I bought a multi-region Denon 2900 DVD player (UK model) a few weeks ago and have been putting it through its paces. The player is absolutely superb in most areas... picture, sound, layer changes, but I've started to notice very annoying audio dropouts during various films.
Firsty, R1 Alien (Dolby Digital) and R1 Alien Resurrection (DTS). I wasn't worried too much about these because I've read a ton of reviews indicating that they're problematic discs. However, the glitches I experiences were NOT at the branching points and I appear to have the latest firmware (see below) so why the problem?
Last night I watched the R2 edition of "Die Another Day", with it's DTS track, and the sound cut out briefly 3 times. Once during the "marksman simulation" at MI6 HQ and twice during the scene were Bond and Frost kiss while hiding from the bad guys near the ice palace. This never happened on my Sony 7700 machine.
Tonight I watched "Star Trek Generations" (R1 Collector's Edition) and the DTS sound dropped out AGAIN! It occured during Kirk's line "I was out saving the galaxy while you're grandfather was in diapers". I also appear to have experienced a dropout on the DD track on "Attack Of The Clones" (R1).
It might be a coincidence, but most of the dropouts described above appear to happen about 2/3 to 3/4 into the film. When I go back to check them again they played flawlessly so the dropouts appear to be entirely random.
Has anybody else experienced similar problems with the Denon 2900? I'm a bit upset to say the least. What's the point of making the layer change seamless if the audio cuts out 2-3 times elsewhere? Could it perhaps be my IXOS optical cable? I believe bad cables can sometimes account for quick (and random) dropouts like the ones I'm experiencing.
I was thinking of maybe getting a QED Quinex SR75 coaxial cable just in case... would this help?
By the way, when the sound cuts out in the scenes noted above the DD5.1 or DTS5.1 signal does not appear to drop from my Yamaha DSP-A1s display. Not sure if this is relevant. And the DVD firmware I have is:
