Denon DVDA1UDCI Blu-ray DVD CD Player (Black)

Review from HomeTheaterMag.com: Denon DVD-A1UDCI Universal Blu-ray Player

Magazine Reviews" src="http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/HTMlogo.jpg"/>The Denon DVD-A1UDCI offers cutting-edge video that's unexcelled, and it's the best-sounding BD player I've heard to date. By about a mile and a half. On that criterion alone, this player is the proverbial bomb. However, this player does leave me a little conflicted. I loved its picture and sound every day it was here, and it made me dig into my movie and music library with glee. But I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I consistently wished for better speed in disc loading and access times, as well as swifter response with interactivity. The DVD-A1UDCI isn't alone in having somewhat sluggish response. Much of that is inherent in the Blu-ray format, which has improved interactivity at the expense of speed. But the players we've gravitated to here at HT are typically those that go farthest in solving these inherent issues, and there's a simple reason for that. They're the easiest players to watch movies on day in and day out. Still, to an audiophile who doesn't care about the newfangled interactivity as much as I do, the DVD-A1UDCI's performance will be more than enough. Read the full review at HomeTheaterMag.com.

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Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
I had very high hopes for this machine when I purchased it from a local Denon dealer with cash I had been given as a gift. I have some SACD's and DVD audio discs, a huge collection of DVD's and CD's, and was ready to begin a collection of Blu-ray discs. I am running the player connected to a Denon AVR 4310CI receiver with which I am greatly pleased. When the player works, the sound and picture are outstanding. I have been tremendously disappointed from the onset. The machine has been thoroughly updated in its firmware and is still picky about playing and not playing certain Blu-rays as well as even CD's. It was suggested that maybe this was because its firmware was not properly updated. To update the player, one is supposed to be able to easily access online through its ethernet connection the Denon site that downloads these things. However, the player will not stay connected to the internet long enough to complete the downloads. I have Cat 7 cables, and the fastest "business" speed internet connection that Comcast provides. It has been tested and has been shown to be reliable and steady. To assist me in this, the local dealer from which I purchased the player actually made a couple of discs to use to load the firmware updates into the machine. Their tech came to my home and accomplished this procedure. The player indicates that it is up to date now, indicating "latest" when firmware update is checked. It still will not connect and play "Blu-ray Live" options that are available on many discs. It still will not consistently play the Ironman Blu-ray disc. At least one audio CD I own will not play in the machine. I have checked these discs by taking them to try on various other players and even back to the dealer's shop to try on their players. All but one music Blu-ray disc (defective) have played flawlessly elsewhere. As has been noted in another review, the player is very slow starting up even if it is set in "quick start" mode. The owner's manual is hopelessly useless in assisting in use of the player. The GUI is "pretty," but very difficult to understand- even for the tech from the local dealer! Finally, since hooking the new receiver and this Blu-ray player into my system, I have encountered a repeated problem with my Dell plasma TV (5 years old) flashing pink or having a constant pink background on it when starting up or changing from cable to Blu-ray, or from cable to the Rhapsody music source online through the receiver's ethernet connection. No one has been able to tell me how to fix that problem! I can't say that the Blu-ray player has caused this, but it never happened before I installed the new player into my system. Denon has been no help and the local dealer has no idea how to fix this TV problem. Dell's customer service suggested that I buy a new TV to fix it! Over all, the decision to purchase this Blu-ray player has been a very expensive mistake. I would recommend that anyone considering it try a cheaper Samsung with the ability to connect wirelessly to the internet to access Netflix, Pandora, and other online services.