Progressive Scan
Excellent Sound & Picture Quailty
Nice Looking unit

Noisy mechanism
very light - 6 lbs
Can be now found for ridiculously low prices

Sure the unit lacks the 3:2 pulldown but so does the highly regarded Pioneer Elite DV-C36. Yes a $700 unit has the same chip as the 434. The new 444 has the same chip as well. And they both have glowing reviews. The Pionner DV-434 is not a high-end product and they don't try to be. It's sold in regular retail chains which regular electronics equipment. Of course it can't hold a candle to the Elite DV-37 but it doesn't try to. I can't afford to spend $500-$1000 for a progressive scan unit just to get the 3:2 pulldown which doesn't amount to much. I just spend $3500 for a HDTV and the DV-434 looks amazing. So amazing in fact then when I got the TV calibrated by a ISF technician, who works for a Pionner Elite dealer he was amazed that a $300 DVD player could produce such a beautiful picture. Home Theatre Magazine compared the 434 to the almighty Pioneer DV-AX10 and suprisingly held up pretty well. Do a search at hometheatremag.com and read. You'll be suprised.

I wish you people would grow up. Both the DV-444 and DV-C36 lack 3:2 and they get glowing reviews. Why the 434? Because it was the first attempt at a budget progressive scan? And besides, if you can afford high end equipment why are you buying and writing reviews for a regular like Pioneer?

Similar Products Used:

Elite DV-C36

None that I can discern

too numerous to mention.

I have three TVs and the remote only covers 1 of them and it only turns the TV off and on and the DVD off and on.
Sent an email to their customer service dept and got the reply to go to their website which is next to useless. They also suggested I call them on the phone. Good Luck. I've had nothing but busy signals for the last four hours. This piece of junk is going back to the store.

Similar Products Used:

None

Awesome playback of unusual formats, much better than the 343, looks nice for the price.

It broke, progressive is a cop-out, machine is shoddy & contains hardly any components inside, CD playback is terrible.

Ew! Less than a year old and the unit is on the ropes...plays dvds for about a half second and then stops playback (eyuck). I will be keeping it for its amazing playback of non standard XVCDs and so on, but replacing it with a Pioneer elite model for DVD.

Pioneer makes a great DVD player, but this one ain't it. It's middle low end crap. Looks expensive though, it's "no thrills" attitude is refreshing from a chain store quality player. If you're the type of person who's looking to buy a "high end" player, and pay around $200 for it, you're looking for this sort of dead-end. I've consigned myself to the $300-$500 range for this very reason...everything in the low range is "competitive" which means crummy menus, dumb features, and easy-to-break all-one-chip solutions.

Of the low end, this unit has the nicest menus, best looking front plate, best set of reading features and decent control. I was ticked that certain features were unavailable on certain discs and the player didn't warn you. It also had difficulty tracking and resyncing audio on many DVD and video discs.

CD playback sucked. It sounded like the player was putting it through the same crummy filter as DVDs...I switched to my old analog laserdisc player, even the LD hum was better than the stage shrinking mess output from the digital of the pioneer. However, this same filter made DVD audio sound fantastic.

A lot of resampled audio (MP3 or ogg TO CD, PCM to MPEG on mmany home movies) sounded tinny. Even an $100 Aiwa had better sound....but the Aiwa couldn't match this unit in video quality. Pioneer's line of players has great video, it keeps the blacks black and doesn't bleed as much as others. Of course, it's not like the 10 bit DAC in the DV-37, but it's great for $200.

Verdict: get a warranty extension, but get this player.

Similar Products Used:

Harmon-kardons, sonys, full line of pioneer

Being that it was a progressive scan unit, price was the main reason for the attraction.

I guess you get what you pay for. My coffee can was heavier. The remote was fairly difficult to use. Someday, backlit remotes will be the norm. The spindle motor was noisy enough that you can hear it while playing a dvd disk.

The Sony unit I use was one of the first DVD products out there. Because its old, it doesn't have DTS nor Progressive scan. Beyond these two shortcomings however, the S7000 still is one of the best units you can get, if you can. Its successor, the S7700 is is now also hard to come by, but it still is a great unit if you can get it. The new Sony DVD flagship doesn't appear up to snuff. But I don't know so I'll keep my O on that one for later.

Similar Products Used:

Sony S7000.

plays all platforms vcd, cdr, etc. price for a progressive scan player.

none as of yet

This is my first DVD player so I really cannot compare it to anything else. The player has been working flawlessly for me for the past months even though its viewed on a 15 year old 27" Sony. Bottomline is for the price of under $200.00 the DV-434 gives an outstanding performance in my book.

Similar Products Used:

none

http://www.hometheatermag.com/showarchives.cgi?69

Pioneer DV-AX10 and DV-434 DVD Players - This article compares DV-434 DVD player versus the top of the line Pioneer player, and provides a comprehensive understanding of the differences of progressive scanning. I think you'll understand how Pioneer has come up with a good player for the money and that the DV-434 is not a true progressive scan player, but a line doubler player -- yes it is. I will be buying one at Costco for $169.00, because my Sony DVP-530D is experiencing all the problems noted on Audioreview.com.

Price

Entry level built quality

Just as good as any entry level player. I am mostly using these players for audio listening and I am tired of people bragging about high-end equipment being superior specially in audio performance. These people probably don't use the 'DIGITAL OUTPUT' of their players because they believe analog is BETTER. To most people who understand that DIGITAL means '0's and '1's (zeros and ones), there is no such thing as 'bright sounding 'ones' or 'warm' zeros.
DVD players these days are just hardware to read your data.
So if you use their DIGITAL output, it is up to your RECEIVER or PRE-AMP to use that data.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Apex, Toshiba - all entry level ($200)

Very affordable. Good picture in both progressive and interlaced.

No 3:2 pulldown. Build quality has a lot to be desired.

I have owned this player for 1 month now. So far I haven't had any problems with it. Picture is of good quality in both interlaced AND progressive.
I do agree with AC434. It can't be labeled a progressive scan DVD player because of the lack of 3:2 pulldown. The picture I get on my HD ready TV is ,like I mentioned, of good quality. Probably not as good as a 3:2 pulldown DVD player but much better than when I was feeding my DVL 909 to my TV.

I urge people to read the article in Home Theater magazine on the 434. Thanks to AC434, you have a link to check it out.
It was given a performance rating of 92, and was shown to have a better line doubler than those installed in most HD ready TVs ( and that line doubler is apparently a mediocre one!).
The last sentence in that review illustrates best what this DVD player is about: "The DV-434 is still a worthwhile player and an excellent value for those who are going to buy a DVD player anyway, want to get a better image than their TV's internal doubler can provide, and can't quite afford a full progressive player".
Now, I can't give it a 5 star rating because it is not a true progressive scan DVD player. On the other hand this player doesn't deserve a one-star rating either. You can't expect to have top quality picture with this kind of budget.
Good? Certainly. Outstanding? Not quite.
I like mine and anyone who can't afford a 3:2 pulldown player should consider this one, or its replacement (model 444).

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DVL 909, Denon 1100 (Japanese model)

Paperweight

All (other than paperweight)

Not to give to harsh of an opinion (That's why you are here, right?) but this player is the worst Progressive out there.. I must think that all the other people out there who highly rate this player fall into one of two catagories. 1) Honeslty haven't seen enough DVD players to notice this one is crap. or 2) Are trying to justify their purchase and lying to themselves about the quality.

I work in an Audio/Video Store that specializes in high end equipment (no, not pioneer). Stuff like Mark-Levinson, B&W, Rotel, Proceed, etc.

This DVD player is not anywhere near the catagory of the above systems, but it's not supposed to be for the price. However, we commonly play with low-mid end DVD players just for fun, and this player has become a inside joke between the employees at our store. It's that bad.... To begin with, the deinterlacing is worse than any Genesis system I have seen (If you don't know what a Genesis system is, look it up). The picture is bland and too soft. It's a pure result of Marketing. People don't know what progressive really is, but they think that it's what they need. Most people don't even know that progressive only works with a TV that has Component (Yr, Yb, Y) input, usually only found on HDTV's. So, if you have a regular TV, and think that your progressive player is working in progressive mode, NOPE! This player really is that bad, and If you don't believe me, go to a real hi-fi store, and ask to see this player (I doubt they would even carry something this bad) on a component connection vs. say a Panasonic RP91k. Even an untrained Eye could easily tell the difference, and the 91k isn't a high end system, it goes for about 450.. Don't take my word for it. Do more research than this site, because honestly, 99% of the people on this site have no idea what they are talking about. Try to talk to a professional (not circuit-city people, or any other store like that, because all they do is sell to you becuase you don't know any better) and get some sound advice on your DVD purchase. This is a cheap player, but there are much better players for the price. I would suggest getting a non-progressive (becuase if you are in this price range, i doubt your TV will even support progressive) and get a better interlaced (non-progressive) player.

Similar Products Used:

Well, I can say there's nothing like it!

Powerful and crisp clear Audio

may be it is my particular unit that sometimes gives bright picture followed by dim picture alternatively. None others

This product is the best i've ever known. I played audio cds in this unit and the sound was much more better and heavy when compared to panasonic sc-ak57. Plays cd-r's cd-rw's and vcds. Picture quality is also great. Better than Sony which cost about $75 more.
It will be one of your best buys for around $200.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic SC-AK57 Cd player, sony dvd player