DVD-5910CI Operation and Video Tests/Evaluation

In operation, the DVD-5910CI is as smooth as butter. Its menu navigation is much faster than the tortoise DVD-5900 but not quite as fast as the rabbit DVD-2900. It showed an unswerving ability to play beaten up DVDs and CDs demonstrating excellent tracking capabilities. The only operational glitch I found was when playing back DTS CDs there was an irritating 6-7 second pause between track changes when using Denon Link. During that time you can hear relays switching in the DVD-5910CI as if it was trying to lock onto the signal type. This became a bit of a nuisance when playing DTS CDs that continue songs between track changes. I asked Denon to look into this as I have never experienced this issue on other Denon Link enabled players (the problem was not evident on the DVD-3930CI, for example) and couldn't make it happen for anything other than DTS CDs via Denon Link. DTS DVDs played just fine via Denon Link so unless you have a wide selection of DTS CDs you may never notice this problem. Alternatively, you can always switch over to HDMI, Toslink or COAX connection type during DTS CD playback.

As with other Denon players we've tested, the AUTO progressive mode is the only mode that the player should typically be in. With a maxed out score of 130, the DVD-5910CI ranks the highest of our tested DVD players to date. It's no surprise, of course, since the HQV testing methodology was designed around the REALTA video chipset present in this player. This player scored equally well to the DVD-3930CI we recently reviewed in every video test we performed.

DNR and Enhancer settings are adjusted by hitting "Pic Adj" on the remote control, selecting a memory setting, and navigating to Image Quality Adjustment 3. The "E" graphic represents Enhancer and the dots in space represent DNR. The close up shot pictured here is none other than Peter Gabriel via his head cam on "Digging in the Dirt" from his fabulous Secret World Live concert DVD. I was able to use the Repeat A-B feature on key discs such as this one or Star Trek Insurrection , but ultimately found HQV produced the most repeatable results.

The HQV Benchmark DVD played an important role in helping me more accurately set DNR and Enhancer features of the DVD-5910CI. With tests such as Noise Reduction and Motion Adaptive Noise Reduction, the benefits of DNR were very apparent. On setting 0, you could clearly see noise artifacts in the background images of the flower and roller coaster, respectively. As soon as I engaged DNR to +1, the background cleared up significantly as did the detail around the images I was observing. I felt that setting the DNR to +3 slightly dulled the image, thus I left it set at +1 and called it a day.

Enhancer seemed to act like an elaborate sharpness control. It did help increase edge detail but only if you kept the setting in check. I found obvious ringing and increased noise if I pushed it any harder than +3 and ultimately settled on +1 for my evaluations. The desired settings for this may vary based on the material you are viewing.

As much as we question the sales tactics utilized by Monster Cable in retail environments, they did partner with the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) and Microsoft Studios to produce an excellent video calibration disc known as the HDTV Calibration Wizard . Just bypass the shameless promotions Noel Lee does on the importance of using Monster cable products for achieving the best picture and definitely bypass the cheesy music video from Jenna Drey that actually makes Britney Spears look talented. I use this disc to get accurate black and white level settings on my video setup when I'm in a hurry and don't want to pull out all my video geek gear to get nearly the same results. When I ran the Black Level test, I was unable to see the floating X at the top left of the screen that Jenna Drey referred to, even though I was increasing the brightness control on my display. A light bulb slowly but surely went off in my head and I realized somehow my absolute Black Level must have been set incorrectly. Jenna also confirmed that within seconds of my realization that I had the IRE set to 0 instead of +7.5. Setting the player to + 7.5 IRE and properly adjusting the black level to where the X was no longer visible did the trick. I then set the White Level by adjusting the contrast control just below the point where any shadow detail in the shirt was lost or where the buttons on the guys shirt became invisible. Getting your black and white levels correct is half the battle to ensuring proper picture playback. Setting proper Grayscale via our tutorial article is also very important too but requires the use of the right test gear and know-how. Calling a pro such as an ISF installer is recommended if you desire to truly maximize the picture quality of your system.

I tested the DVD-5910CI with all of the displays in the Audioholics Showcase system which include the Sceptre X37SV-Naga 1080p 37" LCD flat panel, Samsung HLS5688W 56" rear projection 1080p DLP, and the Yamaha LPX-510 720p LCD front projector. The DVD-5910CI was scaled to the native resolution of each display (1080p for the Sceptre and Samsung, 720p for the Yamaha).

Despite this movie not being the latest release of the month, it remains one of my all time favorite reference discs for a variety of reasons: superb content, video and sound quality. The scene where Frodo meets up with Gandalf in the Shire is simply stunning when played on a properly calibrated display. Of course a high quality playback device such as the Denon DVD-5910CI more than qualifies. Scaled to the native resolution of my display, the image seemed almost HD-like in quality and clarity. Panning scenes in the Shire were seamless. The shadow detail in the trees, and delineation of the blades of grass were simply astounding. The two minute scene I planned on demoing unsuspectingly turned into a three hour viewing session of the entire feature film.

I chose this movie because of the difficulty many DVD players have with 2:3 pull down on the opening scenes of the Ba-ku planet just before we learn of Starfleet's personnel engaging in covert operations. The moving diagonal lines in the garden scene tend to be too much for some DVD players de-interlacers. This was not the case via the DVD-5910CI, many thanks to bag of tricks this player sports. Instead motion was fluid, while the picture maintained excellent detail with no visible jaggies or moiré. Color was again spot on and the movie overall had a very deep, film-like quality to it. Denon's enhancer and DNR features helped sweeten the picture ever so slightly that went unnoticed until I used the Repeat A-B feature to compare before and after results.

This is arguably the best Batman movie to date. This is a great movie to use as a reference because of all of the dark scenes throughout. On my older DVD-5900, I experienced severe macroblocking via my Samsung 1080p DLP display. This was not the case via the DVD-5910CI and we likely have the new HQV processing to thank for that. The older DVD-5900 used a Faroudja-based processor which overemphasized this problem on many DVD recordings showing its ugly symptoms on some of the modern high resolution digital display devices such as my Samsung DLP.

I was pleased with the excellent black levels I was able to achieve via the DVD-5910CI. Image detail was about the best I've seen on this movie and I was able to clearly see excellent contrast between the dark black logo on Batman's chest and the lighter shade of black evident on his uniform.