theatrejunkie

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from ebay

Summary:
This is my 2nd 3800, as I had to sell my first one for financial reasons, but, knowing I would buy another one as soon as I could afford it! This truely is an outstanding DVD player, and I've never experienced any of the problems mentioned on other reviews here.
One major reason I purchased this player is for the AL24 processing plus! If your looking for a player that has incredible sound, heres just one reason to own this player.
Hi quality DAC's, and build quality is outstanding weighing in @ 22lbs! Huge power transformer, super fast loading, extra deep disk tray for easy placement of dvd/cd's. DVD-A for those that want to take advantage of the 5 analog inputs on the back. Excellent bass management!
The only thing that concerns me (as many others have said also) is that the unit after 30 minutes or so gets pretty warm. When you eject a disk after watching a movie, you most likely will notice that it feels pretty warm to the touch.
Denon quality control says this is normal, and the unit I just purchased was built in Feb 2002! But, you wouldn't know it unless you looked at the date on the back. If you want to know when your unit was built, just look at the product number on the back. The 1st digit is the year, the next 2 digits is the month, and the last 5-7 numbers are unit specific identifying your specific player.
So if you buy a used/pre Owned 3800, and want to track its history, just give Denon USA customer service a call and give them the id# of the unit listed on the back (usually a 8-10 digit number), and they should be able to tell you (provided the previous owner/owners registered the player w/Denon) any service performed, if any.
If you are running this player with a Denon receiver as I am, it doesn't have the Denon link. So if this is important to you, you will need to step up to the 5900,3910,5910. There may be some newer model players that have the Denon link Im not aware of. This feature doesn't concern me, as Im just running a digital optical cable for 6.1, and S-Video. Two cables is enough for a fantastic picture, with incredible black scale levels, sharp reds,greens and blues for a very real, 3D like picture. The audio via the AL24 Plus Processing is absolutely the best I've heard over any previous dvd players. Infact, to confirm this, I did a side/side comparison with Denon's newer 2900 model, and the 3800 just blew it away!! Not even close! If you can find a Denon DVD-3800 on eBay or Audiogon for $700 or less, your making a mistake if you pass this up! Its a bargain at its retail price of $1200 back in 2002!

Strengths:
AL24 Plus Processing is MAJOR for excellent audio
Independent Power Supplies for audio,video, and other areas to eliminate mutual distortion
Burr-Brown 24bit, 192-Khz High Performance Audio DAC's
Pure Progressive Circuit using the Silicon504 circuitry for an almost 3D like picture
HDCD Decoder
Almost a clech'e after reading so many reviews on this unit, but it really is built like a tank weighing in at 22lbs!!
Denon's best price/performance ratio out of all their Hi-End DVD players

Weaknesses:
Can get pretty warm after an hour or so, but Denon says this is normal hence the massive power transformers, and won't effect the units performance. So far this is true with both of my 3800's I've owned.

Similar Products Used:
Denon dvd-900,2800, 2-3800's
Denon avr-487 (older d.d./dts 5.1 model),avr-1602.1802,2802,3802 and present AVR-3805 which Im very impressed with and is a great match for the 3800!!
Too many other brands to mention!

David Fraser

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Singapore

Summary:
Bought the 3800 on the strength of reviews, and it is fabulous when it works, BUT as many pointed out it is very unreliable once it heats up aftyer 1 hour playing. Many CD or DVD just cannot be read until it cools down. It gets so hot on the top of the cover, you could fry eggs, but Denon say this is normal. I have returned it twice to Denon, and each time they say nothing wrong as it must be the quality of my DVD opr CD - but this is just not true, as they can be read when cold. Also time start up reading a CD can be 20 sec before playing starts.

Strengths:
Great video and audio, and plays just about anything - when working

Weaknesses:
Gets very hot and unreliable, until it cools down

umr

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.50 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from used

Summary:
This is a fabulous DVD player. It is much better than my previous players. The high quality DAC's on this player really shine and the Silicon Image processing is fabulous.

Strengths:
Video quality. Speed of menu navigation.

Weaknesses:
Squeeze mode is flawed. This causes the user to manually alter the displays aspect ratio.

Similar Products Used:
Sony DVP-S7000, Sony DVP-S300, Panasonic DVD-XP30, Bravo D1, LG LST-3510A

pbmax542

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.78 of 5, 18.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
When I bought this player I knew what I was getting into. From reading reviews, I knew all about the freeze-up issue, the chroma bug, and the Y/C delay, but I also read about the how great the sound and picture quality were. I was able to find the unit on crutchfield.com marked down to $600 in there scratch and dent store. When I got it home I scanned over the whole unit looking for the damage, and all I could find was a very fine scratch on top of the player that looked like a white cat hair. Within 2 weeks I had incounter all 3 of the above mentioned problems, so I packed it up and shipped it off to DENON for repair. I waited impaitently for almost 5 weeks and it finaly came back home to me. Well, I have to say that it was definatly worth all of the trouble, and all of the waiting. THIS THING IS AUSOME! They were able to correct all 3 problems which would put this player at the very top of the secrets dvd shootout. It now produceses by far the best picture that I have ever seen from a DVD player on a rear projection CRT based TV and from what I have read it's replacement (DVD-3910) isn't going to top it (on a CRT). It has perfect black levels, and a nearly invisable layer change. If you have a CRT TV, and a lot of time to wait, you will not find a better player under $2K.

Strengths:
Picture Sound Price

Weaknesses:
If you don't have the time to wait on DENON to fix it, then don't buy it. I personally would have waited twice as long. This thing kicks A$$!

Similar Products Used:
DENON DVD-2900 Onkyo DV-SP800

Price Paid:  $475.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
Tweeter sold me the 3800 as an open box for $475, I couldn't believe that I got a 20lb Denon high end DVD player for this kind of money. Well, got it home and it woulnd't play Toy Story II and it locked up on "Meet the parents". Read on the web about the faulty laser pick up problems which plagued the Feb '02 build date models and took it back to Tweeter. After 3 months, I finally got it back from Tweeter (who promised a 4 week turnaround) who had sent it to Denon. Rushed home, popped in Toy Story II, same result. Ok, maybe it just won't play this movie, I figured it was still such a deal that it didn't matter. I rented a basic blockbuster movie the next day and it wouldn't read the disk. I ended up returning it and sucking up the extra $400 for the Denon 2900. In the end, it just wasn't worth sweating it out everytime I rented something. I have had much cheaper players that worked without a hitch. I normally wouldn't feel compelled to write a review to effect the rating of a product but apparently, the 3800 is a real gamble according to numerous things I have read on the web. Sure you could get a good one but I am here to warn you, don't bother buying one of these unless you have warranty recourse. I wouldn't touch one of these babies on ebay or from an unauthorized etailer. My value rating is assuming you got one that works, my overall rating reflects my particular experience.

Strengths:
Specs, build, picture.

Weaknesses:
Unreliable

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer Elite, Sony, Marantz, Rotel, etc.