Caveat Emptor "Buyer Beware"

Never again will I ever recommend or Purchase another Denon Product. I have been a solid Denon customer for about 30 years going back to a $600 DLP-Turntable. I have used their moving coil cartridges. This unit makes about the 9-10th product I have purchased from them. Well the story is after I have had nothing but issues on their at the time top end $4000 unit. I have had 4 different traverse Mechs. installed one even at my cost of about $350 bucks. It still will not read the majority of my DVD's??? I have a cheap Toshiba unit and a DVD 2900 that does read them fine. My P.c's read them all fine. The new Leader in Customer Service/Tech support at Denon now says the unit has been modified in its audio circuit which has nothing to do with reading a disc. I would also like to note it never matter before about 3-4 months ago when their repair service center repaired it under warranty repair??? Didn't matter when the charged me for the replacement either. This mod was done by a very highly repectable company and known to be leading edge in the industry. I might add that it was done when I originally received the unit and was told by Denon they had no problem with this action concerning warranty. I guess the main thing is this is the worse customer support in any field that I have encountered. Denon is just not the company they once were...$$$... Maybe that is why they are now known as D & M Holdings....Denon and Marrantz so you know. We as consumers should be aware of this type of thing especially when we spend our hard earned dough in this economic market. No value here and situations such as this will certainly hurt their value on the resale market. Oh and just so you may know? I was told by a very reliable Denon Tech that Denon has been making the Traverse Mechs without an adjustment for their lazers for a while now and that is when issues started? Saves money in their production cost. Screw the Customer and Mo'Money Mo'Money Mo'Money for Corporate profits and all. I guess they can sell their stuff at the local Walmarts and now the defunct Circuit Cities. Disposible units.

There are many other choices for us.

Read almost all discs (format wise and region wise).
Stunning Video quality.
Audiophile quality sound production althought not quite top-notch.
solid build quality.

Slow operation speed.
The slowest navigation speed.
Earlier year model with common laser-reader issues.

I purchased this DVD in 2006 as a floor demo unit. It works fine for almost all CDs, DVDs, DVD-audio and SACDs. It does have the best video quality amony the DVD players I have owned. Its HDTV signals has smooth ines like those "upper-conversion" DVDs at 1080i output, with much better sharpness and colors. Its composite video output has kind of "over-rich" color which is perfect for tube TVs. But it would seem over saturated on my Panasonic Plasma monitor 50PHD8UK. But of course its HDTV component output has the correct (and can say perfect) color amount! Its sound is richer than my Old Sony comsumer top-of-line 970 (Not ES). The old Sony sounds a little too dry by comparison with less high-end details. However, if I use my Integra Research RDC-7 to decode the CD, the sound would have even higher resolution, but with a hint of being thinner. It reminds me the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital (from the same DVD). No matter what, these two would deliver sounds finer than all CD or DVD players I have owned. With the difference you can hear between the DVD-5900 and the Integra Research, you will be convinced that there are rooms for sound improvement (or at least, change).

This Denon plays 100% of discs I own, including many Chinese PAL version DVDs. However, it does have extremely slow navigation speed in DVD menus as well as routine operation. It does take 1-2 second hesitation time between your pushing a button and its beginning action. And recently, I did rent a couple of new Harry Potter DVDs (double layer version) which can be played on my Apex DVD (for kitchen) but can't be played on DVD-5900! I just sent it to Denon service center for this. To be fair, there are more DVDs the Denon can play but the Apex can't. Over all I would rate this Denon a solid 4.5 stars. I am giving a 5 star rating because I do not think at all that this player deserves only 1 or 2 stars! So I want to make some compensation. For the price I paid, the value would exceeds 5 stars. Good that I found the "double-layer" disc problem before 1 year warranty expires. Hope Denon can fix the problem.

Customer Service

Called customer service and waited for 25min. The person who picked up did not have a fine-trained phone service voice. But he understanded me quickly. He asked me to hold. In 5 min later, he informed me that he was still reading the Manual! I told him that it won't help. He immediately turned to other person and got some answers. Then he suggested me to contact the service center in our area with a correct (not showing on Denon web-site) phone number for a local service center. The whole calling lasted 45min. After I called that number, I learned that I did not have to go to the service center 25 mile away. I only needed to drop the DVD player at the store I purchased it, which the salesman did not mention (or did not make it clear).

Conveniently dropped the DVD-5900 at Anderson's TV a week ago. Still waiting for follow up. At least no upfront charge at all.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DVD 3800
Toshiba DVD 5400
Apex 1600D
Sony CD E970

Detail of both audio and video signals is surprisingly good; Build quality; Flawless performance (knocking on wood).

If I must nitpick: disc drawer doesn't close automatically upon powering off; Remote feels cheap (I'm using a Harmony system controller anyway).

Beatiful, detailed audio from both CDs and DVDs. Picture quality is amazing. Nothing but praise for this machine. Sounds great with B&K receiver/Vienna Acoustics speakers. Build quality is first rate, and it's a pleasure to use. Got a great price! It plays every kind of disc I've tried, a true universal player. Simple to use, better-than-expected performance; Highly recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Various Sony, other Denons

All.....Colors are exact and rich....detail is precise (for a non HD-DVD player)

Most definately would be the time the unit takes to activate any commands...slow slow slow

I have owned this unit for over a year now and feel that I can honestly say that without a doubt this unit is the best performing reference DVD player by far. I feel I can say that because I have owned the following players : Toshiba 9200, Pioneer Elite 47a....Both of these players did a poor job with the Chroma bug issue although colors may have been a bit richer than the Denon, but still the bug just bothered me to death....Denon is the only manufacturer that got the bug thing fixed and realized that it needed to be addressed.....You would think that both Toshiba and Pioneer would get it together and fix it.....I currently use the Denon in the DVI domain....and it works great....I have not noticed any macroblocking issues described in chat rooms and publications....Just an overall great job by a terrific machine....

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 9200 Pioneer Elite 47a

Excellent video section. Rugged build. 5 stars for video. 4 stars overall rating with the audio mods. Otherwise 3 stars overall.

Audio section sounds muffled and uninvolving in stock form. Needs a better remote for such an expensive unit. (Sony is much better.) Appearance is a bit stark and cold. 2 stars for audio.

When I first received the machine I was, of course, anxious to see if all the hype from this service as well as Audioholics was something I could agree with. Now, I have a fairly sophisticated set up with an overhead CRT projector (NEC)with a 100"x58" screen, Dwin line doubler,Odyssey amplification and Magnaplaner 3.6R speakers. My current DVD player was the Sony Dvp S9000es. After breaking in the Denon for several weeks I felt I had a pretty good idea of the Denons' capabilities. The video section of the Denon was sharper than the Sony and colors slightly deeper. An improvement to be sure. Maybe with a DVI connection into a quality DLP projector I would have noticed even more difference favoring the Denon. (I tried bypassing the line doubler by using the Denons' BNC connections but couldn't get it to work.) What greatly separated the Denon from the Sony was the superior sound coming from the S9000es. So much so I found listening to CDs very difficult on the Denon. Having heard great things about mods to Denon by Modwright, I took a chance and sent the unit to them for an upgraded audio section. I had everything done but the tube modification. I believe the whole thing came to about $1600.00. (This nullified the Denon warranty, of course.)For the second time, I opened the returned unit with great hopes of video and audio nirvana. Well, the sound was certainly better than the stock unit but still not as musical sounding as the Sony. A disappointment but movie soundtracks, at least sounded better. For CD playing I still use the Sony.

Similar Products Used:

Too many to mention.

Very pure sound, an audio engineer economy piece.

Remote and button placement.

A well made product, fortunately I did not have any of the issues other people had. Denon did have an update for people on their website that did allow for the fix. Anyway, very fine capabilities. I would have chosen the McIntosh over this piece except for the scaler in the Denon is much better. Very pure and true in not altering the sound.

benchmark Picture qualitry, supurb surround sound, build quality (27)pounds.

NOTHING!

this dvd-5900 is a "incredible machine". I was so pleased with the progressive scan 3-D, sharp detailed quality of the picture on my da-lite 144"x78" ( 130" diagional) screen, from a Sanyo PLV60HT projector. The sounds from this player through a Denon 4802 ss amp was terrific. Believe me folks, I was hearing sounds i never heard before with other dvd players. With so many feature adjustments for picture & sound quality to suite anyones taste, this is the one to buy! I use & recommend better cables silver serpent component cable, they performed better than many other high end component cables i tried, except for DVI connections.

Similar Products Used:

SONY DVD-7700, PIONEER 900, PHILLIPS 735

Sound quality, picture quality (when it works, which is about 50% of the time with my unit.

Really lousy performance and quality in reading and playing hybris SACDs. Poor product support.

Have always liked the sound of Denon CD players, but have avoided buying them because I've been told the company's quality control was poor. Unfortunately, this is true of the 5900 DVD player. The unit has a great picture and sound WHEN YOU CAN GET DISCS TO PLAY ON THE DARNED THING!!! About half of my hybrid SACDs, which play perfectly on my older Pioneer player will not play at all on this player. Denon has told my dealer there is a 'software glitch' with some of these 5900 players, but their instructions on how to correct it proved useless in correcting the problem with the 5900 I am returning to Tweeter ASAP!!!! It's a shame Denon cannot get its act together when the sound quality of their players is really excellent, and the picture quality is first rate. Guess I'll just wait for a manufacturer I can trust to make a reliable, high quality universal DVD player. (At $2000 there's no excuse for the kind of shoddy workmanship I've had to deal with in trying to use this machine!!! AVOID THIS PRODUCT AT ALL COSTS!!!

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer 45A DVD player. (Doesn't sound as good, but at least it works every time!!)