has been idle for 30 minutes, it goes to standby mode.
This is not how a high-end audio device should behave. IMHO, A high-end audio device should go to standby only if you explicitly tell it to do so.

I will not write about any other issues regarding this device - it seems to have been exhaustively described and discussed already. Look at the stars.

This is a very good DVD player.
Regarding the clicking noise--this is the sound of relays inside the unit. Relays are a sign of quality engineering. When the unit is paused or stopped the relays are heard. This is likely the player attenuating its audio output.

Finally, be advised that Denon America recently completed an employee accomodation program selling the DVD-5000 for $999 to audio store employees. At this price it is a superb DVD machine.