Denon brings Blu-ray to the 'masses'

Having already catered for the uber-rich with its ultra-high spec DVD-3800BD and DVD-2500BD Blu-ray players, Denon has finally decided to let us mere mortals get a piece of its Blu-ray action too by launching the 'entry-level' DVD-1800BD.

However, before you make straight for the nearest cashpoint, you should note that Denon's definition of 'entry-level' is not perhaps quite the same as most manufacturers. For the DVD-1800BD still costs you a cool £600. Ouch.

Still, let's face it; Denon has delivered some pretty spectacular performance standards with previous video disc products, so there seems no reason to expect this trend to stop with the DVD-1800DB.

It's also got some handy features on board, including an HDMI 1.3 output with Deep Color support; 1080p upscaling of your old DVDs; digital bitstream output for the Dolby and DTS HD audio formats; and Burr-Brown D/A convertors for superior CD playback.

One thing it conspicuously does NOT have, though, is Profile 2.0 support. Mind you, while a £600 Blu-ray deck really should offer the full Blu-ray Monty, it's fair to say that the BD Live features currently associated with Profile 2.0 functionality haven't exactly set the world on fire...