A larger amount of video tailoring is available when a disc is already in the player.  Pressing the Picture Adjust button at the bottom of the remote opens up a rotary selector – ranging from Standard to Memory 1-5.  Under each one, the user can make a few changes involving Horizontal & Vertical Position, DNR (noise reduction), Contrast, Brightness, Gamma Correction (which involves a 0 – 255 adjustment grid). Hue, White Level, Black Level, Chroma Level, and Setup Level .  Sharpness can also be adjusted here, notated by the “Enhancer” function, Medium Range Sharpness, High-Range Sharpness, which allow for slight tailoring in all categories – and can result in edge enhancement with each.  

For the Audio portion, a wider cluster of options are available for adjustment, depending on your needs.  Along with adjusting the Compression (Low, Middle, High), the Digital Out Selection (Bitstream, PCM, PCM Downsampling), Downmixing (Lt/Rt, Stereo), and the Source Direct option which involves adjusting the SACD kHz output, we’ve also got two analog adjustment functions: 7.1 Audio Out and Subwoofer Mode.  Initially, with this unit, there were a few handshake issues regarding sound being sent to the receiver.  Adjusting the HDMI settings alleviated the issue; when the disc is in the player, pressing the HDMI Resolution button brings up a menu to toggle the output, which seems problematic underneath anything but Source Direct.  Playing standard-definition DVDs at 1080p24 or other options caused a few handshake issues regarding sound.

Aside from that, we’ve also got a setup function for Denon Link to click together like-minded products, the Pure Direct adjustment field with enables / disables devices for play if you’d rather have the screen off while listening to music, and a full roster of Ratings levels for Blu-ray, DVD, Rating Country Code, and adjustment of password.  For Network Settings, we can adjust DHCP, Proxy, IP Address and MAC Address , if the network isn’t instantly logged into the player upon connection.  Rounding things out, we’ve got a Display Setup that allows for adjustment for Temporary Display, Captions, ScreenSaver, Wallpaper, Still Mode, and Slide Show Time, as well as the Other Setup for general options – BD Data Utility (SD Card functionality is included) Firmware Update, Information, Power Settings, and so on and so forth. 


Performance:

Tossing in Spears and Munsil’s Hand Forged Video disc to test the quality proved to be an exceedingly pleasing affair.  Out of the gate, the unit was exceptionally proficient in black level contrast, detail levels, and most impressively with adaptive deinterlacing (for those keeping score, note the rectangular “weave” pattern).  No clipping could be seen across the spectrum, rendering the test images in a very robust and impressive fashion – on par, at the very least, with other higher-end models.  This quality carried over into screenings of movies on Blu-ray, as well as with DVD upscaling, which both offer wholly satisfying and fluid projections of the material by putting the Anchor Bay Tech’s VRS processor to use.  In short, the “reference” in this player’s tagline is justified with regards to quality.  However, it’s in the egregious load times that the player doesn’t satisfy.  Booting up a disc in a powerful Blu-ray player should be relatively quick, yet the time it takes from disc insert to the material / top menu oftentimes clocked at nearly a minute.   No matter if we’re talking about initial boot or handling JAVA-based material, it’ll get the user to the destination – but it’ll be a lengthy wait.

Blu-ray:

A large chunk of the reservation generated over boot times will be justified once a Blu-ray disc has fully loaded in Denon’s DBP-4010UDCI.  In short, the level of detail, grace of motion within the 24fps movement, and the robust correctness of color saturation are superb, sprinting forward with some of the better high-end models out there right now.  Furthermore, the player’s capacity to bitstream high-resolution audio is also magnificent, showcasing the company’s level of aural proficiency to sublime degrees as it both thunders forward with action-based films and coasts along with discreet audio levels for more delicate sound designs.

First up in Denon’s reference Blu-ray player is Universal’s AVC presentation of Wanted, a robust 2.35:1-framed powerhouse of a Blu-ray.  It sports a candy-coated colorful and richly-detailed image, exhibiting brash saturation amid instances of controlled palette usage while a broad level of motion fills the film from start to finish.  Denon’s player grasps every ounce of motion and bold color usage with aware, accurate fluency, rendering an image that retains natural 35mm film grain and a blistering level of detail throughout.  The light shade of Angelina Jolie’s skin during the shootout in the convenience store parallels well against many of the brash colors, while textures in bricks and density of architecture during panning shots around James McAvoy early in the picture are highly satisfying.   The DTS HD Master Audio is equally as lively as the image, coming out of the gate with wildly explosive sound elements that mostly swing around gunshots, and Denon’s player retains the fluctuating highs and lows with exceptional, controlled breadth.  

Next up comes Criterion’s presentation of Revanche, a 1.78:1-framed, AVC-encoded film that sports mostly cold yet highly-textured cinematography and delicate sound design.  The level of quality in which Denon’s player rendered this piece of work is brilliant, containing delicate gradation of color against stone walls and the angular nature of interior shots to enthralling degrees.  Though mostly an array of slate blues, grays, and a few greens, it does dive into navy blues and some deeper shades of pinkish-reds within the brothel sequences in the picture – and the level of contrast and color pop there impresses in the DBP-4010UDCI.  Revanche showcases little more than dialogue paired against a very thinly-stretched amount of surround/ambient effects, and Criterion’s DTS HD Master Audio rendering is cradled with sublime delicateness in Denon’s player. Striking.

Rounding things out, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber on Fleet Street was given a spin.  The 1.78:1 cinematography is, like many of Tim Burton’s works, starkly contrasted and very, very dark, which also exercises the player’s ability to let muted color slip through a largely black-and-white VC-1 image.  It looks spectacular here, rendering robust white levels and pleasingly deep blacks amid both the exterior and interior bleakness.  The slight green shades in wallpaper and the gentle maroon on Helena Bonham-Carter’s bodice really shine through the image,  all while the graceful film grain drapes is retained extremely well.  The Dolby True HD track present streams beautifully through the Denon, rendering pitch-perfect vocals and very delicate, sumptuous musical cues that retain the film’s macabre elegance.  It’s a gorgeous Blu-ray made bolstered to great lengths in this reference Blu-ray player.

Denon’s DBP-4010UDCI is, as to be expected, a Region A-locked Blu-ray player, as tested by a copy of Fox’s Region B-locked The Fountain – which loaded to the region notification screen, as per normal.  It does, however, play PAL-encoded special features, tested by popping in Tartan’s copy of I’m a Cyborg and loading up the making-of featurette.  It’s also a BD-LIVE / BD-JAVA functional Profile 2.0 unit, as tested with a copy of Universal’s Blu-ray of The Bourne Identity – which booted up the Picture-in-Picture elements just fine.  Just remember: to access the audio, you must switch over the audio to PCM in the HDMI menu, as the player can’t handle bitstreaming audio and streaming the supplemental soundtrack. As an added note, Criterion’s simple menu presentation for Revanche glided along peacefully as well, shifting the menu blocks back and forth without a hitch.

DVD:

The Anchor Bay VRS technology underneath the hood of Denon’s DBP-4010UDCI also does a stellar job at upscaling standard-definition DVDs, rendering images that are just a few (expected) steps shy of HD quality.  A comparison was done head-to-head between Disney’s presentations of The Nightmare Before Christmas, both on Blu-ray and on DVD, and the quality difference really stands as a testament to the internal scaler.  The DVD rendered clean lines, a fine range of motion, and depth of contrast that matched well against the Blu-ray’s stellar tangibility, all while providing pleasing presentations of legacy audio tracks – both Dolby Digital and standard DTS – that stood up to their high-resolution counterparts.  

Sony’s standard-definition DVD of Zombieland was also given a spin in Denon’s reference Blu-ray player, and the quality impresses once again.  Black levels are pleasing and flesh tones are quite vibrant, lining out detail in a fashion that’s highly cinematic in properties for a standard-definition source.  As a final test, Grosse Pointe Blank’s non-anamorphic disc works out the player’s ability to handle zooming on a display.  Sadly, Denon’s player does not come with an internal zoom for non-16x9 content, so the quality’s largely up to the display doing the blow-up.  Bear in mind that this “universal” player does NOT play other region’s discs, as tested by a Region 3 copy of Memories of Murder, yet it does handle region-free PAL-encoded discs, as tested by Tartan UK’s copy of A Bittersweet Life.  

Media Playback, SACD and CD:

Along with the capacity for Blu-ray and DVD discs, Denon’s DBP-4010UDCI also handles the lion’s share of music discs and external media – from DVD-Audio and SACD to MP3 files via SD Memory card – with prowess both with HDMI and analog jacks in use.  Bear in mind that this player doesn’t have a USB port, so all file playing will have to be done via disc or through the SD port.  The player supports a broad range of music files, from AAC and WMA to standard MP3, which all loaded up fine and great flowing through the player.  Playing music taps into an interface that’s a bit on the clunky side, but it still works just fine.  JPEGs can also be accessed via SD Memory Cards and via disc media, a la Fuji and Kodak.  
A copy of 2L – The Nordic Sound was spun to test the capacity of Super Audio CD, both multichannel and 2-channel, CD, and DTS HD Master Audio / PCM high-resolution audio.

Haydn: String Quartet In D (Track 15) became the reference point (as did the Crux Fidelis and Gjeilo: North Country II samples), and each of the formats sounded splendid through Denon’s player.  On the remote, at the bottom, a “Disc Layer” button allows for the user to toggle through the layers on a SACD, as well as electing for either multichannel or 2-channel audio on the specific SACD layer.  The toggle worked impeccably, though the unit itself takes a while to boot up the separate layers (much in the way it takes a while to load up Blu-ray discs).

 

Track 15, the string quartet piece, tests a nice breadth of sound pitches, from flickering highs to very graceful middle-lows with the deeper notes, and they’re immensely satisfying on this unit.  Naturally, the LFE and surround channels are deactivated during musical tracks where they’re not viable.  On the flipside of things, the DTS Master Audio and PCM Tracks of the same samples also sounded wonderful, offering robust multichannel varietals of the tracks to sublime degrees.  Copies of Sigur Ros’ “( )” and “Von” albums also barreled through the player, hitting very controlled, mindful lows and razor-sharp high points.  It’s certainly an impressive audio device, even if the GUI is a shade on the bland side and the load times are wishy-washy.

Pros: Outstanding Audiovisual Quality, Versatile, Runs Cool, Quiet, Adjustable, Built To Last

Denon’s DBP-4010UDCI touts the words “universal” and “reference” along with its product description, and it earns the accolades.  It boasts slack-jawed astounding quality with Blu-ray discs, both with visual and astounding audio presentation, as well as handling upscaled standard-definition DVDs to robust degrees.  Along with that, Denon’s flagship player also becomes versatile when you’re popping in Super Audio CDs, standard CDs, high-resolution music presentations, and a slew of other shiny-surfaced discs, presenting musical quality to an impressive degree for a mostly BD-centric unit.  It’s thus transformed into a highly multifaceted piece of equipment, sizing it up more as the cornerstone for a media center instead of as a separate deck – especially with the level of adjustability it offers with visual and aural tailoring. Moreover, Denon’s player operates at a tolerably cool temperature, as well as staying fairly quiet aside from a few initial boot-up gears whirring with entry of a disc.  Finally, bear in mind that buying this bulky unit ensures that you’re purchasing a player that’s going to be alive for quite some time, as the construction quality is absolutely top-shelf.  

Cons: Price, Bulky, Load Times, HDMI Handshake Troubles, No USB Port

One thing that’ll cause a bit of trepidation with Denon’s heavy, large player is the price tag, sitting right at $2,000.  The level of quality when the player is running smoothly can really impress at times, but whether it’s worth the step above the other highly-proficient “universal” players, such as Oppo’s BDP-83, is highly suspect.  That’s where the load time issues might come in as a deciding factor, and they’re plentiful with the DBP-4010UDCI; it oftentimes leaves the user waiting, and waiting, for a disc to load, both at initial boot and with actual access to the BD-Java applications.  However, the load times also become problematic with DVDs and other media, rendering the unit as one that’s basically slow.  On top of that, it also has some HDMI handshake issues regarding sound whenever the source is mildly tinkered with, an issue that was aided by the Denon tech support crew but still present with the unit.  And, though a SD card port is available on the player, the lack of a USB port – a more commonplace digital storage medium in-use today – is an added yet middling concern.  

Final Thoughts:

The Denon DBP-4010UDCI is an outstanding player when considering its prowess in audiovisual quality, boasting great imagery and superb sound as an HDMI / analog “universal” flagship player.  However, the required investment into the player makes it difficult to overlook the poor load times, bulky size, and manageable yet present communication issues – especially when other units on the market are just as versatile at nearly the same quality, but at a fraction of the cost.  Denon’s quality is certainly here in this player, even if there are a few issues that steer it away from receiving a more confident seal of approval.