Denon 3910 Universal Player - Opinions?

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

Ears. Nice review. People keep saying some of these players have "better build" than others. I am curious, on what grounds is this being determined?

Bwhite, you can look at close ups of both of these players guts at the Crutchfield site.

The sp 1000 has a lot beefier power supply that includes a torridal transformer.
The tray on the sp 1000 glides out smoothly whithout a peep, where the 3910, you can hear the tray easily make a low level grinding or clicking noise.
The transport on the 1000, is more like one you might find on more expensive hi end gear, and the transport tray on the 3910 seems cheap in comparison.....no offense to 3910 owners.

The build difference is real obvious in person, but hard to describe whithout making the 3910 sound cheaper than it is.

The fact that the 1000 is a lot more responsive to commands, disc reading ect tends to make the perceived better build quality seem better yet.

The only thing the 1000 does slow is dvd-a, and I find both players to be way too slow when using dvd-a.

BTW... I do not automatically assume that the better build sounds or looks better on any source, but when they do perform better, it offers a sense of getting what you paid for, which is really just an added nice bonus.

While I don't beleive the 3910 looks bad in general,it pales in comparison to the 1000 in the looks department....but that is subjective.

The 1000 weighs 27 lbs, but if you look at pictures of both players guts at the Crutcfield site, its better to see the difference as far as build goes.

I have never owned an Onkyo/Integra source before this one, but I am highly impressed whith the build and reaction time, as well as the transport.