Home > Consumer Reviews > Marantz DV4001 Progressive Scan Dvd Player

Video - superb! I have only used it on component video @ 480p, on my 65" Mitsubishi HDTV, but it completely blows away any other DVD player I have used. With good source material, it looks practically high def, and the color and shadow detail are awesome - very faithful to the original material. I am sure that when upconverted over HDMI it is even better, but I have not personally tried that yet.

Audio - superb! Every single 'bit' of digital audio comes through perfectly. I thought all digital-out players should sound identical, but now I am not so sure... IMO, Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks are significantly more "immersive" and dialogue is easier to hear at low volume. Keep in mind, though, this unit does not have optical (toslink) audio out, only digital coax. No big deal, but you should know this.

Build quality is awesome - you will not be disappointed here! The brushed aluminum face is very classy and makes a statement that you are serious about home theatre. Another nice feature - no annoying bright blue light on the front to distract your viewing experience! I hate it when that happens! The "power" light only glows red with the unit is in standby mode.

However, there are few "perfect" things in this world, including this wonderful item. My niggles are:

#1: I wish it would remember where you left off if you remove a disc, like several Sony's I have owned. This is a terrific feature, and I cannot understand why all players don't do this.

#2: For some reason mine has the color and tint controls backwards in the picture setup menu. Marantz did offer to repair it under warranty, but I usually leave the picture settings at default anyway, so I can live with it as-is. It must be a bug in the firmware, but Marantz had never heard of this problem on the DV4001, so don't let this discourage you from purchasing this fine machine.

#3: I'd like to have a choice between optical and coax for digital audio.

With recent drop of price (sold at $69 at OneCall), I purchased one immediately since Marantz has the reputation of quality products. I am not disappointed, especially due to the price I paid.

The Pros:

1. Excellent build quality. Touch and feel are very good. Many cheap players has flimsy body/remote compared to this one. The player is sturdy, does not shiver when playing discs.

2. 3 year warranty. Rare in current electronics market.

3. remote is large and nice. It even has Repeat button which is very handy when you are playing musics.

4. International support. It has PAL<->NTSC converter so you can play international discs without a problem. The one I got from OneCall is all-region player so I don't even need to do all-region hack myself.

5. Unlike what an earlier reviewer said, this player does have capability to restart from where you stop. It remembers up to positions of 10 discs. Even if you remove the disc, you can still resume it. What you need to do is to press "Play" when disc is being loaded. One minor inconvenience is that for the disc I left in the player, I hope the player can automatically resume it when I restart the play.

All in all, I am quite happy.

I purchased a DV4001 for a second entertainment system because it had the features I wanted and because I expected it to match the quality of my DV4300 I already had. So far, this player has worked great. It does have an HDMI output, but personally, using this with my Panasonic TC-32LX600, I find that the aspect ratios the unit seems to force the TV into don't always match what should be. In my case, using either the component video out or the S-Video offered up a system that works a lot better. But I am told that HDMI has it's quirks, especially if the TV and DVD player are from different manufacturers and of a slightly different generation.
As for picture quailty, this thing is excellent. I toyed with the idea of just buying some unit from a local retailer, but this unit blows all those under $400 DVD players away. Also, the insides are a LOT more robust. For kicks, I opened the unit up to find that it actually has a rather beefy power supply and the circuit boards do not look like something made out of cheap cardboard as found in other, lesser players. When you pick up this DVD player, the first thing you will notice is that it is 2 - 3 times heavier then what you normally find in the discount and department stores. I bought my first Marantz DVD player at a hi-fi shop. They also used these players for music CD players. I can attest to the fact that these DVD players are a definite upgrade from the average CD player. The D/A converters are of very high quality for a unit in this price range. About the only bad thing I could say about this model is that it is slower to initally read a DVD and that it takes it's time to stop and open the transport when you want to remove a disc. Some units will do this in a flash. This unit takes several seconds to compile it's self and finally open up and let you remove the disc. But, this is really a nit. The reason you buy one of these is to watch a DVD or listen to a CD. This unit works great for it's intended purpose and won't break the bank,

Marantz DV 4001 - DVD player - upscaling
This unit is better than I thought it would be. My LG DVD player stopped recognizing any of my DVDs and through frustration I started shopping for a replacement. I started looking for a high quality DVD player and found reviews for the Marantz brand. I stumbled up on this unit for an unbelievable price and was a little skeptical. I took a chance and ordered it on Saturday night. On Tuesday, it showed up on my doorstep.

I currently have a Kenwood reciever and Klipsch surround speakers with a Yamaha sub. My TV is a late model Sony projection-type with a pretty good picture. When I hooked up the Marantz, I was very surprised at the sound quality. It really put my speakers to work! I could hear every whisper and the surround was very easy to adjust. The picture quality was as good as my tv could possibly produce. It was really easy to set up, and to top it off, it looks really nice. The face is machined aluminum and looks and feels very solid. Did I mention the HDMI option?

I recommend this unit if you are looking for a good quality DVD player and you don't want to spend over $300. I recommend it if you are looking in the $100-$200 range, although it was listed under $75 when I bought it.

I'm no audio-video phile but I know quality and this is it.

When it comes to DVD players, I've always gone with the bottom of the line. I've found that it doesn't make a difference: my off-brand from Wal-Mart lasted longer than the name brand from Circuit City.

The Marantz came with a good price - I think it wa 479 when I purchased - and it shipped from Spokane, so it came right away. I've only had it just a few weeks, but I notice a higher quality picture representation. I also notice less skipping and bouncing.

I love the remote: it's BIG so it's hard to misplace and it's easy to find the function keys. I didn't even have to consult the owners' manual: it's pretty basic.

What's not to like? Sometimes the player takes a few extra seconds to respond to a command from the remote. Once you realize that's the way it works, it's no big deal. Definitely several rungs above the little Coby from the drug store.