My DVD-9000 is connected to AVR-5803 through the “Denon Link SE” and I get the excellent multi-channel sound from both Video and Audio DVD’s with no need to use the analog connection. My friend does not have the Denon receiver so he uses the excellent Burr-Brown DA converters built into the DVD-9000 and he admires the sound too. We both have the hi-end amplifiers (I use my AVR-5300 as a pre/pro and to power the surround speakers only), cables and speakers and can attest that both the Redbook CD’s and DVD-Audio disks sound as good while using the DVD-9000 as when playing them in some much more expensive separate dedicated transports. The video quality of this player is, probably, the best of any DVD players ever made (and we tried a lot of them). My player is hooked up to a calibrated Mitsubishi WS 55807. My friend’s unit feeds the Panasonic PT-AE700U projector (the image is displayed on 100 inch screen in his HT room). One would argue that since DVD-9000 does not have the DVI or HDMI outputs it might be inferior to the latest crop of the DVD players. Not so fast. Marketing hype aside, multiple independent observations published in the AV press failed to prove that the image quality obtained on the properly calibrated end device differs significantly between signals fed through the component, DVI or HDMI inputs. Note the key words “properly calibrated”, though… Anyway, DVD-9000 uses one of the best video DA converters for it component outputs – the 108MHz 14-bit chips from Analog Devices. This not only allows for 4x oversampling of the progressive signal but also permits better signal processing due to the wider bus (remember older 16-bit PC’s and how they compare to the current 32-bit computers?) thus improving the dynamic range and significantly reducing the noise level. Additionally, the AD conversion happens after the digital signal goes through one of the best deinterlacers on the market – the Silicone Image Sil504 chip free from the “macroblocking” artifact

Does not have a screen saver mode, other then that I can not come up with any more weakness.

Smart people don’t rush to purchase a car if it is in the first year of production nor do they use any Microsoft product until at least a Service Pack 1 is available. Unfortunately this approach holds true for the high-end consumer electronics, especially the AV equipment that heavily relies on the digital components. When Denon DVD-9000 first appeared in 2002 it brought both high expectations and a few annoying problems. It was a hold no barrels attempt from Denon to humiliate it competitors in the high end DVD players market. And Denon largely succeeded, putting aside some laser pickup quality control issues in the early production run, presence of the “chroma upsampling bug” and/or Y/C delay, and a necessity to upgrade the “Denon Link” along the road to be able to play the copy protected DVD-Audio discs. By the time all these problems have been fixed Denon rushed into production DVD-5900 to keep up with the competition offering the DVI outputs, discontinued the DVD-9000 and later built DVD-3910 to compete with the latest players with HDMI outputs. Unfortunately, the later Denon models scarified on both the build quality and parts quality, and used the Faroudja FLI-2310 deinterlacers/scalers instead of the Silicone Image chip (all recent players utilizing the Faroudja FLI-23xx deinterlacers/scalers are plagued with the “macroblocking” artifact). There are not too many reviews of the DVD-9000 with the latest hardware/firmware upgrades installed so I decided to fill in the gap. I have a first-hand experience with two Denon DVD-9000 flagship DVD players. I bought my player used (barely). It was broken – did not respond to the “power” button and the original owner sold it to me for peanuts. Well, his loss - after replacing the internal fuse the player came back to life and I’ve been enjoying it for a few months now. The second DVD-9000 I know was bought by a friend of mine “B-stock” (refurbished) from eCost.com for $1300 (and this included shipping and additional 4 years warranty!) after he saw my player in action. His unit arrived in the original Denon packaging with the manual and all accessories. We spent quite some time trying to find any cosmetic flaws but could not. No scratch or scuff, no a spec of dust, not even a fingerprint! I new that DVD-9000 is built to last and weights 40lb, but when I opened my unit for repair I was astonished by the build quality and attention to details. The multi-layer case panels (to reduce the vibrations and EMI), the copper plates separating different circuits, the separate power supplies for digital and analog signals, the audiophile grade capacitors, resistors and DAC’s, you name it… If I had space, I would have replaced the top cover plate with glass and left the player on the top of the rack just to display its guts…. It appears that the designers of this model spent quite some time lovingly finishing the subtle nuances of the human-to-machine interface. When you operate the DVD-9000 you get the same feeling as when riding an expensive luxury car and it shows everywhere. You know what I mean – try to close the door in Ford Taurus and then do the same in Lexus and you would feel the difference even in a sound these two cars make when the door is closed, right? The disc tray in Denon “glides out” so smoothly that I catch myself spending a few minutes now and then just opening and closing it. The feeling of the buttons on the massive black aluminum faceplate is just “right”. The menu navigation speed is the fastest I’ve ever experienced (even the well acclaimed Denon DVD-2900 seems sluggish in comparison to DVD-9000). The layer change is never noticeable. I could go on and on, unfortunately no words can truly explain the feeling I am trying to convey, only the first-hand experience would. Our players have never exhibited the “chroma upsampling bug ” and the latest firmware upgrade took care of a Y/C delay. As a bonus the new firmware (kindly sent to me from England by another DVD-9000 aficionado) made our players the multi-region ones and enabled the PAL progressive output. The players so far have played any disc we tried – DVD’s, Video CD’s, recorded DVD’s and Video CD’s, DVD’s with the programs in PAL and in NTSC, DVD’s from region 1, 5 and 3, discs scratched quite badly which other DVD players just could not read, DVD-Audio, etc. No hiccups… Speaking of the recorded DVD’s, it did not matter what color the surface of the DVD-R was.

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We compared DVD-9000 with DVD-3910 side-by side both in my and in my friend’s systems (and we tried to hook up the DVD-3910 to his projector both through the component and through the DVI and HDMI connectors). I feel bad for DVD-3910 and all it owners after this comparison; the DVD-9000 wins this competition hands down. When we watch a movie using DVD-9000 we feel like watching the movie in a movie theater. When we watched DVD-3910 the artifacts in the dark areas made this experience painful on my CRT RPTV and absolutely intolerable on the triple LCD Panasonic projector. We also looked at the older Toshiba SD6200, new Pioneer DV-59 AI, Momitsu DVD player, Panasonic RP82, Denon DVD-2900 - all "usual suspects" while doing this comparison (it is god to have friends who are willing to land their equipment for the tests like this...). We liked the DVD-9000 much better then anything else. I look at DVD-9000 and it reminds me of Sony DVP-S7000 and Sony DVP-S7700. These Sony DVD players stand out as a benchmark of build quality and video signal quality even now, so many years after they have been introduced. I know many people who SDI modded them, use them with the high-end deinterlacers/scalers and claim that they will never replace them until new HD-DVD finally comes out of the woods. I have the similar take on Denon DVD-9000. I feel I will be using it for SD DVD’s both until and after the HD DVD’s become widespread and when there are no SD DVD’s left around then it will still be beating up everything else as a Redbook CD transport

Incredible DA section on audio and video, build quality approaching my scd-777es (that's saying a lot if you haven't seen one of the big Sonys before), dvd playback noticeably superior to the limited number of high priced players that I auditioned.

If you're looking for an all-in-one player (sacd,dvd,dvd-a,redbook) this won't do it but you'll have to spend a lot to get a unit that does what the 9000 does with sacd built in as well.

Forget everything you might have heard about this piece (the negative stuff at least). The 9000 had some issues out of the gate apparently. The chroma bug and I guess some issues related to bad lasers. There seems to be some lingering negative impressions because of this but throw them out the window if you have one with the problems resolved. Check the prices that are out there for these refurb or used. Never even put a dvd in the machine and as a standalone redbook player you've gotten a steal. The DA's alone are worth about what I paid for my 9000 .... not the DA's as part of a whole unit ... just the off the shelf chips. I have two very nice Sony cd players. The xa7es (40 lb redbook class A stereophile component) and the scd-777ES (60 lb class A+ baby brother to the SCD-1). Both are beaten as a standalone redbook machine by the 9000 which is an extremely solid transport but great digital digital section giving it the edge. The 777 is a better transport and I currently use that in conjunction with the denon as an outboard DAC with great results. DVD quality is exceptional. The picture is so natural and perfectly rendered so you just don't think about it after the first few days of ownership. I'm not as knowledgeable about dvd player but compared it to several in the 1400 - 2000+ range when shopping and the denon was the easy winner. Pleasssssse do yourself a favor and take a look at this machine if you're in the market for a top flight cd player and/or dvd player and/or dvd-a unit. This is a serious, serious statement piece that was hanstrung by a bad debut. As the refurb and new units that are still available at cut rate prices run out the word will get around and I will be stunned if it doesn't start gaining value on the used market.

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On dvd .... Sony dvp-7700 and 999es, onkyo 900 and current 800 series. On cd the sony xa7es and scd-777es.

DVD Audio, The sounds from my dvd audio player have taken me from a standard room to outer space....... the sounds are out of this world. You have to go to your nearest shop and lesson to it. Not much can match up to this.

The outside display. I have to always use the remote to take the display down to a lower level that i like each time i turn the dvd off and back on. why???? The AV amp once set to how i like it remains at the same lower settings. Price is over the top, considering how fast sofwares and hardware improves in such a short time.

Just bought the A1 dvd player here in the UK. Very nice player with a lot of good sound output and very good picture displayed on my pioneer plasma 50 inch. Could not ask for more............

Heavy "built like a tank" quality High quality components

EXPENSIVE. CHROMA ERRORS HORRIBLE FREEZING at random times. THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE INDUSTRY. CLUNKY REMOTE.

VERY solidly built unit, I bought this with high expectations, considering Denon's reputation and my experience with their other products. This will not happen again... The video quality was underwhelming...I've never seen a player of this price with the horrible distortions I saw during video playback (not only chroma problems, but pixelation problems, too)...My $149 Sony NS755V has a better video quality, at least without the artifacts of this player! There were delays at layer change points. I have now begun to experience random freezes and lockouts with my unit. Denon WILL NOT RETURN MY PHONECALLS. I understand these units are under recall, but I can't even contact Denon to send it back! They tell you to leave a message, then don't return the call...I've done this on three occasions.

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Denon 4800 Sony 9000ES Pioneer Elite 47ai Sony NS755V Toshiba DVD players

Great build quality, great sound and great picture (Chroma Bug not withstanding(

See above....

Well folks, I have just sold my DVD-A1 (the Asian and European version of the Amercian DVD-9000). In a nutshell, an impressively built unit that looks positively stunning but alas there are some problems that 3-6 months of ownership were not able to resolve via Denon themselves. The wait has been too lon for me. i) The Chroma Bug: Denon have released a fix for it. ii) The DenonLink protocol that allows the unit to communicae digitally the with the accompanying AVR-5803 (AVC-A1SR) is STILL not fixed (and we're now into December 2002). Denon have released the 2nd upgrade (DenonLink SE.....SE for "Second Edition") which requires Denon themselves to install. They have recalled the units and, in their defence, are doing the upgrades for free. Just dont expect to have either your DVD9000 or AVR5803 for 4-6 weeks as BOTH units need to have the same protocol installed for the Link to work. iii) ....but wait there's more. Denon have now announced that the laser heads themselves need replacing (along with those on the DVD3800) to fix the Freezing & Lockout issues that have emerged in some players.......and the parts for the fix wont be available until Jan/Feb 2003. Sorry folks but a bitter disappointment. The unit promised so much but delivered so little. A disgrace really for a "flagship" player from, of all people.....Denon !

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SONY 9000ES

Build, DVD-Audio Playback Discreet top notch components throughout.....

PRICE.... NO SACD!!! Chroma BUG....

The Denon dvd-9000 is a hefty machine with an even heftier price tag. The top notch video performance is hampered only by the chroma bug. The DVD-audio performance is Execellent throughout with special Kudos to Multi-channel It's Redbook Cd playback is good with AL24 processing. I've heard better redbook on dedicated cd players such as the Krell KAV-280cd & Meridian 507. No SACD At this Price is simply unforgiveable despite claims of Audio Politics. I would say at $2000 retail this would be a Audiophilian Dream. I would rather by two seperate components for DVD & CD fare OR Keep My Elite DVD-47A which plays everything at a Delivered price of $799. You can also opt for the lesser Denon DVD-3800 sibling(better value****) If you want great CD & SACD Playback Try The New Marantz SA-8260 OR Hold out a few Months More for the Marantz DV-8300 Universal Player at an estimated $2000 The Denon Just Costs too much to highly recommend.

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Denon DVD-3800,Elite DV-38a, Marantz SA-8260, Elite DV-47A

Sound is Great

Chroma bug kills the performance.

This is a great dvd player, but there is a very noticable chroma bug that takes away from the overall picture. I am returning the unit I purchased for that very reason. For the price, this denon dvd player should not have this problem. Anything red show up distroted. Prime example "Toy Story".

For the strenghs: 1. Unbelievable build quality. Extremely heavy, rigid, with premium connectors and relay switched video outputs. 2. The tray is extremely solid, with minimal play in its mechanism. 3. Picture in progressive mode on my Pioneer Elite Pro-710 was superb. Fabulous detail, great depth, extremely filmlike, three dimensional. 4. Squeeze mode can be set to properly scale 4:3 material while processing anamorphic material correctly. 5. Nice menus and you can actually get the elapsed time in title, chapter, etc. Hard to believe that it has taken Denon so long to finally get this right. Probably just the THX program forcing some common sense. 6. Extremely fast transport. Menu selections and chapter selection were extremely fast. 7. Absolutely no pauses on layer transitions. 8. CDs sound fabulous. I haven''t tried DVD-Audio yet. 9. Playing of CDR with JPEG images worked great. No more sitting around the PC looking at photos. 10. Everything worked flawlessly except for the chroma bug. Lots of streaks in the reds in Toy Story.

The chroma bug. No SACD.

I can''t believe I get the first word on this piece in this forum. Denon has almost achieved what they set out to do...build the best possible DVD player available. Unfortunately, this player has the chroma bug. A $3500 brand new player with the chroma bug! Perhaps their engineers didn''t read the web site which claims otherwise. I loaded Toy Story and saw the problem instantly. I can''t believe I keep trying Denon products. They get them right....eventually. I will contact Denon tomorrow and hope to hear that this was just a bad machine. I hope so since it is otherwise fantastic.

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The only product that compares is the Camelot Roundtable. Quite frankly, the Camelot sounds better on CD material thanks to its upsampling and the video quality is on par although I would give the 900