Pioneer 340

[Bloody Aztec]

I saw this player at my local Costco for a cheap price. What do you think of it? Is it a great DVD player? Can it play VCDs and SVCDs well?

[homerpez]

You mean the DV-343?

This probably won't help you much, but... I'd tell you what I've heard...

I just returned my Apex 500W to Wally*World. I would have said this is the player to get, until this week. All of the sudden, VCD's and DVD's that once played, do no longer, and I get "rainbow" macroblocks, black macroblocks, and it won't read most CD's!

Turns out the Apex has the WOST-reading Rom drive in the history of mankind. I might do better hiring a guy to read the pits visually using a microscope!

MORAL: You get what you pay for. But, since I'm not made of money, I've looked for an inexpensive alternative. I found it, and plan to buy one this weekend: the Pioneer DV-343.

If you look, it's one of the highest-rated DVD players on the board "OTHER -> DVD Players, Compatability list". It has (so I'm told) a very good Rom drive (good for reading CD-R or whatever you throw it's way), and it should play all variety of VCD and SVCD (so long as it's lower than 2500 bitrate). It's supposed to be a little strange on off spec RESOLUTIONS (like it won't stretch across the whole screen), but I only play with VBR bitrate, not resolution.

I say go for it, there's always the return policy

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-08-16 19:39:16 ]</font>

[homerpez]

... which I just had to use!

The Pioneer I got was garbage. It was noisy, suprisingly cheap-looking (eve compared to Apex), and it had a broken video-out (it "burned" certain colors so strong on the output, that you couldn't adjust for it on the TV).

I got my money back, again, and guess what... got anlother Apex.

The Apex is vastly superior, except for the rom drive, which can be replaced with better ones. I'd rather do that then try another Pioneer.