Description, WHAT’S Good, What’S Bad | Denon DVD-2900 instruction

0403wv03 Denon DVD2200 1/20/04 2:10 PM Page 64

ON TEST: DENON-DVD2200

Universal DVD player

£600

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Talent show

John Archer takes a look at Denon’s new universal DVD player and wonders if it has enough sparkle to make it stand out from the middle ground

The handset is a beefy, clearly labelled job

Handling is easy enough – no thanks to the manual, though

Shame it lacks the metallic finish of the top-end model

Resting in the middle of Denon’s new universal DVD range, between the

excellent entry-level £400 DVD-1400 and the simply gobsmacking £850 DVD-2900, the heritage of Denon’s DVD-2200 speaks for itself.

On the other hand, mid-range products can sometimes prove the hardest sell, appealing neither to the budget-conscious nor to well-heeled folk who simply must have the best of everything at any cost. So can the DVD-2200 really manage to inspire those notoriously hard-to-motivate middle-grounders into money-splashing action?

DESCRIPTION

Perhaps inevitably, the DVD-2200 doesn’t employ anything like the same stunning heavy-duty build quality that the 2900 did. It’s much lighter and doesn’t boast the 2900’s sensational metallic finish, regardless of whether you plump for the silver, black or gold versions.

We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, of course, but it’s hard not to be concerned that such an obvious step-down in build quality could have a severe negative impact on the 2200’s performance. Let’s just hope that this impact isn’t ultimately worse than you’d reasonably expect for your £250 saving over the 2900.

The 2200’s connections are very satisfactory. There are two main highlights: component video outputs which enable you to enjoy the

deck’s Progressive Scan talents on a suitably capable screen; and 5.1 RCA line outs so you can enjoy the full-range benefits of the 2200’s DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD playback talents.

There are also the customary RGB-capable Scart, composite video and S-video alternatives, together with both coaxial and optical digital audio options and a pair of dedicated stereo RCA outputs.

The 2200’s list of standout features isn’t restricted to its DVD-Audio/Super Audio CD and progressive scan capabilities. Enhancing its Universal credentials, for instance, are MP3, WMA and Photo CD playback.

Also useful are ‘Darker’ and ‘Lighter’ settings for adjusting the black level according to your screen’s capabilities. However, we recommend you take care with this setting, since choosing ‘darker’ on a low contrast screen can result in the loss of quite a bit of background detail during dark scenes.

We also availed ourselves of handy facilities for tweaking the brightness, contrast, sharpness, gamma and hue components of the picture.

Similarly impressive levels of flexibility are found on the audio side, too. Particular highlights include a bass enhancer and an extremely comprehensive suite of speaker configuration facilities

for surround sound music that make the 2200 a friend to just about any

type of speaker/amp system we could think of.

Some of the DVD-2200’s internal specs warrant our attention, too. For starters, video circuits are mounted on separate boards in isolation from each other, and the power supply is a discrete design with separate power for the audio, video and digital blocks.

When it comes to video processing, at the 2200’s heart are 12-bit/108MHz video DACs, while the progressive scanning is provided by the highly regarded Silicon Image Sil504 chipset.

On the audio front, the 2200 boasts three Burr-Brown 24-bit/192-kHz DSD1791 DACs for decoding PCM and SACD/DSD signals discretely, with no down- conversion of the DSD stream. Furthermore, there’s a Pure Direct mode that switches off all video

WHAT’S GOOD

Top-end performance from a mid-range deck

WHAT’S BAD

CD playback only average

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VERDICT

Rounds out Denon’s latest Universal DVD range in style

64March 2004 ■ WHAT VIDEO AND WIDESCREEN TV