Cheap or Expensive DVD Player ?

[Ioanna]

Hi from Greece,

You have a very good forum.

I havent seen any other ladies around and I am wondering if this forum is striclty for men only.

Please, let me ask the follows regarding a DVD player I am interested to buy and I would be more than happy to have your comments and any advice you may have.

Please, first let me tell you that I am new to the DVD world although I have a very good knowledge on Video and Photograpy techniques so you can talk technical if you like.

I am thinking to buy the Pioneer DV-454s.

My Tv is the JVC -AV21TS4EN and I must say that I am fully satisfied with it.

My first question is how much diference in picture quality I will see if I buy a more expensive DVD player than the 454s and if it finally worthin to spend more money on a DVD player just to get a 10-15% better pictrure quality ?

I have heard a lot of good comments for the Pioneer DV-454s but personally I doubt if a Chinese model which have a production cost of just $89 outperform a $300 DVD in picture quality.
Can I find some independent reviews for the 454s ?

I thanking you very much in advance and I hope to have your kind reply to my post.

All the best.

Joahnna Dimopoulou

[TripplexXx]

hi! i've got a pioneer dv 444 and the picture quality is great...i also had other kind of players and a much more expensive dvd player does not show better picture quality than a cheaper one. i think the sound performence and a lot of blabla extra's on it make it that expensive. a pioneer is a great dvd player with good quality! are u gonna buy a whole set with a reciever and dolby\digital 5.1 or higher quality speakers?

[hawthorn]

From my experience and research into different DVD Players, the cheap ones, don't seem to last as long as the more expensive one (as a general rule, but of coarse there is the chance you'll get a cheap one and it'll last a long time). My personal dvd player is a Loewe dvd player which cost $999.00 when I got it and that was a very expensive one, and I have had it for 4 years without any problem as yet, but my parents dvd player, cost $399.00 and they've had it for 1 and a half years, and there's has stuffed up once already. Now you can get them and they can cost $2000 and even more for recordable ones. Another family member bought a really really cheap one, and it lasted just past the warrenty period and was going to cost more to repair than to replace.

But the main thing as far as I'm concerned with a dvd player, is to make sure it can play VCD and SVCD, but number one thing is that in my opinion it has got to be Multi-Region or all zone. This is a really really good feature, as if you are capable of playing PAL and also NTSC on your tv, then you can order dvd's from all over the world. Like I have purchased dvd's from UK,HongKong, China, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Canada and the US. You usually can get the dvd's from Canada and the US before the rest of the world. So you should definately check if the dvd player you are looking at is capable of playing all regions, or just Region 2 (if that's what Greece has). Because in my collection of dvd's of over 300, I have purchased probably about 50 locally and the rest from overseas.

If all you intend on doing, is going to a video shop and hiring dvd's, then it doesn't matter if it is not multi-regional, but if you want to purchase dvd's off the net (which is the cheapest way of doing it), then multi-region is definately a must, as well as VCD and not so important SVCD. But I would definately say you should atleast get a middle of the range dvd player (if you can afford it as they do usually last longer).

[Ioanna]

Hi,

I really thank you very much for your kind reply.

Personally I am very interested to buy a DVD player with a good picture quality and I ask if you know a url with some reviews for the Pioneer DV-454s.

As, for the sound a good friend of mine who is a sound engineer suggested me the follows as the ultimate solution.

- Dolby Surround Decoder without any amplification (Yamaha Decoder, Kenwood, Pioeer)
- 5 Active Studio Monitors like the Alesis Monitor M1 or Genelec 130A
- Good speaker cables like the Ixos, Morran Geen (very expesnive at £36 per meter)

This setup here in Greece is about Eur.1140 plus another Eur120 for the Anteus IIx speaker cables and Eur.340 for the five speaker stands filled with sand.

With the system that my friend Norris suggested me you can hear the original studio sound that the sound engineers recorded for the DVD production.

Please bear in mind that all the five speakers are the same something which is importand when a surround materia is recorded in a studio.

This sytems can go very loud even for a 2000 seats cinema.

If you need further details please tell me and I will try to contact Norris to learn more.

All the best.

Joahnna.

[Thorn]

I don't know where any reviews are besides on this site (dvd players link on the left) but I know that the picture quality on my Pioneer 354 is FAR better than that of my old Apex ad-703. The Apex had obvious video distortions (in the form of a vertical line every inch or so....). While you got used to it, I was happy to get my pioneer, even though it had fewer features.

So in summary there is a reason to avoid cheapo players (as long as your TV is big enough to see the difference in quality). I think that once you're in the range of decent players (like Pioneer) the quality difference will be smaller, but the price difference will be related to features and connectors on the back. If you don't need the extra features, then you probably don't need the more expensive model.

[bhutchins]

it all depends on what you are looking for. read http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_3/dvd-benchmark-introduction-9-2000.html
and
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all&type=...deInt=0&mpeg=0

[Jester700]

The engineer guy is incorrect on a couple things, IMO.
1) You don't necessarily want or need "studio monitors". HAVING them won't guarantee you'll hear what the engineer heard because small nearfields like Alesis & others aren't designed for mid & far field listening like a living room - they're for monitoring up close. They also aren't designed for center or surround use.

2) Studio monitors don't necessarily have better quality even in the near field, especially now that there are so many cheaper ones, some of which don't deserve to be called monitors. Some accurate home bookshelf speakers like NHT Super Ones or B&W 610s can beat the pants off many popular "monitors"

3) The best bet for home theater is to get a system designed for - you guessed it - home theater. Now, there's a wide range of quality levels available, and I'm not saying a $500 all-in-one cheapo system will be great. But a fine $3000 system will, IMO, easily top a hodgepodge system made up of $3000 studio components.

And save your money on the wiring. With speaker wires it's all about gauge. In a typical living room, any more than standard 12 gauge copper wire (<$1 a foot) is overkill. Nobody has ever proven they could hear a difference in double blind listening tests.

Look a lot, listen a lot, and whatever you end up with, enjoy your system!

[Ioanna]

Good morning from Greece.

Many thanks for your kind replies.

Yes, I will check for a Home Cinema but today I will go out to buy the Pioneer DV-454s.

The price for this player is Eur.167 which is very cheap.

I have checked that the Pioneer is made in China and personally I have some doubts if this player can offer the oustanding picture and audio quality as they say.

I assume that the Home Cinema system that my friend Norris suggested me is only for recoring surround material in a studio and probably it is not suitable for a home.

Please, let me ask two more things.

How I can tested the Pioneer DV-454s to see if it is really Region Free "without playing a disc" if this is possible.

Finaly I wish to know if I can find through the net any movie catalogue with all the released DVD titles as pdf file.

Thanks and have a nice day.

Joahnna.