The DVD-1800BD is intended to offer top-notch audio and video performance at a more affordable price than its siblings, although it's still definitely mid-price in the context of the rest of the Blu-ray market.
For the money you get full bitstream output of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats, as well as 1080p upscaling of DVDs, support for Deep Colour via HDMI 1.3a and Bonus View capability.
What's more, the DVD-1800BD will convert multichannel bitstream HD audio to six channel PCM and pass it via HDMI to AV amps without HD audio decoding. But like Denon's other Blu-ray models it's Profile 1.1, not 2.0, although a firmware upgrade will be available via disc.
For those who plan to use the player as a step-up CD player, the unit has a dedicated stereo analogue output equipped with Burr-Brown digital-to-analogue converters and high-quality analogue components.
The new player also has an SD card reader for viewing other digital media, and incorporates a secondary audio and video decoder to allow simultaneous playback of a separate audio and video track, such as a commentary or picture-in-picture facility.
The Denon DVD-1800BD will be available in silver and black from December.
