This October, dressed in traditional black, sashaying down the Denon ramp is the  brand new Denon DBP-1610 Blu-ray player, a classy high-def baby with a heart of a gold (read, a relief in the pricing area, at least by through-the-attic Denon standards).

The elusive one

The Denon DBP-1610 Blu-ray player, with scores of features like full HD video, DVD upscaling to 1080p, DolbyDigitalPlus, DolbyTrueHD and support for DTS-HD Master Audio, is as loaded as you’d expect from something as premium as a Denon. Of course it’s BD-Live capable, supports Deep Color and x.v. Color.It even supports random formats like the Kodak picture CD, the Fuji Color CD, and has a Pure Direct Mode and a 24-bit/192kHz audio converter. The ‘Pure Direct Mode’ is particularly cool – you can send a direct signal through the cable to any component, such as a receiver, which can do a better job of signal scaling. Now, that’s an impressive list.

Time to read the pricetag, then? KAching! That’ll be $499.00. Now, it may not be in the same price league as a PS3 Slim’s $299, but then it’s a lot lighter on the $$ than any Denon ever sold. If you’ve been hunting the elusive legendary less-than-$500-Denon, look no further, it has arrived!