Peculiar Find at Costco: $69 Denon Universal Player

[Woochifer]

Some of the most peculiar discoveries while buying stuff for weekend grillin' ...

I was looking through the electronics section to check out the Panasonic Blu-ray player that Costco currently has on a coupon special at $230, and to price out a spare DVD player for the guest room.

Lo and behold I found a Denon universal player (the Costco equivalent to the DVD-1940CI) for $69. This is a full blown SACD/DVD-A universal player with 1080p upscaling, a Faroudja DCDi deinterlacer, Burr-Brown DACs, and HDMI output, and it carries a list price of $370. Granted, this player came out in Fall 2007 so it's probably a clearance blowout, but I'll probably jump on it since my SACD player needs to get shipped back to Sony for servicing (it can no longer read hybrid SACDs). Ironically, I was deciding between the Sony ES SACD changer and a Denon DVD-2200 a few years ago, and I opted for the dedicated SACD player. Now, I might wind up having both.

[kexodusc]

Holy cow. That's a pretty sick deal, I've spent more on a bad date!

[audio amateur]

Holy cow. That's a pretty sick deal, I've spent more on a bad date!

That's why you avoid spending too much on dates

[markw]

Not being a member of Costco, I bought one from 6th Ave for $89 and change a few weeks ago.

What's it cost to join Costco anyway?

P.S. t works great and has a non-cheap feel about it.

[Woochifer]

Not being a member of Costco, I bought one from 6th Ave for $89 and change a few weeks ago.

What's it cost to join Costco anyway?

P.S. t works great and has a non-cheap feel about it.

Costco membership is $50. We only joined after my wife got pregnant, and we started needing to buy things in bulk. Didn't make sense for me to join Costco when I was single and living in a cramped flat in the city. Now that I'm back on the other side of the bay, and running most of my errands by car once again, Costco membership gets a lot more usage. The membership pays off for us because we now have more items that we need to stock up on, and we take advantage of their frequent coupon specials.

Wooch, thanks for the tip.

I saw that Panny DMP-BD 605K at Costco yesterday, Friday, for $280. Apparently the $230 price is online only.

You can get that price in-store as well if you got your May coupon book. Even if you don't have the coupon book, I'm sure there are ways for you to ask for the discount if you're a member. My local Costco has got stacks and stacks of those Panny BD players.

Thanks for the heads up Wooch!
I might have to piggy back on my parents Costco membership and pick this unit up.......

You know Costco only sells new stuff, don't you?

I'll have to see if I can pick one up. Thanks Wooch.

I found the Denons at the Fremont store. I have not checked any other locations to see how widely distributed these universal players are. I would be curious to see if they got sent out to any of the Costco stores in the Central Valley.

Is that new in the box or a floor model?

Brand new, in the box, with a two-year Costco warranty.

[L.J.]

I found the Denons at the Fremont store. I have not checked any other locations to see how widely distributed these universal players are. I would be curious to see if they got sent out to any of the Costco stores in the Central Valley.

I shot up to my local store but didn't find anything. I'll be in the bay on Wed. so maybe I can still grab one. I was about to pick up a cheap player for $40 but I wouldn't mind SACD/DVDA playback in a second room.

Buying diapers in bulk now huh.....

[RoadRunner6]

Wooch, thanks for the tip.

I saw that Panny DMP-BD 605K at Costco yesterday, Friday, for $280. Apparently the $230 price is online only.

[thekid]

Thanks for the heads up Wooch!
I might have to piggy back on my parents Costco membership and pick this unit up.......

[RoadRunner6]

Hey Kid, isn't that way above your limit? Something brand new!

OMG!

[thekid]

Hey Kid, isn't that way above your limit? Something brand new!

OMG!

LOL

You got me RR6....it is a little too modern
If I got it for my bedroom system I'd have to use it to replace my Denon 1500 which only cost me $7........

[RoadRunner6]

You got me RR6

Yeah! If you wait about 10 years Kid it might be down to about 10 bucks!

[pixelthis]

Is that new in the box or a floor model?
A 2007 model, thats about right.
Great if you are into SACD(DVD-A is dead).
Funny how state of the art changes in a few years.

[L.J.]

I'll have to see if I can pick one up. Thanks Wooch.

[Woochifer]

Pulled the trigger on the Denon today. At this price, it's a no brainer, especially since I was looking to get a spare DVD player anyway.

Overall, very good video and audio performance with what I've tried so far. This unit handles the basics very well, and loads and detects discs very quickly. I'm going through my DVD collection and picking out some of the more problematic discs (ones that exhibit moire and jaggies when playing on the PS3) to see how the Denon handles them. As a side benefit, I can now play my DVD-As at full resolution (previously, I'd been using the DTS/DD tracks). And now I can play back all of my SACDs once again (my SACD player has been getting very inconsistent with detecting the hybrid discs, and can't play the SACD layers at all on several of them).

Shortcomings though remind me of why I opted for the dedicated SACD player a few years ago. The bass management sucks, there is no delay offset for SACD playback, the setup menus are confusing, Denon still writes lousy manuals, the level adjustments are bizarre (surrounds cannot be adjusted at the same increments as the other channels), there's no option to output the SACD signal via HDMI, the layer switching during SACD playback is slow, and several of the functions can only controlled via the front panel while others can only be controlled using the remote. These would be glaring flaws at the $370 list price, but for $70 they're definitely not dealbreakers by a long shot.

It looks like my local Costco has sold about half of the units that I saw on the floor on Friday. Judging by comments posted on other boards, it looks like this special has been migrating from east to west, with Costcos back east getting these units in April.

The Denon player that I bought today was manufactured in June 2007, so this is very obviously an inventory clearance. The DVD-1940CI was introduced around that time, and was only a minor upgrade over the previous DVD-1930CI, which came out in 2006. Denon hasn't updated its DVD player lineup in nearly two years, and has focused primarily on getting its BD player lineup situated. With the recent introduction of two lower priced BD players, I wonder if Denon is exiting the DVD player market altogether, and taking support for SACD and DVD-A down with it. It's very obvious that the DVD-1940CI is getting end-of-lifed, yet I have not heard of any replacement universal players coming from Denon. We'll know soon enough.

[RoadRunner6]

Thanks Wooch, I did find it in my May coupon book. If one doesn't have a coupon book you can always get one at the customer service counter.

[Woochifer]

For anyone in the area -- I was in Concord yesterday at lunch time, so I popped by the Costco store for some pizza. Passing by the electronics row (I am sort of shopping for a kids room TV right now), I saw that they had 13 of the Denon players still in stock.

They're also packed to the rafters with the Panny BD players, I saw a stack of at least 100 units. I notice that the Sony, Philips, and Samsung BD players at Costco are all priced at $210 to $230, while Pannys still carry a $280 price tag. The Panny is a $230 coupon special, but the signage at that store makes no mention of that. Since the coupon deal expires this weekend, I gotta wonder if Costco's just going to lower the regular price to $230 afterwards because it looks like they got a LOT of inventory to move.

I'll be in Pleasanton this afternoon, so I might swing by the San Ramon/Danville store and see what they have.

[Woochifer]

Dropped in on the Danville location ... nothing on the Denon universal players.

I did notice though that the different Costco locations can vary quite a bit with their electronic selections. Even though the Danville store did not have the universal players, they did have the Denon AVR-589 (equivalent to the AVR-1609) receiver for $170, which is more than half off the $350 list price.

Soundbars seem to have arrived en masse, and different stores carry different models. I'm also seeing variation in the TV selections.

[nightflier]

Wooch,

I used to live in the BA, so your travels bring back memories. Anyhow, what are the differences between the Costco Panasonic DMP-BD 605K and the equivalent commercial model? By the way, what is the equivalent commercial model?

The Denon sound intriguing as well. I was kind of thinking of picking up one of the clearance Cambridge players at AA (I still have a credit from my Music Hall DAC return), but I was a bit hesitant about these being older & discontinued models and the fact that online reviews are a bit all over the place. Of course, at the Costco's prices, that Denon is also a lot less expensive.

[Woochifer]

Wooch,

I used to live in the BA, so your travels bring back memories. Anyhow, what are the differences between the Costco Panasonic DMP-BD 605K and the equivalent commercial model? By the way, what is the equivalent commercial model?

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 Denon sound intriguing as well. I was kind of thinking of picking up one of the clearance Cambridge players at AA (I still have a credit from my Music Hall DAC return), but I was a bit hesitant about these being older & discontinued models and the fact that online reviews are a bit all over the place. Of course, at the Costco's prices, that Denon is also a lot less expensive.

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.

[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 ?

[RoadRunner6]

The Costco DMP-BD605K is the same as the Panny DMP-BD60K (I think the 605 has one small extra feature). There is a DMP-BD601K listed at the Panasonic site, perhaps it is the Walmart version (it is the same as the 60 and 605). These are the new models from the BD35.

The DMP-BD80 has the 7.1 channel analog outputs. (new model for the BD55)