I got mine from Circuit City and also paid 299.00. I love it! How can anyone used to regular VHS complain about this kind of performance. Who cares about a 1 second lapse in 2-layer DVD's? I sure don't. Music CD's also sound good on this machine. But, all I had before was the 25 disc unit by Pioneer I got from Rex Electronics for 150.00. I can't wait to get a Digital Receiver. I've watched Zoro and Top Gun and it was awesome. I'm waiting for Deap Impact to come in the mail. I rented it from Netflix.com. That web site is pretty cool. The first rental is free too. This DVD player is great. What do people want in a remote control anyway? A Digital Receiver's remote control should be programed to operate the machine anyway.

I got the Panasonic 310 and tested other units before this unit. It would be tough to find a better DVD player for this price.(even twice the price!)The audio and video performance is simply excellent. Its got all the outputs you will ever need and its got DTS. check out the Hometheater magazine review for this unit (Jan 99) they gave this unit a 5 star rating also!!!

DVD DX414,How do I got a good duel like Mike G?
Thanks

Wow! I can't believe the video quality. I didn't compare this to other players, as I went strictly off reviews, but I am very happy with my purchase so far. I have only watched two dvd's, but have not experienced any problems whatsoever. I thought the unit was easy to set up and I am not having any difficulty operating the remote. If I encounter any problems I will post again, but so far I love it.

I have had the DVD-414 player now for abt 2 weeks and I find it to be a fine unit. I am glad that I choose this unit over the Toshiba 2108 (was my first choice). I wish the manual went into more detail on a few of the options (ie: Display, pan&scan,letterbox,widescreen). The unit does not have some up the neat features (zoom) that the Toshiba has, but how many times would you really use it. No problems with this unit. I give it a 5.

hi i see that they list the price here for the pioneer dv-414 dvd player at 299.99, i was wondering where can you get one for that price?

I've had the Pioneer DV-414 for almost a month now, and I am going to exchange it to the Panasonic 110 DTS player. I don't know if this will fall under the non read-ability category, but there is a VERY annoying feature with this unit. When DVD's are long enough to be double layered (2 layers per side), when this unit switches to the second layer, there is about a 1 second pause....where nothing happens. This may seem like not alot, but when you are listening to it on a full Klipsch surround sound system with it turned up to movie theater volume, it is EXTREMELY noticable. I called Pioneer about this, and they agreed that this is what is happening and that it is normal with all DVD players. The problem is that when I compared it with my friends Sony, the pause was a tenth or hundreth of a second compared to 1 second. I also asked another Panasonic owner if he was getting pauses, and he said no. I have watched several movies and have noticed the pause in the longer movies...just once however (ie. switching layers). An example of what I am talking about is in the movie Armagadeon. On track 13, right before track 14 (71:05 - 71:15), it switches to the other layer at exactly 71:10. The DVD makers, of course, place it in the most convienent spot possible to hide the slight pause, but with the Pioneer DV-414, it is just TOOOO long, especially when the others are sooo much shorter that it is hardly noticeable. I'm going with the Panasonic because I've heard EXCELLENT reviews on it, and mainly because of the DTS value factor. The only thing that the Panasonic 110 does not have that the Pioneer has is the Component Video out....which is debateable whether or not the difference of the standard video out is noticeable.
Also, I too have experienced the lip-sync problem. It was SOOOO bad in the movie Blues Brothers 2000. I though it was the recording, until I read that others have experienced the same problem. Definately returning it, and buying (probably) the Panasonic A110.

The video quality is excellent. On my 32" set, it is very similar to the DV-09 I had in my rig. Sound quality for movies is good. For CD's, the audio quality is pretty lousy, harsh highs and a thin overall sound. I'm looking to use it as a transport for a high quality external DAC. I'll try it, but I still might end up replacing the separate CD player I sold. My feeling is that unless you want a unit to be a standalone CD player as well as DVD player ((Pioneer DV-09, CAL CL- 20/25, Denon DVD5000 would be recommendations here, this is about as good as you can do without spending several times more money. You might notice some picture differences once you get over a 40" screen as you go to high end models, but my sense is the difference is quite small.

Pioneer DV-414 DVD Player/Musical Fidelity X-24K DAC, High Quality Two Channel 24bit/96kHz Notes:
I just set up and broke in a Pioneer DV-414 DVD Player/Musical Fidelity X-24K DAC, and have now carefully played a half dozen Chesky and Classic Audio DVDs. I got the DV-414 for $359 from SoundCity, and the X-24K for $399 (after a $100 trade-in on an old Audio Alchemy DDE1 DAC) from Audio Advisor. I used an Illuminations D-75 digital cable to the DAC, and an Audioquest Ruby analog interconnect to the preamp. I am also using the Musical Fidelity X-PSU upgraded power supply which powers both the X-24K and the Musical Fidelity X-DAC that I am using with my Rega Planet. The X-PSU can power four of the Musical Fidelity units, and is powering only these two units.

Comparisons to CD are via my Rega Planet/Musical Fidelity X-DAC (HDCD Compatible), which uses the same quality digital and analog cables as listed above for the DVD rig. Clamp-On Cylindrical Ferrite RF Chokes are at each end of every wire and cable in both digital setups, to reduce the liklihood of common mode RFI.

Comparisons to Analog LP are via my vintage Thorens TD-125 MKII (Wein-Bridge Oscillator for Freq. Stability) which has an upgraded power supply, a Thorens Acrylic Platter, a Thorens "Stabilizer" Record Weight, a custom acrylic armboard, a Helius Aureus Tonearm and a Sumiko Blue Point Special HO Moving Coil Cartridge. The Helius Tonearm utilizes Pederson wiring and cables. The Analog LP rig is mounted on a custom isolation wall shelf, and LAST products are used for record care.

My preamp is a Classe Audio Thirty and has a built-in phono amplifier section. Its source selector is configured with the Analog LP rig on "PHONO", the CD rig on "CD", and the DVD rig on "VIDEO".

My bi-amped Power Amplifiers are a home built Push-Pull 6550C Vacuum Tube PA for the tweeter amp, and a home-built Push-Pull MOSFET PA for the woofer amp. The interconnects are Audioquest Ruby. The Loudspeakers are Sonus Faber Concerto, with two runs of Kimber speaker wire to each. The medium size listening room has excellent acoustics, with varied reflective/absorptive surfaces, and dedicated 20 ampere service for the hi-fi equipment.

On the CD rig the addition of the Musical Fidelity X-DAC to the Rega Planet improved both the smoothness and presence of the mid-highs/highs and also the image height. The addition of the X-PSU to the X-DAC improved the bass impact and depth and also the soundstage width. The X-DAC/X-PSU also added full HDCD compatibility to the Rega Planet, which when playing HDCD encoded discs adds some additional improvements. I now own over 35 HDCD encoded CDs. There are over one thousand HDCD encoded CDs out there (just check http://www.hdcd.com), with many more being added each month. The improvements that HDCD gives are very worthwhile, and include generally better soundstage imaging, harmonic texture, and bass.

I needed to drag a TV set with a video input into my listening room to set up the DV-414. It comes with some of the wrong audio settings, including one which outputs no higher than 48 kHz data from the digital output. Once I got everything set up I noticed that there is an added value to leaving a video monitor connected in a high quality two channel hi-fi system. The "Super Audio DVDs" all include a still image for each track and text showing the track title and menu. The DV-414 also has some text of its own on the screen to tell you what's going on. When I finally had to return the TV set to its normal room I actually missed having the video monitor capability. I am considering adding a small video monitor to my hi-fi system in the future to return this capability. Maybe this would be a good application for a little flat screen LCD computer video monitor…

I compared my half dozen new "Super Audio DVDs", to some well recorded/mastered HDCD encoded CDs, some well recorded/mastered standard CDs, and to some well recorded/mastered LPs. All CDs were played on the CD Rig, and not on the DVD rig, since the X-24K cannot take full advantage of the HDCD encoding. Generalizations are somewhat difficult since so many recordings were listened to, but here we go:

1. All well recorded/mastered recordings on all three formats are worthwhile to own, worth having in a music library, worth maintaining playback equipment for, and are enjoyable to listen to.
2. LPs have a "you are there" transparency which is only matched by, and sometimes exceeded by, DVDs.
3. LPs fall short of the bass response of HDCD CDs, standard CDs, and DVDs. LP bass is generally somewhat lacking in impact and depth, and somewhat fuzzy when compared with the other formats.
4. LPs have an inherent element of noise that we have trained ourselves to listen through, but objectively this noise is a shortfall when compared to the digital formats. This noise also draws attention to the lower dynamic range of the LP format, as compared with the digital formats.
5. HDCD CDs fall somewhere in-between standard CDs and DVDs, with respect to transparency, imaging, and detail in the midrange and high frequencies.
6. HDCD CDs and DVDs both have better bass impact and depth than standard CDs.
7. HDCD CDs sound noticeably better overall than standard CDs. This improvement is about the same order of magnitude incremental difference as how DVDs sound noticeably better overall than HDCD CDs. This order of magnitude incremental difference is clearly noticeable, and much greater than the perceived difference I have ever heard between digital cables, analog interconnects, and speaker wires. LPs fall somewhere in between DVDs and standard CDs, overall.
8. Standard CDs and HDCD CDs are the most pleasurable to operate, jump between tracks, program, etc. DVDs are a step backwards in user friendliness, since some of the now very familiar CD maneuverability is missing. LPs are clearly the least user friendly.
9. DVDs present greater detail and soundstage imaging than HDCD CDs and standard CDs.
10. DVDs combine the "you are there" transparency of LPs, with the low noise, dynamic range, and full frequency response of the other formats. In essence, DVDs give you the best characteristics of all three formats, without any of the negative characteristics.

In conclusion, the new "Super Audio DVDs" offer a very high level of resolution that is very enjoyable to listen to. This $760 DVD rig was capable of outperforming my more expensive CD and LP rigs. There is unfortunately not much DVD music available to pick from yet, and there are still some risks as to what will happen with the DVD audio format, but as far as the technology goes the future is now for audiophiles. I can't wait to pick up some more "Super Audio DVDs". DVD has not, however, rendered my CD and/or LP rigs obsolete, since I will need them for a long time to listen to the bulk of my music library. Now, do I really want to put a small video monitor in my hi-fi system? I guess it wouldn't be so bad if it was small and unobtrusive enough…

Kind Regards, Chris Fagas

In October I originally headed off to my Central Audio Video local store to purchase the Panasonic A110, but he was out of stock, he told me I could have a Pioneer DV-414 for the same price. I had great experience with the DV09 in the summer when I had it for a trial, it had terrific performance with a totally silent transport, but thought it was too expensive for a new technology and it would not play CDROM disks. Well I am glad I waited, This unit will output 96khz/24 bit, has all outputs imaginable and DTS CDs play very well, it will also play CDROM's like the Sony for a fraction of the price!The DV-414 was still packed, so the salesman and I pulled the DV-606 and put in the DV-414, to me it looked even better than the DV-606.

I am a technical guy so the first thing I did was open the unit to see how come this thing is so light. It is packed with several densely populated boards. They save weight by using a switched power supply, so the heavy power transformer is not required. If you have a good CD player hang on to it though, this one is light sounding compared to a cheap JVC or good Denon 1520. If you have a good DAC or receiver use the converter in them with CD. Note the DV09 also sounded light in the bottom end.

Great Features that I thought were common to all DVDs but are not.

*You can tell this DVD payer that you have a wide screen TV, even if you don't. So wide screen DVD can fill more or all of your 4:3 TV.
*There are three preset colour setting.
*This is not important to me, but you can tell the time remaining in a movie or chapter, not possible with the Panasonic (this drives my friend nuts).
*You can turn off the display.
*It will remember the way you set up the player for the last 30 disks so that all your setup for Dolby digital and aspect ratio will automatically be set.

About the one second layer change delay, this is noted as normal on many DVD packages! The Panasonic will skip a chapter sometimes on a layer change. I have a feeling the mastering of disks is not yet standardized.

I have never seen any dropout or digital artifacts, Just incredible clear 3 dimensional images (S-Video). Because of the reasonable price I was able to buy the Sony DAES-30 receiver for less than the DV-09 alone. Pioneer makes a great third generation player with Five speaker performance, well done.