Has a good none 3/2 progressive output, plays CDR's, easy to set up.

Not a good remote, s-video performance not as good as others, digital audio output also not as good as others, in player letterboxing is poor.

I got the Pioneer in an exchange for my Sony player because it had the lip syncronization problem that many of the Sony players with the same chip set had in that model year. That is another story. I also used the JVC for about a month, but that particular player would stop sending a video signal to my TV everytime that a movie would fade to black. I know that this problem has sent been fixed, but I did not want to go through another process of trying to get things fixed again.
Anyway, on to the Pioneer. I have seen its progressive output on HD monitors, and it was quite good. However, I have also seen players like the Sony 9000ES, which does a 3/2 pulldown and that defininatly had a better picture. The down side was that it was about a $1000 more. The JVC player also had a good progressive picture, but like I said I had problems with it, and I wanted something that would play CDRs.
The setup of this player is easy and straightforward. The remote is not a work of art and I would recommend using a learning remote or universal if possible. I also did not like the in player letterboxing comared to the Sony. The S-video picture quality was not as good as the Sony and not close to the JVC. Lastly, the audio does not seem to be as good as either of the other players useing the optical output.
Overall, I like this player even with its faults, because every player including the $1200 players have faults. It plays CDRs, it has a progressive scan capablity, the mouths always match with the audio, and it does not stop sending a picture to my TV ever. Not to mention that it's price is very tempting for all it offers.

Similar Products Used:

JVC D723GD, Sony 550D

Great picture and plays anything you put into it. For those of you who say it doesn't do true progressive scan, I say maybe you just don't want to admit that the $1,000 you spent on a "true" progressive player was a total waste of money (sour grapes). This unit does do progressive and I couldn't be happier with it.

None at this price!

Have had this unit for about a year now and have no complaints. I posted a review when I first got it and I can gladly say that this unit has performed flawlessly ever since. Picture in progressive is great and if you can find a better player for the money, you should buy it, but I don't think you will find a better player with a better picture at this price anywhere.

Great sound, inexpensive for progressive player

Remote, less accurate progressive scan (at least in theory) than more expensive models.

Well you can't ask for much more for the price I paid ($220 from Sears on an Internet price match), but I will say that I wasn't exactly blown away by the picture. It was good mind you, probably better than an non-progressive DVD player you can buy, but don't think that it will give you near HDTV quality. It won't. Of course that isn't the player's fault as DVD can only give you so much.

I will say this though, the Pioneer 434 sure can give you one heck of a bang for your buck if you own an HD or HD ready TV. Mine is a Toshiba TN50X81, and it seems to work well with this DVD (I also heard that there is a chip fix to allow this player to work with the Hitachi, but I don't recall where, how, how much, etc.).

I did notice a little jumpyness in the credits and particularly the menu when I changed from interlaced to progressive though. My wife commented on this as well, so I know it isn't just me.

Does anyone else have this problem? Has anyone else resolved this issue?

Anyway, it isn't noticeable during a movie (credits aside).

Some have mentioned that since this player cannot do 3:2 pulldown it will display more artifacts and "jaggies" than say a Toshiba 6200, JVC 723, etc. I noticed no such thing in either paused frames or durning the movie so don't let someone's snobbish attitude toward 3:2 pulldown bother you. If you are that conerned, then spend the $300 more and get the Toshiba (or maybe $250 more and get the HK). I did notice that the picture appeared a little soft until I added in some sharpness on my TV though so keep that in mind.

So what do I give this player? The thing works well, and as far as I know it seems to deliver as good a picture as DVD can deliver. The sound is excellent, the load times quick, the remote OK (a little small, and not back-lit).

I want to give this thing a four for the jumpy picture in the credits, but maybe I just have something set up wrong so I think a five is in order.

BTW, you'll want component video cables with this. I use Acoustic Research cables as I find them a great buy (much cheaper than Monster, and every bit as good from what I can tell). A cheap place to buy a 6-foot cable (under $40 shipped) is avconnect.com. They are on special, so don't hold me to this if they run out. I ordered a set on a Thursday and got it on a Monday. Can't beat that for under $40.

Similar Products Used:

None (first DVD)

Picture Quality, Price!!!

Remote.

At first I was looking at purchasing either the Pioneer Elite DV-37 or the Toshiba SD-6200. Not wanting to spend the big dollars I decided to try this player. I figured with a 30 day return policy, if I didn't like it I'd just return it. The overall weight throws you off but don't get hung up on that. Who cares how heavy the thing is? The picture quality on my Mitsubishi 65857 with progressive scan is night and day over both my other players. It looked as good or better than the picture on the reference setup at the place I purchased my television from. Most noticable was the loss of distortion during motion sequences and less jaggies around the edges of figures. Some DVDs are better than others but all are improved. The remote is the only thing I was disappointed in. It is hard to use in the dark because the buttons are so small and the remote doesn't illuminate. I found myself using my television remote to light this one. This is a small price to pay for such good picture quality. I am greatly pleased that I tried this player first, and would suggest that others do the same before shelling out the cash for a more expensive player.

Similar Products Used:

First generation Toshiba. Playstation 2.

picture quality, plays cdrw/cdr, ease of use

build quality, remote

I have this player hooked up to my toshiba TN50x81 hdtv. The picture quality is outstanding in progressive. I have also used the toshiba 5109 and the the picture quality of this unit is slightly better, but is not worth the difference in price.
The pioneer has managed to play every type of cd media I have thrown at it which I couldn't say for the toshiba. As for it being a "true" progressive scan dvd or not, who cares as long as it works with your hdtv. The difference between interlaced and progressive on this unit is like night and day. The build quality and remote could be better but I guess pioneer had to cut corners somewhere to offer a progressive scan unit at this price. Overall I feel this is best bang for your buck progressive dvd player out on the market today. The money you save can be used to by somemore dvds.

Similar Products Used:

toshiba 5109

Progressive Scan, quiet operation

Picture not really crisp for a Progresive Scan DVD player;
cheesy setup displays; subtitles displayed over the picture (while there is a lot of room under it); no zoom. No S-video cable (as the basic connection type for that kind of DVD) is included.

A good basic DVD player : no skips or pauses were observed. Compared to Phillips 953AT though the picture is not as crisp and does not seem to add value when used in Progressive Scan mode (used with a Samsung TSK3292F). Setup screen look pretty ugly and give you a bit of a aesthetic shock when switching from a movie to the setup screen. The remote is OK: easy to use, has a subpanel for TV control.

Similar Products Used:

Phillips 953AT

Good audio, reliabilty

remote

I bought this at costco to see if it would improve the picture quality over the pioneer unit I now have due to the progressive scan capability. After buying component video cables and comparing the old player and the new player I came to the decision that my toshiba 65h80 does just as good a job at scanning as does the pioneer 434.
This is only if you use component cables. I asked my wife to compare also and she actualy chose the old pioneer unit as the better picture. The 434 would be a good player for someone who's tv did't have a good line doubler but my toshiba's line doubler is just fine.

Similar Products Used:

pioneer zenith phillips

Progressive Scan capability at this price can't beat it!

Progressive scan below par with better players

Saw an ad for The Pioneer for $200 at Ubid.com and couldn't pass up the bargain.

I was a bit concerned when I received the Pioneer DVD434 and unpacked it because it was so light that I can lift it with one hand.( Compared to the Sony DVP7000 which is about 25 lbs) But for a $200 price tag I can't complain.

I connected it to my Panasonic DTV using the progressive inputs. I wasn't really impressed with the Pioneer because my older Sony DVP7000 looks better with the S-video output.
Sound using the digital outputs is ok. The Pioneer has problems with text on film( i.e. the credits at the end of the film or anything with text shimmers).The picture it makes looks good for a player at this price.

I did notice that it has problems playing some DVD's. It skips around on the "Fight Club", which plays perfectly on the Sony. Side changes on dual layer DVD's are also obvious on the Pioneer because it pauses for a few seconds when it cahnges layers.

The remote is not backlighted so forget about using it in a dim room. The keys are small and hard to distinguish from each other. I fortunately only use the play button.

If you're looking for an average DVD player with progressive scan this is a player you should consider. But if you don't have a HDTV you really won't need the progressive scan feature.

This is STILL a very capable player for $200.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP7000

the remote is easy to use. if you leave the disc in the unit, it will spin down and stop itself.

seems to have a lot of latency in some way on some discs. i frequently have problems with video artifacts, and short pauses.

the Close Encounters of the Third Kind disc will not work. Disc 2, which has the extra features, will work fine though.

The XMen DVD will frequently spontaneously pause during playback. I have owned this CD since it was first printed and the problems did not exist on the first couple plays of the movie. This is a new development.

I took it back to Best Buy and its still on Extended 4 year warranty. I have to wait 6 weeks to get it back. In the meantime, i wish i would have bought a different player, or at least went to a store that had a 90 day replacement warranty. I wont go to best buy any more, with only a 30 day warranty.

Similar Products Used:

two of my good friends also have this same model of DVD player, and they dont seem to have problems, but then again, they dont play the same movies that I do.

Progressive Scan, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, SVCD, Price, Availability

Only holds one disk, Chintzy remote, no RGB cables included

This puts out a great picture for the money. My wife and I watched Cleopatra on my Toshiba HDTV with this DVD, and the picture was excellent. On the "Making of Cleopatra" DVD, there was one scene where a still picture with a lot of detail was scrolled across the screen, and that scrolling was perfectly smooth with no jitter, noisy lines or anything, and was a good test for me as to the quality of the player and its progressive output. I've also tried my home-made VCDs and SVCDs to see how they played, and they played fine, so I'm planning on editing my home videos and put them on SVCDs. This has everything I wanted, including an affordable price.