Denon DBP-1611UD Universal Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Player, Black

As of April, 2016 (5 and 1/2 years after purchase), this unit is having problems loading discs. I have to remove the top of the unit and the cover over the CD tray. It seems like the laser gets stuck at the end of its travel when a disc is ejected, then it can't read a new disc. If I push the laser with my finger, then load a disc, everything works fine. Anyone know how to fix this?Pros: A Netflix-streaming 3D-ready Blu-Ray player that also plays Super Audio CD's and DVD-Audio disks, plus a USB port to play MP3 files from external storage. Great sound and picture. Great value for the money.Cons: Does not decode playlist files, FLACs, WMA lossless or Apple lossless codecs. Youtube not yet working (but firmware upgrade expected). Outputs limited to HDMI, Coax, and stereo analog (as opposed to discrete outputs for each channel).I have been waiting for the release of the 1611UD for several months, having missed my shot at the Oppo. Denon is a great brand, and this unit replaced my older (and much heavier) Denon SACD/DVD-A/DVD player because we needed Blu-Ray and Netflix in the living room. The new player had to be compatible with an existing library of SACDs and DVD-Audio disks. (I download high-rez music tracks from HDTracks.com and Bowers & Wilkins' Society of Sound, then burn those tracks to DVD-Audio disks.)The unit was easy to set up, and my first action was to test the surround sound with some favorite movie scenes, including the lobby gunfight in "The Matrix" and the truck chase in "Terminator 3." Though these were just regular DVD's, the sound and picture were terrific. The only Blu-Ray discs around were "Amadeus", "Fool's Gold" (stupid movie, but beautiful scenes), and "A Single Man." All played flawlessly. Sound and picture were terrific and I quickly forgot about the system and just got into the movies without further adjustments. I did test the picture quality of the HDMI cable against a full set of HD component cables, and saw no difference. That was great because I was able to pull all of those component cables out from behind the system. This unit is making me a believer in the sound and picture quality capable with just an HDMI cable.For SACD's, the 1611UD lets you choose between multi-channel output (through the HDMI or Coax), or stereo output through two analog jacks. If the disc is multi-channel (like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" 5.1), the Denon will step it down to stereo if you want, or you can listen to it in multi-channel surround. (If you just want a pure 2-channel analog experience, there is a "Pure Direct" button on the front panel that shuts off all digital and video output, and will even shut off the display, so that the Denon is working solely to produce the clearest 2 channel signal.) My home-burned DVD-A's also worked without a problem and sounded great.While playing stereo music, I jumped back and forth from the HDMI output to the analog outputs, and the analog signal was louder, though not necessarily any clearer.We don't have a 3D television, so no comment about that.The network hook-up was truly plug-and-play. I use a Linksys Powerline system (using the house's internal power wiring). All I had to do was plug an ethernet cable into the back of the Denon and it took care of the rest. I activated the unit for Netflix and was streaming a movie inside 5 minutes of set up. I do not yet have a home network set up, so have not tested the Denon for playing files directly from my PC.My only real gripes are with the functionality of the USB jack. The jack is on the front panel, which makes it very accessible. I plugged in several thumbdrives and even a 250GB external hard drive that were loaded with music files. While the Denon takes a few seconds to analyze each folder when you open it, 320kps MP3 files were played without a problem. In fact, they sounded really good. The Denon would not play FLACs, WMA lossless files, Apple lossless files, and would not play high-rez m4a files, even though WMA and m4a are listed as supported codecs. (Denon is not alone here. Other devices that claim to support WMA always fail when I try the WMA lossless. Glad I spent a whole week ripping my CD library to WMA lossless.)Also, if you create a playlist on your computer and put it on the external drive, the Denon will not recognize it. (I tried both WinAmp and Windows Media Player to make playlists.) You can create a playlist on the Denon, but as far as I can tell there is no way to save it. Once you unplug the USB storage device, your playlist disappears.Come on, Denon! Let's fix these things with a firmware upgrade, especially if we could use these great processors to play high-resolution FLAC files. If Denon fixes that, then this unit coupled with a 250GB external hard drive would be the perfect media server. Sit back and call up 600 CD's worth of music from the remote control.Still, as it is now, if you're having a party and know the songs you want to hear, just load a bunch of MP3's in the same folder on a thumb drive, plug it into the Denon, set it to random, and you're good for hours of music with no CD's to fuss about.For [...] and free shipping, this unit is a great value.Edited to add: the HDMI signal is actually louder when listening in 2 channel. I've discovered the one main advantage to putting out 2 channel music through the HDMI cable (rather than just the analog cables) is that it includes the subwoofer in the mix (so it's really 2.1 channel). So, you have all the versatility you could want for your own particular system.

I bought the Denon DBP-1611UD to replace a 1610 just for the SACD function. This sounds terrific, and with the analog outs I was able to integrate this with vintage tube equipment to obtain a very close to phono sound. The updated firmware is no help as I do not have a 3D ready anything, it did help start up time as well as the drawer opening time. Prior to the update the bootup time was close to 40 seconds, now its less then 20. Now the bad... I have had this freeze on me, not while playing, but when switching between SACD and Blu-Ray/DVDs. To power down and back up, is a solid 20 seconds each way and is not fun with just going from one disc format to another. The other drawback is this unit has no resume function. Most players this is a switchable function, and for most people it could be a pain to have turned on, but with the SACD function just to go back to the fine notes from one song and have to search for it, is a real pain. I would encourage anyone looking for a high quality sound from SACD who is not looking to spend twice the price, to go for it. However I feel that Denon just popped out a new product with a few more functions overlooking small things like resume functions shows how much thought went into it.

i used to be a fan of Denon, but after 20 months my unit stopped working. it froze with "no disc" always in the display. i tried resetting it but that did not help. i think these days it's better to buy an inexpensive unit & when that dies, just replace it.

When I play some blu-ray discs, my player starts making some noise. It doesn't happen every time. I don't know why it occurs.

So I have always loved Denon receivers. When it came time to shop for a Blu-Ray player, I thought, I go for this Denon, costs about double a few others. But I wanted something good.Well it worked awesome. Waited for a few firmware updates. Was pleased to see Denon make them. Finally the youtube support was added. Netflix was updated. But...It has bugs. It will lock up in netflix, requiring me to "hard reboot" i.e. pull the plug. Then interface decent and simple, but sometimes it acts like its running at 100% max CPU. Its starts getting very slow and unresponsive. This is with and without a disk in the drive(i.e. I was using its inbuilt menus, not even on Netflix yet)It looks great, it is decent when it is working. But It starts to get frustrating at times, I have had to unplug it to get it back to life. For some reason, it also sometimes takes 1-2 minutes to turn on. With no CD/DVD in the drive. It seems to get confused.One last gripe, you can't eject a disc when you are in the denon menu's or watching netflix/youtube. You have to quit all that, switch back to the CD only mode and then you can hit eject.I've had it for over a year, and it just seems to get worse with each firmware update the do.. I like it enough I am keeping it, but hope Denon gets their act together with it.

This is a great DVD player. Does take time to load Blue-ray. It came in a good box well packed with no dents or dings. Fast shipping. Not much to say except it does play Blue Rays, CDs and DVDs. Video is crisp but of course it also depends on your TV, while audio is great, also depending on your Stereo.