Which DVD player to buy? Denon 910, Panasonic XP30, HK 101, or Mitsubishi .DD-840? (1 Viewer)

[Derek B]

I need to know which player to buy. I am looking for the best picture for my Pioneer SD-643HD5 64" RPHD TV.

Give comments for each player regarding whether you would recommend or not recommend purchase, or suggest a better model around the same price range.

1. Denon DVD-910
2. Panasonic DVD-XP30
3. Harmon Kardon DVD-101
4. Mitsubishi DD-840

Thanks,

 

[Don_Berg]

I rate them in this order:
1. Panasonic DVD-XP30
2. Denon DVD-910
3. Mitsubishi DD-8040

(way below)
4. Harmon Kardon DVD-101

The Harman Kardon DVD-100 is listed in the big Secrets DVD Benchmark and is way down the list in the ratings. It uses the old National Semiconductor Mediamatics de-interlacer, which is poor and is also used in the cheap JVC players. No way can it compare with the top-rated Faroudja de-interlacer used in the Denon DVD-910, Mitsubishi DD-8040, and Panasonic XP30 models.

 

[Derek B]

Thanks Don.

What don't the other players have that the XP30 does?

 

[Don_Berg]

The XP30 has everything in one package, the best de-interlacer (Faroudja) setup properly, a great MPEG decoder, and a great video section with perfect flat frequency response for a sharp picture and it also supports all formats DVD-R/-RW/+R/+RW and VCD/SVCD. The Denon DVD-910 is close to the XP30, Faroudja with just a little softer picture and doesn't support all the formats like SVCD. Mitsubishi DD-8040 has Faroudja but its setup with CSS=on which causes the color flicker bug on the top/bottom edges of saturated color areas and has a poor frequency response for a soft picture plus non-sticky black level setting and no SVCD support. The HK DVD-101 isn't even close to the others due to its poor old National Semiconductor Mediamatics de-interlacer, it can't compare to the other models with the great Faroudja de-interlacer.

 

[Tim_Stack]

I returned both the Denon 910 and the Mitsubishi DD-8040. The 910's progressive/interlaced switch just flat broke off. Plus there was some "jittery-ness" to some scenes. Also, it advertised that is has 4:3 pillarboxing - but it doesn't. I returned the DD-8040 for a few reasons. 1) Black level had to be reset constantly 2) Sometimes, settings like aspect ratio and DTS would return to their factory settings just out of the blue. 3) It started skipping heavily on audio CDs.

Good luck on your search. I just got the Denon 2200 and I'm loving it so far.

 

[Don_Berg]

Tim your list of the deficiencies of the newer Denon DVD-910 and Mitusbishi DD-8040 are accurate, I tested both of them but managed to get a used Panasonic XP30 that beat them both. The DVD-2200 is great but costs twice as much.

 

[Kwang Suh]

The Denon 910 has a softer picture than the DD8040.