| Combining superlative performance and high value, Denon’s latest affordable Blu-ray/DVD/CD player includes features and technologies found on our higher end models, such as HDMI Source Direct and 12 bit video processing. Standard definition DVDs never looked better thanks to i/p scaling and upconversion up to 1080p, along with digital video noise reduction to eliminate compression artifacts. The precision drive mechanism is center-mounted, and the chassis incorporates Denon’s Separated Unit Structure architecture, which separates key mechanical and electronic blocks into five separate sections to eliminate mutual interference. Equipped with an Ethernet port, the DBP-1610 features Blu-ray Profile 2.0 BD-Live web-enabled interactivity, as well as firmware upgrade capability. The latest specification HDMI output provides highest resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD digital multi-channel audio compatibility, and the DBP-1610 is equipped with stereo analog outputs that feature high resolution Burr-Brown DACs for optimum audio purity. The DBP-1610 is able to handle a wide range of disc formats, including Blu-ray, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, CD-R and CD-RW discs, and features WMA, MP3 and DivxHD playback along with Kodak and Fuji picture disc playback capability for increased system flexibility. |
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 NIce! |
| Review Date: December 22, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Joseph L. Rodriguez, United States |
| At the current price ($325.00ish) the 1610 is a nice player with good Blu ray playback (same as their 2010) and pretty good SD dvd up conversion. I tested about 200 titles and it played them all! And I had no freezes to. For the money it is a good Blu ray player with a high end image... |
out of this world
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| Review Date: March 31, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Patricia D. Hudson, Greenville S.C. |
| I love this product. All dvd's come to life. I am a huge fan of denon and cerwin vega. My stereo systen and surround is all denon and vega. I know it has a price tag, but you really get what you pay for. It is worth every penny. |
Audio oriented blu-ray
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| Review Date: April 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Ricardo Takao Oikawa, SPO, BRA |
Probably there're better cost-benefit blu-ray players out there, but this is a player for those audio quality is what matters.
Video quality with blu-ray discs and DVDs are very good just like others in the market, but its audio quality thru its analog stereo channel is among the pigeons. In fact, it's a stunning redbook player machine. DBP-1610 is one the best available regarindg audio capabilities and probably the best under $350 players. The only real disadvantage is the lack of analog multichanel outputs.
If you don't care about audio quality, I'm sure there're better choices such as Pioneer BDP-320. But if you are an audio enthusiastic just like myself, there're few choices and Denon DBP-1610 is highly recommended. |
Well built and attractive, but high price and low featureset
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| Review Date: August 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: WDH, |
One must wonder where the street price will land on these in a month or even weeks. In a competitive landscape where quality 7.1 analogues are below $300 (ie 320), lightning speed and quality upconversion are below $225 (JVC), and netflix and pandora streaming are available for $200, how a denon can justify a $500 MSRP player without a brand name chipset, mediocre speed, and only two channel out. It is a well-built, heavy player that looks awesome in a rack (not as masculine as a 2500/3800), but neither wins on performance nor wins on value.
The mid-range ($300 to $600) market segment is book-ended by the Pioneer 320 on one end and the Oppo 83 on the other. Players like the Denon 1610 struggle to stand out in regard to either performance or value, which is a dangerous proposition for the majority of us who are not brand-addicted. I know I have been probably a bit overly critical of higher branded players like the Onkyo 606 and 507 and the Harman Kardon BDP1, but I firmly believe in quality and value. This is probably why I have banged on about both the pioneer 320 and the JVC XV BP1. They put very high quality AV performance or lightning fast operation in the hands of normal folks in tough times.
The 1610 (and the 2010 for that matter) are a bit late to the party and too expensive. I would strongly recommend the 1610 were its street price just under $300 (and I suspect it will be come Halloween). The 2010 is one of the few direct competitors to the Oppo for pure BD/DVD performance. It has a better audio section, but worse video capabilities. It could be a real contender at $425-$450, but is comical at $600 or whatever they are going for.
With Denon DVD-2500BTCI's selling for under $300, I would be hard-pressed to recommend the 1610 for its current street price of $450.
With updated firmware, powered off eject time decreases from 17 seconds to 13 seconds (Same as 2010).
Dark Knight: to anti-piracy page
Denon 1610: 37
JVC: 17 seconds
Oppo: 16 seconds
Pio 320: 42 seconds
Pio 51: 45 seconds
Denon 1800: 42 seconds
Denon 2500: 48 seconds
Denon 2010: 36 seconds
Pirates of the Carribean 1: Medallion Coin / Disney Splash
Denon 1610: 41/57 seconds
JVC: 16 /27
Oppo: 21 / 31
Pio 320: 44 /1 min 13 seconds
Denon 1800: 44 /1 min 3 seconds
Denon 2500: 49 / 1 min 9 seconds
Denon 2010: 39 / 49
Synthetic Test Resutls:
Test Pio 320/ Oppo /JVC /denon 1800 /denon 2500 /denon 2010/ denon 1610
2:02 pass/ pass*/ pass/ fail/ fail /pass/ pass
2:2:2:4 fail /pass /pass /fail /fail /fail/ fail
2:3:2:3 (PF-T) Pass /pass /pass /pass* / pass / pass*/ pass*
2:3:2:3 pass /pass /pass/ pass/ pass* /pass/ pass
2:3:3:2 marg /pass /pass /fail/ fail /fail / fail
3:2:3:2:2 fail pass pass fail fail fail /fail
5:5 pass/ pass /pass /marginal /marginal /marginal / marginal
6:4 marginal /pass/ pass/ fail/ fail /marginal/ fail
8:7:8:7 marginal pass pass maginal marginal marginal /marginal
24p - Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass
Time-adjusted fail pass fail marginal fail fail fail
Video deinterlacing:
Moderate performance; excelled with scrolling text, but did have very mild jaggies on ship test. |
Disappointing Audio Quality
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| Review Date: February 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Bala Rajagopalan, Darien, IL |
I've been using the Denon 1610 for a couple of weeks now. The thing I noticed immediately when playing my very first blu-ray disk was the lack of "body" in the audio - even with uncompressed HD audio. The audio sounded a bit muffled, as if attenuated somewhere. To see if this was something I was imagining, I compared several DVDs - with Dolby Digital and DTS audio - playing on the 1610 with the same playing on my Sony and Oppo DVD players (NS-50p and 971, respectively) with identical audio settings in my receiver (Denon AVR-988). The difference was clearly audible - the Sony and Oppo sounded fuller and richer than the 1610. I checked the audio output using both HDMI and COAX Digital out. The results were identical - the sound from 1610 was flatter and toned down. I also tested audio CDs, using the 2-ch analog out as well as HDMI. The CDs sound just fine through both of these.
I have looked at all the settings in 1610. There is none that allows equalization or tone control (there is a way to reduce channel levels for multi-PCM, but not to increase the level). At this point, I'm very disappointed with the sound quality - one of the key reasons to upgrade to Blu-Ray (to me, this is as important as the picture quality). I have now found at least one professional review where the audio quality issue is mentioned. ([...]/).
Other than this, the Blu-ray picture quality is good, although with some disks I have found uneven contrast (some scenes too dark, others more balanced in "Day after tomorrow") and a lot of noise (Black hawk down). I'm not sure whether this is due to the transfer quality or the video processing in 1610 ([...] gives both these movies good ratings for video quality).
The DVD upscaling is quite good - despite the box not having a fancy chip like Anchor Bay VRS. I find it slightly better than the quality of the Oppo 971, and the upscaling done by my Denon 988 receiver (both use the Foroudja chip).
The Blu-ray load time is not super fast, but tolerable. DVD and CD load times are fast (in fact, faster than my Sony and Oppo DVD players). Power on, tray open and eject are slower than expected.
The remote is adequate, but feels cheap in your hands (it creaks when you apply pressure on certain spots). The menu design is ok, but some functions are irritatingly poorly designed. For instance, to change the audio track of a blu-ray currently playing, you have to press "Audio", then press the up/down button to highlight the "Primary Audio" option, press "select", then again press up/down to select the audio track you want. Likewise for subtitles. During this long-winded process, the menu could time-out if you're not quick enough. To add to this mess, the player is not particularly sensitive to the remote commander - you have to aim it with care.
Another irritating aspect is the fact that many Blu-Ray disks cannot be resumed if you press Stop. Looks like this is not a Denon problem, but that BR disks with Java cannot be resumed. The sad part is that out of the 10 or so BR movies I bought with this player, 9 of them have this issue. I just don't see the point of the Java stuff, since I'm not sure if anyone out there is using the interactive or other features supported by Java. Most people, I'd think, would want to just watch the movies, with maximum flexibility. The idiotic idea of putting other stuff that prevents basic features like resume is inexplicable.
Overall, I was a very satisfied customer of Denon 988 receiver, and my regard for Denon has gone down a notch with the audio performance of 1610. I would recommend you stay away from this player if you are particular about AQ. |
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