Is the Denon 3910 any better than the Denon 2900? (1 Viewer)

[Ferdinand*T]

I was comparing them earlier and I didn't see that much of a difference other than the DVI port. Can someone explain the difference to these two and why the 3910 is better?

 

[Steven_Lazarus]

Yes, the 3910 does have a DVI interconnect, but it also upscales to 1080i and incorporates the FLI-2310 decoding engine "DCDi by Faroudja", as well as having the newer 1796 audio DAC's and a few other things as far as internal design goes (From what I've read)..
Is it worth the extra $500-$600?? That's up to you.
If you've never experienced the quality of a 1080i picture then I say yes (That is if you have a DVI interconnect).
I have also read that the 3910 delivers far superior sound quality than the 2900, but if your not an audiophile I don't think you'll be disappointed with either.
If you get the chance to do a hands on comparison check out the 2910, nice machine as well !!!!

 

[dpippel]

I've had both players. If your display will not benefit from being fed a native resolution input then, picture quality wise, I actually found the 480p component output of the 2900 superior to the 3910. The Faroudja deinterlacer in the 3910 (and 1910, 2910, and 5900) has issues. Search over at AVS Forum and you'll find plenty of in-depth discussion concerning its problems. To me the Silicon Image SiL504 deinterlacer in the 2900 is superior for film-based material if you're feeding 480p component to a CRT-based display that has a good scaler. So much so that I ended up keeping it and returning the 3910. For $1300 I just couldn't live with the video anamolies in the 3910. If you have a fixed-pixel display (LCD, DLP, etc.) you *may* benefit from the upscaling available over the DVI or HDMI output of the 3910, but the issues with its deinterlacer remain. The question of whether or not you would see them on your display can only be answered by trying the player in your setup.

Audio-wise the 3910 is indeed a step above the 2900 if you're using the analog outputs and letting the players DACs do the work. On Redbook CD the 3910 has a deeper, wider, and taller soundstage, and more authority than the 2900. On SACD and DVD-A the differences are less apparent, but the 3910 is still a better performer.