Denon DVD-A1UD/DVD-A1UDCI Blu-Ray/DVD/SACD/DVD-A/ Universal Player - Page 106

How weird!!!
I was watching the UK edition of "KNIGHT AND DAY" (The Extended Version) and at about 30 minutes into the film the picture started to completely break-up (in the scene when Cameron Diaz is talking to her fireman boyfriend in the booth in the cafe). I turned off the player and about 30 minutes later the picture broke-up again - becoming all garbled and pixellated. I put the "KNIGHT AND DAY" disc into my Pioneer player and it played through to the end without issue.

Now, today I tried the UK edition of "STAR WARS: Episode I - THE PHANTOM MENACE" and once again after about 30 minutes (when we first meet the slaveboy Anakin) it started breaking up again! I turned it off and tried again. It played a further 30 minutes (the beginning of the pod race) and it broke up again. What is going on?

Is it the Denon A1UD that is now playing up on modern discs or is it that I am now just unlucky with my recent purchases? Again the Star Wars disc played fine on my old Pioneer LX70A.

Anybody else having these Denon A1UD issues???

I am on an older firmware from last year as I do NOT want to lose the multi-region DVD!!!

Anybody else having these Denon A1UD issues???

Knight and Day is the only disc i've had issues with, so far. I do not have yet the Star Wars discs, i will try them as soon as possible.
I understand the region-free matter, but the various firmware updates resolved so much issues that i don't think is wise to keep the player so outdated.

Hello guys. Long time no see.
My player is also outdated , but still plays fine.
I "ve seen luigi"s problem with dvd region free so i didn"t update my player.
I "ve watched nihjt and day withoyt problem. Star wars , not yet i will as soon as it is available.
Starman7 it seems that your player is acting up. You should have it checked.
If it works in a dust free environment (unlike mine) take it for a check.The whole 30 min thing is bothering me.It states that something happens in those 30 mins.Is it well ventilated? or hidden in a closet?

Thanks and please report back if you have an issue with the Star Wars discs. Thanks again.

Thanks and please report back if you have an issue with the Star Wars discs.

My player is very well ventilated and plays DVD's and other BD's without problems so I don't think it is overheating.

I have TONS of Region 1 DVD's so losing the multi-region really isn't an option for me sadly.

Thanks again and please report back.

I will, for sure.
Anyway the Knight & Day disc is known to have issues with Denon, at least a large batch of the pressing.

For the region 1 issue i've bought an Oppo reg. free modified. Still prefer (and by numbers) the PQ of the Denon on my Jvc vpr, but for that task an Oppo is more than enough.

APG here in Australia (i.e. www.denon.com.au) have removed the DVD-A1UD from their website. As there are non left here & given the state of production output priorites in Japan after recent regional events, this would appear to indicate curtains for this flagship edition. RIP. But the show must go on! Paving the way for the improved, faster loading, software tweaked, 1.4a DVD-A13D due for 2nd qtr of 2012... Do you think? Yeah baby

Where did you read that?

It is hard to evaluate in your case but when I had my other 3930ci and started doing this, the optical unit was defective and had to be repalced.

Had it done and worked fine ever since. I kept it because my ultra reference Denon cannot play mutli region DVD and I have a lot stuff that I still watch.


All the best,

Michael

Just to share my experience on the modification provided by JVB.

First of all - it worked!

There are 2 pre-wired chips you have to solder to the main board. I was trying to find any professional to do it for me as i was really scared to penetrate this $5K worth piece of hi-tech. I failed to find one as they all refused concerned with liability in case of damage to the unit.

i decided to do it myself, however, my experience in soldering was zero. Not anymore!

To do this you have to have good soldering iron, various screw drivers, bits, soldering stuff, etc. Most of all you need experience. I dug out some old SMD board and tried to practice assembling disassembling electronic components. I also watched a lot of video on how different things are done. I thought i was ready.

I opened the unit (had some diffiiculty getting to the main board) to find out that all i knew about the size of the parts (e.g. resistors) was not enough. They are really small! i think they are 1mm x 0.5 mm in dimentions at max. 2 of them i had to remove and two other i had to solder 2 wires to....

Other soldering points were easy compared to those ones. The good thing though is that all soldering is done to one board so your possible damages are under control. You might need to replace this board but not the whole thing.

After few tough hours I was not sure i got it right but to my great surprise it was ok!

Now my life is much better. Switching between the zones/regions is easy and i can watch any disk. Yet to try BD though.

So the mod works but my advice is to try and find professionals.

Happy to answer any questions.

Hi guys,

It's been a while since I last visited. My A1UD is working fine, and I enjoy using it everyday.

I just bought the Star Wars Saga on Blu-ray yesterday. I watched Episode 1- The Phantom Menace last night and my A1 played it just fine. I do have my A1 updated with the latest firmware though.


Seth

I also have problem on starwars bluray but I have yet to update to the latest firmware . Will update and try again .

Thank you and please keep us posted. Denon UK have been made aware of the issue and will hopefully get it all sorted (if not already done so).

Cheers.

The latest firmware did solve the starwars bluray problem .

What Star Wars film are people having problems with? I just started watching and The Phantom Menance played fine for me, it actually loaded rather quick too.

I was just getting ready to watch Episode II and decided to check if there was a firmware update available and there is, at least in Nort America. It's a 25 minute download.

Rod

Thanks for the heads up on the available firmware update. I'll see about updating mine today sometime.


Seth

Hi Seth,

Saw that the Denon Japan website lists the new firmware. Says something about 720p24 as part of the update. No firmware revision numbers stated though, think revision numbers are only shown on the European update site.

Do you look at the firmware numbers on your unit after you update?

Best

I gave up watching part way through The Phantom Menace. Picture and sound broke up and the player froze. Returned set to Amazon!

As for firmware, no update in the UK yet.

Dave

Thanks for sharing that.

Actually no I've never looked at the firmware numbers on my unit after updating.


Seth

I now also have a failed middle blue light. Was this issue ever resolved? I've tried unplugging - the light turned back on for a very limited time...

I haven't read all posts since last year, I hope I'm not asking a question that's been answered many times since then...

David

As I had posted earlier, I was told a year ago that as regards the second blue LED, an earlier firmware update was corrupted and caused a problem on the "main board" which caused the second blue LED to fail. Looks like that second LED itself was fine but was not being turned on due to the problem in the "main board". Beats me why only a few A1UD owners had this problem. In any event the "main board" was replaced (luckily at no cost to me as it was still under warranty) and the second blue LED was fixed.

However, a month or so ago, the first blue LED conked out. Mercifully, this time it was just the LED bulb. Got it fixed by Denon Service in Singapore about a month ago (replaced all 3 for S$24 for a set of 3 LED bulbs + S$80 for labour).

Thanks, I will send mine in for repair.

David

Hi guys , i had some troubles with star wars my self too.
The image would break and artifacts would show , like digital noise all the time , after the first 30 mins of playing.All the 3 discs where acting the same way. Episodes 123.
They were rented so i took them back.I was informed that they played fine on ps3"s.
I rented one again and tried it out on 2500bt . Guess what, it played fine .
Last night i watched priest. Again weared behavior from a1, though different this time.
Audio kept come in and out like someone was playing with cables.All chanels kept doing that ,it was also visible on the avp display where it shows the incoming signal chanels.
Hit pause several times.Resume and there it was again.
Tried the disc on 2500 and guess what? fine no problem.
I don"t understand this behavior. Could it be that the player is on a old firmware?
I haven"t update it since last year couse i didn"t want to lose the dvd region free hack.
Any ideas?

It's possible it's firmware but it may also be a sign of hardware failure. Normally the first course of action would be to update the firmware but with you wanting the region free ability I understand not wanting to do this. If it's hardware it will have to be sent back to Denon and and at that point your region free ability will be gone because I would wager one of the first things they would do would be to update the firmware.

Try doing a factory reset and see if that helps. Also reformat the SD card. If you are still having the issues after doing that then you will have to decide if region free ability out weights a properly working player, if not do the firmware update. If that doesn't fix the issues then you know for sure something is up in the hardware.

Many thanks buddy. I agree. Latest firmware seems to correct the Star Wars issues (I haven't checked Knight & Day yet).

I've been staying up to date with all the firmware updates, and so far nearly all of the Blu-ray's I've played have loaded and played back just fine. There was Knight and Day that was pixelated mess, and over the course of a year or so maybe 3-4 others that wouldn't load. But since I watch at least one Blu-ray a night, I'd say that's pretty good overall.

Star Wars I-III played just fine, IV wouldn't load, and V-VI played perfectly. I did notice that Episode IV has a small area where the label paint flaked off (could see light through it). Shouldn't have mattered, but maybe the A1 is really touchy about things like that. Played the disc in my Oppo 93 and it played perfectly.


Seth

Starting from the end.
@ Seth , yes you are wright. A1 is touchy.
@ Rod#s , you are also wright.I talked to service technitian and he confirmed , it must be a firmware issue.He also pointed out that most of the f/w updates are out just for the new encryptions that companies write on the new titles, against pirates.Yes i have to weigh and decide what i want. A properly working player or the region free hack.
Since i have a 3910 region free i think i will lean towards the first choice.
Oh and another thing , somewhere in the previous posts i read sometning about a problematic f/w that drives the 2nd or 3rd blue led to fail to light , from the drive board side.Do we know that the bug was found and corrected?
Thanks guys .

This may not be the case. My unit has the latest firmware in that no update is available (if someone will remind me how, I'll even say what version it is!) and Star Wars 1 has a very clear pattern of errors. This is my second copy of the disc (Disc I) and every 30 minutes the picture breaks up. Stopping and restarting the disc clears the picture breakup for another 30 minutes and then it happens again. Has anyone any similar experiences, and how did you resolve it?

Hi i had the same problem with star wars all 3 of them 1,2,3 , as i posted before , but my player is not up to date.
As i posted before a telephone to the technitian confirmed that it is a firmware problem.
But now i see this might not be the case.Although he clearly stated that new sony titles have new locking algorithms that need new firmware.
I don"t know what to believe any more.
Did you ever had the problem with the 2nd blue led?