Is a Denon DVD-5000 worth buying ?

I owned a dvd5000 for about 26 months (purchased new). In that time it was completely rebuilt twice. Luckily the repairs were covered under warranty ($1300.00 & $1700.00). It died for the third time about two months ago. It was no longer under warranty and did not think it was worth the repair cost (estimated at $1500.00). Sold it as is on ebay for $325.00. This model had a lot of problems; saw many non-functioning units for sale on Ebay with the same problem mine had.

Now, as for the picture - incredible for non-progressive! Went to my local dealer and he said that a current cheapo sony unit would have a better picture than then Denon. The sony looked like video tape compared to the denon (even the wife noticed the difference; that's say something). Ended up buying a Denon DVD9000 to replace it. Had reservations about reliability but wanted a great picture and sound.

Probably not. Check out the Denon DVD-1600 DVD-V and DVD-A player. It has a wonderful progressive scan output thanks to the Faroudja DCDi™ de-interlacer with 3-2 pulldown processing. The unit can be had for about $400.

I can second the Denon 1600, I have one and love it. It also has nice Burr Brown audio DAC's to help with your audio question. Can't comment on the 5000. I had the 3000, and the picture quality wasn't even in the same league as the 1600 when displaying 480p. If your TV can handle progressive output or you are upgrading soon, my suggestion is to go with a progressive DVD player.

I'll chime in on the side of skipping it. I had one that was sent back for repairs twice also, like prpixel, and it still didn't work. By the time I got around to addressing the issue again, it was out of warranty and just not worth fixing.

Good luck whatever you decide! Mike.