Denon 3800 (1 Viewer)

[Gregg_M]

I have a new 3800 that seems to be hicuping now and then. I was watching Insomnia last night and it was studdering and stopping. I had to stop the movie remove it and put it back in to get it going right. anyone else having issues with their 3800? I have had the unit since july.

Greg

 

[KeithH]

Gregg, some '3800 units have shown the type of problem you are seeing. This subject has been discussed, so do a search for the '3800. In addition, this matter has been discussed over on the AVS Forum. I believe the relevant thread here has a link to the thread on AVS.

 

[Gregg_M]

Read the threads and then checked my serial number. My box was manufactured in february. Looks like i need to get the firmware upgrade. Thanks for the tip

 

[KeithH]

Gregg, no problem. Glad to help. Best of luck in getting your player fixed.

 

[jason celaya]

the firmware i believe will only fix the chroma bug. The stuttering is yours to cherish. I returned my 3800 and bought the cheapo 1600. Way more realible and picture is just as good.

 

[Phil Nichols]

Gregg,
One of the AVS threads Keith was referring to is titled "Special Denon DVD-3800 Thread".
My Feb build date 3800 is still performing incredible and shows no chroma bug anywhere after the firmware update. Many 3800's do perform just fine from various build dates. Denon is working on the problem of course.
I don't know about the 1600 having the same PQ as the 3800. This probably depends on your display type or size and/or how well you've calibrated it carefully to both players when comparing. I've never tried a 1600 on my 58" 16X9 CRT-based RPTV, but I do feel that at about 10 feet viewing distance and after several hours of careful adjustment of stuff, the DVD images coming from my 3800 are the best possible from the DVD medium. Those 12-bit, wide bandwidth, video DAC's in the 3800 make possible very noise and artifact-free images. I see absolutely no dark background pixelization or dark/light banding in any DVD shown through the 3800 (so far). I don't know exactly why - but I tend to credit the video DAC's, internal noise shaping and filtering, and Silicon Image chip - working in combination - as the reason for this. The 3800 also contains a 32 bit processor, but I'm not sure if this is used for it's video or audio. Audio output is also superb, BTW.
I picked out the 3800 due to the above things going on inside and so far you can't get this technology for under about $900 - $1000.

 

[Adil M]

Funny thing is I purchased the 1600 for my parents b/c they did not have the 3800 in stock. It looked better only in video on a 55" adjusted Mits HDTV. That is due to the DCDI reducing the jaggies. It only beat the JVC 70 bk on that one account.
Film picture - tie (I wanted the 1600 to win)
Video - Denon 1600
Build quality - JVC 70bk (didn't shake when dvd spinning, had gold tipped rca jacks, quiet disk eject, most of this is irrelevant but annoying to me)
DVDA-tie (My parent's stereo may not have been up to this challenge)
Miscellaneous- JVC (better remote, nicer looking, cheaper, Denon choked on most of my parent's VCD's, the JVC can play SVCD, Denon has no real scaling ability)

I hate doing it, but the Denon is going back and I might wait on next year's Sage chips.

BTW I calibrated both w/ Avia and used the same lenght Silver Serpent cables on both. Any more DBT crap can be held in check b/c I'm not listening. I a/b everything w/ TS2 and even confirmed that superbits do look a tad better.