Denon Announces Lower Cost Blu-ray Player

Denon Electronics has announced that they will begin shipping a lower-cost Blu-ray Disc player to stores in October. The player, the Denon DVD-1800BD, will be a BonusView (Profile v1.1) player and is expected to retail for $749. A full list of features has yet to be announced, but it was revealed that the player will support only bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. Other known features include support for Deep Color HDMI video and on-board Burr-Brown DACs for two channel analog output. No additional information was released at this time.
Source: Blu-ray.com | Permalink	Relevant for:

KretzJ  » Sep 03, 2008

So Denon steps up with a lower-priced $750 player and Pioneer is prepping a $1,400 player. No reason at all why Blu-Ray still gets tagged with the tags "snobby" and "elitist". We need top of the line players, don't get me wrong, but what we need for this holiday season is a lower-end product line, too. And some serious work at lowering the prices of the movies. I think Christmas 2008 is a major swing-point for Blu. We make our mark now, this year, and people plan for the demise of DVD, or we're relegated to a very cool but niche technology.

Lucy Diamond  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
Bitstreaming should be good enough...right??? I mean...as long as your receiver can handle the magic!!? Sounds like the deals on quality are getting better, which can only be better for the movement.

Woody  » Sep 03, 2008
cogh *funai* cough

tnlurker  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
Unfortunatly, Blu needs a sub $200 player bad for the holidays. Not another $750 model. This is just more ammo for the anti-blu forces to point at as yet another example of how expensive blu is. If we want Blu to go mainstream, we need the Wal-mart crowd. That is the only way to get the movie prces down and the market share up.

Spider1981  » Sep 03, 2008
I agree with what others have said above. High end players are fantastic, but it seems most all the announcements as of late have been players far out of consideration by John Q. Public. I really want Blu-ray to flourish and that simply isn't going to happen with $750 this and $1400 that. I hope that some company out there is planning a surprise, and I hope the BDA is on top of things.

Wingman1977  » Sep 03, 2008
Denon's interpretation of "lower cost" is still too expensive in the real world.

bypass  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
What a joke. Sony S350 ftw!

ECWaenigma  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
PS3 does all that and more. People are still making a big deal over Profile v1.1?

Bobby Henderson  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
$749 is a "lower cost player?" This is just another factor that will help Playstation 3 continue to lead all other Blu-ray player models in sales by a very wide margin. Until standalone BD players can compete with PS3 BOTH in terms of price and performance the PS3 will remain as the top selling BD player for the foreseeable future.

uptheirons  » Sep 03, 2008
Bring it on!!!!!

TheZoof  » Sep 03, 2008
I might consider picking one of these up.

ROBUST  » Sep 03, 2008
Personally I'm waiting for a Panasonic Blu that offers a built in Hard Drive or a USB PORT to store my Home Theater Logo and trailers and Dancing Candy Boxes and I can play this first then toggle between the Hard Drive to the player for the Movie...

sokrman14  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
It will basically be a rebadged, though upgraded software of the 2500BTCI.

AVSpecialist  » Sep 03, 2008

I see you folks need a little help understanding Blu-Ray and possibly the Denon concept of BD systems. First I will correct our friend sokrman14. The Denon is not a rebadged DVD2500BTCI. Be advised that Denon has even more expensive BD/Universal players coming and very soon too. There are many BD players under the $750 price point as some people have already pointed out and it seems that $399.00 is the current low price and $199.00 is just around the corner. Denon has never been one of the cheap companies for DVD or BD players and I doubt they ever will be. It is advertised as a LOWER cost BD player not the lowest cost BD player. You'll never see a $49 upconvert DVD or BD player from Denon. For sure thay have always been one of the better players in the lower price ranges. As in all new technology, it starts out at higher costs and eventually goes down in time. Possibly some of you can remember a 480i 42" plasma's starting out from Phillips at $15,000.00 USD and they were absolutely terrible. I find that BD players are going to become more available at lower prices very soon now that HD & BD have stopped the war of formats. It really made no sense for any manufacturer to get to heavily involved in the formats until after the format war ended. Just think, 1080P streaming is already here and now we are learning about UHD. The digital world is only a baby and much more is on it's way very soon. It won't be long when you can rent or own 1080P movies direct from the studio's. Just think, you won't need Netflix, Blockbuster, Wal-Mart or Best Buy to get your movies in 1080P. DOn't you think what we really need is more 1080P software and some of the HD-DVD disc's to be reproduced in BluRay? Wouldn't you like to see King Kong on your BD player?

sokrman14  » Sep 03, 2008
It wasn't meant to be condescending towards Denon, I love their product, it just sounds very similar to the DVD2500BTCI, with the addition of analog 2 channel output. With this model coming out I don't see a reason to get the 2500BTCI, because this is cheaper and will probably just as good considering it is 8 months newer and probably has a lot of the same parts.

Forrestandjen07  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
$750 a lower price????????????? and only 1.1????????????

ahtown  » Sep 03, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
I have a PS3 and Bose Lifestyle system that I think is great with my 46'' Plasma. What could an $800-1500 Denon give me that I don't already have? The audio can be that much better. 1080P is 1080P....? What gives?

MieDan4ever  » Sep 04, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
Doesnt seem lower to me. Still expensive! Lower is under the $400s

ottscay  » Sep 04, 2008
Guys, a little reality check; Denon doesn't make many SD DVD players for under $400. You have to parse this information within the proper context. A more accessible BD player from one of the big players in home theater and installation markets is good, and in no way contradicts the importance of lower cost players (which would not come from Denon anyways). Sheesh, what whining.

AVSpecialist  » Sep 04, 2008

Only because we don't generally spec lower end products in our designs, I had to check but Denon does have SD-DVD players under $400. I agree that better companies like Denon should try to make an even lower cost BD and possibly that will come with time. I believe the DVD-1800BD will fit the bill for many but I also believe that for some it is not a "lower" cost item. We've recently received the Pioneer Elite BDPS05FD's in stock, they are about the same price. After a couple weeks with the Elite piece and if you are in the market at this price point ..the Denon is certainly the better choice. sokrman14, the DVD2500BDCI is a transport only and may not be the right choice for you anyway. There are many high-end BD players coming and they will reach numbers more like the $8K - $10K price points. They will also feed the need for the users that want high-end audio and SACD play back all in Universal player.

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