Denon's Jeff Talmadge gives us the scoop on the new Blu-ray productsAugust 27, 2007Denon's Director of Product Development and Systems Integration tells us about the new Blu-ray player and transport, how the latest receivers have been received.ListenUp: Tell us a little bit about your new Blu-ray products.
Jeff Talmadge: Well, we actually have two units — the DVD-3800BDCI player and the DVD-2500BTCI, which is a Blu-ray/DVD/CD transport. The transport only has HDMI output; there is no other jack on the back at all. It will come out at $1,199 SRP. It was really designed as a simple hi-def solution for customers to add to their A/V receivers, like an AVR-2808CI, for example. Connect the 2500BTCI, and now you’ve got hi-def audio and hi-def video. Of course, the DVD-3800BDCI player is the one most are focusing on. That's really more of our normal style, and I'm excited about it. The biggest news about it is that it's the world's first with Profile 1.1, the BD-ROM version, which goes into effect in October for all manufacturers. So any new DVD player introduced after October of this year must fit that profile.
LU: What exactly does that mean?JT: The profile itself is the next step in the Blu-ray evolution. HD DVD is what I call a "baked format", meaning it's basically done. There are some copy protection things, but that's later, and they’re not going to affect performance and playback of material. For Blu-ray, on the other hand, Profile 1.1 is just the next step — there's actually a Version 2 some time next year. That's going to deal with players and the software, so it's two-sided. But back to Profile 1.1. It mandates that players must have secondary audio and video processing for picture-in-picture capabilities, be able to support external storage of some type — or internal storage, it's really an option, I believe — for downloaded Web material. Current Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players do not have to have any “connect” port. Those that do, it's really for firmware update, but that’s the only thing it's really good for. Where HD DVD, has HDI, it's an interactive version. And even that port is required to go to a movie’s web site or a dedicated space to download extra material. When our player comes out, the first thing people will notice on the front panel is that is has an SD card slot. We give you an SD card, and obviously, you can buy others. You would take that to your computer, go to the movie website on the card and download this material, toss it into the player, and then be able to access that simultaneously with the movie playback.
LU: Will that load the information to the disc's menu system?
JT: Most likely. I haven't seen it in true operation yet; once I get it, obviously, I'll know. But that's the premise. So you can have running pictures of the director, of the actors doing commentary or whatever other material the studio feels that they want to give you to make it a truly interactive experience. After that, it's standard Blu-ray. But there is a possibility — and this is maybe not so public knowledge — that when these discs come out that fit this new profile, they may not work properly with the Profile 1.0 players.
LU: Really?
JT: It’s a possibility, and that’s why we’re working very hard to make sure that our products will be okay with any previous discs and new discs. The BD portion [of the DVD-3800BDCI] is going to be the newest and latest and greatest available, but the biggest concern for us was not to forget about SD, standard definition. So in reality, for a lot of your readers and your customers and a lot of the people out there that check the site, this is like a DVD-3930CI with Blu-ray added. [But without DVD-Audio or SACD – Ed.]
LU: And what is the price of the new Blu-ray player?
JT: The player itself has a retail of $1,999 SRP, so a $400 premium over the DVD-3930CI. I know some people see $1,999 and think, "There's going to be $299 Blu-rays at Christmas. What are you doing?" Well, we've never followed that normal logic ever in our history, and of course you know that. ListenUp has sold many, many players, well above the average for Denon. We're not going to change. So we're excited about that player. It matches the new look of the receivers and everything else. It will have 7.1 analog outputs, optical/coax, and HDMI. We're actually going to be the first to incorporate Realta HQV technology in the player, where it will actually do noise reduction and filtering on Blu-ray material. So the process will be active all the time. And you get to disable it, obviously, if you want, but we're going to make 1080p Blu-ray look better than it did right off the disc. That's the goal.
LU: The Realta is really an amazing chip.
JT: There are many players that are using the Reon processor, which is very good — we use it in our 2930. But Reon is sort of a closed architecture chip. You buy it and you insert it into your board, and there's very little play on what you can improve or change. The Realta has open architecture — it's a programmable chip, and that increases our capability to get the most performance out of it. So that's why we're putting it in that piece. We're also putting it in the new AVR-5308 top-end receiver and also in the AVP-A1HD pre-amp, which I'll talk about later.
LU: So why would a customer buy the player over the transport? You mentioned that the player was basically a 3930 [minus DVD-Audio and SACD] with Blu-ray. Does the same apply to the transport?
JT: No. For SD, I compare the transport to our new 1740 standard disc player, which is a 1080p-scaling, very good entry-level DVD player. That's what will be on the SD side. The Blu-ray side will be similar to the 3800, but not with HQV technology or anything like that.
LU: So the player offers improvements over the transport in SD, Blu-ray and audio. And the added connections…
JT: Absolutely.
Denon remains format-neutralLU: Why did Denon go with Blu-ray rather than HD DVD?
JT: We decided to go Blu-ray because we found a partner that we can work with at this point in time quicker than we could to do HD DVD. We're not picking one format over the other — we want to make that very clear. We happen to have a partner that we've worked with for years, and they wanted to work with us first, and so it just was like a nice marriage. The door is wide open for HD DVD, and as many have said, the market's going to tell us where we need to go. In our particular instance, our goal is to have a true universal audio/video player. All audio formats, including SACD and DVD-Audio, as well as HD DVD and Blu-ray video.
LU: So you would consider doing a combo player with Blu-ray and HD DVD?
JT: That's probably our number one consideration at this point in time. They're just starting to come out from some of the major players — obviously, Samsung has introduced theirs. They'll be out this fall, while the LG player, you know, it's not a true HD DVD player — it's not a licensed HD DVD product. LG has to make their own logo, it doesn't display menus for movies, and all this other stuff. So Samsung's going to be the first true combo player. And hats off to them.
LU: Just to make it clear, the DVD-3800BDCI does not support DVD-Audio or SACD.
JT: Correct. We've gotten some criticism from some of the forums and some e-mails for not supporting those formats. As I said before, though, we’re working towards a true universal player; it's just that to get this Blu-ray player out at this point in time, we had to leave something out.
LU: But it's a really good CD player —
JT: A really good CD player, yes.
LU: And a really good DVD player. And Denon is still agnostic, basically, about the high-def formats video formats, isn't it?
JT: We don't care. In the Blu-ray.com conversation from my last interview with you they were saying, "Well, Denon's a member of the Blu-ray Association." Yes, we are. That's public knowledge. That just means we're a member. That doesn't mean we're a deciding member. We don't have a license, we don't hold licenses on any technology in Blu-ray. There are like four or five gods at Blu-ray up there. But we're on Toshiba's doorstep every day talking to them, too. So, you know, we, as we've always tried to be with new technologies or new partners, to be as agnostic as possible, work with everybody, and give the customer the option--let them decide. That's really what it comes down to. You know, the Blu-ray sort of stems from that a little bit, but it gets us in the market. It shows that we are working with our dealers, that we are striving to be a part of the next high-definition player, whatever it may be, and it just seemed to work out a little bit easier, so that's where we are right now.
LU: That's good clarification, I think, for our readers to know that you’re not necessarily throwing your support to one format or the other. It’s just a pragmatic decision made to get a hi-def format to market so customers can take advantage of the content.
JT: Yes.
LU: Switching gears now, how have your new receivers been received?
JT: With the release of the AVR-4308CI and 3808CI, the response from dealers, customers, has been phenomenal. They're selling through extremely well. I know you guys had a huge pre-sell in, so that was good, and many other dealers did as well, and those that didn't have the opportunity of pre-sales have moved through their inventory quite quickly. You know, there are lots of forum streams and stuff I've checked on, and the response has been overwhelmingly complimentary of the performance.
Now, of course, one of the major features of the receiver can't be tested right now and you can't enjoy it, and that's the hi-def Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, because there's no player that can send the signals to the receiver currently available. So what’s driving sales? Obviously, people are getting ready for the next generation of players to come. That's good.
It appears that networking is really becoming a major factor. People are connecting their receivers to the networks, they are streaming audio, and finally understanding the benefits from that. And the fact that the Wi-Fi is on the 43 has helped it tremendously, because most people don't have Ethernet ROM and they don't want it on cables. And the Wi-Fi works just like anyone's used to having a laptop that goes from one network to another. It works very simply. So it supports any encryption and things like that. It's relatively easy to set up. A new GUI, huge responses.
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