Pioneer DVR-533H Mini-review

[heavyharmonies]

Received my 533 today from Onecall.

After about 3 hours worth of playing around, it was clear to me that this is a keeper.

I'd read a lot of the gripes about changes in the interface from previous Pioneer units. Having never used any other Pioneer DVD recorders, I didn't have any preconceived notions going in.

Over the past month, I've worked with all of the following extensively:

Panasonic DMR-HS2 (my old unit)
JVC M30HS (sent back due to menu finalization flaw)
Toshiba XS34 (currently inhouse)

Compared to these other units, I found the Pioneer to be very straightforward and extremely intuitive to use. Much moreso than either the JVC or Toshiba.

I did not find the titling screen to be problematic as some others have claimed. Now if you're trying to do all of the editing via the front panel, that may be problematic, as there are shortcut keys on the remote (space, clear, shift). Pioneer did goof when they made a case change automatically take you to "A" rather than leaving you on the letter you were on when you initiated the case change.

Trimming and dividing clips on the HDD is very easy, much like my old Panasonic, again much easier than the JVC and Toshiba (where you cannot actually do a true divide).

Splitting a clip does NOT automatically trigger realtime dubbing (you can still use high speed dubbing), which is nice.

Setting recording modes is extremely easy. I've not tested the XP+ mode yet, concentrating instead on using the MN modes to capture exactly the length of the VHS tape(s) in question so I can use high-speed dubbing when creating a DVD.

The amount of tweaking you can do to the input signal is downright awesome compared to the other dvd recorders. There are six preset groups of settings, supposedly geared to the source in use (Tuner, VCR, Laserdisc, User presets 1-3). You can set a different preset for each input (nice). The individual settings are as follows:

1. Prog Motion - Adjusts the motion and still picture quality when video output is set to progressive
2. PureCinema - This setting optimizes the picture for film material when the video output is set to progressive
3. 3-D Y/C - Adjusts the brightness/color separation
4. YNR - Adjusts the amount of noise reduction (NR) applied to the Y (brightness) component
5. CNR - Adjusts the amount of noise reduction (NR) applied to the C (color) component
6. Detail - Adjusts how sharp edges appear
7. White AGC - Turn on for automatic white level adjustment
8. White Level - Adjusts the intensity of white
9. Black Level - Adjusts the intensity of black
10. Black Setup - Corrects the standard reference black level
11. Gamma Correction - Adjusts the brightness of darker images
12. Hue - Adjusts overall balance between red and green
13. Chroma Level - Adjusts how rich the colors appear

There's an equivalent set of settings for disc playback.

While the menu choices lean a bit towards the hokey side, there are a few that work well, and all allow two 20-char lines per title, which is plenty for my purposes. Figuring out how many spaces to pad to force words to a second line is extremely easy in the titling screen.

I took some clips and dubbed them to DVD-RW, then into some PC authoring packages and had no problems.

I don't have any dual-layer media so I could not test that capability.

I don't use the TV guide feature on any of my units, so any anomalies there are a non-issue.

Overall I found this MUCH easier to use than the Toshiba and the video quality at comparable settings (MN31 on the Pioneer, XP on the Toshiba) to very close. If anything, the video quality was better on the Pioneer because of all the tweaking I could do. The "VHS" preset did a VERY nice job on the VHS tapes I was working with.

In short, I've got an RMA from Crutchfield to return the Toshiba.

At a $360 net pricetag, the Pioneer is a no-brainer IMO.

Finally happy,

-Dan

[lumis]

is it multi-system? the earlier recorders would allow you to play pal s/vcd's, but not pal dvd's. [edit: it would play the region free pal dvd's, but it would output them in pal too, it would not convert to ntsc on-the-fly]

is the audio bitrate adjustable? if so, what are the settings? if not, what does it record at?

will it record a in 16:9? example: you've got an hd reciever outputting an HD signal to it and recording.. on the older models it was always 4:3, so if you took it to a dvd player connected to a 4:3 tv it would display out of proportion? is there a setting to tell the recorder the dvd-r/w should be displayed in 16:9?

mpeg4 (divx, xvid) support? probably not, just asking..

does it have an hdmi/dvi output?

thanks in advance

[sync]

It sounds like Pioneer did not make the same changes to the 53X line as they made in the 23x line and that's a good thing. That's a great price.

Anyone know if this model is available in Canada yet?

[sapiendut]

If I copy a miniDV video shot with anamorphic lens, is there a way for me to flag the DVD I'm recording that it's 16:9?

[ekmek]

sync: 531 is available at Costco and costco.ca for $499.99 less $75 "coupon" until Aug 14. 533, 633 available at Future Shop (and maybe Best Buy)

[sapiendut]

I've bought a 533 from Eastview Electronics (authorized Pioneer dealer) for only CAD$480 INCLUDING taxes, and a 633 from the same place for CAD$580 (also INCLUDING taxes).

[sync]

sync: 531 is available at Costco and costco.ca for $499.99 less $75 "coupon" until Aug 14. 533, 633 available at Future Shop (and maybe Best Buy)

Is that coupon available to anyone?

[sapiendut]

Sync, if you live in Toronto, you might as well go to Eastview Electronics (Steeles & Kennedy) because after coupon you'll stil have to pay $498.85 (the price is calculated as $499 plus 15% tax - $75)

For almost $20 less you'll get the 533 with DV input at the store I bought my DVD recorders from.

[sync]

I'm asking for my sister who lives in London. She won't drive to Toronto.

[sapiendut]

especially not for $20 savings

[ekmek]

sync: 531 is available at Costco and costco.ca for $499.99 less $75 "coupon" until Aug 14. 533, 633 available at Future Shop (and maybe Best Buy)

Is that coupon available to anyone?

Yes - if you order online the $75 automatically comes off the price. If you go to costco they hand out a sheet of coupons at the door. If you order online there's a $15 shipping charge, but it's refundable if you return the unit. (In case you don't know about Costco, you have to be a Costco member, go with a Costco member, or get a one-day visitor/trial membership (go to the membership desk and tell them you're thinking of getting a membership but would like to check out the place first). If you order online you have to be a costco member or "borrow" a costco membership number from someone.)

[sync]

I read a long thread over at avsforum about this unit. It seems like quite a few people are having problems with the electronic program guide.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=562233

[OldeMan]

From what I've read and oberved, the EPGS appear to work with OTA (antenna) or when using RF in. There are issues when using cable set top boxes.
My Pioneer 531 does not load through my Time-Warner SA3250HD digital cable box. Otherwise, I am pretty happy with the 531.

[sapiendut]

Yeah, EPG doesn't work for me at all. It's been more than 3 days and the EPG display is still on and still there is no schedule listing whatsoever on the DVR-633 and DVR-533 I own.

PS: I use RF-in

[gshelley61]

Received my 533 today from Onecall.

After about 3 hours worth of playing around, it was clear to me that this is a keeper.

I'd read a lot of the gripes about changes in the interface from previous Pioneer units. Having never used any other Pioneer DVD recorders, I didn't have any preconceived notions going in.

Over the past month, I've worked with all of the following extensively:

Panasonic DMR-HS2 (my old unit)
JVC M30HS (sent back due to menu finalization flaw)
Toshiba XS34 (currently inhouse)

Compared to these other units, I found the Pioneer to be very straightforward and extremely intuitive to use. Much moreso than either the JVC or Toshiba.

I did not find the titling screen to be problematic as some others have claimed. Now if you're trying to do all of the editing via the front panel, that may be problematic, as there are shortcut keys on the remote (space, clear, shift). Pioneer did goof when they made a case change automatically take you to "A" rather than leaving you on the letter you were on when you initiated the case change.

Trimming and dividing clips on the HDD is very easy, much like my old Panasonic, again much easier than the JVC and Toshiba (where you cannot actually do a true divide).

Splitting a clip does NOT automatically trigger realtime dubbing (you can still use high speed dubbing), which is nice.

Setting recording modes is extremely easy. I've not tested the XP+ mode yet, concentrating instead on using the MN modes to capture exactly the length of the VHS tape(s) in question so I can use high-speed dubbing when creating a DVD.

The amount of tweaking you can do to the input signal is downright awesome compared to the other dvd recorders. There are six preset groups of settings, supposedly geared to the source in use (Tuner, VCR, Laserdisc, User presets 1-3). You can set a different preset for each input (nice). The individual settings are as follows:

1. Prog Motion - Adjusts the motion and still picture quality when video output is set to progressive
2. PureCinema - This setting optimizes the picture for film material when the video output is set to progressive
3. 3-D Y/C - Adjusts the brightness/color separation
4. YNR - Adjusts the amount of noise reduction (NR) applied to the Y (brightness) component
5. CNR - Adjusts the amount of noise reduction (NR) applied to the C (color) component
6. Detail - Adjusts how sharp edges appear
7. White AGC - Turn on for automatic white level adjustment
8. White Level - Adjusts the intensity of white
9. Black Level - Adjusts the intensity of black
10. Black Setup - Corrects the standard reference black level
11. Gamma Correction - Adjusts the brightness of darker images
12. Hue - Adjusts overall balance between red and green
13. Chroma Level - Adjusts how rich the colors appear

There's an equivalent set of settings for disc playback.

While the menu choices lean a bit towards the hokey side, there are a few that work well, and all allow two 20-char lines per title, which is plenty for my purposes. Figuring out how many spaces to pad to force words to a second line is extremely easy in the titling screen.

I took some clips and dubbed them to DVD-RW, then into some PC authoring packages and had no problems.

I don't have any dual-layer media so I could not test that capability.

I don't use the TV guide feature on any of my units, so any anomalies there are a non-issue.

Overall I found this MUCH easier to use than the Toshiba and the video quality at comparable settings (MN31 on the Pioneer, XP on the Toshiba) to very close. If anything, the video quality was better on the Pioneer because of all the tweaking I could do. The "VHS" preset did a VERY nice job on the VHS tapes I was working with.

In short, I've got an RMA from Crutchfield to return the Toshiba.

At a $360 net pricetag, the Pioneer is a no-brainer IMO.

Finally happy,

-Dan

Nice rundown of the Pioneer. I've got a 531 on hand and really like it so far. One correction... the Prog Motion and Pure Cinema adjustments only function on the playback side of the unit, and only when you have progressive scan enabled. It's somewhat confusing because the playback picture adjustment menu comes up when a playable DVD (or program on the hard drive) is loaded. The video input adjustment menu comes up when a recordable disc is loaded (or when you have set up for hard drive recording). Both menus look identical, to boot.

I've checked out the two-pass encoding feature... that is, recording at 15Mbps to the hard drive then doing a second pass re-encode to DVD at a lower compliant bitrate setting. It works very well. Going from XP+ to SP, I found it quite difficult to tell any difference in the SP recording from the much higher bitrate XP+ recording. No visible compression artifacts, either. A very nice two-pass encode, for sure. It occurs in real time... it plays back the hard drive recording and does the second pass encode at the same time. Nice! Software two-pass encodes can take overnight or even 24 hours...

[tsilit]

I've had the Pioneer DVR-531 for a few weeks now and I have to say that, for the most part, I love the functionality of it, even the TV Guide feature, but I'm not satisfied with the picture quality. For clarification, I am viewing the results on a Sony 53" rear projection tv which has a very nice resolution for a big tv. (I'm not sure that other reviewers are able to see the artifacts that I am seeing in their comparisons if they are using a smaller size tv, ie 20" tv).

Previously, I had the Panasonic DMR-ES20. I had the chance to compare these two side by side with the same source, which was an analog cable box with a clean signal. The SP mode and LP mode was better on the Panasonic than the Pioneer, hands down. The SP mode is near perfect on the Panny, while on the 531 I got artifacts, and blocks and noise. This was dissapointing. I REALLY wish the 531 had better PQ.

While I had the Panny, I became used to recording most of my tv and camcorder dubs to DVD-RAM and DVD-R in SP mode, and some TV in LP mode. Now, using the Pioneer, SP is not as perfect looking, so I resort to using XP mode all the time on the hard drive. Forget about LP mode on the Pioneer because it is like looking at the TV without my glasses on.

Just in case you ask, why did I ditch the ES20? Because it burned disks that were not always compatible on my other drives and with family. And yes, I used good TDK media. This was a big issue.

The TV Guide function works very well with my set-up. What some others in the forum have complained about seem to be fixable by configuring the TV Guide functions and machine setups. The manual explains it all.

I also enjoy all the configuration that can be done on the 531 regarding picture quality. The Panny was a bit limited in this area.

The 531/533/633 would be the perfect DVDR if it had the picture quality of the Panasonic units. Maybe they will next year? For now, I'll play with this one a bit more, but it might go back.

[sapiendut]

I have the reverse experience. I use the 633 and the DMR-E30. Viewing them through 46" 16:9 Sony RPTV (ISF calibrated), I find that LP on the Pioneer is watchable whereas the Panny is not watchable. SP they are about the same, XP is better on the Pioneer.

Moreso, if you record at XP+ to HDD then transfer it to SP on the DVD-R, Pioneer's SP quality is actually somewhat close to Panny's XP (which is to say that Pioneer's SP is much better than Panny's SP).

[tsilit]

Sapiendut, the DMR-E30 is an older model, not having the newer higher resolution technology that the DMR-ES series have (DMR-ES10, ES20, ES30, ES40 etc etc), so your setup is not really similar to mine.

I would not expect your Panny LP mode to be watchable, but on the ES20 I had, it was fairly good, and much more-so than the Pioneer's LP mode.

The SP mode on the ES20 was a near perfect copy of the original, while the SP on the Pioneer is less perfect. Perhaps I'll try going from XP+ to SP, however, with that type of transfer, it would have to be done in real time and I'd lose all the chapter markers.

[trhouse]

You might want to check out this thread,

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=279460

I tested the 531 and gshelley61 tested the 533 for resolution. Both fall short of the earlier generation Pioneers in resolution. Gshelley61 tested the Pioneer 320 which looks very nice.

The XP+ to SP tests showed little improvement in macroblocks but the resolution is lower than a straight SP capture. Some people seem to honestly believe the macroblocks may be lessened but it is hard to know if it is true or if they are interpreting the softer images ( which also softens the blocks ) as more block free.

I happen to agree that the Pioneer is a very user friendly product. I find its performance quite reasonable but I hesistate to recommend it to those with large screen TVs.

There may be a chance for me to test a Pioneer DVR-420 which is the most similar previous generation Pioneer product to the 531. It also has many of the same input controls and a 80 GB hard drive. If that is as good as the 320, it may be a unit to consider. Obviously, it will not have some of the new features like the DL capability of the 531.

[gshelley61]

The Pioneer DVR-220/225, the DVR-320, the DVR-420 and the DVR-520 all have identical video performance. All use the same GUI and encoding chipset. Features are where the differences are.

The 220/225 does not have a DV firewire input. The 420 is simply a 220 with a 80GB hard drive. The 320 is a 220 with a DV firewire input. The 520 is a 320 with a 80GB hard drive.

[blinky88]

I have had the 530 with 80gig HDD for around one month .... it's very quiet, runs cool, extremely user friendly and using the RF 'in' from a cable box in SP mode the picture is exceptional on my 80cm 4x3 TV screen. The menu is easy to navigate, the fine tuning adjustments allow alot of control over the picture quality and are pretty straight forward, I really find it difficult to understand why anyone could be having any problems with such a unit. I intend to record everything in SP mode.

I haven't personally seen results from other units as my friends after seeing the results on mine, have bought the same unit, however, I very much doubt other recorders could produce better quality. The 80gig HDD is plenty for my needs and I certainly will not be looking to install a larger drive.

All in all, the unit has preformed flawlessly and exceeds the quality I was expecting, I am extremely happy my children chose to give me the Pioneer for Fathers Day.