KENWOOD DV5900M

DVD Audio Juke-box

Kenwood have presented their new Home Jukebox – the 400+3 CD/DVD-Video and DVD-Audio, under the reference DV5900M. The manufacturer is thus attacking the market for disc storage and DVD audio players.

Positioned in the “upper market” segment, this newcomer includes an exhaustive list of electronics – compiled with the majors in terms of video processing - Faroudja.

Two major novelties characterise the DV5900M: the establishment of a high performance (we’ll get back to that) video stage, which backs up that which is dedicated to the audio. The latter allows the DV5900M to be compatible with CD audio streams sampled at 44,1 KHz, as well as with 192 KHz / 24 bits of DVD Audio, making Kenwood one of the first manufacturers to propose a product of this kind.

We also note that Kenwood has called upon the services of Analogue Way for the integration of audio converters. The first set handles the Digital / Analogue conversion, while the second is dedicated to the decoding on multi-channel streams such as DTS and Dolby Digital.

When it comes to the video section, the DV5900M possesses a system of video de-interlacing developed by Faroudja. As Silicon Images did so well with their DVDO chip (which is used, among others, by Denon), Faroudja has included in this Juke Box a “light” version of the processor used in their doublers and scalers. This DSP (reference DCDi) is compatible, in standard format, with HDTV. On top of this process (which only works with NTSC signals), Faroudja has added the action of progressive scan, as well as digital video filtering, and an image regenerator.

On sale in the United States from September 2001, the DV5900M will dispose of a more than convincing tariff advantage (US$ 1200), which should attract a new clientele on the lookout for an equitable value-for-money combination.