The Denon is, however, a marvellous DVD upscaler that squeezes every last drop of detail from the SD picture without producing any unwanted artefacts.

Meaty sonics

With the HDMI output channelled through the Onkyo TX-NR906, Hellboy II's DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack sends shivers down the spine. The scene in which he battles the massive Forest God is a treat for the ears: effects crash around the soundstage, big meaty explosions pound the walls and the pin-sharp detail compels you to listen.

The excitement and detail levels drop slightly with the Denon converting to PCM over HDMI, but it's still an impressive performer. Where the deck really earns its stripes is with music CD playback through the analogue outputs, which sounds classier and more detailed than your average budget player.

No BD-Live support

You can buy a Samsung BD-P1500 or a Sony BDP-S350 for the £600 Denon is asking for here and still have change for a few BD discs, meaning that this isn't the best value, high-quality player around.

Worse still is the fact that, unlike many decks at this price point (and a few cheaper ones besides), the DVD-1800BD lacks BD-Live support, which will be a turn-off for those wanting the complete Blu-ray experience. The lack of HD audio decoding is also disappointing.

So the Denon DVD-1800BD will only appeal to those who don't give two hoots about BD-Live, but do care about good picture and sound quality, and on that score it certainly delivers.

But while its performance is undoubtedly better than most of the budget decks on sale, there are similarly priced players from the likes of Panasonic and Pioneer that raise the bar even further.