Jeff Talmadge:        Of  course.

LU:           This is billed as “Universal Blu-ray player.” Are there any formats or discs that it can’t play?

JT:             The only two that I can think of are HD-DVDs and video games. We have to call it “universal Blu-ray,” otherwise people would go, Oh, well it doesn't have HD-DVD — not that that's really important anymore. Interestingly enough, it wasn't until last summer we made the decision not to put HD-DVD in it. It was going to have it.

LU:           Really?

JT:             Oh, yeah. We were moving forward. Even after the announcement in January, we were like, you know what? The whole point was, if someone has a disc…

LU:           You want to be able to play it.

JT:             Exactly. And the problem came when we couldn't find a vendor to supply us with parts. So that made the final choice. And, with that, the engineers and I were thinking, Okay, that's sort of a chunk of change. What can we do to make it better if we don't do that [have HD-DVD capability]? And I said, Listen, the AVP has XLR inputs; why don't we have balanced analog output, like high-end CD players used to have? And they're like, Oh, that's great. We'll do that. And then they added some more tinkering inside of some of the more features. But it still plays about anything you can think of: DVD, standard-def DVD, DVD-R, DVD-W and all the other formats out there — CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, WMA, Blu-ray, DVD-Audio, SACD, Kodak and Fuji picture discs, JPEG discs.

LU:           So it can play a Super-Audio CD and DVD-Audio?

JT:             Correct.

LU:           Wow.

JT:             I think Phillips may have had an early one that did DVD-Audio. Sony hasn't had SACD for awhile, except for the PS3. Now, the PS3 does have an SACD logo on it, but, like what it does for just about everything, it converts at the PCM, which we will do as well, if the client or customer wants it do that, if they want to use bass management and all that fun stuff. But the real way, obviously, for us to do it with this machine, both DVD-Audio and SACD can be output in their native form. So a DSD stream will travel by HDMI or Denon Link, depending on what the customer's using, and then let the processor/receiver or whatever it's connected to do the decoding.

Now, that's where customers have to be a little bit more knowledgeable about what they're connecting it to, particularly the HDMI. Like a Denon customer that has a 28 series or higher from the last two years — those receivers actually decode DSD natively. And we have that, hopefully, on the feature charts and the comparison charts I get to you guys. The other receivers — a 23 series would not be able to do that. So you would want to either hook the player up via the 7.1 analog outputs or tell the machine to convert it to PCM and output it on HDMI. So customers of other products, especially — this higher-end-type stuff we're going to need to be sure their pre-amps or high-end receivers they're using have that capability via HDMI. If not, not a big deal, because we're putting the same DSD processing we have in this player that's in a 4000 series receiver. So the dual HDMI outs — eight points of bass management, delay time, all that — and a true Sony SACD decoder is built in. So, there are many options.

LU:           I don't know if you've heard about this new Neil Young box set that's coming out on Blu-ray…

JT:             I think I heard something about that.

LU:           It's a ten-disc set — live concerts, unreleased tracks and everything. And he is so committed to sound quality that it's going to be out on DVD and Blu-ray. And my understanding of it is he's doing Blu-ray to get the best audio quality.

JT:             Yes, because it's uncompressed. Yeah. 24/96 in multichannel. That would be awesome.

LU:           It sure would. So I'm kind of seeing some use as a really high-end audio player out of this.

JT:             Well, yes, that is part of it. I mean you guys — ListenUp has been a seller of Denon high-end DVD players since the beginning. And way back when with the DVD-5000 at $2,500 for a 480i machine when they were already starting to crash below $250  — we come out with that thing. And of course it was a great DVD player. It wasn't ours; it was based on Panasonic. But the key of that piece was audio. And the old DVD-9000, the DVD-5900 —  those were also our best CD players, always. So this piece is a beast — I mean you got to see the transport in Vegas.

LU:           Right. As long as you mentioned the transport, let's talk about that a little. It’s extremely robust…

JT:             Yes it is. I'm not ashamed to say it — this is the first Denon from the ground up. And it's the first DVD player to be built in Japan by Denon in, oh man — I'm going to say about six years.

LU:           So you're not sourcing the transport from anybody else.

JT:             No. This is completely built by us, top to bottom. And we had that story in the very beginning of DVD. Like, if you're not part of the DVD moneymakers at the time — Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, and those guys — you had to source it and OEM. And we did that. We did it through Panasonic until we brought it in house. And we are still the only Japanese audio manufacturer now that has our own DVD, now, Blu-ray department, where we design, build — everything.

Now, still, sometimes product that's not built in Japan and that's built in China — I mean, obviously, we have a vendor that built it for us. But it's still our design and uses many of our parts that our custom for us.

So, Blu-ray we started last year. We used an OEM partner until we got our team up to speed. This is the first, and, actually, we'll have a couple more this year based on this particular model. But what Japan looked at is a product that you've actually sold a few of: our CX product.

LU:           Right.

JT:             The DCD-CX3 you guys have sold, which was very well received. Actually, both pieces have been. But that transport out of there is what's the heart and soul of the DVD-A1UD. And, you know, one of the first players I've ever seen with a solid aluminum drawer. People look at the picture from your site or our site — there's no door. It's a very strange-looking player that you have to look closely to to see where to put the disc, until it opens up. And you go, Whoa. The tray's only, maybe, two discs thick of solid aluminum. And I just actually tore it apart here earlier today just to get a look at it. I mean the transport weighs about 7.5 pounds. Just that — forget about the rest of the stuff in the product. And it just goes to amazing engineering design and the quality of the parts and everything else to make this thing unbelievable. And, when you open the drawer, it makes absolutely no sense. It is an amazing thing to not hear anything. Except when the disk goes in, you hear the clamp just come down hard as it spins up.

So that's the basis of this particular player. Actually, in Japan, they just released a new — I think it's about $4,000 — it would be U.S. — CD player. And you being old-school with Denon, you’ll appreciate that they brought back the wood side panels. It is a gorgeous-looking piece. They're high-polished, high-gloss, curved. They're not the old blocks like we used to get in the '80s.

LU:           Right.

JT:             But, yes, and it has the same transport. So, you know, the heart and soul of it is that. The placement of it — it's low inside the unit. We're using some of the same technology that we built into the '08 receiver line that moves forward, direct rounding, and all that kind of fun stuff.

And then, you know, pulling in all of our years of experience with universal DVD players, there's a separate audio section analog just for the XLRs versus the 7.1. So it's actually dual analog sections.

LU:           And it has fully balanced circuit?

JT:             Fully balanced, two-channel.

LU:           Cool.

JT:             Absolutely. One big key audio technology that we've incorporated and advanced in this player is something called AL. We call it alpha. We can't put it on the product because of licensing issues. But, the original name was alpha. Now it's called AL, or, on some of the products, it's AL24 or advanced AL 24 or whatever. That's our digital up-sampling technology. And, in this player, we went to AL 32. It takes a 16- or 24-bit signal, whatever it may be, and it bumps it to 32-bit. And, obviously, it creates the smoothest analog-looking wave it can out of a digital signal. And that's big news. This 32-bit process is the first time in a Blu-ray or DVD player for all channels, including the XLRs, as well as the 7.1.

LU:           Right.

JT:             Video-wise, it's one of the first players to incorporate dual HDMI outputs. I think it will be the first that ships with it. I'm not sure about our friends at Pioneer and when they're shipping their unit. You would know because you guys have it.

LU:           Right. So what's the benefit of having two HDMI outputs that run concurrently?

JT:             Well, concurrently is good, but they are also configurable. There are two options. We're using new jitter control circuitry on the HDMI. One of the technical, not-great points of HDMI is jitter and clocking control. You know, they're like they were back in the '80s when CD players came out and those outboard DACs were taking over, because what they were putting in the players wasn't that great. It’s a similar thing here. Everybody's working on their own version of that to try to improve the audio and the video.

So what we did with this particular player is you can run them concurrently, both audio and video, meaning you can have two systems with full HD audio, 1080p/24 in two areas running off one player. That's kind of cool. Or we think the one most people will use is you can configure one to be audio-only and one to be video-only; again, helping the cable itself or the system of transmitter and cable and receiver handle only one stream. So you can run one directly to the projector and one to the audio processor. Or, it’s also great if you've got one plasma for during the day and a projector for at night. You can do whatever you want with it, basically. So it's just more configuration capability.

LU:           Well, let me ask you this. If a customer has an AVP, could he use one HDMI for audio and one for video and then just run the video to whatever the display is?

JT:             That's an option. He's actually got a better option, and that's with Denon Link. Denon Link is back. This is Denon Link 4 in this particular player. Now, we didn't do anything to it for video. It still does not handle video whatsoever. And we didn't do anything for it as far as what it carries audio-wise. Now, Denon Link 3 and now is in Denon Link 4 are able to carry any PCM audio — two-channel/multichannel, DVD-Audio with MLP, and obviously SACD — over to the AVP in this instance and then let the AVP do all the work. And that's, we believe, the best way to do it. HDMI can do all of those things now, but HDMI still has those technical things we were talking about.

LU:           Right.

JT:             And we don't think that that's the best way. So, with Denon Link 4, what we did was we added the capability when it's connected to what will be an updated via firmware AVP — so current AVPs, no, but probably somewhere around June, we're going to release firmware that the AVP and AVR-5308 CI models will be updated to DL4. I don't believe there's a cost yet, but we'll see what happens.

LU:           Okay.

JT:             So that's all done via the Internet, obviously. Now what happens is, when the customer activates DL4, if they're watching a Blu-ray and the Blu-ray audio, Dolby or DTS-HD, that goes through HDMI. Obviously, the picture goes through HDMI. But what Denon Link does is itopens up a port between the processor and the player to communicate directly to handle the jitter and the master clocking. So that's what that cable will do when watching Blu-ray. So, basically, it's just the HDMI becomes a pipe for audio and video. There's no dealing with jitter issues or master clocking. That's taken out of the loop because the processor and the DVD player are talking directly to each other.

Now that benefits not only Blu-ray but every other audio format. Now, there are other clocking or jitter control systems being introduced by other manufacturers. The issue is they don't work with everything you listen to or hear. So some only handle 2-channel CD. Well, that's nice, but our system with DL4 works with Blu-ray, works with DVD, works with SACD, works with DVD-Audio, no matter you do. We are taking the disadvantage of HDMI away from itself and allowing Denon Link 4 to handle all that.

So DL4 is the new deal. And, as I said — I'll reiterate again that your customers with AVP-A1s and 5308CIs will have an update via firmware around the June timeframe, which is about when we'll have BD-Live activation in the DVD-A1 because it's BD-Live-ready when it ships. So, in that same month of June, AVPs and 53s get updated with firmware and firmware via the Ethernet and the DVD-A1 to make it true BD-Live.

LU:           Great.

JT:             I don't think many of our customers, at this point, really care about BD-Live. But it's got to be there. Unfortunately, there were some spec changes late in the year in 2008, and, instead of delay, we said we'll just do it via firmware. We don't think that that's going to hurt anybody in this first couple months.

LU:           The update that you're speaking of for the AVP and 5308 — is that free, or is that going to cost people?

JT:             You know, it hasn't been nailed down yet. Most likely, it will be free or at a very, very minimal charge. We had firmware updates starting last September that were free for those customers, and I think it will be. But it hasn't been finalized yet.

LU:           Okay. Okay. That's fine. So this really sounds like anybody who bought an AVP would be crazy not to buy this piece. [Laughter]

JT:             Absolutely. Well, you know, look at your customer who ordered four of them. It's spurring a lot of interest. Whenever we have a model like this coming out, it gets a little crazy. Now, not everyone can afford a $4,200 player. But a lot of enthusiasts have multiple units right now. And this is an avenue for them to go, Hey, I can get the best of everything, both SD player, HD player, or Blu-ray player — plus audio. I've got a library of CDs or a library of SACDs. I mean, there are still a fair number DVD-Audio discs out there. And Telarc and Chesky are still releasing them. There's Europeans still releasing quite a lot of SACDs — some pretty good music collections. A lot of people didn't really find themselves wanting to go out and spend $1,000 on a good, universal DVD player to only use it for multichannel audio. Now, all of a sudden, you get the best of everything.

So, AVP owners? Absolutely, it makes a great match. 5308 customers, it makes a great match. But, for anybody else that's got some killer, high-end audio that wants the end-all/be-all in video as well — the DVD-A1.

LU:           The thing I'm coming away is what a powerful piece this could be just as an audio player.

JT:             Oh, absolutely.

LU:           And price-wise, $4,200 sounds like a lot of money. But compared to a lot of high-end CD players or universal players that are on the market, it's not — that's not an outrageous amount at all.

JT:             No. And I think it ties in perfectly with the AVP. First off, you hear: Oh, Denon for $7,500? And then look at the competition — the Lexicons and the Classés, etc. They don't do half of what that thing does. And I know Denon has good home theater. Wait a minute. This thing really is a value at $7,500. I agree with you — same thing with this player.

LU:           Definitely. The player, at $4,200, for everything that it does, I think, is an incredible value.

[Editor's note: The price is now slated to be $4,500.]

JT:             No doubt. One of the last things is, too, and I think I showed you guys, was the new interface for the player. It's based on the same GUI from the 38 series. It is much more intuitive. It's interactive. It's easier to get around and make your adjustments and do all that fun stuff.

One other feature that's a first in a player, DVD or Blu-ray, for that matter, is this has vertical stretch. Vertical stretch is being highly requested in video processors, particularly for those customers that have or are upgrading to cinema-scope screens or 2.35:1 screens with anamorphic lenses on their projectors. So the player actually does the processing of a 2.35:1. If you select it on and have anamorphic lens, it will do all the work and send it out.

Also, for 16:9 customers that cannot deal with black bars on 2.35:1 aspect ratio, it will do a vertical stretch for them without zooming. So the image will fill their 16:9 screen. Obviously, there's going to be some pixel loss on the sides and on the bottom. But it will fill the screen but not look anything like the old players with the zoom that people didn't want black bars so they hit the zoom button.

LU:           Right.

JT:             And the picture would just go to crap. Not the case here. So it's actually a benefit for just about everybody, and it's the first player to incorporate that. We actually have it in our DVP-602CI video processor, too.

LU:           Okay. Well, it sounds like an amazing piece. We're still looking at late February or early March for delivery on this?

JT:             I think we're in the process of getting some air shipped to us as we speak. So I think we're really sort of looking at a mid-February issue, if we're lucky.

[Editor's note: the DVD-A1UDCI is now expected to ship in June.]

LU:           Excellent. Well, Thanks again, Jeff. I appreciate the time, sir.

JT:             My pleasure, as always.