- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 12 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"It's a beauty for the price"
Pros: Picture, Sound, Features, Configuration
Cons: Cheesey splash screen
Summary: I have a Pioneer PDP 5071, 1015TX AV, and now the Upconverting DVD player. I would get Blu-Ray, but I am waiting for one to win.
First off, I found out about this player on the Audio Video Science forums. It was discussed there in a decent light (which is always a good indication of quality)
Picture
Now for my take. I really like the picture quality. Believe it or not I can tell a difference; its not a HD picture but it is less jagged than before on 480P. I have mine converting up to 1080i (I tried the 1080p and it did not work. I didn't think it would since the TV is 1080i, but the PDP507X says it can take a 1080p signal). I have not tried the 720p yet but since 1080i looks great, I dont know that I have to. I hooked up the HDMI and chose the Full-range RGB and the colors look AWESOME. I still have my settings turned kind of down on my TV so imagine if I had that at recommended reference.
Sound
I had no idea the sound out is not the same between devices. The sound output over the digital coax makes me not miss the fiber. I almost did not buy the player for lack of fiber, but I found out that at 3 feet, the impedance should not matter (and it does not). The sound going to my receiver is higher in fidelity than any other product I have hooked up didgitally to date.
Features
The player spins up a little slow, but that is bearable- the player has a USB drive on the front so you can hook up a usb drive. I hooked up an iPod shuffle and it worked. using a USB drive was perfect in sound response and interaction. I have read that if you get an external USB HDD formatted with FAT32, it is the perfect media player. This means you could hook up your music / video library directly to the DVD player and stream the contents everywhere else.
I am thouroughly impressed with this DVD player especially after I got BB to come down to their internet offer + get another 12% off for a fathers day coupon. After tax, I was less than $100.
My wife enjoys having a quality product in the home (I know Pioneer is no Denon, Onkyo, or Oppo, but fir the $, it is better than the rest).
The only drawback is the splashscreen. It is hot pink and sinply says "Pioneer" with no other grahpics. Bland.Updated
In order to keep from having to do a factory reset on the player, keep your component video hooked up to the device. THis way if you go higher than your TV can really support, you can switch back to a supported format in a pinch instead of hoping the factory reset will work.
My wife also says that if the DVD player lasts more than a year, she will give her final approval ( we have had really bad luck with Panasonic, Sony, and Phillips).Updated
OK. So I decided to see how the upconversion compared to my HD cable. On the DVD player, I had my upconversion set to 1080i and full range RGB. The colors looked much richer, but darker overall. I thought this was due to the imperfection of the DVD player until I switched the color back to component scale. I was wowed at the overall similarities in quality of the video. To be honest, I could tell minor diferences between the HD 1080i and the upconverted 1080i, but it was mostly in minute background details. The full range RGB makes up for that in color quality and also DVD performs WAY better than HD cable (cable compresses the signal and you get blocking and pixelations). For $100 you will get basically as good as picture as any source under 1080i native resoltion will allow (even cable is only broadcast at 720p). Now if you are totally into 1080p, then wait for the format winner.
- 1 reply to this review
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Since your review mentions the digital coax, I assume you are using component cables for your video. You need HDMI for 1080p.
Where to buy
Pioneer DV-400V-K:
$119.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$119.99 | Yes |
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