My Denon DVD 2900 review [long] (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Hegna]

Still love mine!!!!

Lindsey Buckingham was hanging out on my couch last night on my right hand side strumming "Dreams."

I can't decide which I like better, DVD-A or SACD!!! What a smokin' machine.



Jeremy

 

[Terry.P]

I've had my 2900 for a fews weeks mated to my B&K ref. 50. No BM problems at all. This is the end of road for me after owning the S2300 and the 9000ES. Simply put, it's a great all around player. Anyone that is on fence due to the BM issues, just make sure you have the ability to independently change and save the SUB/LFE level on your 5.1 analogue inputs and forget about the whining "sky is falling" dribble that you might have read on some of boards.

 

[Peter Loan]

I don't care about the BM in this unit. This thing still plays DVD movies right? How is the video playback? I've been reading mixed reviews about this at the AVS forum (combing, possible chroma bug, freezing during certain menus) so I'm a little bit weary about plunking down the cash for the 2900.

 

[Scott Tucker]

if there is something better, buy it!

Scott

 

[John Geelan]

if only it had DVI, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

hopefully the next Denon will include DVI so I will be able to connect it digitally to my future Samsung DLP TV.

i'll stick with my combo of the RP91 and the Sony 775 for now.

 

[ReggieW]

The Marantz 8400 has a DVI output but it is not active yet since the industry has not standardized it. The Denon 2900 DOES NOT have the chroma bug. I went to a friends who picked one up two-weeks ago and we checked Toy Story and North by Northwest and the image was clean and fine. I don't know what those who "claim" to see it are witnessing, but there certainly is no "chroma-bug" with my friends model.

Reg

 

[HarryR]

I have now had the 2900 for about 1.5 weeks and previously had an RP-91 (which was stolen last Christmas). I have zero complaints about the video on the 2900 including Toy Story, etc. It seems to be as good if not better than the RP-91 by my eyes (it could be that my using a Samsung combo player for the last 3 months has really shed light on this and I have a crappy DVD player to compare to).

At first I was miffed about the base management but between the channel levels on the 2900 and my Marantz receiver, I have this worked out and can get plenty of bass. Basically I play everything via 7 channel direct mode (I dont have a rear center though). If I switch to digital output so that I can use Dolby Pro logic II on 2 channel music then I need to cut back on the bass by 7 dB or so in the receiver. I have found that the decoding and noise from the 2900 is better than my receiver.

It moves through menus blazingly fast. I have only noticed one layer change so far, everything else is seemless.

Basically I am satisfied with my purchase, though If I could not have worked out the BM I would have taken it back.

 

[Bob Barton]

Has anyone noticed the need for a centering adjustment when using the 2900. I originally had a Panasonic RP56 and had done all overscan/centering adjustments on my Mits 65809 with that player. I was watching "25th Hour" which has a THX Optimizer section. I ran this and under the linearity section, I noticed a problem with centering.

I checked this with AVIA and the centering was shifted down and to the left from the Panasonic adjustments. I had no problem adjusting it, but thought it was odd that it should need it. Also odd was the fact the the green grid on the Mits looked properly centered, but the AVIA image did not. With the AVIA image centered the green grid is off. Any others notice this?

Bob

 

[Luis S]

How do you adjust the centering? Ive noticed this as well.

Thanks,
Luis S

 

[Bob Barton]

Luis,

I have the service menu codes for my Mits and centering can be adjusted through those. What type of set do you have?

Bob

 

[Luis S]

Bob I have a Tosh 40h80. Where could I get the service menu codes for my set? I was hoping that was a feature on the player that could be adjusted and I somehow missed it.:b Is the adjustment difficult to do? Im kinda nervous about messing with my tvs service menu,but that off-center picture kinda bugs me...

Thanks,

Luis S

 

[Bob Barton]

Luis,

I'm not familiar with how to adjust the Toshiba. You may want to stop by the hometheaterspot site and look in the Toshiba section for tweaks on your set.

I didn;t think it was to difficult on the Mits, but you do have to be a little cautious when going into the service menus. And remember, always write down the current settings first!

Good luck,
Bob

 

[Luis S]

Thanks Bob! Ill check it out and see what I come up with. Hopefully it isnt too difficult. Ill report back if I actually go through with it.

Luis S

 

[Edward J M]

Better late than never. Wanted to add my $0.02 re: the bass management issue.

I have the 2900 and the 3803. The 3803 has a 0 to +15 dB adjustment on the external sub input.

I connected for SACD and DVD-A with six Signal Cable Analog 2 interconnects and set-up and calibrated per Denon's .pdf bulletin.

I set all the speaks to small and the sub to yes, and the filter to on.

At Master Volume 00 on the 3803, all of the 2900 settings ended up well into the negative range to achieve the recommended 75 dB for calibration.

Regarding the sub channel, it was WAY too loud with the 3803 set to +15 on the External Sub input.

My final settings for the sub channel were -9 on the 2900 and +10 on the 3803 External Sub input. This combination gave me about 77 dB for the sub channel (i.e., 2 dB hot).

I also activated the "2.1" bass enhancement feature to retain the subwoofer for 2 channel stereo, and this works perfectly for regular stereo CDs using the 2900 analog outputs.

In short - a perfect set-up with zero bass management or bass output problems. Also, perfect functioning with SACD so far. A happy ending for me at least.

Regards,

Ed