Audio Video News

One enduring truth about the electronics industry is the longer you wait, the more you get for your money.

Denon's new DVD-2900 is proof. The single-disc universal player is the first one on the market to break the $1000 price point. Suggested retail is $999, with the actual price to be determined by dealers and savvy buyers.

Advance publicity indicates that the 2900 may be the single source home theater fans have been looking for – capable of playing two-channel or multichannel Super Audio CDs, DVD-Audio discs, MP3s, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R/RW, and of course, DVD-video, in interlaced or progressive scan mode. The DVD-2900 even works as a JPEG viewer, compatible with Kodak Picture and Fujicolor CDs.

Video specs on the machine look very promising. The DVD-2900 features a Silicon Image/DVDO PureProgressive (SiI504) digital signal processing "decoding engine" capable of 6 billion operations per second (6 GOPS), buffered by 64MB of external SDRAM. A four-field digital video processing feature is said to insure optimum motion detection and compensation, and the player's 2:3 pulldown detection and reconstruction is claimed to work flawlessly even with inaccurately flagged content

User-adjustable video tweaks include variable black level and setups for tint, brightness, contrast, sharpness and gamma. Video connectors include two S-video and two composite video, in addition to a component video output. The RS-232C, remote in/out ports, digital outputs, and full bank of audio connectors fill out the 2900's back panel.

Other technical advancements include Mitsubishi's MPEG/DVD-Audio decoder, Sony's second generation CXD-2753 DSD decoder, and Analog Devices' ADV-7300, a 12 bit/108 MHz, 4:4:4, video DAC with noise shaped video processing. The 2900 also features 4x oversampling progressive and 8X interlaced outputs, 2X DVD read speed; 4X CD/CD-R/CD-RW read speed; and 8MB drive buffer memory. Surround sound decoding includes Dolby Digital, dts, DVD-Audio and discrete SACD decoders with 5.1 analog outputs with full digital bass management and 80Hz crossover with 12/24dB slopes on all channels. The SACD channel levels are all user adjustable. The DVD-2900 should deliver the utmost from SACD and CD sources via Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192-kHz DSD 1790 Audio DACs that decode PCM and DSD signals discretely with no down-conversion of DSD.

DVD-Audio performance should also be excellent thanks to Analog Devices' Melody 32-bit processor; including an 80Hz crossover with 12dB high/24dB low pass slopes, adjustable channel levels and delay time variable from 0-15ms. The 24bit/96kHz digital output is available as both optical and coaxial. The player's "Pure Direct Modes" turn off unused circuitry in the player for what Denon calls "the ultimate in audio performance."

A "glo-key" remote makes the 2900 easy to operate in dark rooms. The player measures 17.1" W x 5.2" H x 13.0" D and weighs 17.6 lbs.