Denon DVD 1920CI, 1930CI, 1940CI, 1940 - How do they differ? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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JK_Livin22
12-20-2007, 01:37 PM
I have given a fairly good effort to find the answer to this question by doing a Google search and have yet to find the answer. I am trying to help my parents finish out a HTS. I have purchased them a refurbished Marantz 4001 and have painstakingly considered a large number of different DVD/SACD players with the options that will benefit them most. Eventually I am going to add a carosel CD changer (Yamaha CDC-697, yeah I know what everyone thinks about carosels but it will fit their needs well); but for now the DVD/SACD player will also serve as their CD player.

Price range was about $175-$225.
Initially I narrowed my list down to 4: the OPPO DV-981HD, OPPO DV-980HD, Yamaha DVD-S659, and the Denon DVD 1930CI.

Some of the features that were most important (other than of course the DVD upconversion) were CD upsampling, and SACD playback. Some of the features that I was unable to determine the value of was whether the player was 5.1 or 7.1; given that the receiver is 7.1, does it matter what the DVD players is? And the same goes with Dolby and DTS encoding; if the receiver has more advanced Dolby and DTS capabilities than the DVD player, why does it matter what the DVD players’ are? And finally, given that the Marantz 4001 only has HDMI 1.1, it seems that buying a DVD player with anything higher is an inefficient use of resources.

After considering all of that I narrowed the field down to the OPPO DV-981HD and the Denon 1930CI. The OPPO got rave reviews from critics and consumers alike especially regarding the DVD upscaling/video quality. For fairly obvious reasons (along with a few reviews about the 1930CI) I feel that the Denon has far superior audio. Also, with both the Denon and the OPPO having the same Faroudja DCDi video chipset, I would think their DVD upscaling/video quality would be very very close.

So reasoning that the video quality of the two are essential equal, and that the Denon has much better audio (and also has CD upsampling), and that this will serve as their CD player for some time, I decided to go with the Denon. However, I have yet to find any differences in the Denon DVD 1920CI, 1930CI, 1940CI (is that the exact same as 1940 without the CI?). The reason I ask is the lower the model number obviously the less expensive.

If their is anything that I mentioned in drawing my conclusions (i.e the DVD upscaling/video quality being equal, my thoughts regarding HDMI 1.1, the benefits of CD upsampling, etc.) on this player that someone disagrees with please let me hear your perspective; I don't plan on making this purchase for about another month or so.

Apologies to everyone for being a little long-winded. Thanks in advance for your comments/feedback/replies.

Happy Holidays!

pixelthis
12-20-2007, 11:15 PM
Not all have a bias against changers. They can be conveinent and dont rally sound that bad.
I had a yammy five disc, it was really nice, but the high end snobs are gonna kill ya.
And dvd players arent "7.1" unless they have a 7.1 jackpack to access their onboard decoder.
Whatever signal goes from the digital output will be decoded by the receiver.
Oppo is what I'D GO WITH, stripped down versions are sold by other companies,
like toshiba, so they must be doing something right.
And who are your parents? You arent one of those posting bots, are ya?
My parents couldnt even find those fireplace logs in the ondemand section, People
of a certain age dont need very highq gear, its usually wasted on them.
Or maybe youre the one who plans on using it? Cheeky!
One thing you might want to look at is a bluray player, if you spend 200 bucks you might as well get a blueray for 299. HAVENT LISTENED TO THEM BUT THEY should sound pretty good.
One thing, dont get a dvd player unless its geared for good sound, CD playback on a standard dvd player suck hard for a variety of reasons:1:

blackraven
12-23-2007, 12:23 PM
The oppo's are a great choice. The 980 has better audio playback according to oppo whom I recently talked with. And the 981 has better video processing. Both will do well with audio or video. For the money, both are excellent choice and have gotten excellent reviews by the pro's and every day users. I dont beleive the Denon 1900 series has much better sound but thats a subjective thing. The oppo 980 has been compared to CD players costing hundreds more. I have a Denon 1910 DVD and I would call its audio playback as average.

JK_Livin22
12-24-2007, 10:55 AM
And dvd players arent "7.1" unless they have a 7.1 jackpack to access their onboard decoder.
Whatever signal goes from the digital output will be decoded by the receiver.



In a manner of speaking... Just like a receiver with DTS Neo:6 can take a two channel stereo signal from a CD and create a quasi multi channel output with fairly decent acoustic quality. If you have a 7.1 channel receiver I am pretty certain that there is going to be a similar conversion. Regardless, the OPPO 980 has 7.1 output anyway. Perhaps I was not specific enough about my questions. One of my questions is whether or not there are other factors besides the video chipset that determines the effectiveness of the upconversion and overall video quality, and if so how significant is the influence of the remaining factors. In other words, am I correct in concluding that with the OPPO 981 and Denon 1930 both having the same Faroudja video chipset, the upconversion and overall video qualtiy of the two should be almost exactly the same? If this is not correct then what else goes into determining the video quality and why is one better than the other?


And who are your parents? You arent one of those posting bots, are ya?
My parents couldnt even find those fireplace logs in the ondemand section, People
of a certain age dont need very highq gear, its usually wasted on them.


My parents are,... ahh, well.. they're my parents!!! What kind of question is that?! I'm not sure how old your parents are but keep in mind Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, and about 50 other musicians I can name of the top of my head are 60 or close to it. Are you suggesting that they can't tell the difference in audio quality? And since when is a refurbished Marantz 4001 (that I paid $250 for) consider high quality. I would consider it to be upper mid-fi, or lower hi-fi. I don't consider audio components to be hi-fi until you get to the top of the line Denon, Marantz, Cambridge Audio, or anything from Rotel, Mark Levison, etc. And as far as "wasting" something on my parents... my parent's sacrificed quite a bit for me through the years (5+ years of college for one) so I don't think spending a few hundred bucks on audio equipment is being a spend thrift.

I appreciate most everyone's comments and even some occasional constructive criticism. But I am afraid you have delved into the realm of a friend of my mine who persists on offering advice that no one asked for. I would appreciate it if you would stick to the subject matter of audio equipment and not on your perceived notion of my parents’ ability to enjoy quality music.

And what the hell is a "posting bot"?

Don't mean to be so critical of someone who offered a reply at my request, but I feel that you were clearly a little out of bounds with some of your comments.

JK_Livin22
12-24-2007, 12:22 PM
The Denon 1910 is a completely different animal that the 1930 and 1940. I actually found the answer to my question from a review of the 1940 in WHAT HI-FI? SOUND AND VISION, as well as a reply directly from Denon.

According to the Denon rep, the 1920CI scales up to 1080i, the 1930CI scales up to 1080p with a Faroudja video chipset, and the 1940CI scales up to 1080p with a newer Faroudja chipset. At this point I am uncertain as to whether the OPPO 981 has the same Faroudja chipset as the 1930 or 1940.

According to the review in WHAT FI-FI SOUND AND VISION, the 1940 has "an advanced Faroudja FLI2301 DCDi chipset, a 12-bit video DAC (that's an extra 'bit' on the 1930) and a new 192kHz Burr-Brown DAC." However, this same review also comments that "While we can't ignore the drop of in sound quality, we welcome wholeheartedly the improvements to the already-excellent picture performance."

With the strong possibility of adding a Blu-ray or HD DVD player in the next two to three years (perhaps after more manufactures offer players with both technologies and at a more affordable price), and with the aforementioned review referring to the 1930 as having "already-excellent picture performance", it is quite clear to me that the better choice is to go with the player that has the better audio (again this will be the primary CD player for a while) and comes with a lower price tag.

Taking everything into consideration, I have made up my mind on the 1930, but am still curious if anyone happens to know which Faroudja chipset the OPPO 981 has?
Thanks again everyone.

Merry Christmas!

slbenz
12-24-2007, 10:42 PM
Doing a search at the AVS Forum came up with your answer the FLI-2310 LF chipset is used in the Oppo 981. Merry Christmas to you to!

Slbenz

pixelthis
12-25-2007, 01:08 AM
In a manner of speaking... Just like a receiver with DTS Neo:6 can take a two channel stereo signal from a CD and create a quasi multi channel output with fairly decent acoustic quality. If you have a 7.1 channel receiver I am pretty certain that there is going to be a similar conversion. Regardless, the OPPO 980 has 7.1 output anyway. Perhaps I was not specific enough about my questions. One of my questions is whether or not there are other factors besides the video chipset that determines the effectiveness of the upconversion and overall video quality, and if so how significant is the influence of the remaining factors. In other words, am I correct in concluding that with the OPPO 981 and Denon 1930 both having the same Faroudja video chipset, the upconversion and overall video qualtiy of the two should be almost exactly the same? If this is not correct then what else goes into determining the video quality and why is one better than the other?



My parents are,... ahh, well.. they're my parents!!! What kind of question is that?! I'm not sure how old your parents are but keep in mind Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, and about 50 other musicians I can name of the top of my head are 60 or close to it. Are you suggesting that they can't tell the difference in audio quality? And since when is a refurbished Marantz 4001 (that I paid $250 for) consider high quality. I would consider it to be upper mid-fi, or lower hi-fi. I don't consider audio components to be hi-fi until you get to the top of the line Denon, Marantz, Cambridge Audio, or anything from Rotel, Mark Levison, etc. And as far as "wasting" something on my parents... my parent's sacrificed quite a bit for me through the years (5+ years of college for one) so I don't think spending a few hundred bucks on audio equipment is being a spend thrift.

I appreciate most everyone's comments and even some occasional constructive criticism. But I am afraid you have delved into the realm of a friend of my mine who persists on offering advice that no one asked for. I would appreciate it if you would stick to the subject matter of audio equipment and not on your perceived notion of my parents’ ability to enjoy quality music.

And what the hell is a "posting bot"?

Don't mean to be so critical of someone who offered a reply at my request, but I feel that you were clearly a little out of bounds with some of your comments.


What I said went into your brain and came out a bit garbled.
I am not questioning your parents love of music, read my post, when did I EVER say that?
What I am questioning is their ability to comprehend a piece of very (to them) complex machinery.
You are wasting your money, basically if you buy a high end piece of gear that collects dust because your parents find intimidating , been there, done that.
The biggest challenge to manufacturing engineers and ergonomics types is making something simple enough for anybody to use.
And a lot of people are simply less demanding than their demanding kids might understand.
A shelf system or something less ambitious might be in order, is all I am saying.
My mom loves music, but the simple sony CD player just didnt get used.
She watches some of the music channels on TV because she just has to turn it on.
Basically, some people confuse what THEY like with what the people they are buying for like.
And its the best "advice" you'll get, when you buy something for the folks, think hard,
and ask yourself if THEY'LL like it. best favor you could do for them and you:1: