With the change from the DVD-3910 to the DVD-3930, Denon has ramped the price up by $500. But you do get a lot of technology – and performance – for your money. Like its predecessor, the DVD-3930 was designed as a high-quality universal disc player for CD, DVD-Audio and SACD. It's also a virtually state of the art video player, designed to bridge the perceived performance gap between standard definition DVD-Video and HD DVD/Blu-ray.
The weight has increased by 2.2kg, which is more than can be accounted for by any increase in the amount of digital chippery. In fact, the power supply is the main culprit, as it now includes three transformers, including a EI transformer specifically for the audio (this was previously handled by a switch mode supply). This means that analogue, digital and video now have entirely separate signal chains and power supplies. There have also been improvements to the physical structure of the player, which is now double-layer with a four-layer base, and the motherboard is new.
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The audio subsystem has been upgraded to dual differential for the main stereo channels, while the others remain single-ended as before, using Burr-Brown PCM1796 DACs in each case. DenonLink has now been upgraded to Version 3, which is SACD compatible, but the inferior sounding, higher jitter i.Link has now gone – so the advantage applies only to users of Denon amplifiers with DenonLink. Users of amplifiers with iLink lose out, of course.
The video subsection has been significantly upgraded. Out goes the Faroudja processing in favour of a much more powerful solution. It is now 10-bit throughout (the older model was eight-bit) and it uses the enormously powerful Silicon Optix Realta T2 HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) progressive scan, noise and motion adaptive engine, previously only found in the flagship DVD-A1XVA player. There's also much better cadence detection and pixel by pixel filtering, which gives a smoother, more progressive picture. The video DACs have been upgraded to 14-bit and entirely separate DACs are available for composite/S-Video and for component video, which alongside the performance benefits means all video outputs are available simultaneously. DiVX decoding is also built into the player and it even includes keystone correction for squaring the picture up to the screen, but that's best avoided as it reduces picture resolution, just as it does with video projectors.
Socketry has also changed for the better to reflect the updated internals. DVI, a relic of pre-HDMI days, has gone, while HDMI has been enhanced by the missing computer resolution (VGA through WXGA) previously handled by DVI. The interface is now fully 1080 progressive compatible; the DVD-3910 was limited to the obviously inferior 1080 interlace standard. With a progressive 1080p HDMI pipeline, you are no longer at the mercy of the usually inferior progressive scaling provided by the TV display's electronics.
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