Pioneer 233 vs 220 - significant changes

[sync]

I have the Pioneer 420 and had the 220 for a while also. Based on my positive experience with those models I encouraged my sister to get the new 233. I was surprised and disappointed to see how much this new model has been dumbed down.

I only used the 233 for a few hours and we returned it the next day. Here's what I remember.

It only has two sets of inuts instead of three. This probably won't be a big deal for many people, but I do use all three inputs on mine.

It doesn't have 32 recording modes. They did add an 8 and 10 hour mode. Of course, those are useless.

At first I thought the unit didn't have chase play. There's no mention of it in the manual and I couldn't get it to work. I've since read that it only works in one of the recording modes.

They eliminated the easy timer.

In the navigation screen you can only play titles. They eliminated all the other functions and moved them to another screen.

When titling you can't use the remote for entering characters. You can only use it to scroll through the on-screen keyboard.

They eliminated all the video input adjustments except for Y/C.

Editing is VR mode is a real pain. I've never used VR before and assume that editing in VR mode on the 220 is the same as editing on the hard drive on the 420. With the 233 it doesn't show what frame you're on. You also can't pause and use the various skip functions. I find these very useful on the 420. On the 233 editing was really horrible. One of the reasons for this also affected other areas of operation - they eliminated a lot of keys from the remote.

Using the remote was also a nuisance because when scrolling through titles, etc. the cursor couldn't keep up and when you stop pressing a key it keeps scrolling for a while.

IIRC, the remote no longer has a Return key. So instead of going back to a screen you have to exit and then go back in.

As I mentioned, I only used this for a few hours. Perhaps some of the things that I though were eliminated are in a different place. It's still hard for me to believe that they could take a fine unit and change it so dramatically in the next model.

[lumis]

wow, that is pretty bad.. did you get to find out if it was multi-system (plays pal & ntsc dvd's on ntsc tv correctly), plays double layer dvd+r, will record in 16:9 a/r?

[budz]

samsclub.com has the 225 model which looks like it only has 2 video inputs as well, no a/v inputs on the front like the 220.
http://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_shopping.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&n=0&mt=a&coe=0&oidP...:-44984:929599

[Epicurus8a]

What a disapointment!

[chas0039]

At least there are some 220s still around:
http://www.epinions.com/Pioneer_DV_R220_DVD_Player_DVD?zip=55317&x=10&y=6#wtb

[NiteLite]

Thanks for the insight, sync.
Just got a 220. Think I'll hold on to it instead of upgrading...or in this case downgrading.
Thanks,
NL

[sync]

wow, that is pretty bad.. did you get to find out if it was multi-system (plays pal & ntsc dvd's on ntsc tv correctly), plays double layer dvd+r, will record in 16:9 a/r?

I don't know about any of those things. I just had it for a few hours and was focusing on my sister's needs, which was basically a replacement for a vcr.

[vhelp]

Great review sync

I'm glad I kept my 220-S I made the right choice for sure, hehe

But, just to recap w/ ya.. the 420 is the same as the 220-S, but the 420
has the hardrive ?? ..anything else ??

Thanks again for your great review, and heads up for others here.

-vhelp 3375

[MJA]

any reviews about the 231-S model? I saw them at walmart few days ago.

[gshelley61]

samsclub.com has the 225 model which looks like it only has 2 video inputs as well, no a/v inputs on the front like the 220.
http://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_shopping.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&n=0&mt=a&coe=0&oidP...:-44984:929599

Incorrect. The 225 is exactly the same as the 220. No difference at all. The 220 was sold primarily in Wal Mart, the 225 was in Best Buy and some other retailers. Both are identical to the 320, except the 320 has a DV firewire input.

The 420 is a 220/225 with a 80GB hard drive. The 520 is a 320 with a 80GB hard drive.

It might be that the x20 Pioneer series units will be the last ones with the extensive input video picture control adjustments built in, unless the units above the 231/233 will have that feature.

[MJA]

gshelley61,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I own a Canon optura 60 which one works better you think the ILO 04 or the 220/231 ?

[gshelley61]

gshelley61,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I own a Canon optura 60 which one works better you think the ILO 04 or the 220/231 ?

I checked out a new Pioneer DVR-231 (same as the 233). It's true... the unit has been totally stripped down as far as features goes. No input video adjustments at all other than for the Y/C separation filter (which of course only works with composite input). It is now more like other entry level units (ILO, Lite-On, etc.) that also don't have these types of input video adjustment features. No black level input or output adjustments, either. Recording quality seems to be the same as previous Pioneer units. If you have outboard video processing for image and black level adjustment, the 231 would still be OK as a hardware MPEG2 encoder.

No DV firewire input, either... if you have a digital camcorder (like the Optura 60) you definitely want one of those. ILO and Lite-On units all have firewire input. JVC DR-M10 also has the firewire input, and does a fantastic job of direct DV to DVD conversion.

Pioneer DVR-210, 310, 320, and 520 all have firewire input, too.

[MJA]

I checked the JVC DR-M10 alot of bad reviews.http://www.epinions.com/pr-JVC_DRM10_DVD_Recorder_Player/display_~review
The 220,310,320 are hard to find (Wal-Mart where I live only one 220 left and its open box) so I bought ILO for $98, but still I like to get a Pionner. Like u said ILO doesn't have input video adjustment features, but I like the firewire input it does make transferring allot easy. One more thing,, The video doesn’t look sharp like playback on the camera LCD any reason why?

[gshelley61]

It's because your camcorder LCD screen is so small. It appears to look sharper, that's all. The ILO (which is really a Lite-On) uses the LSI encoding chip, just like JVC. So, the video quality on a direct DV to DVD conversion should look very good.

I suggest that you only convert your MiniDV camcorder tapes in the highest quality 1 hour mode. That's one tape per DVD. The constant image movement of hand held camcorder footage eats up lots of encoding bitrate, so trying to put two 1 hour tapes on a single DVD will result in compression artifacts, especially macroblocking.