At a press event in New York City this week, Denon added a pair of 3D-ready universal Blu-ray players to their repertoire, one for more mainstream consumers and the other aimed at the custom-install market. For us regular Joes comes the DBP-1611UD this June, at an affordable $399. The UD "Universal Disc" moniker denotes that it is capable of playing back virtually all shiny five-inch discs, with the exception of games, so high-res multichannel music fans can dust off those SACDs and DVD-Audio Discs, in addition to CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and (soon) Blu-ray 3D Discs. Still within reach is the more elaborately featured DBP-2011UDCI ($799, due this August).
Both new players offer improved loading times over current models, which is good news considering our editor's primary complaint with the current model (the DBP-2010CI) was its slow boot-up and disc loading times. Also on-board on both players is an RJ45 ethernet port for wired networking. But unlike earlier Denon models, which used this connection only for BD-Live and firmware upgrades, the new Denon players offer content streaming both from the internet and from the home network. Denon's first internet content streaming partners are Netflix and YouTube, but Denon reps assured us that it would be possible to add more content providers in the future if required. For streaming audio, video and photo content a little closer to home, the players feature DLNA 1.5 certification.
The players also support BD-Live and Bonus View functionality. As we would expect in such premium components (but unlike many previous Denon Blu-ray players), one gigabyte of memory is installed, so there's no need to add an SD card or USB thumb drive in order to enjoy the BD-Live benefits. A USB jack enables additional external memory/storage as needed, or playback of additional media files. The players are compatible with Kodak Picture CDs as well as DivX HD+, MP3 and WMA, via either recordable DVD/CD or an attached external storage device or via DLNA networking. The Ethernet port can also be used for future firmware updates, including one scheduled for this autumn, to enable Blu-ray 3D Disc playback.
The players also feature HDMI v1.4a outputs with HDMI-CEC capability and 36-bit Deep Color, plus independent pathways for interlaced and progressive display. A "Source Direct" mode is available to pass along video content at its native resolution for processing via an outboard processor, receiver or the display itself. Both players include a full complement of circuitry to decode all the latest HD audio formats, including DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. The DBP-1611UD can decode these formats to PCM over HDMI while the step-up DBP-2011UDCI model can also decode these formats to multi-channel analog outputs for compatibility with older gear.
The higher-end DBP-2011UDCI player carries over all of the features of the 1611 plus it's packing the latest Anchor Bay Technologies decoding engine and scaler for improved video performance on SD and HD content. The 2011 also includes Burr-Brown 32-Bit, 192-kHz Audio DACs on all channels for optimal audio performance over its multi-channel analog outputs, as well as an RS-232 port for integration with third-party controllers.
Where to Buy:
For more information:
