Low priced

Not really progressive, I stress this with all my conviction, does not do 3/2 pulldown!

Let me start off by saying that I've owned six DVD players in the past 2 years so I know these things inside and out and I have an extremely discerning eye. When Pioneer advertised the Pioneer 434 as a true progressive player, and for under $400, I was extremely excited and hopeful. Well folks, you have all heard the old adage, you get what you pay for.

First things first, this player does NOT do 3/2 pull down. I've now tested it on three seperate HD ready sets including a Pioneer and Mitsubishi model at Paul's Big Screen. To those who do not believe me, hook up your old DVD player using component outputs and the Pioneer 434. You will see that the picture between the supposedly progressive 434 and the regular DVD player will be the same. Yes, I made sure that the sets were being fed a progrssive signal and all that. After performing the tests, this player goes from being the best value ever in a progressive DVD player to one of the worst values in budget players.

Go check out the Hometheater forum and there are numerous posts confirming that Pioneer really didn't deliver on this particular unit. Here is a link:
www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum14/HTML/024309.html

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 5109, Pioneer 414, Sony DVP-3000

Low-priced progressive scan player. Can automatically switch to interlaced output when a disc is not anamorphic (important for owners of tv sets that lock into full mode when detecting a progressive signal because non-anamorphic discs are distorted in full mode. This eliminates the inconvenience of having to switch to a different input to watch non-anamorphic discs.

Light weight construction and plain-jane looks. Remote buttons are too small and crowded and not backlighted (as on most electronics remotes--wake up manufacturers!)

Let me prefice my review by saying that I've only had the unit for a few days (got it from Soundpros.com for $325; they ordered 250 and got 14!). It is not even in stores in most places.

My initial impressions after only a few days use:

* Exceptional value because of its high picture quality, high audio quality (a surprise to me) and many features. It also plays CD-Rs, which many DVD players (like the 5109) do not. That alone kicks its value up for anyone who wants that capability.

* The picture to my eyes is as good as the highly-regarded 5109, and in some respects better. It seems to have better, more subtle colors. It also has a more film-like smoothness to the picture. I have always found the 5109 to be a bit grainy. However, this is personal taste. You will have to compare for yourself. My son, who has inherited the 5109, also agrees that the picture on the 434 is very good and at least the equal of the 5109.

* The surprise to me on this unit was the sound quality. I'm not quite sure why, but discs I have watched before sound much better, particularly the surround effects and the center channel dialogue. I have a Denon 3300 set to the same parameters as before, same speakers, same cables even. The only change is the 434 instead of the 5109.

* The displays are comprehensive but the typeface is not the greatest. The "easy navigator" setup wasn't so easy that I could do it without going back. It does have resume playback (will resume playing from where you stopped the disc). In addition, it allows you to store a memory stop on up to five discs (I believe) which allows you to remove the disc from the machine and pick up at the same spot later. This is something the 5109 doesn't do. The 434 also has a bit rate display, which is important to some users, although I've never been able to figure out the need for it.

* It has all the standard outputs: one optical digital, one coax digital, one set of component outputs, one set of composite outputs and one S-video output. These are the same as the 5109, except that the 5109 has two component outputs (one for progressive and one for interlaced video). The two component outputs aren't necessary on the 434 since it outputs both progressive and interlaced through the one output and does the switching internally.

* The appearance is very plain but functional. No design awards here. The build-quality seems a bit suspect since it is so light, but the finish is good. In contrast, the 5109 is much larger and heavier. The true quality won't be known until more people buy it and use it for an extended time. It's weight and build quality seem about the same as other lower-prices units, including Toshiba's models.

* The 434 does not have a built-in Dolby Digital decoder. This is only a problem if you don't have a receiver with the decoder build in. The 5109 does have a built-in decoder, which attaches to "DD ready" receivers. This is not a serious omission in my opinion since I don't want to pay extra for something I already have in my receiver. The cost of Dolby Digital/DTS receivers has dropped so low, that it's foolish not to upgrade if you don't have one. Plus the DD/DTS sound is way better than regular prologic!

Now to address a point that I have seen debated in other A/V forums. Is the Pioneer 434 a true progressive scan player? Some are of the opinion it is not. I admit I am confused by this whole issue, so I can't say one way or the other with any certainty. I simply do not know. What I do know is that I find the 434's picture to be as good or better than what I have been viewing for months on the 5109, so whether it is or not doesn't matter to me. By the way, my tv is a Pioneer SD-582HD5 high definition monitor and the 434 interfaces beautifully with it. I would highly recommend that owners of newer Pioneer units, which lock into full mode, take a look at this player.

In summary, I can highly recommend the DV-434: great picture, terrific sound, plays CD-R's, works around the "lock into full mode problem" and is very well priced. I am pleased with my purchase and have passed the 5109 (which is no dud, either) on to my son.

I am giving the unit a 5-star rating, but with the reservation that I have not used it long enough to know its reliability.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 5109 (owned for several months)

Cheap

Not a true progressive scan dvd player.

Gives the same picture as my sony interlaced dvd player.
I have a Hitachi 53" widescreen hdtv.
After 45 days this dvd player died on me. I took it back
to Circuit City for repair and was told they were no longer
caried this player for replacement. Circuit City had
no other progressive scan players so I got my money back.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

Price, Picture, Plays CDR's and CDRW's

Looks like a $260 dvd player.

I bought this player (for less than I paid for a Sony conventional player a year ago) to go with the new Panasonic
CT-32HX40. While I have only played with both components for a little while, I can say that it does work with this HDTV without any problems. The picture quality seems to be DVD dependent. If you are playing a non anamorphic dvd and force it into progressive mode there are artifacts in the picture which go away when it is in auto progressive mode. I guess, I am going to have to hook up the older Sony and do a side by side comparison to really see if there is a difference in the picture quality. I am very happy with the sound from the optical audio output into my Sony STR-DB840 receiver. All in all I would say that it might be hard to find any other DVD player for a digital tv as good for <$300.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

Ease of Use. Clarity of Picture. Awsome sound.

Remote Control. Needs backlighting.

1st DVD player. Totally satisfied. I notice some differences in quality, depending on the disc quality, but high quality discs produce supurb picture and sound.

System setup includes... Toshiba 65H80 HDTV; Yamaha 5280(?) Amp; JBL S412P mains w/powered subs; JBL S series center; Polk Audio rear.

I though about shelling out more for some of the other progressive scan models, but it will take a lot to convince me that there is anything on the market that is worth several hundreds of dollars more. This unit is great value for $.

Unless you are one of these elite types that has to have the top of the line in everything, this unit should more than satify the need for quality home theatre output.

Similar Products Used:

none

Amazing progressive scan output...looks incredible. Overal a great product. Very cheap for progressive scan DVD players.

None really

uh..i think i said everything i wanted to say in the strenghts weaknesses..but uh...
its great. worth the buy for sure!!!

Similar Products Used:

Ive also got a panosonic and a toshiba...toshiba is progressive scan..pioneer is better value..toshiba has better performance...panasonic is good price but crappy performance

Price, picture quality, ease of setup, and ability to do most formats.

At this price-none. In other reports they mention compatibility problems but it has worked perfectly with the Sharp ZWX99 Front projection unit.

As soon as I received the unit I took it to the retail shop where I purchased my other equipment (they were curious what a low cost unit would do) and they hooked it up to one of the new 16:9 HDTV sets. The picture was superb. On digital animation movies all edge artifacts were gone. The picture just seemed clearer with better contrasts.The image seemed to bring you even closer to the "theater" in "Home Theater".
I immediately took it home and installed it in place of the Pioneer DV-414 (also component outputs)which I had been using.The picture was night and day better despite the fact the Sharp has a built in line doubler. My wife, who is a musician and my critical ears,thought it was more musical than all the earlier DVD players on CD's but not as good as our dedicated Pioneer Elite transport and Aragon DAC. It received a 100% WAF (wife acceptance factor). If your TV has component inputs and it is compatible with the DV-434, I do not see how you can not be extremely happy with this unit especially at the cost and value it represents.

Similar Products Used:

First progressive scan unit I have used. This is my fifth DVD player.

None

poor design ,cheap remote,not progressive scan

No matter what you read in these reviews,this DVD player is not true progressive scan.If any salesman tells you that this unit is P.S.,he doesn't know what he is talking about.(read review at www.dvd.com).This player is not compatable with most hdtv's.

Similar Products Used:

toshiba,sony,yamaha,other pioneer

progressive scan pickture

flimsy

3:2 pull down or not, the picture quality on my 65inch HDtv is excellent. Just watched Braveheart and Butch Cassidy on it. This is the best bang for the buck if you have a large Digital monitor. For folks who do not have digital tv or monitor screens smaller than about 40in, you probably wont notice a significant difference between a progressive and an interlaced player.

Some reviewers below need to educate themselves a little more about Digital tv, progressive scan, etc before posting erroneous and misleading information. Just because you hear it from an AV salesperson does not make it correct. I find that most of them have very little in-depth knowledge about the things that they sell.

Similar Products Used:

sony 360. philips 850.

Price, Ease of setup, Picture quality

Controller

I appreciate the input from others that led me to buy this unit. The one issue I found with this player is when I set it up in 'Progressive scan only' mode, rented DVDs from Blockbuster would have a disrupted picture only during one or two segments in the movie. After reading the setup guide it appears many rental DVDs have an interferance section incoded into the DVD to prevent recording the DVD. It seems it only shows up in progressive scan players. I switched the DVD player to Progressive Scan/Interlased mode and found this problem to go away instantly. In this mode, the player will switch to interlase when these sectors show up and then back again when the interferance is gone.

I have a Sony 36" XBR400 with high quality component cables and the DV-434 has no compatibility problems. I am feeding the sound through a JVC HiFi receiver (I haven't gone surround sound yet) and the quality is clean and clear.

I've put alot of DVD movies through it because Blockbuster has a promotion that gives you one DVD a day for a month for only $20. We must have watched 50 movies in the past 2 months! After changing the scan mode to Progressive Scan/Interlased, all the movies have worked flawlessly.

Similar Products Used:

None