Denon 2900 DVD Playback Problems

C

ChrisNightingal

Guest
Hi everybody,

I have had my Denon 2900 DVD player since shortly after XMas and have been very happy with the picture and sound quality. The problem I am kinda having with this player is this:

About 2 months ago I joined the internet DVD rental site ScreenSelect which has been very good in terms of service. The problem comes with the discs. Like any DVD rental place, some of the members obviously use the DVDs as tea coasters or testing blocks for a new piece of sandpaper they have just acquired because the discs are usually very badly scratched.

In about 85 of the discs I have been sent, I have had some sort of problems playing them in terms that the picture will break up and freeze for several seconds. As people are probably aware unlike good old laserDisc (long live laserDisc!!!!) which used to just have a couple white streaks, DVDs can often end up pausing for ages or skipping minutes of the film. One was so bad that I had to send it back and then decided to buy the film.

Upon receiving this film (Mike Leigh's "Life Is Sweet") which I appreciate probably isn't going to be the most highly polished DVD ever made, it had problems playing as well. So I ended up resorting to playing it through my PC via a S-VHS cable to my AE300 pj which didn't have any problems at all.

So my question is this. Is the Denon 2900 particularly picky about playing discs with any sort of blemish? Is there anything that can be done about it?

Thanks in advance.

Chris Nightingale.
 
I have not looked at the denon 2900 but I have a Denon 2200 and that is definately picky on some of the discs I've used. See my reply to a thread called denon 2200 vs pioneer 757ai. Where I give examples of the problems I've had.
 
My denon 2900 has never stumbled on any disk, some of the previous problems were caused after multiregioning with certain versions of the firmware. This seems to have been fixed with the more recent versions though.
 
Nope, my Denon 2900 has been playing everything I chuck at it, oh . . . . . . other than Intacto's extras on the Region 1 Version, but I haven't seen anything play these properly!!
 
I used a similare service (webflix) and gave up due to this problem. It had nothing to do with the player(s) (HKDVD 25, Denon 2900 and a Panasonic DMRE50). It seems like DVD are a lot more prone to being damaged than you a first led to belive.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. It does appear that some players are better at handling less than perfect discs than others. Someone I know has the Pioneer 565A (I think that's correct!!) and has very few ploblems playing scratched discs.

Like you said jhjerpe, I may just have to give up renting and buy instead ("Ouch" says the old wallet!!!)

Thanks,

Chris.
 
IMHO Pioneers rule as for buying you could do worse than going to blockbusters and buying ex-rental as they are very cheap and they are guaranteed so if you can't play just bring em back
 
I upgraded to the 2900 recently and love the wonderful sound from any DTS DVD Audio only disc. But to my surprise, it doesn't seem to play non-DTS 5.1 DVD Audio discs at the full range they have. I kept thinking that I had set it up wrong, but I now found in the thick manual a detail regarding holding back the digital output for "copyright protection purposes". I don't sense that I'm getting neither the surround sound nor the 98kHz range. The manual says that the digital output to a pre-amp or receiver that has it's own decoder is limited to two-channel and 48kHz. You only get the full range if you output from the analog outputs using the built in decoder. What a gip!
 
I am thinking of getting the 2910. Most of my discs are ex rentals. Anyone who owns the 2910 experiencing this? Is player really sensitive to scratched discs?

Hey Ivanhoensandiego,

I am pairing the 2910 with the denon 2805. Will I be able to get Dobly 5.1/EX? I am new to this. What is this digital output? I have had a cheap Sony HTIB before (dvd player separate from receiver) and I believed I connected audio via analog output. I always understood that a dvd player which is DOLBY or DTS compatible, sends the signal to the AV receiver which it decodes the signal, be it Dolby 2.0/5.1/EX or DTS5.1/ES
 
Hi there Andy,

As a follow up to my original gripe about the player, it seems find with scratched rental disks. I think the problem I had was that I was wiping them down with a cloth and this may have caused a static build up on the disk or something which I have heard can cause playback problems. Since not doing this and simply trying to blow any loose dust off, I haven't had a single disk which hasn't played correctly and I have had quite of a lot of disks from ScreenSelect since then.

Hi Ivanhoensandiego,

Sorry can't comment on the DVD Audio or SACDs as I haven't yet tried one on my player!!!!


Thanks,

Chris.
 
Hi Ivanhoeinsandiego,

Oh, you meant SACD and DVD-A? I thought it was for regular DVDs. I remember having a digital cable out from the DVD player to receiver now. Was that for audio? Is been a very long time since I had a HT system. Just getting back now.

Hi Chrisnightingale,

Thanks for the info. I was getting a little worried and was thinking I should be looking for another DVD player. Have my heart set on the 2910.
 
Hi there chubbyandy

Yeap the player is brilliant and I think looks great especially in the gold finish.
The picture and sound quality are excellent. The only really silly thing about the player is that if you leave the disk tray out when you power off, it doesn't close. Even my parent's £60 one does that!!! Hopefully, they will have fixed that on newer one!!!!

Thanks,

Chris Nightingale.
 
My new 2910 closes the disc compartment when you power it down with the compartment open.

The 2900 doesn't do that, and its quite irritating!!

Niraj
 
For those comparing 2900 and 2910, I have used both recently and tested around 70 or so disks, 2900 had trouble playing something like 20% of those disks, 2910 was much better and only complained for 4% or so (I didn't play long with 3910, but it seemed even better as the ones that 2910 had trouble playing, it played them fine !)....

I returned 2900, because I found the figure totally unacceptable, I also returned 2910, as whilst the figure was kinda acceptable, I felt 2900 was a better unit (if only it could play the damn disks)......

Might look at 3910 and see how it goes....

But if I were to decide between 2900 and 2910, it would be 2910 as it definately played back more disks than 2900....

Ritesh
 
ChrisNightingal said:
Hi everybody,

I have had my Denon 2900 DVD player since shortly after XMas and have been very happy with the picture and sound quality. The problem I am kinda having with this player is this:

About 2 months ago I joined the internet DVD rental site ScreenSelect which has been very good in terms of service. The problem comes with the discs. Like any DVD rental place, some of the members obviously use the DVDs as tea coasters or testing blocks for a new piece of sandpaper they have just acquired because the discs are usually very badly scratched.

In about 85 of the discs I have been sent, I have had some sort of problems playing them in terms that the picture will break up and freeze for several seconds. As people are probably aware unlike good old laserDisc (long live laserDisc!!!!) which used to just have a couple white streaks, DVDs can often end up pausing for ages or skipping minutes of the film. One was so bad that I had to send it back and then decided to buy the film.

Upon receiving this film (Mike Leigh's "Life Is Sweet") which I appreciate probably isn't going to be the most highly polished DVD ever made, it had problems playing as well. So I ended up resorting to playing it through my PC via a S-VHS cable to my AE300 pj which didn't have any problems at all.

So my question is this. Is the Denon 2900 particularly picky about playing discs with any sort of blemish? Is there anything that can be done about it?

Thanks in advance.

Chris Nightingale.
Have a look back at the thread started 18-12-04
you will find many such threads over the past year regarding the 2900.
Happy christmas any way hope you sort it out

Mike.
 

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