denon dvd-2910 or zenith dvb318

licer

Hello! Can someone tell me which has a better video zenith dvb318 or denon dvd-2910 via dvi cable to a 50 sony wega lcd. thanks

mulveling

I've owned both, along with a Panasonic rp91. Here's how I'd rank them on my Sony KD-34XS955 HD CRT:

Component video (480p):
Panasonic rp-91 (8/10)
Zenith DVB-318 (7/10)
Denon DVD-2910 (5/10)

HDMI Video (480p):
Denon (10/10)
Zenith and Panny don't have HDMI Didn't try DVI on the Zenith because I'd heard of DVI->HDMI issues and also the component output on this player is said to look better - in which case HDMI on the Denon would be a clear winner.

I spent some time attempting to make each setup look its best - calibrated via AVIA and also tweaked plenty of settings (eliminated red push, etc). So hopefully the playing field was fairly level during my comparisons.

The Denon via HDMI has the best video I've seen - bright with vibrant colors without being oversaturated or crushing blacks/whites. Component looked bad though - I don't know what was wrong. The Zenith was not bad but it didn't really wow me either. The Panny has great component out but none of the newer features and poor video deinterlacing. Keep in mind I didn't test upscaling (because 480p looks better on my CRT), and you will probably want to use upscaling with your fixed-pixel set unless it's got some kind of great scaler build in.