The design of the £150 DVD- 1730 is classy and solidly bolted together. Despite being chunkier than some it's much lighter than you'd expect.

There's plenty of connections including an HDMI output, which offers 720p and 1080i output, but not 1080p as found higher up the Denon range. There's also a set of component video outputs and an RGB Scart, but no Denon Link or 5.1- channel analogue outputs, which means no DVD-Audio or SACD playback.

Features are thin on the ground compared with some rival players. It plays back DivX files along with MP3, WMA and JPEG files. And true to Denon's videophile heritage, there's a range of picture tweaks, including gamma correction, brightness, colour, sharpness, and contrast. Among the more unusual is the Dialog Speed, which speeds up the video but keeps audio playback at normal speed.

DVD playback is as good as we expected. Via HDMI, movies are reproduced with Denon's normal expertise, with tons of detail, radiant colours and deep, dark blacks. The video circuitry keeps the image clean, and there's no issues with the deck's upscaling - 720p and 1080i pictures look razor-sharp and free from artefacts.

The DVD-1730 is a superb CD player, with a crisp, controlled musical performance thanks to the top-notch audiophile parts.

DVD-Audio or SACD would have been nice but this deck is aimed at those who put top-quality performance above bells and whistles.