Denon 2900 (1 Viewer)

[MikeSRC]

I don't believe the 2900 has scaling ability. Jeff Talmadge was going to check on it, but there's nothing in the owner's manual to indicate that it does.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Newbie Q: what is scaling good for?

 

[Dmitry]

Kevin, check out this thread, it mentions a few scaling perks.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Page 16 of the manual describes the 4:3 aspect ratio control.

 

[James D S]

Also, it notes in the description: "4:3 Shrink and Zoom Controls."

This looks like a great player with all the necessities and niceities. Looks like I may finally have to retire my RP-91 soon.

 

[TanD]

the 4:3 Shrink funtion will cut off the side 16x9 picture to fit a 4x3 TV.

It also has a Squeeze mode to put the 4x3 picture on the center of the 16x9 tv and black bar on the side.

but i don't think the zoom funtion will work like the RP91, it just zoom out and cut the side off, and from the manual it say 2x and 4x zoom, which cut the side off too much. the ideal zoom should be step by step like 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.3x etc... but the best of all should be like the scaling of the RP91 no cut off from the side at all.

 

[MikeSRC]

TanD is correct. Those are the zoom and display features of the 2900. It does not scale the output, which is a completely different animal, as discussed in the thread in Dmitry's post.

In any event, it looks like a great player in every other respect. Jeff Talmadge has stated that the engineers were charged with making sure it passed every test in the Shootout, and was designed to have excellent audio performance as well. We'll soon see.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

If it has no bugs (a first for Denon), no chroma problems, and doesn't corrupt the DSD bitstream from SACD's (most players do by converting it to PCM), then I will buy this player!

[crossing fingers]

Dan

 

[Jeff Adams]

I am with you Dan. Denon has always made some pretty good dvd players but it seems that they have always had some weak points that has prevented them from being great players. I am hoping this is the ONE. Please, please be the perfect player.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Sigh... I gave up this argument a long time ago, but _technically_ speaking, the words "zoom" and "scale" are synonymous. Many people use the word "scale" to mean "4:3 aspect ratio control". Anyhoo, I want "4:3 aspect ratio control" + zoom. It looks like the Denon delivers. We'll see about the amount of zooming.

 

[John Cain]

Looks like I may finally have to retire my RP-91 soon.

Me too !! I briefly owned a 3800 and it had an amazing picture but had frequent freezes and pauses that made it unwatchanble for me.

The 3800 had amazing clarity, sharpness, and color.

I'm expecting them to have all the bugs ironed out with the 2900.

-- Cain

 

[Lewis Besze]

The only beef I have is: no speaker distance compensation for SACD[only for DVD-A].But finally a full BM is commendable!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Sigh... I gave up this argument a long time ago, but _technically_ speaking, the words "zoom" and "scale" are synonymous.

I sorta agree, except I think "scale" is actually more general than "zoom". That is, scale can apply to any number of dimensions w/in an N-dimensional space to variable degrees, eg. vertical (up)scaling for 2-D non-16x9 DVD image or (down)scaling from 16x9 to 4x3 (for anamorphic downconversion) or non-linear scaling from 4x3 to 16x9 (for stretch mode) or format (up)scaling for 480i/p->1080i upconversion. Meanwhile, the term zoom is only used for scaling of all dimensions to the same degree, eg. TV and DVD zoom are linear as is camera zoom or the various zooms you see in computer apps.

The quality differences that a/v enthusiasts typically assign to them are almost always misplaced to some extent. Generally, it's the underlying method/algorithm used that makes the difference, not the term being used.

But as you say, there's not much point in arguing the actual details (and true nature) of this stuff. Sometimes, it's just better to use these terms as shorthand to more easily facilitate discussion w/in the relevant context/scope for what really matters.

So anyway, does anyone know anything more about the Denon 2900's scaling/zooming/aspect ratio control features?

_Man_

 

[rbirk]

Anyone knows if the player can generate close captions? At the moment I am using the Toshiba 4800 which is the only player that supports it, as far as I know. This feature is important as many DVDs don't have English subtitles and most projectors don't support close captions.

Ron Birk

 

[rbirk]

I did some readin in the manual (on the web site) and found the following, which seems to indicate it can generate captions:

The following types of discs cannot be played on the DVD-2900: DVD+RW/DVD+R

Ron Birk

 

[Phil Nichols]

The 3800 plays +RW if you change the format bit to DVD-ROM, so probably the 2900 will too. You might want to read up on it at these addresses:

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/index.html

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/resources/bitsettings_pc.html

 

[Mike Tripicco]

Looks like this might be the one! Any idea (based on prior experience with Denon players) whether it will play SVCDs? It only says "Plays Audio/Video CDs" in the specs.

 

[Joe]

Does anyone know when the 2900 will hit the stores and what the street price will be?

 

[Alex Prosak]

According to Jeff Talmadge of Denon, they should hit the stores around the end of this month or early May. MSRP is $999; street price, ?. I wouldn't expect too much to be knocked off this unit, at least not to begin with. I think they're gonna sell like hot cakes. My guess for internet pricing is $875-900.

 

[Jeff Adams]

$875-$900,what a coincidence, that is the price range I am shopping in. I can't wait! Please be a top notch video performer!