The Denon DVD-1800 BD is a Blu-ray player aimed at the entry-level sector. On the market since late 2008, the device currently sells from around 300 GBP online.

• Excellent 24p movie picture.
• Numerous picture controls on board.
• Card reader for photos and MP3 music.
• Bitstream HDMI output of HD audio.

• No connection for BD-Live.
• Picture-weaknesses in DVD playback.
• No DTS-HD decoder.

Denon's entry-level model offers multimedia functionality, but buyers will have to live without BD-Live. On the plus side, the numerous picture controls allow fine-tuning of Blu-ray and DVD pictures, but this cannot make up for the weaknesses that the DVD-1800 BD shows in playback of DVDs without a progressive flag.

You can't miss it: The SD-card reader.

The front panel's SD-card slot catches the eye immediately - this allows you to play back MP3 music and JPEG photos. Pictures and thumbnails greater than four megabytes in size are not, however, displayed, and we disliked having to access the feature via a deeply nested submenu. The lack of an Ethernet connection - and therefore of BD-Live - disappoints, since this is now standard in modern Blu-ray players.

The remote control lacks a button for direct access to the card reader.

On the other hand, the player offers six picture controls, which allow fine adjustment of the picture, including the sharpness and gamma correction - real luxury! The remote control's practical "Display" button calls up information such as the resolution, frame rate, color space, and audio format.

The audio section could have been a little better: There's no analog multichannel sound, and only 5.1-channel sound is possible as PCM - 7.1 only works as a bitstream output via HDMI. In consolation, Denon has fitted the DVD-1800 BD with a BurrBrown D/A converter for the analog stereo output.

The "Pure Direct" button allows the listener to switch off unnecessary video circuits, and the display, while listening to CDs; this is intended to improve sound quality, thanks to the purer signal.

The disc drive and the fans work very quietly, further contributing to the overall listening pleasure. Lastly, the remote control sits well in the hand, but lacks a button for direct access to the card reader - this is not what we call user-friendly.

HDTV:
In our laboratory tests, the Denon matched the digital levels for both color and black-and-white signals fairly accurately, but introduced dampening of around one decibel in the HDMI frequency response. This is irritating, but not disastrous, since support from the sharpness control means the user can still improve detail-reproduction. Then, both Full HD formats (1080/60p and 1080/24p) look great in the home-theater, and enjoy a total lack of flicker.

The Denon showed slight weaknesses in just one of our favorite sequences from a Pioneer demo disc: The license plates of cars moving quickly through the picture suffered slight comb-effects and ghosting. Documentaries in 1080/60i showed no major weaknesses, and we observed no line-flicker.

DVD:
Playback of DVDs excels on the DVD-1800 BD, but the player falls short of the de-interlacing quality of the two other - significantly pricier - Denon Blu-ray players, the DVD-2500 BT and DVD-3800 BD. This becomes particularly obvious in trickier scenes from DVDs without a progressive flag. The Denon initially shows a camera pan across a beach on the DVD "Six Days Seven Nights" well, but the sun-loungers soon begin to flicker.

On the other hand, DVDs that do have a progressive flag present no problems at all for the Denon. The option to adjust the picture settings and detail sharpness brings additional improvements in picture quality.

The Denon outputs all high-definition formats, but you'll need to use a separate receiver for full 7.1-decoding.

The Denon's best sound quality comes with bitstream output of modern high-definition formats via HDMI. With PCM audio, on the other hand, the Denon can only deliver 5.1 channels - there's no built-in decoder for 7.1. Via analog, the player can only output stereo sound, but it does at least do this in superb quality. Measurements reveal a flat frequency response, and the listening test gives the player a chance to shine with its smooth treble resolution and clear depth differentiation.