Home > Consumer Reviews > Denon DVD-3800BDCI Blu-ray Disc DVD/CD Player

My friend and I purchased a Denon DVD-3800BDCI on the same day. We both agreed it made SD-DVD look like Blu-Ray. Blu-ray movies from both video and audio were fantastic. Collectively my friend and I own & have owned some amazing equipment. It is my opinion after owning several of the "best", Sony, Pioneer, blu-ray players the DVD3800BDCI is a statement product for the industry. Ease of use & the quality of the product is stunning. All I had to do was look and listen. I started adding up the amount of DVD's and Blu-ray's I have in my library and the price issue became a non issue. I had a brief service problem with my Denon while under warranty and the repair time would be excessive so they sent me a new unit. I respect and admire the product as well as the manufacturer's integrity when service was needed. Audiomeister

The Denon DVD-3800BDCI is an excellent blu-ray player. It features the best audio and video components.

On the audio side, it features the Burr-Brown DACs PCM-1796, which is the same one featured in the Denon AVP-A1HDCi. It has internal decoders for 7.1 Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. Sound quality is outstanding whether it is TrueHD, DTS-MA, LPCM, or just 2.0 CD.

On the video side, it features the Silicon Optix Realta chip, which is also featured in the Denon AVP-A1HDCI. It can upscale all sources to 1080p and the Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) can be used on both DVDs and Blu-ray, which is unique since DNR is usually for SD DVD only. Picture quality is outstanding whether it is blu-ray or SD DVD.

On the downside, I have noticed that it is not compatible with some home-made DVDs, both DVD-R and DVD+R.

As far as Profile 2.0 or whatever, it does not matter to me. I just care about the movie itself so not having profile 2.0 is a mute point for me.

The device did not read/reproduce the audio of the Blu-ray after less than 30 days of using it. I will be sending to Denon to get it fixed, repaired or replaced.

this is the best bluray player i ever had i got sony bdp-s1 also pioneer bdp-95fd and this denon tops them all. video quality is incredible and dts master audio with dolby tru hd and looks very nice with my denon avr-4308ci reciever. asta la vista. recommended 150% chao

Unless I just got a bad player, the Denon #3800 blu ray is not at all a player I would recommend. I have a Sony BDP S-500, which I was placing in another room and bought the Denon to replace it in our main room. The initial picture from Denon was not nearly as sharp the details seemed to have faded away. The colors were muted, never vivid. I went through the setup menu and then "a-b" the two players, something I was not expecting to do. The difference was overwhelming. The Sony was almost three dimensional, the Denon looked like an average, non blu-ray player. I used the blu-ray discs from Blade Runner, The Final Cut, Planet Earth, The New Frontier and Spider-Man. My TV did say it was getting a 1080p picture from the Denon. I did send it back the very first day, the picture would have been decent for a regular DVD not for a top of the line blu-ray.

I should mention that the sound from the Denon appeared to be better than the Sony. The Sony can sometimes be a bit shrill, but I did not discover that with the Denon.