inexpensive, good progessive scan picture with little or no "jaggies" and pixelation

no 3:2 pull down, but do you really need it.

I have seen plenty of dvd players...Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Toshiba,Hitachi...just to name a few. They all put out good pictures. Yes, even the Pioneer DV-434. I spent $150 on this unit a year ago. I figured that technology was changing so rapidly, why shell out $500- $1000 on a dvd player that will be obsolete in a year. I think some of these "technos" need to get a life. It is amazing how they are caught up in a pixelation or flicker when you pause the dvd player....well who pauses a dvd player when you have people over, and if you are pausing it, your not watching the movie. Come on, be for real. Also, they will mention when the camera pans thru "dense" textures, you get some pixelation. I have never noticed it, and if this does happen, it may only be 1%- 3% of the time. Go ahead spend $1000 more to get a "clean" pause. I have noticed very little, or no pixelation or "jaggies" in the Pioneer DV-434. Also, 99.5% of the population is fixated on the movie, not some artifacts that pop up 2% of the time. It makes me laugh. Save your money, remember, you will soon be getting a dvd recorder or hidef dvd player in the near future.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic rp56, sony

Good video until system failure.

The remote on the unit is was always sometimes unresponsive.

It was good, until recently when it started losing the digital channel when sending to the receiver. The repair shop says it has a board failure. There had been a few other comments about production problems and I think this is a real risk.

Price; Great Audio Specs

NOT COMPATIBLE IN PROGRESSIVE WITH ALL SETS

Picked this up to go with my new Hitachi 53FDX01B HDTV set. Luckily I had them take it out of the box and hook it up to the set at the store. I quickly discovered that it DOES NOT WORK in Progressive mode with this or any other Hitachi HDTV set. In the (pseudo) Progressive mode, the picture would flash from black to picture repeatedly as if trying to find sync with the set. No amount of adjustment of the TV or the DVD player would fix this problem. Works fine with interlace, but then why would you pay the premium for Progressive with this player if it can only work in interlace? The manual clearly states that there is some incompatibilities so make sure that your set will work with this unit.

I have read the back and forth on this unit and I am still confused. It didn't work with my set but it may with yours, and it may be worth it for you. I would strongly recommend looking at the unit with your set before you purchase. Otherwise save a little more and get a true progressive unit such as the Toshiba, Sony progressive units. I opted for the JVC-D723GD. It worked well in the store with my Hitachi and there was a noticeable improvement in the Progressive mode picture that even bystanders looking at other sets noticed. It is a true progressive player that can do the 3:2 pulldown (this is important). Price was $550. Might be worth a look. I will do a review after I have hooked it up and run it awhile on my set.

Similar Products Used:

JVC XVD723

Cheap, 24bit/96kHz PCM output

Flimsy build quality, must use OSD to access many features

Unlike most people here, I use the DV-434 as a CD/DVD transport feeding a Bel Canto Designs DAC-1 in a 2 channel audio only system. Pioneer DVD players are some of the few which offer true 24bit 96 kHz PCM digital outputs. This is not the default mode, but it can be enabled in the OSD. The combination of the Pioneer and the DAC-1 blow away my old Sony XA7ES CD player ($3000) for less than half the cost. My complaints involve the flimsy build quality, and the inability to access most features without the OSD. This means I have to drag a TV over to my audio system every time I want to change something. Also, it's a little disappointing going from a 40 lb. aluminium and copper chassised beautifully built CD player to a 5 pound plastic and sheetmetal box. Ergonomics and asthetics aside, I'm very satisfied with the sound quality and the price.

Similar Products Used:

marantz DVD-810, Sony XA7ES

very fast operation, non-progressive looks good

progressive is not acceptable

This DVD player seams to be generating lots of comments, I viewed this player on a Pioneer elite pd-710,the monitor has progressive component inputs. When I set the DVD player to progressive output (when watching anamorphic movies) I noticed a few shimmering type distortions on movies that I had never noticed them on before + a less sharp/detailed picture. however I then switched the dvd player to interlaced output and the same movies had a very nice picture. I believe my monitor has a superior line doubler & 3/2 pulldown to that of the dvd player and when a progressive signal is input on the monitor those functions are automatically turned off and the progressive source takes over, which in this case is inferior. The interlaced output is very nice as well all the ability to play cdwr etc . As a progressive player it is a failure.

Similar Products Used:

toshiba 3109, marantz reference series

Excellent Progressive picture Quality, good audio performance.

Cheap build and Lousy remote.

I have had this unit for 10 months now and have been very satisfied with it. Always had good picture quality on my
56" panasonic hd ready tv. I recently wanted to get into dvd-audio so picked up the rp91 because of all the glowing reviews it got(I also wanted to see if the picture was better than the pioneer). While the audio performance on the panasonic was top notch, the picture just never cut the mustard. I love this Pioneer for the price and performance. I have never had a lick of trouble with after many hours of use. I would recomend it fo anyone with a panasonic hd ready tv(thats the only thing i have used it on). While the audio isn't as good as the rp91, it is still very good on this unit.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic RP91

After rceiving some email about the 434 playing MP3 disks I wanted to write a follow up to my previous post to answer some of the common questions I'm getting.
The 434 will not play a data CD with MP3 files on it. It does play when your burner writes the files as audio CD instead of a data CD.
The 434 has read every writable CD I have burned with MP3 on it. I have 1 portable CD player and an older DVD player (GE) that will not play CD-R.
Hope this clears up any confusion.

price, ease of use

build quality, remote

Here is my home theater system
TV: Toshiba TW56X81
Receiver: OnkyoTX-DS777
Speakers: 4 B&W 601s2 front and rear CC6s2 center and a Paradigm PDR 10 sub
DVD: Panasonic DVD-C220 & Poineer DV-434
This information is to show that even though I may not have “top of the line” equipment, I certainly don’t buy “crap”!

Well, the Panasonic kind of bit the dust. It was skipping like a 2nd grade girl and not reading a lot of my DVDs. I was taking it in for service when I saw the 434 for $279. The price was right but... I’ve read some sketchy things about it. Needless to say I threw caution to the wind and got it.

When the box was handed to me I thought it was a joke, I had to ask if there was anything in it (is there ANY metal in this thing ?). After hooking it up I went through the set up. I have to say I was impressed, it was simple and intuitive, giving me any and all the options I need.

I auditioned the 434 using the 1st Porsche scene in “Gone in 60 Seconds” ,one of the DVDs that the C220 had a hard time with. As I thought there was nothing wrong with the disk, the 434 played it without incident. The 1st thing I noticed was the sound was better...much better. *
I used the Svideo first, the picture was maybe a little bit better than the C220. Next was Component video, a little better but nothing to get hard over. Then I turned to progressive scan, although not “eye popping” the picture was cleaner/crisper with better colors. After reading the manual (as I understood it) the 434 puts out 525P lines as opposed to the 420I lines. So you can’t expect to be floored buy the progressive picture. *

Now for the down side of this DVD player which is pretty much a repeat of every thing everyone else has said here. The construction SUCKS. The fast forward/ rewind SUCKS. The remote SUCKS. But in my opinion it can’t be beat for the price the other Progressive DVD players are $200 to $300 more. And in a few years I’m sure there will be even better players on the market.

For all the people out there who don’t like having multiple remotes here is a cheap alternative. Call Onkyo and for $45 you can order one of their remotes, they feel good in your hand, have lighted buttons, and are fully programmable.

* I initially wrote this review the day after I got the 434. after living with it for a week or so I have the following additions: All sounds are better with this player, movies and music CDs. As far as the progressive scan goes it gives a more film like picture. But on closer inspection the interlaced component picture was a little sharper (more digitized?) this could also be due to my tv being tuned using the interlaced signal. But this is not the same for all of my movies, some are better progressive, some not. Go figure.

As someone seeking the “best bang for the buck “, I would recommend this player

as a side note I think that audio review should do some monitoring of the reviews to delete the ones that are clearly spam. It’s difficult enough to make an informed decision on a product, the idiots posting one line reviews just make it much harder.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVD-C220

Price, picture sound.

No transparent OSD, blue or black screen

I really can't complain about this DVD. Yes it is light, yes it is typical Pioneer construction. But, what's imprtant is that it performs very well for the price. Picture vs my old Apex is night and day. Reliability is good, I've thrown my whole collection at this thing even some homemade VCD's without a hicup! I would have liked to see the menu be transparent over the image rather than the blue screen, but that's a minor detail. Good deal to get into while the better PS DVDs come down in price.

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Apex AD-600A

Price, Progressive scan, plays CD-R, CD-RW flawlessly. Layer switching is almost undectable with this baby.

None at this price

I was actually looking to buy a cheap DVD player for my son's play room and stumbled upon this PIONEER. After testing it out, I returned the $800 DENON DVD player that I purchased last month for my living room. Both have progressive scan capabilities, but the PIONEER is $640 cheaper! The DENON did have a much better build quality but who cares...do you hold your DVD player when you watch movies? I went out and bought 2 more PIONEER units, for my son and my parents. You will not find a better player at this price. Why spend $1000 on a DVD player that will be obsolete in 2 years? (with the coming of High Definition DVD, blue laser)

Similar Products Used:

DENON 2800 Progressive scan DVD player, PANASONIC A-110 DVD player