There are valid reasons why brands like Denon are still lurking in the fringes while prominent brands like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic maintain their enviable position under the sun. Take for example, the Denon DVD-1740 which has pretty much done all the things right, especially with its performance, which is simply marvelous. Where it went wrong is that it doesn’t have DVD-A, SACD, WMV and AAC playback features which happen to be trade mark feathers of products in its price category. Furthermore, the absence of a USB port turns out to be an even bigger disappointment.

The real head turner of the unit happens to be its superb image quality, which quite unfortunately and somewhat ironically gets overshadowed by the glaring lacks. The omission of DVD-Audio and SACD playback features, on the other hand, rips it of the universal tag, a status that was enjoyed by its big brother the DVD-1940. Other notable misses include the Faroudja progressive scan engine and aluminium front panel.

Despite missing so many key features, there are enough good reasons to make the unit tempting, if not irresistible. Another one of the Denon DVD-1740’s aspect that should catch the fancy of HDTV owners is the presence of an HDMI output, which has the impressive quality of churning out video upscaled to 1080p, 1080i or 720p, depending on what’s best for your display. Alternatively, owners of older TVs can use the RGB-capable Scart, S-video, composite or component video outputs. The composite feature is of special interest as it offers you the capability of progressive scan via the Matsushita chip.

You also get to have a reasonable range of compressed media formats including MP3, WMA and JPEG, apart from having the prestigious DivX Ultra certification. The certification implies that it is more than capable of effectively handling every type of file from 3.11 through to 6 and will also play VOD content.