Price Paid:  $180.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Did everything it said it would do, which means it played all kinds of discs without a problem. After two years of moderate use, it won't play CD's, neither commercial nor burned, plays DVD's up to a random point and then stops, but plays MP3 discs flawlessly.

It sounds like a plastic gear is broken inside it. It's very noticable when a CD is inserted. Clicks for a while and then ejects the CD.
I'm disappointed that it

Strengths:
It's very thin, and reasonable attractive. Played every kind of disc I put in it, and there were many kinds. Excellent programmable MP3 interface.

Weaknesses:
Lasted only two years, and the buttons on the remote were impossible to read except in bright light.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba and other Pioneer models.

Price Paid:  $275.00 from Ameublement Tanguay,

Summary:
This unit is my first and only DVD player that I bought so far. What Attracted my at first was the slim and nice look it had, and the fact that it was a pionneer.

Not having a real good tv, I cannot realy comment on the video qualtiy of the unit. For the sound part, at first I used the DV-440 in analog mode cause I didn't had at the time a a/v receiver. I certainly noticed it had a much better sound than my old JVC HI-Fi VCR. Of course, when I got my A/V receiver, it became, for the sound matters, a sole numeric source. Of wich a can say I never had any problem.

I lately tried to compare the analog sound as a CD player compared to my TEAC CD-P400, and of course, the pionneer didn't match up at all.

So, the real only part where I can comment so far qualtiy-wise goes, is the ease of use and remote control. On these point, the unit scores pretty high. The fonctionnalities are complete, and the unit is easy to configure. The remote is well made, except maybe for the fast-forward and backward that are not well placed.

To resume, it's a good unit in general, except maybe for one point: I could not make it read any CD-RW.

Strengths:
Sleak look, thickness, ease of use

Weaknesses:
Problem reading CD-RW

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Since we have a CD player, we never tried to use the audio options, so I can't comment on that. But as far as a DVD player goes, it seemed to work pretty good until the warranty was up, and thats when things went wrong. I don't think we'd even played 25 movies on it yet (< 50 hours usage) and it started to do this "contrast-shift" thing where every 30 seconds or so the picture would go from dark to light to dark again. Very noticeable, and basically made movies with dark scenes virtually impossible to see what was going on. Another thing was that during fade to black parts, the whole screen would flicker with horizontal flashes of video white noise (almost like snow), like someone was behind my TV messing with the video cable. I tested the TV and VCR separately and they worked fine. Another DVD movie performed the same as the first. We're going to try and return the unit this week.

Strengths:
Never having owned another DVD player, I can't say whether the picture or audio is better or worse than anything else, but judging by the other reviews here I'd have to say its probably one of the better ones?

Weaknesses:
Obvious reliability shortcomings (see review). The remote isn't exactly intuitive either.

Price Paid:  $170.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
The Pioneer DV 440 has worked virtually flawlessly for 13 months. It is connected to a five year old Toshiba 32" stereo TV (not HDTV). The speakers are those on the TV. We have not yet connected it to a home theatre package, but plan to do so soon.

Picture quality and sound are excellent. We don't use many of the special features too often. The basic controls such as for play, stop, resume, fast forward and reverse are very logically positioned and easy to use, even in the dark. It is so easy to use that my wife took the next big step and finally learned how to program our VCR. I would recommend it unconditionally. There were no problems with pixilation ("checkerboards") on the screen image, which the Samsung that I had purchased earlier and returned displayed.

Strengths:
Picture and sound quality are excellent even on TV speakers. The remote control unit is easy to use, even in the dark. No problems playing rented DVD's. Very easy to set up.

Weaknesses:
Only once did a DVD "hang up" and briefly pause for a second, then resumed normally. The only other drawback, and this is really picky, is that the display color is a light orange.

Similar Products Used:
Samsung --- Returned due to pixilation, and a Fisher purchased 12/2000 that is working incredibly hard and well.

Price Paid:  $17900.00 from Best buys

Summary:
I purchase this Pioneer DV-440 DVD player to replace an Old Toshiba player that was on it's last leg. Recently, I purchased a Toshiba 50' Theaterview HDTV. I Hooked this unit into my HD1 component video connection on the back of HDTV and to my surprise I get an outstanding picture out of this unit. Reading acticles about HDTV, they recommend purchasing a Progressive scan DVD player for HDTV. I picked up a Toshiba SD4800 Progressive scan and hooked it up using the component video connectors to my HDTV using Toshiba's colorstream technology and I wasn't expressed with the different. I imagine their is some difference, but in some cases the pioneer had a better picture than the Toshiba, to me the secret is in the Component Video Cables and don't buy cheap ones. Anyway, I took the toshiba back, because the Pioneer has just as good of a picture, and loads alot faster than the Toshiba. If this one breaks I will purchase a Progressive scan DVD player. I couldn't play Jeepers/Creepers like someone had mentioned earlier, that's the only Movie I can't play to date. The sound quality is outstanding using a fiber optics connection to my Pioneer Elite VSX 36TX Receiver. Overall, it's a good DVD player and I haven't seen any scan lines on my HDTV from this player, maybe they need better cables, or a HDTV with line doubling technology. This unit is well worth the money I paid for it, and I can live without watching Jeepers/Creepers.

Strengths:
Excellent picture using Component Video connections to my HDTV, just as good as Progressive Scan. Superb audio, it play multiple formats automatically. Good purchase for the price.

Weaknesses:
Remote could use a back light.

Similar Products Used:
Sony, Toshiba, Denon