Description:

This driver controls the Denon 2900, 3800, 3910, 5900, and 9000 model DVD players. These players are some of the all too few DVD players which are serially controllable but not stratospherically priced. They are not cheap, but far less expensive than some of the boutique DVD players that represent the bulk of externally controllable DVD players.

This driver is PDL based, and the original PDL file, for the 3800 model, was contributed by David Hays, who has contributed a number of other drivers as well. It was subsequently expanded by Les Auber and Mark Stega to include the other models, which share a common protocol.

Quirks and Limitations:

Note that these devices seem to stop talking to the serial port when they enter setup mode. So be aware that the driver will lose connection with the device while it is in setup mode. When you exit setup, the driver will reconnect to the device.

Connection Details

These Denon players use a serial connection at 9600, even parity, 8 data bits, one stop bit, and no flow control. They seems to use just the usual send, receive, and ground wires, so you can use a three wire connection, but the documentation doesn't fully explain this aspect of the protocol. The data rate is a pretty slow for the amount of data, particularly since the state changes rapidly and it sends asynchronous notifications when in play mode.

Driver Fields

This section lists the fields that the driver makes available, their types, minimum and maximum values, etc...

Name	Type	R/W	Description/Limits
Angle	Boolean	W	Cycles through the available angles for the current disc. True cycles forward and False cycles backwards.
AnswerCode	Card4	R	??
AnswerDesc	String	R	??
Audio	Boolean	W	Cycles through the available audio options for the current disc. True cycles forward through the options and False cycles backwards.
AudioChannel	String	R	A read only string that indicates the current audio channel format of the playing disc. It is an enumerated string with the values of: "1 ch", "2 ch", "2.1 ch", "3 ch", "3,1 ch", "4 ch", "4.1 ch", "5 ch", "5.1 ch", "6 ch", "L/R (CD/VCD/MP3)",  "R (CD/VCD/MP3)", "L (CD/VCD/MP3)", or "Unknown".
AudioFormat	String	R	A read only string that indicates the currently active audio format. It is an enumerated string with the values of: "Dolby Digital", "DTS", "MPEG", "LPCM", "PPCM", "Unknown"
AvailAngles	Card4	R	Indicates the number of available angles on the current disc.
Chapter	Card4	R/W	A read/write field that indicates the current chapter. The valid values depends on the number of chapters that the disc contains, but the limits are 1 to 999, which are imposed by the DVD standard.
CurrentAngle	Card4	R	A read only field that indicates the number of the currently selected angle.
Cursor	String	W	Controls the movement of the cursor on DVD menus. It is an enumerated string with values of "Up", "Down", "Left" and "Right".
DialogLang	String	R	A read only field that indicates the currently active dialog language for the playing disc. It is an enumerated string with the values: "Japanese", "English", "French", "German", "Italian", "Spanish", "Dutch", "Chinese", "Russian", "Korean", or "Unknown".
DiscType	String	R	A read only string that provides information on the type of the currently inserted disc. It is an enumerated string with values of: "DVD Video", "DVD Audio",  "VCD",  "CD-DA", "MP3", or "Unknown".
DriveVersion	String	R	A read only string that provides information on the DVD drive of the controlled player.
ElapsedTime	String	R	A read only string that indicates the elapsed time on the currently playing disc.
Enter	Boolean	W	The same as pressing the Enter key on the player's remote, i.e. to invoke some selected action on the player.
ErrStat	Boolean	W	??
Menu	Boolean	W	Invokes the DVD player's menu.
PanelVersion	String	R	A read only field that returns the panel version information for the controlled player.
Pause	Boolean	W	Invokes the pause operation, if it is applicable, when written to.
Play	Boolean	W	Invokes the play operation when written to.
PlayMode	String	R	A read only field that indicates the current play mode of the player.
Power	Boolean	R/W	A read/write field that indicates the 'soft' power state of the player. Write to it to put the power in and out of the soft power off/on state.
Return	Boolean	W	The same as pressing the Return key on the DVD player remote.
Search	Boolean	W	Toggles up and down through the available search speeds. True moves to a higher speed and false moves to a lower speed.
SearchSpeed	String	R	A read only field that indicates the currently selected search speed.
Skip	Boolean	W	Skips forward or backwards. True skips forward and False skips backwards.
Status	String	R	A read only field that indicates the current status of the player.
Stop	Boolean	W	Stops the current operation, if applicable.
SubtitLang	String	R	A read only string that indicates the currently selected subtitle language.
Subtitle	Boolean	W	Cycles forward or backwards through the available subtitle settings. True cycles forward and false cycles backwards.
SystemVersion	String	R	A read only string that contains information about the DVD player's system version.
TimeMode	String	R	A read only field that indicates the currently selected time mode.
Title	Card4	R/W	A read/write field that indicates the current title. Write to it to change the title. The valid values depend on the number of titles on the disk, but the limits are 1 to 99, which are the limits imposed by the DVD standard.
TopMenu	Boolean	W	A write only field that invokes the current top level DVD menu when a value is written to it.