The Denon DVM-1815 is a progressive scan, 5-disk DVD changer which features the Faroudja DCDi deinterlacing solution.  The unit provides the convenience of a disk changer and an excellent picture, and it is the most affordable Faroudja solution, but it has a number of disappointing design flaws considering its price.

Positives

The biggest draw of this unit is its Faroudja DCDi deinterlacing solution.  When you read DVD player reviews in the high-end magazines, it becomes apparent that low-end DVD players do a poor job of rendering DVD's to a progressive scan display.  They have jaggies, smeared reds, and a variety of other picture problems both subtle and gross.  Short of spending $3000 on a DVD player, DCDi is the number one recommended deinterlacing solution, and the DVM-1815 is the least expensive 480p 5-disk changer to feature this chipset.  A shootout article I read comparing many different DVD players showed this unit to have one of the lowest playback image defect scores, particularly in its price range.

To its credit, the unit produces an excellent picture, even on a 90" display.  Comparing the unit to my previous Sony DVP-NC600 5-disk changer, there was a subtle, but noticeable difference in picture quality between the two units in interlaced mode.   If you don't have a progressive scan display, I doubt most people would think the difference in picture is worth the $300 difference in price between the two units.  Switching from interlaced to progressive scan mode enables DCDi deinterlacing and provides an immediately noticeable change in picture quality on the progressive scan display.  Edges become crisper and motion smoother.  If I forget to put it in progressive scan mode, as soon as somebody moves, I know I have to get up and flip the switch.

It is hard not to recommend choosing a 5-disk changer like the Denon over a single disk unit.  With multi-disk movies the norm now, it is nice not to have to get up to change the disk during the evening.  Plus, if you have TV series disks with several episodes on a disk, or 3 hour extended features disks you are going to watch over several evenings, you can leave them safely in the player and still watch movies whenever you like, rather than sitting them on the stack of caseless disks in the dust on the top of the player.  

An improvement over the Sony is that the Denon will play SVCD CD-R disks I create of my home movies, the Sony was limited to VCD disks and then only played them intermittently.  The Denon also plays CD, MP3, JPEG, WMA and Kodak Picture CD's.  I haven't tried any of these, but it is nice to know they're there.  

I really love the fast forward feature on the Denon, it goes from 2x to 8x to 50x to 100x, and by the time you hit that last speed, you are really screaming through the material.  The credits are usually over in a couple of seconds.

If you are looking for something specific in a DVD, the Denon also features a 2x or 4x zoom feature that can show any part of the image larger than normal.

The outputs on the Denon have a surprising extra, both coax and optical digital audio outputs.  This is nice if your receiver only has one or the other since you won't have to spend an extra $100 on a converter.  It also has component, S-Video and composite video outputs.

Problems

The unit has a number of design flaws when compared to my previous Sony at half the price.

The unit's biggest annoyance has to be its inability to queue up commands.  When I turn the unit on, then press the Open button to change disks, I have to wait an eternal 37 seconds for its warm-up routine while it looks at all the disks, and then the drawer still doesn't open.  I have to press the Open button repeatedly until it finally pays attention.  The same with the disk skip button, if you press it three times, sometimes the tray moves one disk, sometimes three, sometimes five.  You just can't predict.  The transport mechanism on the Denon is also quite loud and slow compared to the Sony.  It clicks and clunks a lot changing disks.

The unit features a 2MB memory buffer to reduce layer change delays.  It does seem to help, but doesn't completely eliminate the video/audio pause during layer changes on all disks.  I never knew that DVD's had layer changes when I had the Sony.

A really poor design decision is that there are separate power on/power off buttons on the remote.  That means that none of my universal remotes can turn the unit off.  They can all turn it on, but that's it.  I really don't know what Denon was thinking here.  The remote does feature a very convenient and intuitive layout for the pause/stop/play/fast forward/fast reverse buttons at the bottom, but then puts the rarely-used disk skip/select buttons between them and the arrow/enter buttons you use to navigate the menus.  So you end up sliding the remote up and down in your hand all the time.  Did anyone at Denon try this remote?

Another inconvenience, that admittedly won't bother most users of the unit, is that the progressive/interlaced switch isn't part of the menus, it is a tiny switch in the centre of the back of the unit.  You can see in the image above that the Denon is not in my AV rack.  The reason for this is that I have two displays, one progressive, the other interlaced, and switching back and forth happens regularly enough that that switch would be very inconvenient to get to with the unit mounted in my standard rack.

A feature I really like in some of my other DVD players is missing in the Denon: the ability to fast forward or skip material when the DVD disk maker doesn't want you to.  I suppose Denon has to adhere to the standard, but  I HATE THAT!  I have a $50 DVD player that happily lets me skip that advertising crap, why not the Denon as 12x the price? Does anybody like that feature?  I really don't like having to play the "Fast Forward, Skip Chapter, Menu, Play" dance with new disks to find out which button bypasses all the ads and starts the movie.  I have one disk that plays an unbearable 5-minute, unskippable advertisement for the DVD publisher before the film runs.  No, I'm not exaggerating.  I won't be buying any more disks from that company.

Lastly, the unit won't play SACD (Super Audio CD) or DTS Audio disks.  Given that the player seems to have the hardware that would be needed for these advanced audio formats, it is disappointing that it cannot play them.

Conclusion

I like the Denon for its picture quality and flexible disk format support, for its disk changer and for its inclusion of the highly desirable DCDi at a relatively low price, but it has a couple of very annoying design flaws and a few missing features in what is to my mind a relatively expensive player.  If you want DCDi picture quality and you're on a budget, the Denon is however your most affordable choice.

Denon DVM-1815 5-Disc DVD Video Changer with Progressive Scan

Website: www.denon.ca

List price (Cdn) $700, I paid $599