Denon 3910 Universal Player - Opinions?

Jer, I don't entirely have much faith in the Secrets reveiws as they never deducted points for the macro blocking on the 5900,that and there is a Huge Denon banner at that site.

Anyway, I already picked up a 3910,,,and guess what, "IT WILL NOT EVEN POWER UP", whether you use the main power button or the remote, this 3910 is DOA.

I am going back to the store as they had two more 3910's besides this one.

This is not a good start at all, and I can hardly beleive that I got a doa unit.
That has never ever happened to me whith any other gear ever.
The serial # of the doa unit is 4068400860 not sure if this is a first bad batch deal or what , but I find it quite ironic.

Greg

What can I say?

No faith in "Secrets?" Wow!

DOA 3910? Wow!!!

Why would you even want one? Your opinion is already established...WITHOUT even seeing or hearing it!!!

Good Luck on the perfect pursuit of Digital Video. While you are pursuing, I will be enjoying.

Peace,

Jer

Bwfreak, Secrets is supposed to be used as a guideline, not a bible for dvd quality.

I did use it as a guideline only, up until the 5900 rating.

The salesman took a second 3910 out of the box and powered it up before I arrived to swap them out.
He of course said he had never seen a dvd player DOA before this.
Maybe he is telling the truth, and maybe not, but when there is money involved,which comes in all forms such as advertising on reveiw sites, you can never really know for sure, can you?

Kris himself acknowledges the macro blocking problem on the 5900 and failed to use that info in the scoring, or at least adjusting the score once this problem was verified by Denon on the 5900.

My comparison will be more than fair, regardless of the superior build of the sp 1000, and all those other pro and personal reveiws claiming that it is the best they have ever seen and in some cases heard.

Who wouldn't want a cheaper player that looked and/or sounded better?
I know I would, if this turned out to be the case for me.

Take care
Greg

A very interesting comparison of sonic performance, on all formats, will be the Denon DVD-3910 -vs- Marantz DV9500,when the DV9500 becomes available!

As far as my little comparison on the 3910 and sp 1000, they both have the blacker than black bug for hdmi/dvi connections.

I checked for macro blocking, and found no objectional excessive macro blocking in movies that definitly show it.
The 480p was great for both players, but the 1000 made movies such as Unbreakable, have a smoother background throughout the film and offered the same great detail as the 3910 at the same time.

Audio comparisons were all done in 2 channel whith the 1000 having a more laid back soundstage and more body whithin the soundstage.
The 3910 initially sounds pretty good,but I would say its on the bright side of neutral for redbook and sa-cd.

The 3910 did not handle complex music as well as the 1000, and also had a slightly lean sounding midrange.

I don't listen to much dvd-a, but I found the 1000 too laid back as compared to the 3910 for dvd-a, and would pick the 3910 for that format.

I think the 3910 is a better player (other than build) to the 5900.
It offers slightly better video whithout excessive macro blocking, and good sound for the money.

If I had tried the 3910 first, I am sure I would be happy whith it, other than the hdmi/dvi btb problem.
Whith the 1000, it is worth the extra money for build, smoother film image and the neutral sonics, but it also has the hdmi/dvi btb problem.

Why can't these companys get this right?

Greg