Pioneer DV-355 - problem with SVGA playback - aspect ratio

[Zilch]

Ok - this is bugging me a little... I'm hoping some kind soul can let me know what is going on.

I have bought a Pioneer DV-355 - great player except when I play SVCD disks. Almost all of these disks come out with the wrong aspect ratio - it is more letterboxed than it should be, or letterboxed when it should be fullscreen (I have a 4:3 TV). All the people on the disks look short and fat. This happens even when I set the player to 4:3 Letterbox or 4:3 Pan&Scan.

All other disks play fine. DVD's, VCD's etc.

The odd thing is that if I tell the player that I have a 16:9 TV, the SVCD disks seem to play correctly (but all other disks play wrong). Also, I am not the only person with this problem. Searching the reviews here, or the aus.dvd newsgroup shows that everyone has this problem with this particular model.

One interesting thing - I downloaded a disk from the net that was in SVCD "Anamorphic" format, and it appeared to play fine with the default settings.

I called Pioneer Technical Support, and the rather impolite tech just kept saying over and over "SVCD is not a standard", and "You cannot buy SVCDs anywhere anyway", and "Chinese manufactures spend a lot of money making sure SVCD play back right"

Left me wondering why I bought a more expensive Pioneer since they seemed to have problems that the cheaper brands didn't, and probably had more polite Tech Support. Also wondering why the play had a SVCD logo on the front if it wasn't a standard. I left it with him insisting that I send him a SVCD for him to test, since he claimed that he couldn't source one (despite me pointing him at the test disks on this site).

So questions:

* Is my player faulty? Should Pioneer come up with a fix for this?
* Can someone explain why it would play correctly when setting it to the incorrect TV type?
* I think I vaguely understand the difference between a standard SVCD and an "Anamorphic" disk. I am assuming that my player is treating all my disks as anamorphic and squashing the picture to increase resolution. What I don't understand, is how a player is suppost to know the difference between the two types of disk. Is there a flag or something that my player is missing?
* If I upgrade to a 16:9 TV, will everything be ok, or will I be even worse off?

Any help appreciated (esp before I talk to Pioneer again!)

Zilch.

[Zilch]

Anyone? Anyone?

[IvIark]

Unfortunately this seems to be a problem specific to Pioneer DVD players, I've got the DV-350 and have exactly the same problem that you describe. Pioneer technical support are notoriously unhelpful (read "crap") and so I'm not surprised that they try to fob you off with "non-complaint" excuses.

The way round it is to burn the CD as a non-compliant VCD instead of SVCD. This has been posted on various forums as the "VCD header trick". Whether this is prefereable to simply switching to 16:9 is a matter of personal opinion.

One other thing, my parents have a DV-350 also but they have a widescreen TV and they don't have these problems so it seems to be for us 4:3 owners only.

Good luck
IvIark

[Zilch]

IvIark,

Thanks for the reply. Very informative. Hmm...starting to regret going with Pioneer. I thought their tech support would be good for some reason. Weird, because it's pretty obvious that their hardware can do the right thing, just some weird menu bug. I guess I'll go for a cheap Chinese brand next time. Or wait for someone to give me a widescreen tv...

Zilch

[IvIark]

I must admit that I knew about this problem before I bought it but I decided that if this was the only real disadvantage then I could live with it, considering that there are ways round it and it seemed to play everything else so well.
I decided that I may as well just make compliant SVCDs and mess around changing the settings to 16:9 when I need to. It seems that widescreen TVs are definitely here to stay and so no doubt I'll be getting one eventually anyway.

Mark

[bbb]

I have a fairly new Pioneer DV-353 and have been disappointed in the SVCD/CVD default incorrect display ratio using the 4:3 TV setting. As such, I have to leave my settings to Widescreen TV to test my SVCDs even though I own a 4:3 TV. This isn't a satisfactory solution since it means I have to navigate through the slow menu to switch TV settings when I want to watch anamorphic dvds.

In addition, while the 353 has very nice noise reduction, it has occassional visual glitches (blocks and visual break ups for a split second but when I rewind and watch the scene again, the blocks are gone). This is doesn't put my mind at ease.

My previous Pioneers (525 and 440) didn't have these problems. They displayed VCDs, SVCDs, CVDs, DVDs in their correct ratio without messing with the menu options. No visual glitches except for improperly made or severely damaged discs. I regret selling my 440.

What we should should do is get together and demand a firmware fix and if necessary file a class action suit against Pioneer. HP customers do it all the time and they have been able to get fixes that way. Otherwise, they will just act deaf to our valid complaints and sell us defective products without providing solutions.

It doesn't seem that hard for Pioneer to do; they just have alter the firmware to detect SVCD and CVD resolutions and display them in 4:3 ratio aspect. Fixing the visual glitches and speeding up the menu would also be nice.

[Zilch]

bbb,

I'm not sure a class action with 2 or 3 of us would do much good Esp since we are bound to be in different countries, but I agree they should fix the problem.

I believe that there is no way to do a flash upgrade on Pioneer gear, so I assume it would mean taking it in and getting the chip changed.

I will be writing to them in Australia (and sending a SVCD disk as requested). I would suggest you do the same and post results back here.

Does anyone know of any other threads on forums or usenet etc that I can reference in my letter?

Zilch.

[steverae]

Hello guys.

I have just bought a Pioneer dv350 and am really impressed with it.

However, i too have noticed some strange aspect ratio problems.

I have a 32" ws tv and when i set it to auto, and turn on my 350, it jumps to 4:3. I then have to switch it back to 16:9 manually. This happens even when i have 16:9 (ws) setup in the options.

I have also noticed that occationally, when i'm messing about in the menus, i lose about 2 inches from the left hand side and have to switch the unit off and back on again to restore this.

Apart from that, i'm greatly impressed with the smoothness of the playback of xvcd's etc compared to my know knacked cyberhome.

Question ? Can you jump to a certain time in a vcd or do you have to just scan through, as they is no time display while playing vcd's

[thrashin]

Hiya Guys,

I have also experienced the "wonky SVCD phenomenon" of the DV-355 as described above. But based on the value for money features of this drive, I can live with it.

I did, however, e-mail Pioneer tech support re this issue and got the following response:

"The aspect ratio of the SVCD's that are played on the DV355 depend on how the SVCD is burned. As i am aware there is no "Fix" for this occurance, and the only option so far is to do exactly what you have done.

Change the ratio of the SVCD before burning to see if the picture goes out of whack. You may find that the original aspect ratio will change the effect on the screen."

Hmmm... so he is kinda saying, if you convert the format to standard VCD resolutions before burning, then it should display correctly, yes? I am new to all this, but sounds like he is suggesting, in a round about way, to create a VCD instead?

I don't know.. little confused here!~ :P

Just wanted to say I am learning HEAPS in here.. keep it up!

Cya,

Thrashin..........