I am preparing to take the plunge and upgrade my AV receiver and DVD player. At the moment, I am really taken by the Denon 1920 for the DVD player. The <500 GBP AV test made a Yamaha and a Denon 2106 very close, with the Yam just pipping the Denon. Would this be the case when connected to a Denon DVD player? Is there any real benefit in having components from the same manufacturer?

Each unit must be considered on its own merit. Generally one make systems are no better than well chosen separates. Denon has denon link which is a digital sound interface but i-link does the same job

Simple benefits - just one remote handset and an aesthetic match should swing you easily. Note that Denon Link outperforms iLink by a huge margin (way less jitter) but is not featured on these models - enjoy