Pioneer DV-444 DVD Player - Want Progressive Scan? Get Progressive Scam!
Written: Oct 03 '01 (Updated Oct 30 '01)
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Pros: Slim design, MP3 playback with ability to select files, excellent interlaced performance
Cons: High price, poor progressive scan performance, poor remote
The Bottom Line: Unless you are Pioneer fan, need a slim DVD player or a DVD player with convenient MP3 playback, it doesn't make sense to buy this player,
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| dkozin's Full Review: Pioneer DV-444 DVD Player |
The Pioneer DV-444 is advertised as providing “film-like quality images” and “very smooth film-like picture” by using progressive scan. Unfortunately, this player does not have “real” progressive scan with 2:3 pulldown that is featured in JVC S60BK, JVC S65GD or Panasonic RP56.
Picture
Progressive Scan Mode: The DV-444 has line doubling circuitry without the 2:3 pulldown (the player has no film mode at all), and the player has no motion-adaptive deinterlacing. This results in noise in the patches of solid color, artifacts on the edges of the objects and overall soft picture. There are also artifacts in the areas with fine detail. The “progressive” mode of this player looks worse than “standard” interlaced mode of almost any other DVD player!
Standard (Interlaced) Mode: The player produces very good picture quality in the standard mode with no video noise and good color reproduction.
Since the player does not feature excellent picture quality in the progressive scan mode, I believe there is no point in choosing it over the less expensive DVD players. If the main objective is picture quality in the progressive scan mode.
CD-R, CD-RW And MP3
The player accepts recordable and rewriteable discs (CD-R and CD-RW), provided they are finalized. It also plays MP3s and features the ability to select the file to play using an onscreen menu.
Front Panel
The player is slim and the display is located at right of the disc tray. There are only basic buttons on the front panel
Features
There are a lot of parameters you can adjust, including sharpness, chroma level, contrast, hue, noise reduction, gamma, chroma delay, detail (last 4 are for progressive scan mode). There is slow motion playback and still frame advance in both directions.
Remote
The supplied remote control has buttons that are all similar in shape and not backlit. Majority of buttons are very small, other buttons are just small. In other words, the remote looks cheap. At least it allows you control some basic functions on your TV like volume and channel selection.
Conclusion
The DV-444 is advertised as a progressive scan player. At $250 it is $30 more expensive than JVC S60BK or S65GD progressive scan player and costs the same as Panasonic RP56. Both of which deliver “real” progressive scan with no artifacts and video noise that plague the Pioneer. So if you want a good progressive scan player, you can get either JVC or Panasonic for less and with better results.
Neither DV-444 makes sense if you want good performance in the standard “interlaced” mode – other players do the same for less. So, based on the price, poor remote control design and poor performance in the progressive scan mode, it doesn’t make sense to buy this player. Unless you are Pioneer fan, need a slim DVD player or a DVD player with convenient MP3 playback.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 249
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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