Denon held its annual press luncheon today to announce its 2011 product line. As someone who primarily covers video-related products, I was most interested in the company's plans in the Blu-ray market. Well, Blu-ray was last on the agenda, and I followed the entire press conference via webinar to hear that the company has no new product announcements in that category. Yey.
It's actually not too surprising that the company isn't in a hurry to announce/release new Blu-ray players. At last year's event, Denon announced the DBP-1611UD and DBP-2012UDCI, which were slow to arrive to market and have only been available for a short time now. We did learn that Denon will phase out its ultra-high-end DVD-A1UDCI ($4,500) and DBP-4010CI ($1,999) and focus on the aforementioned 1611UD ($499) and 2012UDCI ($899.99) as its core offerings.
Both of those models are 3D-capable Blu-ray players that support universal disc playback, as well as Netflix VOD. YouTube access will soon be added via a long-awaited firmware update. The Denon rep said that YouTube is working on an update of its own to create a better user experience and that Denon decided to wait for that improvement to add the function, which should be offered in June.
Of course, most of the press conference centered on Denon's bread-and-butter, the A/V receiver market. The company announced a new series, called the IN-Command Series. "IN" stands for integrated network, and that describes Denon's philosophy for incorporating all of your analog, digital, handheld, and networkable sources into an easy-to use platform. Three new IN-Command models will be available in May: the AVR-2112CI ($599.99), AVR-2312CI ($799.99), and AVR-3312CI ($999.99). All include a new cosmetic design with a scaled-down front panel and a setup wizard, all allow for 3D passthrough, and all support DLNA and AirPlay streaming--among many other features.
The company will also release a quartet of lower-priced receivers that are not part of the IN-Command Series: The AVR-1312 ($249.99), AVR-1612 ($349.99), and AVR-1912 ($529.99) are slated for April release, while the AVR-1712 ($399.99) should arrive in June. These models also support 3D passthrough, and the AVR-1912 will include AirPlay streaming.
For a full overview of the new AVR lineup, as well as other Denon products, check out the press release on Page 2.
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