Denon today announced what they say is the the world’s first high-end Blu-ray universal player [JP], meaning it can play Blu-ray discs, SACDs, CDs, DVD-Audio and DVD-Video. The DVD-A1UD (strange name) is the successor of the DVD-A1XV.
Denon says its DENON Link 4th technology (in combination with HDMI 1.3) dramatically reduces jitter, leading to an improved sound quality from all digital sources. Hirofumi Ichikawa, the company CEO, claims Blu-ray, DVD, SACD and CD users will get the best audio and video results they have ever seen.
Internal DTS-Neo6 and DolbyPro IIx doesn’t sound too bad but there is no 24p output for DVDs. Also, BD-Live isn’t integrated yet but should become available with a future firmware update.
The DENON DVD-A1UD will hit Japan at the end of January (price: a whopping $5,800). At time of writing, DENON said the device will become available in Europe in March 2009 with an MSRP of 4,000 Euros. Buyers can choose between a black and a silver version.
Who cares about the marginal, if any, effect of jitter on sound quality when there’s a cooling fan in the back audibly cycling on and off? Plus it’s laughable that they expect someone to pay $5800 for an incomplete product (no BD Live, promised soon).
well, isn’t that …”special”.
“Meh” on claims of being a ‘Universal’ player. I didn’t see any claim to being able to play HD DVD media, which is just slightly more dean than DVD-A and/or SACD.
Why would Denon go out of their way to pay royalties to Toshiba for an obsolete platform? Furthermore, with the advent of audio-only BD titles with dts-Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD hitting the market, there’s again no need for supporting HD DVD. Lastly, there were never as many HD DVD titles on the market as there were SACD or DVD-A titles, so why would any manufacturer bother with HD DVD support?