Denon DVD-2930CI Review
August 8, 2006
Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending some time with the new Denon DVD-2930CI which uses the Silicon Optix Reon HQV chipset. The review took place at my good friend Raj Birbal’s ‘Home Cinema Entertainment’ in Alpharetta Georgia. I have to say it was quite a home theater geek-fest, as we not only tested the 2930CI but the Denon DVD-1730 and Calibre Vantage-HD video scaler/switcher but as if this wasn’t enough, all viewing took place on the impressive InFocus 777 video projector.
As fun as all the above products were to play around with I want to get back to the DVD-2930CI, as you may remember I first mentioned the HQV equipped player back in mid July and at the time it was assumed (based on Denon’s ship schedule) that the earliest we would get our hands on one would be in September. Long story short luckily we didn’t have to wait that long.
As mentioned above, the display device for this review was an InFocus 777 front projector, the 777 is a three chip 720p projector that I have to say, beyond any shadow of a doubt was simply the best 720p display I’ve ever seen, which is also problematic to some degree. I generally prefer to do my reviews at home with my equipment because, well it’s just what I’m most accustomed to.
However once I became familiar with how the 777 looked (I took my Toshiba HD-XA1 and played some SD DVD on it) I felt that the combination of the displays 720p resolution and the fact that Raj uses a massive 123” diagonal screen in his showroom, more than balanced out the differences from my system.
Or in other words even though the projector was considerably better than what I’m used to, standard definition DVD’s at 123” should by default be handicapped considerably. Well what I found was that theory holds little weight to how well the DVD-2930CI displays DVD, even on massive screens.
First Impressions: Un-boxing the player immediately told me that Denons’s heavy, solid build quality on their mid to upper end gear is still very much in place. The player felt as if it could have been extruded from a solid piece of steel rather than containing some of the most advanced circuitry to ever grace the inside of a DVD player. No flimsy plastic casing here, the shell felt as if it was professional instrument grade quality and not a piece of consumer electronics.
The remote wasn’t backlit but as anyone who’s seriously considering this player, likely owns a universal remote this was hardly reason for concern. I will say that even though it wasn’t backlit, the remote was a step up from the utilitarian remote included with my DVD-1910. The front panel controls and rear panel connection were classic Denon, simple logical and refined.
Cabling & Connections: As the player is an up-scaler (all the way to 1080p) we opted for HDMI directly to the projector and coaxial to the surround system. Even though the 777 accepts 1080p inputs, I opted for 720p from the 2930CI as it matched the projectors native resolution as well as ensured that all processing took place in the DVD-2930CI and not the projector. After all the internal HQV chipset was the real focus here.
Note: I did switch over to 1080p output from the player for a short while to ensure compatibility but again 720p display = 720p output in my book, the majority of the time anyway. Rear Panel Connections.
HQV Benchmark: I know I know, another new DVD player, what’s the big deal? I won’t even beat around the bush here folks, the DVD-2930CI and the soon to be released 3930CI are among the first consumer DVD players to utilize the HQV video processors (DVD-5910 as well) and what better way to test the 2930CI’s de-interlacing, noise rejection, detail level and cadence detection than the Silicon Optix HQV benchmark DVD.
•Color Bar/Vertical Detail: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Jaggies Pattern 1: Pass – Score 5 of 5
•Jaggies Pattern 2: Pass – Score 5 of 5
•Flag: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Picture Detail: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Noise Reduction: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Motion Adaptive Noise Reduction: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•3:2 Detection: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Film Cadence: Pass – Score (Combined) 40 of 40
•Mixed 3:2 Film, Horizontal Text Crawl: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Mixed 3:2 Film, Vertical Text Crawl: Pass – Score 10 of 10
•Total Score:130 out of a possible 130.
That’s right 130 out of a possible maximum score of 130, cue the Rip Taylor confetti and party favors we have a winner. All kidding aside I can’t say as I’m actually surprised that an HQV equipped DVD player passed all of the HQV benchmark tests with flying colors but it is worth noting that the DVD-2930CI uses the Silicon Optix Reon-Vx and not the higher end Realta.
Another impressive bit of functionality directly related to the HQV video processing in the DVD-2930CI, is its multi-stepped adjustable noise reduction. Noise reduction circuitry in a DVD player is a plus, noise reduction that you can turn on and off in a DVD player is an ever bigger plus. But the DVD-2930CI not only has fantastic multi-stepped noise reduction, it’s adjustable and doesn’t greatly reduce the resolution of the image even at the highest setting.
So we’re done right? this players a winner. Not so fast, while I readily admit that the HQV benchmark is an important tool for evaluating DVD players and displays the real proof is in the viewing. Let me cite a few examples. I recently reviewed a budget video projector that failed nearly every one of the HQV cadence tests, except that is the all important 3:2 pull down detection test, end result? The projector in question will still receive a recommendation when the review posts, as I feel that it adequately passed the critical tests even though it failed on some of the less common cadences.
Second example, my Denon DVD-1910 actually scores slightly better than the Toshiba HD-A1 but the HD-A1 looks better in my system, quite a bit better as a matter of fact. At the end of the day tests and benchmarks are only half of the story. Now let’s get back to the rest of the story with the DVD-2930CI.
Image Quality:
As stated, talk is talk but image quality is the name of the game here, so I cued up the most recent disc I’d viewed with my Toshiba HD-XA1 and got down to brass tax. With the Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark (from the box set) disc in tray I was ready to see what this player is capable and again on a 123” screen, that should devour anything as measly as 480 lines of vertical resolution, or so one would think.
The first thing that jumped out at me versus the XA-1’s rendition of the same opening sequence was black level, it was defined and crisp and showed quite a bit of shadow detail once Indy moved into the temple. The color was highly saturated yet never over saturated. At first glance this was one of the best DVD images I’ve seen at any screen size much less 123”
Moving forward to chapter 23, as Indy races through the desert after the ark, I couldn’t help but notice the excellent earthtones in the soldier’s uniforms. I also noticed some of the best fleshtones I’ve seen from DVD, take a look at the screen shot below.
This shot was taken from the 123” screen on a 3.2MP camera; notice the actor foreground and background have two distinct fleshtones and the shading on the foreground actor’s face. But more importantly than that take a look at the detail in his jacket, again this is a screen shot taken directly from a DVD on a 123” screen using no external video processor.
The DVD-2930CI was so good that I occasionally found myself forgetting to take notes and just got lost in the movie. As someone who reviews gear, sometimes back to back and for several weeks at a time in some cases, you will never hear a bigger endorsement for a piece of CE equipment than my comment above. All home theater gear is a means to an end and not an end itself; I don’t take any piece of gears ability to suspend disbelief lightly.
After snapping back to reality and realizing I had to put pen to paper, I shifted to the two-disc Pearl Harbor box set and skipped forward to chapter 22’s first strike. I wanted to get a feel for how the DVD-2930CI handled CGI in the attack sequence. Before I could get that far however I noticed how red the red rising sun on the zero’s were, it was a deep rich red as opposed to the orange’ish red in previous viewings.
I noticed the battle sequence was a bit easier to follow, being able to place all of the individual elements of the battle in their own space and time, definitely provided a superior experience over past viewings. I also noticed the sound effects seemed to have a better pace and rhythm with the action on screen
From Pearl Harbor we moved onto Kill Bill Vol.1 and chapter 14’s ‘The Crazy 88’s’. I noticed subtle details in the bride’s face I’d never seen before. Again I also noticed a certain ease or fluidity to the fight choreography that eluded me in previous viewings. As Beatrix back flips away from Go-Go’s mace I noticed newfound detail in the wood floor below. It was as if I was viewing the scene for the first time.
Skipping forward to chapter 16 where O’Ren finds out first hand, yes that is a Hanzo sword. The falling snow in the shot took on a convincing 3D effect that I most definitely hadn’t noticed in any previous viewing. Each flake of snow seemed to occupy its own individual place in the shot and made the presentation even more convincing.
Next I popped in the super-bit edition of ‘Hollow Man’ and skipped forward to chapter 9. Again as in all previous clips fleshtone was rendered with an almost eerie accuracy, fine detail and black level also excelled but it was with this title that I noticed something I wasn’t expecting, something that in retrospect I should have expected all along.
I saw less overall improvement with ‘Hollow Man’ than with all of the previous titles played through the DVD-2930CI. Like I said, I suppose that I was expecting every disc in my collection to be some sort of revelation and in the end this just wasn’t the case or even likely. Hollow Man is by far one of the best DVD transfers I’ve ever seen and about the only thing the DVD-2930CI could add to this already fantastic disc was increased clarity between the foreground and background objects in the film, no small feat but certainly not the ‘oh wow look at that’ factor that other titles had provided.
It seems as if the DVD-2930CI really excels at overcoming many of the flaws of inferior transfers and lets the excellent transfers really shine, in the end can we really ask for more from a DVD player? I wanted to try out one last disc to shore up my opinion on the DVD-2930CI’s image quality and picked iRobot for this task.
Skipping forward to chapter 10 on the factory floor, I noticed a finer gradient of shading in the panels of Bridget Moynahan’s coat and again in the detail department, I noticed the exposed components in the robots with more depth and detail than in previous viewings. To be quite honest, overall I felt iRobot through the DVD-2930CI was nearly as good as the recent airing on HBO-HD, often times I find that color accuracy is the first thing I notice in HD even before the the improved resolution.
Skipping forward to chapter 31 where the police chief unloads his shotgun into a rather perturbed robot was nothing short of jaw dropping and that’s something I haven’t said about DVD in ages. Later as the robots mass in the streets for their takeover, I noticed detail in the background buildings as if it was a first viewing. Overall iRobot on the DVD-2930CI was nearly flawless.
Summary: I’m starting to really get why Denon opted to sit out the format war, they are able to continue to justify the price of premium DVD players, without breaking a sweat over which side to pick. Speaking of the format wars, I’ve decided what would make for the ultimate combo-player, a Denon multi-format player that consists of whichever HD side wins and their own excellent up-scaling DVD playback.
The DVD-2930CI is by far the finest DVD player I’ve ever had the pleasuring of reviewing. But of course that statement must be qualified with, I’ve haven’t had the opportunity to fully review the Denon DVD-5910(CI) or the DVD-2930CI’s big brother the DVD-3930CI, all of which use HQV processing and scaling.
Needless to say the DVD-2930CI is highly recommended and with the right amount of care this player could conceivably carry you through the entire format war and well beyond, without ever skipping a beat. Regardless of your hi-def DVD plans if you own even a moderate DVD collection and are looking for something above the fold in DVD playback, be sure to audition the Denon DVD-2930CI before making your final decision, your eyes will thank me.
Product Details – Denon DVD-2930CI:
•Retail: $849.00 – Availability 8/8/06 Depending on Supply.
•Progressive Scan Universal DVD-V/DVD-A/SACD/CD playback.
•Silicon Optix Reon-Vx HQV chipset for 10-bit HD output from a standard definition 8-bit DVD source.
•HDMI output and scaling to 1080p.
•PC Resolution to SXGA.
•RS-232 C interface,
•Parallel audio and video outputs.
•Denon Link.
Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under DVD Player Reviews, Reviews
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