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Rumored new Denon or Marantz (or Both) UHD disc player

Substance

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A lot of people on other forums believe Vincent Teoh hinted on his twitter that there is a new Denon or Marantz UHD disc player coming soon. It’s a big wishful thinking in my opinion, especially since D&M is now owned by a medical company. The last D&M disc player was made 10 years ago. I doubt they kept the team who has the know how. Developing such a product with the ever shrinking disc market makes little sense. They will likely OEM the Panasonic or the Reavon already in the market with a nice rebadge job is my guess (If the rumor is true). What do you think?
 
I agree, it would be very surprising for them to move back into a dying format. I believe a recent examination of disc sales versus digital streaming or downloads, indicated physical media in home video sales are now down in the 10% range of the total revenue generated annually.

That said, although that market is declining every year, there is still $3 billion annually in physical media sales and rentals, so perhaps they think they can enter the market in time to benefit from those sales, even if it turns out to be a short term run.

Jim
 
The sheer amount of titles being announced and released for 4K disc now is staggering. I had completely the opposite prediction for what would be happening with physical media by this time, but the release list is just insane now with new releases and massive catalog titles from all kinds of studios. If D/M does re-enter with a player (and others), maybe they are seeing a headwind to capitalize on.

This is happening still as the retail presence of physical media diminishes at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and more. It's a really weird dichotomy.
 
Look at the sales of Vinyl (record albums). Also unpredicted but it's again a multi million dollar business.
That said, 4K BD's don't make that much sense, if there's an actual viable alternative like Kaleidescape, but the entry to that market is huge ($9,000 MSRP now), compared to a $500-$999 player from a premium brand like that?
They should have bought the Oppo UDP-203/205 rights, perhaps?
 
The vinyl market globally was $1.65 Billion last year, so your point is well taken. One of the reasons for that is the sound of vinyl played on quality components, and quality speakers. We can hear what we believe is a more pure sound the analog domain presents versus digital. In contrast, as digital downloads and streaming eventually match physical disc quality, the discs will become obsolete. We already have that with at least one platform, and at some point the others will follow. Still, I do agree there is probably a market for a quality disc player and I think we were all surprised that Oppo departed that market when they did, so I agree that someone should have purchased their tech. Maybe they did.......

Jim
 
Another reason for the come back of Vinyl and high end turntables is that you can make a really really good turntable in your basement with zero electrical or software engineering knowledge. You just need to be a good carpenter and understand basic physics. All this is public domain too so no royalties or trade marks.

As a reference for reviving a technology product, there is a massive Laserdisc community too. Practically every retro gaming enthusiast has a Laserdisc player or two and a ton of discs to give you an idea of the size of the community. Good players sell for $400 to $800 all day and high end ones $2,000-$6,000 in the used market. There has been so many talks about reviving the technology, releasing new players and printing new discs but it could never happen. Although it is a 1970s technology, with the very last design from 1996, it is still near impossible to put a team together to engineer the components, pay royalties, and manufacture new disc players and Laserdisc printers.

It is true that a new UHD disc player would take far less effort than a Laserdisc player but still a massive overtaking and cost. DVDs are massively outselling Blu-rays and the UHD Blu-rays sales don’t even compare. DVDs are very likely going to outlive Blu-rays and UHD Blu-rays. So you can safely assume a very large portion of that $3b revenue is from the DVD sales.

I looked at the current UHD Blu-ray capable disc players released in the last 5 years. There is a Tascam model for the pro market. I can‘t find any internal pictures so I can’t tell much about it. Reavon and CineUltra use the hacked version of the latest Oppo UDP firmware (is this even legal?). Their hardware is based on the Oppo UDP design with very minor revisions (might have more ram otherwise stripped components).

Denon and Marantz were my heroes in my teenager years. You can add Pioneer, Matsushita (National, Technics, Panasonic) and Victor (JVC) to my heroes. The level of (over) engineering and the build quality in their products in the 80s and the 90s can’t be found today even in the very high end. They have a big influence in why I became an engineer. My soul hurts when I see their products today. I think it is a wild idea but I sincerely hope they release a truly high end disc player and follow up with other high end AV products, not some sound bar or wireless speakers or some AV receiver which weighs less than the volume knob of their products from the 80s/90s.
 
Based on the leaks for new D/M receivers and such, it looks like they are coming out strong with new gear coming up. So maybe there is something to this other rumor. They are packing features and going more premium.
 
Doesn't Panasonic make a quality high-end "audiophile" UHD player (the DP-UB9000) and a similar player without the audio focus (UB820)? Reports are it's quite close to the Oppo's output...

You guys are also making me think that my LaserDisc wall-o-discs is probably worth something... :) Although remember what they all cost back in the day, probably not much. That said, it makes K's downloads seem "cheap" (ish).
 
Doesn't Panasonic make a quality high-end "audiophile" UHD player (the DP-UB9000) and a similar player without the audio focus (UB820)? Reports are it's quite close to the Oppo's output...

You guys are also making me think that my LaserDisc wall-o-discs is probably worth something... :) Although remember what they all cost back in the day, probably not much. That said, it makes K's downloads seem "cheap" (ish).
I couldn't get an Oppo of my own when I was building my theater, but I did buy the Panasonic DP-UB9000. I've watched a number of discs including some of the high def audio discs on it and it is an incredible player. I actually had an opportunity recently to A / B the Oppo vs my Panasonic and I blind chose the Panasonic 4 out of the 5 tests with the 5th being a I couldn't tell a difference. So that is my personal experience with my setup and take it with all the salt which it warrants.
 
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