I was reading an article that was predicting Denon to have a Blu-ray player out this year. But I was a bit surprised to find that Funai, the same company that builds cheap DVD players like Emerson, Sylvania etc., also makes Denon's. The surprise really wasn't that Denon didn't build their own but more that Funai was capable of building the quality found in the Denon players. I'm not sure how long this has been going on but my Denon 1600 has worked flawlessly for several years and I've been happy with the picture. This unit listed at $499.00, I'd hate to think a $59.00 Wal-Mart special would have done the same thing. I'd also think that D&M Holdings had the capacity to build their own players. I assume it's cheaper for them to have some one else do it. I also suspect the Funai or others who produce for several other companies have to build to the requested specs of each manufacturer.