At the Denon site, we can see that they are about to release an affordable upscaling DVD player, that features HDMI with up to 1080p upscaling on present DVDs. Around here, this is a touchy subject. We like to argue if these things really work, or if it's all in our head! But, nonetheless, a good DVD player is like anything else, it can produce a superior picture over a piece of junk that costs 30 bucks!
To say this thing provides a 1080p output is up to the beholder, but, if you can use some fancy algorithms to enhance the jaggies out of your films, then why not? Also, if you have a 1080p display, this is a good way to enjoy your existing DVD collection now, on the cheap (sort of) whilst we wait for the Blu-ray players to drop in price. The hottest Panasonic model for instance, is running $1300 bucks right now. Owiee!
This time, Denon is offering their Faroudja powered product at a price point that most people can afford-less than 400 dollars. For the audio minded among us, the DVD-1930 features 216MHz/11bit high end Video DACs and is compatible with CD, SACD and DVD-Audio discs. Audio processing is handled by use of 24bit 192kHz audio DACs.
Of course, it all has to do with your display. I remember witnessing a couple years ago, at the CES, a 1080i television broadcast of Pirates of the Caribbean in the Faroudja booth, upscaled to 1080p. I also saw a DVD played of the movie Seabiscuit, however, I was not as impressed with that, although, it was still a beautiful picture outputted. The demo was done with a Faroudja projection system, using a standard DVD and was on a massive screen in a theater type environment. In addition, I also saw a recorded television broadcast segment from a Dallas Cowboys game that was upscaled from 1080i to 1080p and it was if you were on the field! Remember, this was on a projector using a screen about the size of the ones that piss you off in your multi-plex local theater, as they are too small. But, for private viewing, they would be considered extravagant.
The results were jaw dropping as they like to say on websites. Next to me was a movie editor from California and even he was very impressed! The 1080p upscaling chip at that time was very expensive, I think the DVD player that had the chip, was $10,000 dollars Canadian at the show. I nearly wept. I would really like to try taking a recorded-to-DVD content, of say a decent 1080i satellite or OTA broadcast, and upscale it with one of these DVD players, just to see what I could see. Unfortunately, my display tops out at 1080i. (Gotta do something about that 😉 ) Any of you married guys out there, with a strategy for convincing our better halves, that this is a necessity, please react below!
I remember thinking, my eyes seemed to be the bottleneck! How well this chip can do with a DVD is unknown to me and also, the size of the screen is going to be a factor. You can get more information and look at other Denon products, by visiting this company website page. In addition, to save some time, here's a link to this particular product. On this page, you can read the full specs and see some shots of the input and output connections. What do you think? Would you like to have such a DVD player for your home? Do you have a 1080p display yet? Are you wanting one? I sure do!
Source: Denon
