Peculiar Find at Costco: $69 Denon Universal Player

[anamorphic96]

Well, my parents shop at the Tustin store, so we've kind of exchanged places here. I'd be curious to see if the Denon players have made their way down to SoCal, since L.J. reports that they did not get sent to the Central Valley locations. The Costco model on that Panny BD player is the equivalent of the DMP-BD60. Aside from a couple of digits getting stuck at the end, I'm not aware of any other differences.



The nice thing about the Denon is that it supports just about every common format out there, except for Blu-ray. Aside from the Oppo BD-83, which isn't out yet, no BD player comes close to the Denons as far as format support goes.

I already mentioned the gripes I have about the Denon player, but it does the basic video and audio playback very well. And I would be hard to find anything else in the $70 price range that can match this capability. Sitting right next to the Denon at Costco was a $65 Sony DVD player that lacks the Denon's SACD/DVD-A playback and support for MP3, DivX, VCD, and Kodak Picture CD.

Even if you can't find the $70 deal at Costco, the DVD-1940ci is selling for under $100 at several online stores. Seems that these units were manufactured nearly two years ago, and Denon's now trying to clear out the inventory. I get the impression that this is the end of the line for them on DVD players. All of their recent product announcements have been for BD players. I was hoping that they'd retain SACD/DVD-A support on their entry level BD players, but that has not happened yet.

Thanks for the tip. Costco does not have any here in Vacaville but 6th Ave electronics online has them with free shipping and no tax for 88.00. We are getting ready to purchase a new TV in the next couple of months and this looks like a great find. I'm not going to be able to afford a BR player for awhile so this looks like good player to hold me over. It has even received some pretty good reviews for the audio and video portions.

Thanks again.

[Woochifer]

Thanks for the tip. Costco does not have any here in Vacaville but 6th Ave electronics online has them with free shipping and no tax for 88.00. We are getting ready to purchase a new TV in the next couple of months and this looks like a great find. I'm not going to be able to afford a BR player for awhile so this looks like good player to hold me over. It has even received some pretty good reviews for the audio and video portions.

Thanks again.

If you feel like crossing the Carquinez Bridge, the Concord Costco had a stack of 13 of those Denon players last week. Could always call the store and see if they got any. Of course, after you factor in the sales tax, gas, bridge toll, and time spent, it might be more hassle free to just go with 6th Avenue.

That player is very much a typical Denon DVD player. Very good basic audio and video performance, with a lot of headscratchers on the manual, user interface, control setup, etc.

[anamorphic96]

If you feel like crossing the Carquinez Bridge, the Concord Costco had a stack of 13 of those Denon players last week. Could always call the store and see if they got any. Of course, after you factor in the sales tax, gas, bridge toll, and time spent, it might be more hassle free to just go with 6th Avenue.

That player is very much a typical Denon DVD player. Very good basic audio and video performance, with a lot of headscratchers on the manual, user interface, control setup, etc.

A couple other sites have some good deals as well. Since I moved in with my girlfriend we are trying to save for other more important things I have had to become more frugal with my purchases and this player is no brainer.

What are your plans for your next receiver ? Are you looking at any one manufacture more than the other ?

[Woochifer]

A couple other sites have some good deals as well. Since I moved in with my girlfriend we are trying to save for other more important things I have had to become more frugal with my purchases and this player is no brainer.

What are your plans for your next receiver ? Are you looking at any one manufacture more than the other ?

Also, the prices on BD players are going to keep tumbling. At some point, they will reach striking distance of upconverting DVD players. At that point, I see the mass migration to Blu-ray happening, since you won't be able to find too many standalone DVD players.

As far as receivers go, I'm always partial to the Yamahas. Rock solid build quality, good sound, competitive features, and excellent post processing capabilities.

A couple of years ago, I was also quite surprised at how well the Pioneer receivers fared when I A/B'd them against the Denon AVR-38xx series. At that time, Pioneer was putting some very high spec components into their midrange receivers in a bid to increase market share. A company that does teardown studies indicated that Pioneer could not have made very much money off those units because the parts alone were already close to the wholesale cost. Not sure if Pioneer's still overconstructing their midrange receivers, but they would be worth looking into. The other usual suspects include Denon, Onkyo, and NAD.

If you want to save money, you should look into closeouts. Right now, Magnolia has a lot of markdowns on the Yamaha and Denon midrange receivers, all of which are due for replacement soon.

[anamorphic96]

Well I took a road less traveled and ended up with the Marantz DV-4001 for 83.00 instead.

The Marantz does not do the high resolution audio formats but I would never use those anyway. It also only upscales to 1080i but according to friend of mine the Analog Devices componets are quite good.

The main reason I chose the Marantz was the 3 year warranty compared to the 1 year with the Denon. The Marantz also has a better track record for long term reliability and if something does go wrong I wont have to pay for the parts with the Marantz for 3 years. The labor would free on both since a good friend services both.

[Woochifer]

Well I took a road less traveled and ended up with the Marantz DV-4001 for 83.00 instead.

The Marantz does not do the high resolution audio formats but I would never use those anyway. It also only upscales to 1080i but according to friend of mine the Analog Devices componets are quite good.

The main reason I chose the Marantz was the 3 year warranty compared to the 1 year with the Denon. The Marantz also has a better track record for long term reliability and if something does go wrong I wont have to pay for the parts with the Marantz for 3 years. The labor would free on both since a good friend services both.

Looks like a good choice, hope it works well for you.

Keep in mind that Marantz and Denon share the same parent company (their higher end components are built at a jointly operated facility in Japan), and it actually would not surprise me if this DVD player used the same outsource manufacturer (Funai) that Denon uses for its entry level DVD players. The 3-year warranty is a great deal.