Denon 2930ci Looks Like Crap on 1080P LCD?


Greetings Agoners.A little over a week ago I jumped on a brand new Toshiba 42" 1080P LCD for my small home theater system, moving up from an older 37" Philips LCD.For the first week I was sourced by a Denon DVD 1920 set at 720P output & the pic was STUNNING.Of course being the typical A/V Phile I figured a new 1080P upconverting DVD/P would really put my tv over the top.Well yesterday I drove 250 miles round trip to pick up a brand new Denon DVD 2930ci.Got home & spent the next 1/2 hour getting the old deck out & the new deck in.Set up all the video parameters & threw in the first disc.NO!!!!!The pic was crap.Processing lines could be seen & it was totaly soft.In went disc after disc with the same result.I went through EVERY video parameter,trying all levels of output,1080P,1080i,720P & even 480/576P&i.Nothing made a bit of difference except to get even worse.W.T.F.?I put the old deck back in along side the new one & the pic was back to it's awesome status.I really want to keep the 2930ci because it's audio output is fantastic & a definite step up from the 1920 but don't think I can justify keeping the $850.00 machine just for an audio disc player.Video cable is an Audioquest HDMi3(top of the A/Q line)& the deck is set up on VibraPods & pluged into a digitally isolated recep on my Pure AV power conditioner.I even tried plugging sraight into the wall but that didn't help either.Any suggestions on what the problem may be & how to fix it?Thanks in advance for any help provided.
freediver
Check the avsforum and see how the OPPO DVD Player works with your TV. Oppo 981 or 970.Oppo may be to good also. oppo.com JD
Diver- Your problem has nothing to do with 1080P and 720P resolutions. The only difference is where the upscaling gets done - either in the player, or in the TV. Expecting a big difference in an upscaling DVD player means that you are assuming that the scaler in your TV is junk. It's going to be a pretty subtle difference either way, unless your TV is crap.

Your problem, is that your new player just isn't as good as your old one. There's a lot more to video than resolution alone. Maybe it's defective, maybe it's just crap. It sounds like you need to find a better player, regardless.

Why did you drive 250 miles for a mid-fi DVD player? Online ordering is a few clicks away. The Oppo is well reviewed, supposed to be a good picture, but the build quality is low.

If you can scrape up a little bit of dough, the best DVD player I've found is the Onkyo SP1000 http://www.hpdirectav.com/item.aspx?eid=1&pid=92982 , it also replaced my Jolida CD player because it just sounds better, and does SACD and DVD-A too. Transport is the best I've seen on a DVD player, and video is near flawless.

Not necessarily plugging that product, the choice is yours... but in your case, I think it's time to return the new Denon and start looking into different players.
There are several things I would check first.
1) Did you use the HDMI connection from the DVD player to your TV ?
2) On your DVD player remote, there is a setup button. Click on it and make sure the display is setup to be 4:3 or 16:9.
3) Choose best resolution..1080P or whatever...

I have the Denon 2910ci and after I did all that it looks much better on my Sharp 1080 LCD TV.

Good Luck.