Denon unveils high-end Blu-ray player
Denon Electronics announced today that they will soon be offering a high-end Blu-ray standalone player, which will be available this fall. The new device has been dubbed the DVD-3800BDCI and it will support the playback of CD’s, DVD’s and Blu-ray Discs. This player is the world’s first announced Blu-ray device that fully supports the BD-J 1.1 specifications.
Other highlights include DTS-HD Master Audio support, dual video/audio decoders (as required by BD-J 1.1), an SD memory card slot, and the 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset, which will allow for excellent DVD upscaling capabilities. The suggested retail price has been set at $1,999.
Denon DVD-3800BDCI Press Release quote
Joe Stinziano, Denon’s Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, noted: “Denon is committed to providing our discriminating customers with a no-compromise high-end solution for enjoying next-generation high resolution media. Our new products exemplify the highest level of home theater quality. As a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, we brought all of our design and engineering expertise to bear in the creation of these groundbreaking Blu-ray products, setting new performance standards for the format. Denon remains committed to offering our customers the most options in ultimate-quality home entertainment products and to this end, our future plans do not preclude the introduction of high-definition products in other formats.”
A $2,000 Blu-ray Player
This product will probably be the most expensive Blu-ray player available when it hits the streets, but the company is focusing on the top-of-the-line, high-end consumer. While all of the specifications announced so far do sound impressive, it is a bit surprising that this player will not include an embedded ethernet port for internet connectivity. Instead, the SD card slot is suggested as a way to transfer internet accessible features onto the player.
Nonetheless, this announcement is good news for the Blu-ray format as a whole, as it increases the available product choices for consumers and establishes a whole new level for Blu-ray standalone players. Denon also appears to be exclusively backing the Blu-ray format as suggested in the last sentence from the excerpt quoted above. The HD DVD format still has only one player manufacturer, Toshiba. The press release can be found at Gizmodo.
Toshiba is the only company making consumer HD DVD players. Buffalo, NEC, Lite-On and LG (maybe one more, I can’t remember) make OEM PC drives.
RCA did have an HD DVD player. It was a rebadged Toshiba player though. Since then, RCA has dropped the player and has stated they’re going to focus on DVD until there is a clear winner.
Onkyo has announced an HD DVD player for later this year. It is a Toshiba HD-XA2 rebadged. Onkyo is promoting it as a “very good DVD player” that also plays HD DVD.
Other small companies have claimed they are working on HD DVD players, but they haven’t showed any product.