Pioneer Elite DV59AVI or Denon DVD 5900?

I have a Denon 5900 on order, and it is going straight to Dan Wright (ModWright) for some upgrades, including his Signature Truth Tube mod. From what Dan has told me, both the 2900 and the 5900 are stellar players once they are modded, with the 2900 benefiting the most. Dan also mods Pioneers, but for my purposes, I was limited to either Sony or Denon, and initially I was leaning towards the Sony NS999ES, but Dan said that if you do the same mods, the 2900 ends up being the better player. From there, I decided to go with the 5900 because of the better chassis, the additional video and audio outputs (DVI and iLINK), HDCD compatability, and better video processor. If you are at all interested in mods, you may want to drop Dan a line and see how he thinks a modded Pioneer would compare to the modded Denon.

Tom.

sonic17 is correct - the DV-59 suffers from the chroma bug (as do many players). If you're not sensitive to it, it's produces a great picture; it's very film-like. If you are sensitive to the chroma bug it will drive you crazy. It's pretty minimal on the DV-59, but it's there.

I've not seen the Denon on a good display.

I own the DV-59AVi and am perfectly happy with it. I use an HDMI to DVI cable to connect it to the DVI input on my Samsung HLN617W and use the 720p upconversion output from the 59AVi to the Samsung - great picture. Have not tried the DVD-A or SACD yet.

There are many postings at www.avsforum.com that say the 59AVi does not have the chroma bug, and many more postings comparing it to the 5900.

Bruce

Dont buy the Pioneer I tried one on my Yamaha DPX1000 projector DLP and it definatley still has the chroma bug through the DVI connection, crap!