I have purchased the silver color version of this DVD player in March 2005. The link for Denon Website is http://www.usa.denon.com/catalog/products.asp?l=1&c=4#PID764. So far there is no complain and actually I love this player. It is one of the best audio players in the market. It is a true “Universal” player and amazingly it can play regular CD, MP3, High Definition CD (HDCD), DVD Audio and Super Audio CDs (SACD). You name it and it can play. It also plays Kodak and other picture CDs with auto presentation mode.
On the picture front it plays most DVDs and VCDs too. In your home made DVD front, it nicely plays DVD R and DVD RW without any problem.
Some of precious reviewers have complained about its picture quality, but I did it find any. When I purchased this DVD player and I had also purchased Philips 50 inch Plasma TV (read my review for its at
http://www.epinions.com/content_178267131524). After purchasing the TV and DVD player I had to adjust their colors. I had purchased an AVIA Guide to Home Theater DVD (Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/630551982X/ref=pd_sxp_f/103-9678894-8164606?v=glance&s=dvd) for this purpose after a detail research on the internet on similar products. I recommend you the AVIA for this purpose.
Now previous reviews might have experience problem with this DVD player due to default factory color setting. This is a potential problem for DVD players and their associated display device (like TV). Both systems use their default color adjustment (factory setting) and this may cause a drastic bad to worse color performance. I highly recommend buying AVIA and do appropriate color adjustment before stating any thing about poor video quality. By the way AVIA also help you to calibrate your home audio systems (both of 5.1 or 7.1 channels). Personally I have 7.1 systems and I calibrated the same with AVIA and an audio pressure meter from Radio Shack (link http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&category_name=CTLG_007_002_014_000&product_id=33-2055.
CD plays really well and so the DVD audio. I am yet the test the SACD. So I can not comment about the potential problem with this particular format.
Otherwise this DVD player offers you some of the coolest features which are only available at the high end players. It has separate audio and video processing circuits. It offer direct path for your audio (no signal from video processing circuits). It also allows you to do a detail audio and video calibration. It has on board 5.1 decoder and audio ports for direct setup to your receiver. It supports both DVD-D and Component video formats. Again this a real debatable area to choose any particular formats. I have spoke to lot of experts on this and according to their opinion there is technically no superiority one over another. It is just personal preference and satisfaction which matters. Personally I use Component video cable as my receiver is capable for switching. I have a Hi Def Receiver from Dish Network and my Onkyo receiver (TX-DS787) can switch between component sources without any trouble.
Also this DVD player is nicely constructed and can handle shocks from your woofer without much problem.
