Denon AVR-1908 A/V Dolby Digital Surround Receiver w/ HDMI Switching

Review by A. Lasu for Denon AVR-1908 A/V Dolby Digital Surround Receiver w/ HDMI Switching
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After 3 months I can say the Denon receiver 1908 is a great product. Matched well with my Athena speakers. The sound is warm and pleasant compared to the Yamaha receiver its replacing. You can listen for hours and not tire. Setup was easy for me. First I used the automatic setup with the provided audyssey mic. This discovers the distance & sizes of your speakers and sets up the sounds. Next I fine tuned the sound via the manual setup. My only gripe is that the remote is front and back. I’ve hooked up my laptop via optical and external soundcard as “CD” so every time I need to listen to music I have to turn over the remote, open the back and select “CD”. Not a big deal but seems like a hassle. I’ve seen a few complaints against the manual. Personally, it was very easy to follow. Its logically designed – manual or auto setup? If auto, insert mic, place in 6 different listening positions…If manual, ‘setup one item at a time as you go step by step’ in logical sequence. The English is easy to follow. Its similar stuff to that in my Yamaha receiver. Not that complicated, really.

UPDATE NOVEMBER, 2008: Now for the bad part – the receiver ‘broke’ after 3 months of use. The problem – within 5min of use, it automatically turns off and puts itself in protection mode. Took it to a Denon repair shop, they changed some parts, brought it home and nope, it ain’t fixed. Took it to another Denon repair shop a week ago, awaiting their response. Given how great quality of the sound is, I’m standing by my Denon! You can never go wrong with this. I love the remote, it has a heavy quality feel to it. Biggest surprise: The 1907 was selling for over $500 last year. I got the 1908 for a little over $300 brand new on Amazon!

UPDATE, DECEMBER 3, 2008 – authorized repair shop fixed the problem under warranty = free. Did the auto setup then manual to fine-tune. Now that I’ve gone through it for the 2nd time, I can understand how less tech-savvy folks would be intimidated. The good news is that after the auto setup, you’re pretty much done. You don’t have to mess around with the manual setup, if you don’t want to.

Review by D. Begey for Denon AVR-1908 A/V Dolby Digital Surround Receiver w/ HDMI Switching
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I bought the AVR-1908 on clearance because it had everything that I needed. I currently have it setup with 5.1 in my main listening room and Zone 2 pushing a couple of speakers on our patio.

It handles multi-channel PCM from Blu-Ray players with no problem at all. I didn’t need to see a “True HD” logo when playing my Blu-Rays, but if you do the newer model AVR-1909 will do that for you. For me, multi-channel PCM over HDMI is all I need. It gives the full uncompressed HD audio.

The Blu-Ray disks I have played have all sounded great. Everything blends well and the vocals are all crisp and understandable. The sound is warm and full. It sounds much fuller than the same speakers driven with a 5-year old Yamaha 5.1 receiver. Music CDs sound great as well, and the simulated 5.1 adds some depth.

I found the setup to be not nearly as complex as others have. The auto-setup worked OK, but I did tweak some of the values a bit (it left the subwoofer at -12db which just was not enough bass). I did this all without ever hitting a wrong key or having to consult the manual. I only wish it could display the on-screen menu through HDMI, but I knew before buying that it couldn’t. It displays just fine over component video. While the menu is not flashy at all (white text on a black screen), it does get the job done.

The remote, I must say, is as horrible as others have said. Having to flip it over and open a flimsy door to reveal some functions I commonly use is a pain. I wish they had incorporated a slightly wider remote with all function keys on the front. Oh well, I’ll most likely get a Harmony One or something similar to control all of my gear so that will take care of that problem.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the purchase and would definitely buy it again. If you can still find one for a good deal, I would get it and save hundreds over the current year’s model. I almost knocked off one star for the horrible remote control, but the rest of the strengths definitely overshadow this one weakness.

Review by Hummingbirds for Denon DVD-1800BD Blu-Ray/CD Player
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This is one awesome Blu-Ray player. It plays everything we’ve thrown at it so far.. even our home-produced DVD+R/-R videos (which the manual does not indicate it could even play)! It is also great to be able to play my .MP3 music files and .JPG slideshows from SD cards! However, just two little quirks have held me back from giving it 5 stars:

Denon really needs to either put more useful buttons on their remote, and/or make the menus easier to access, and/or make switching to/from SD cards and Discs easier. For example, after you play a DVD, if you want to play a photo slideshow from your SD memory card, you have to go into menu after submenu to switch playing modes from “Disc” to “SD card”. How ridiculous is that!!!?? It gets me mad every time I have to do it. Why not just have this in the top menu, or put a button on the remote for that? OR, BETTER YET — why not have the player DETECT if a card or disc is inserted and automatically switch to that mode!!!!! Puuuulllleeeeeaaaaze, I have an inexpensive VR3 car stereo that can do that! It will switch to disc or SD card, whichever you insert last. Now come on, why can’t Denon do that??

Also, for photo slideshows, you have to search somewhere in the menus to find the setting for how long a pause you want between photos. And, there is no option for “None”, or even a very long pause. It gives you either “5 sec.” or “10 sec”. Again, how ridiculous? When we had guests over recently, we wanted to be able to narrate each slide and then jump to the next, but we had to keep pressing the back button to go back after it jumped to the next one after 10 secs.

Ok, well I’ve vented long enough I guess. But they are the only 2 things we are unhappy about with it, especially since it is a high-end expensive player. Otherwise, the player is completely awesome — has a nice sleek look, plays well, upscales nicely, doesn’t take a very long time to load, and runs fairly quietly (although we do have it inside a closed cabinet). We have ours hooked up via HDMI cable, and the video and audio are great. No complaints there. We looked at literally EVERY brand of Blu-Ray player to find one that also has an SD card player, and at the time, this is it baby! I would say it is a worthwhile purchase.

APRIL 2010 UPDATE:

Up until now, this Blu-Ray player has worked flawlessly. HOWEVER, it now skips and locks up halfway through most Blu-Ray discs we’ve gotten from Netflix. Not sure what the problem is. We upgraded the firmware and it still has this problem. We suspect it cannot handle the newer copy-protection schemes. And the firmware updates are way too few and far between. So Denon is very poor in the support area. We are currently looking for a newer, different brand Blu-Ray player with internet connection so upgrades are much easier. We spent way too much on this Denon player for the short length of time that it has worked well.

Review by S. Null for Denon DVD-1800BD Blu-Ray/CD Player
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I have owned this player for sometime now and I am so impressed with the picture everytime I watch a new Blu Ray through it. I have owned several different players now (LG, Samsung, Panasonic), but none have wow’d me the way this players picture has. Ofcoarse with Blu Ray your are deeling with a far superior picture to DVD to begin with, but my experience with the players that I have owned has never been quit what this player is able to produce. The closest example I would have would be the BH200, an LG Combo (HD DVD and Blu Ray# player that had an original price tag of $1000 when it was first introduced. The LG however does not offer Bitstreem capability for Dolby Tru HD and DTS Lostless, even though there has been updates for the player that claim so. The Denon does have this capability, and above all, it’s picture can’t be beat. If you are looking for a player that has all the latest features #i.e. Netflix, Pandora, BD Live# this is not the player for you. I have what I need of those features currently through my xBox 360, so I was truely just looking for a great standalone BD player. So, if you just need a player to play Blu Ray’s great, with a picture that is far supperior to the competetion and can handle the patience required for load times #they are slow, this is the only draw back to the player#, I highly recommend giving this player a look.

Just as a side note, two other items to consider. First, the update process for this player, due to the lack of ethernet port is a little complicated. If you are not tech savy, you may want to look else where. I found the instructions at Denon’s website clear and concise, and the update disc took me moments to burn, place in the player, and update. But for some, this can be a pain, and if you would prefer simplicity then look for a player with an ethernet port. Second, there have been several reports in blogs about the fact that this player along with Onkyo’s BD507, are just FUNIA players in sheeps clothing due to the similarity in design that it holds. Just because a players has a similar design chasis, does not mean that the players parts, and more specifically, the Video and Audio DAC’s are of the same quality. Not to mention the quality of that chasis #i.e. the weight and lack of plastic used#. The transport as well is designed better than the cheap plastic players that you would find at Walmart #i.e. Sylvania#. So in spite of what others may say, you are dealing with a much better design, and much higher quality parts. I use the example of a Hyundia vs a Lexus. They can design a Hyundia to look like a Lexus all they want #which lately has been the case) but at the end

Review by Levi for Denon DVD-1800BD Blu-Ray/CD Player
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Here I go again with a review of the Denon DVD-1800BD bluray player.

I knew I was getting a Denon so I wasn’t too worried about its performance, because I own the Denon 2500Btci.

When I received it yesterday I took it out of its box, hooked it up via HDMI to my Onkyo Sr-606 AV receiver, and by the way this is in my bedroom.

I set the player up in the menus which took about 2 minutes. After that I had to try it, I tried (The Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation and a few concerts like John Mayer, Rolling Stones, and George Michael).

Well the movies looked amazing and the sound came alive as well, which is strange because this player supposedly doesnt decode anything, it just bitstreams it directly to your receiver. Well I have to say that my bedroom setup has never sounded like it did with the Denon 1800bd.

Everything has changed, and the performance is very close to the Denon 2500Btci. But as far as the concerts, I was like WOW, especially George Michael in London!

So in other words, this player is a must have for $198, and I have to say that none of the Sony’s, Panny’s, Samsungs, will ever come close to this Denon. Maybe in another lifetime. To me its not just about the 1080P/24 or 60, its also very much about the audio. I moved my Sony BDP-S350 to the master bedroom, and its connected to the TV directly and it does an okay job, but for sure it was never like any Denon I have ever tried.

So do yourself a favor and if you need a bluray player and got $198, go for it, you will NOT be dissapointed.

I own 5 Denon’s now, 2 bluray’s 2 dvd player and 1 receiver, and I couldnt be any happier.

Thank You Denon for making products with so much passion and hard work.