I recently purchased both the Sony DVP S530 and the Pioneer DVD 414. Comparing between the two, I find the Pioneer 414 to have a better picture quality. The Pioneer produced a better contrast and it ALSO plays CD-R discs. The Sony has the built in DD decoder and a few more features than the Pioneer, but it does NOT play CD-R's. As far as audio is concern, I cannot comment because I currently own very horrible speakers and would not do either justice if I used them to compare the sound qualities. If you already own a receiver with built in Dolby Digital Decoder, I would recommend the Pioneer DVD 414 because of the better picture quality. If you have a Dolby Digital Ready Reciever, then the Sony would be better. If you want a Pioneer with Built in DD decoder, it would cost you more than the sony.

I just got the 414 from Best Buy as a Father's Day gift. I have heard so many great things about it. As soon as I put in the first disk I had problems. "Enemy of the State" has some minor lip sync, but it repeatedly locks up, goes back to the start of a chapter, and fast forwards by itself, with no warning. I had to manually advance to the next chapter, then reverse it to the point that it froze. It did this on several chapters. I will try another disk tomorrow. If it's the unit, it's history. Maybe the Panasonic or Toshiba can do the trick. So far I am disappointed with the 414, after so much hype. And it doesn't sound nearly as good as I expected.

I purchased the 414 last November for $379 and after watching scores of dvds have not experienced any lip sync problems. The sound and picture is very good. I would give it a five rating except for a little noise during the operation of the player. If you can get this player for around $300 there is no way you can lose!

I purchased my 414 last christmas for $274 after mail in rebate from CC. Its been a very good player. I have not experience the lip sync problem, and I've watched over 40 dvds to date. This player also has the added bonus of outputing 24/96 signals out the digital connection. It cool to see the 96kHz light-up on the DVD and my Denon 5700 display the 96kHz input signal. Chesky 24/96 cds sound awesome.
The player does whir a bit when a dvd/cd is first accessed and can only be heard if you are standing right next to it.

This cd is one heck of a deal. Highly recommended.

To all consumers who have lip-sync problems with the Pioneer DV414. Please note that Lost In Space, Enemy of the State, and a few others are defective discs. So the lip-sync problem can not be attributed to the Pioneer. The Pioneer does have a lip-sync problem on a few percent of DVD's but not many. Just wanted to make you all aware. I have the DV414, I love it. It has not shown any signs of lip-sync problems or any quarks.

I purchased the 414 about 4 months ago for $299 at Circuit City. By the way they tried to sell me dual DIVX/DVD machine. I told them DIVX was doomed. They laughed; now I laugh. Anyway, the 414 is a very nice machine for the money. I have had one lip sync problem on Mission Impossible (not flagrant but noticeable) so I can't believe it is the DVD disc since so many have been complaining. I haven't watched Lost in Space and don't plan to after all the complaints. Besides, it is a lousy movie.I have watched at least 50 movies on the machine; the sound and picture are great. I will give it a four because of lip sync issue

This is an update from my previous review.
I have had this unit now for about 7 months. It has worked perfectly on every disc I have, including Lost in Space. The only problem I have with this machine is that it is very noisy on some discs. It will produce a lot of noise from the disc spinning on some discs and then go away, but on most of the discs it is very quiet. The remote still sucks but it works so I really don't care. The picture is great, it plays all my movies (some of the Toshiba modles I have heard won't play some of the Aien discs). We are talking about a bargin machine here ($299), At this price point and this period in the life cycle of DVD, you have to make sacrifices to achieve this price point. The pioneer gives up on some build quality (the drawer is very flimsy) and it comes with a crappy remote, but it is a great machine and I don't regret my purchase at all!

Hell, I bought it at Best Buy for $299 & I got
-5 free movies
-coupons for 15 free rentals
-coupon book which I used to save $50 on the Pioneer 608 receiver which is also a great bargin unit!!

I am increasing my rating to 5 stars (gave it 4 previously) to combat the idots who post reviews on this player who have just seen it in a store and never owned it.

First off, to say the picture quality is bad on the 414, is completely ridiculous. I have compared the picture of the 110, 3109 and the 550 to the 414..and the 414 wins hands down. Try adjusting your TV set if you're having problems. I can undestand some people coming down on the 414 for the lip-sync problem (not me), but to say the picture quality is bad, is pure bull. For $299, it's one of the best deals out there...get your glasses checked:)

My fellow audioreview audiophile, Let me start out by saying that as far as picture quality is concerned i am extremely anal. Furthermore to make matters worse i found an inconsistancy between the reviews of the various leading reviewers such as S.R and HT. So i took it upon myself to audition a few DVD players myself. Right now the pioneer dvd 414 is my second.

My System:
Denon AVR3300 DTS,DD
YAMAHA 815 CD player
PARADIGM REFERENCE for LEFT RIGHT and CENTER
CELESTION 9's for REARS
ACI TITAN SUBWOOFER
DH labs silver sonic speaker cable all round, bi wired on front three.
MONSTER REFERENCE interconnects and optic cable.
Televison 32 inch SONY

I have to start out by saying that i was expecting a significantly better picture than with VHS. My first DVD player was the SAMSUNG 709; had a really great picture no horizontal disturbances or jitter on loud tracks. On the down side using the DVD's DAC's exhibited a rather so so average sound performance. However if you are planning to use your reciever's DAC's via coaxial digital inputs that should be no problem as the SAMSUNGS DAC's would be bypassed. I tried this and it improved the sound considerably. All in all it had excent picture and so so sound. I used it for a three weeks and never once had any problems whatsoever. At $219 i thought i'd thought i'd go the next step up. So i went to the store and purchased the pioneer 414.
I was really dismayed first of all at the picture. It was grainy like a VCR playing a not so new Video. I could'nt beleive it. my VHS actually looked a little better on new tapes. The sound quality on the other hand better than the SAMSUNG. ALso this player is packed with features including an optic out that the SAMSUNG did'nt. But i'd have to say that mry primary concern with DAV player is the image quality and the pioneer had none. Also there appears to be a i second delay when the DVD changes layers. The SAMSUNG never did this. I will give it two stars though for the features and audio. 0 stars for video.

Draven

Tim,
Vdb= 20*log[Vo/Vin]
It is true that the difference between 2V and 200mV is -20dB assuming the same reference Vin is used on both sources because of this relationship above.

However who is to say that was how it was rated?

For example assuming the specs which were stated above:
Panasonic DVD A110:
20log[2/Vin] = 0 dB therefore Vin = 2 Volts

For the Pioneer DVD 414:
20log[.200/Vin] = -20 dB therefore Vin = 2 Volts


This could only imply 2 things:
1) The Pioneer DVD 414 has attenuated the closed loop gain of the output circuit.
2) The Pioneer DVD 414 can operate at 2 Volts but they rate it at 200mV to yield better 2nd and 3rd order Harmonic distortion values since the signal power is reduced and will yield much better results for these products.

I would venture to say that they would not do #2 since it will severely limit the dynamic range of the signal and make it appear to have a higher noise floor.

I did however pull the tops off of both units and found the power supply in the DVD A110 to be superior. It separates the digital and analog power supply sections, has much more filtering capacitance, and bigger Inductors and regulators.
The larger inductors for the switching power supplies signify the pource source to be more capable and stable during heavy usage.
This being the case, I would conclude that the Panasonic DVD A110 has a higher Xmit power due to a superior power supply section feeding the driver circuits with higher signal strength.

Enjoy!

GDS http://www.audioholics.com


Being an owner of both of these machines, I do not recommend the DVD 414 because of its lip sync problems, audio dropouts, picture freezes and the fact that the dvd resets when you press stop. I dislike this machine and tire of its many bugs. Unfortunately I discorvered these bugs after my return policy expires.