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

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.

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

This has been an awesome purchase! Fantastic picture quality, and easy to use. I had a Sony Blu-ray player (and I typically love Sony products), but this Denon is far superior. The load times for movies is significantly faster as well.

PROS: Superb CD over analog, excellent bass management, beautiful BD/DVD picture with Realta, decoding of ALL codecs, solid construction

CONS: Sluggish in response, expensive, not BD-Live 2.0 although some would call this a plus!

I've owned this player for nearly a year now and have watched a lot of the bugs get fixed through firmware. UPDATE: Decoding of DTS-HD HR (as of 1.115 firmware 11/24/08) is now included. Owners in forums were slow to pick up on this due to HR being the "forgotten codec." It decodes ALL now!!! The 3800 also does bitstream all codecs if you are so inclined. This player is really targeted to the analog crowd as it's got AL24 processing and great Burr Brown DAC's. If you own an HDMI capable receiver, then the purchase is more questionable as you are paying for an analog section you may never use. The Realta keeps the video reference quality so no need to keep the DVD player.

Summary:
Targeted to owners of non-HDMI receivers who want extensive bass management and listen to CD's and play both DVD's and BD's in one player. I suggest you purchase an extended warranty or get the Marantz BD8002 since it has 3 yr warranty and is a clone.

Similar players:

Sony BDP-S5000ES - a fine player but lacks the bass management that the 3800 has for the analog output (ie. fixed crossover).

Pioneer Elite BD-09FD - another fine player but will not have DTS-HD MA decoding until future firmware. It is also rumored to have variable crossover through future firmware but the manual currently implies fixed crossover. I personally would never buy a product based on "future functionality."

Marantz BD8002 - a clone of the Denon 3800 with a different power supply, faceplate, and Marantz's own upsampling instead of Denon's AL24. Otherwise almost everything is the same as the Denon.

After spending 2K for Denon's DVD 3800 BDCI the trouble began. I watched my first movie (SpiderMan 3 Blu-Ray) all went well. A week or two later I tried to watch Cloverfeild and 2001 A Space Od. NO GOOD.

Both movies started to stop and play at random, not a good thing. Went to Denon website, there may be a fix, upgrading the firmware. However I must ship the unit to Denon in NJ, worse yet I'll have to pickup the shipping both ways ($45.00 each way). Unit should have an ethernet connection so updates can be done off the web (like my Toshiba HD DVD)..

Must admit however when playing Blu-Ray disc quality of the pix is outstanding (but so was my HD DVD)...