At
least some things in life are predictable. And one of them is the progression
of value-added features in consumer electronics. For example, when DVD-Video
first came in almost five years ago, everyone predicted that in a few more years
we’d be able to buy a super-combo changer able to play movie DVDs and other
formats with better performance than those first-generation, single-disc models.
Well, the prediction was accurate. Case in point: the five-disc Denon DVM-4800
DVD-Audio/ Video changer.
Rather than list every format it can play, it’s easier to list what it can’t play: vinyl records and Super Audio CDs (SACDs). Otherwise it can play and decode just about every optical disc format out there, including not only DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and standard CDs but also DTS- and HDCD-encoded CDs and home-burned CD-Rs and CD-RWs with MP3 files. It provides full decoders for Dolby Digital and DTS, with six analog audio output jacks for these as well as DVD-Audio programs. On the video side, it sports a progressive-scan component output. And, of course, it supports an onscreen menu system filled with the kind of video and audio selections and adjustments you’d expect on an upscale DVD changer.
Like most changers, the DVM-4800 reserves many of its operating controls for the remote. Still, its front panel has plenty, including a Progressive Scan on/off button, an Audio Only button that defeats the video output so it can’t interfere with the audio, and a Bass Enhancer button to send low frequencies from the main channels to the subwoofer (it works with DVD-Audio and PCM tracks on DVD-Video discs, but not with Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks). A blue fluorescent display keeps you fully apprised of the player’s operating status.
Under the changer’s hood, you’ll find a plethora of high-tech parts. Denon has always seriously pursued state-of-the-art electronics, and the DVM-4800 is no exception. The progressive-scan circuit features a de-interlacer with 2:3 pulldown, the video digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is a 12-bit chip (most DVD players use a 10-bit DAC), a 4-megabyte (MB) buffer memory helps smooth out or eliminate layer-change freezes and prevent skipping, 24-bit/192-kHz DACs are used for the front left and right channels, and 24-bit/96-kHz DACs are used for the center, surround, and subwoofer channels. Bottom line: this player packs some serious silicon.
The
large, paddle-shaped remote is almost big enough to paddle someone. It’s extremely
well laid out, and its different button colors and shapes help keep things straight.
The remote covers all the standard DVD features, and it also lets you enter
up to five bookmarks and select between two different kinds of virtual surround
sound if you’re playing discs through only two speakers. You can also tweak
the picture (contrast, brightness, sharpness, color, black level, and gamma),
select among four picture modes (Normal, Soft, Fine, and Cinema), select the
kind of video output that matches your display (direct-view, CRT projector,
LCD projector, projection TV), and even choose among four different video noise-reduction
settings.
Installing a DVD-Audio/Video player is about as undemanding as installing a standard DVD-Video player. In this case, I connected the component-video output to my Princeton Graphics widescreen HDTV monitor and both the optical digital and multichannel analog audio outputs to my Denon receiver. I powered up the player and checked out the onscreen menus.
Like most DVD players, the Denon has a setup menu that lets you select menu and subtitle languages, aspect ratio, TV type, and so on. However, this player also has a multichannel audio menu showing a 5.1-channel speaker setup. Here’s where you tell the player if your system has a center speaker, surrounds, or a subwoofer and where you set levels for the center and surround speakers and the subwoofer, set delay times for the center and surround channels, and, most important, select a “large” or “small” speaker size for the five main channels. This setup menu worked nicely.
While you’re playing a disc, other onscreen menus let you change some settings on the fly, such as picture settings and virtual surround on/off. I was impressed by the extent of the video adjustments. For example, in progressive-scan play, you can independently adjust horizontal sharpness, vertical sharpness, and edge sharpness. Even better, the player can remember your custom settings for up to 200 DVDs.
With the player’s progressive-scan output selected, the image quality it delivered was impressively crisp. Slanted lines looked solid in the opening scene of Star Trek: Insurrection, one of our favorite progressive-scan torture-test DVDs. And colors looked clean and were free of “combing” artifacts in animated films like Yellow Submarine.
Torture tests completed, I settled into my futon for some more relaxed movie viewing. (Yes, I actually get paid for this job.) Specifically, I watched The Family Man (Universal) starring Nicolas Cage. If you liked It’s a Wonderful Life, you’ll appreciate this sentimental flick about a hard-driving corporate executive glimpsing his alternative existence as chief diaper-changer.
The entire film is shot in muted, inviting colors. Nowhere is this more evident than when Cage awakens in Chapter 4, his face silhouetted against a black background. As the camera pans up and over, we can see every detail in his face as warm light illuminates him from the side. The pillow beneath his head looks as soft as a feather, and every shadow across his face and the pillow’s fabric is diffused. The player’s component-video output conveyed this picture with image quality as good as I’ve seen from a DVD. The blacks were black, the skin tone was natural, and every subtle gradation in lighting looked exactly right.
In Chapter 6, Cage awakens again, this time backlit somewhat harshly by light reflected from the bed’s carved wooden headboard. The light grazes the shoulder of his flannel pajamas, clearly revealing the nubby texture of the fabric. A few moments later, in what is probably the highlight of the movie, at least for male viewers, Téa Leoni dances happily in the shower. Strictly for review purposes, I studied these frames very carefully. Light shines on the shower stall’s frosted glass, illuminating both the glass and Leoni behind it and casting her hazy shadow on the tiled wall beyond. As Cage watches her, jaw appropriately dropped, his fuzzy shadow is thrown against a wall and across a child’s drawing mounted on it. Every detail of color, perspective, motion, light, and shadow seemed beyond reproach to me. If we need a better picture than this, I guess we’ll have to wait for high-def DVD.
Since this player is about more than movies, I checked out a DVD-Audio release of America’s soft folk/rock album, Homecoming (Warner Archives/Rhino). The multichannel remix of “Ventura Highway” places one guitar in front and another in back, with lead vocals in the front three channels and backup vocals all around. The front/back interplay of the guitars is an example of tasteful surround sound mixing. On “Don’t Cross the River,” the bass guitar was firm in the subwoofer.
The player gave a terrific account of itself throughout this and other DVD-Audio discs. The sound quality provided by its audio DACs was first-rate (and playback from good, old-fashioned CDs was superb). On the downside, the changer was rather leisurely at disc swapping; it took about 20 seconds to stop playing one CD and start playing another, and even longer with DVDs.
I was disappointed that the DVM-4800’s speaker settings don’t apply to DVD-Audio. For example, even if you tell the player that your surround speakers are “small,” it’ll send full-range DVD-Audio signals to the analog output jacks. On the plus side, pressing the front-panel Bass Enhancer button directs low frequencies from all channels to the subwoofer so you won’t “lose” the bass if you’re using satellite speakers that have small woofers. But this analog bass management isn’t complete because the player still sends full-range signals to the five main channels, which could damage speakers not designed to handle them.
Although this partial solution is a step in the right direction, I’d gladly trade some of the doodads like HDCD decoding and virtual surround sound for more comprehensive DVD-Audio bass management — including adjustable low-pass cutoff frequencies and filter slopes. That would make this great player nearly perfect.
Still, quibbles aside, the Denon DVM-4800 is terrific. While it’s predictable that newer generations of players will offer still more features and flexibility, it’s startling just how magnificent the audio and video quality can get. This changer’s playback looks and sounds so good that I have to wonder how much meaningful improvement is still possible within the optical-disc framework.
HIGH POINTS:
Superb video and audio fidelity. Video adjustments galore. Plays almost everything
but SACDs.
LOW POINTS:
Limited bass management. Leisurely disc changing.
| Fast Facts |
|
KEY FEATURES OUTPUTS Two composite/S-video, one component-video; analog stereo,
5.1-channel analog, and both coaxial and optical digital audio |