Silver Disc Player! (Pioneer DV 370-K)

Member Name: numberthree

Product:	Pioneer DV 370-K
Date:	22/02/05 (536 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Black, Narrow, Attractive

Disadvantages: Cd Playbac kmay not be as good as a CD player

Our CD player finally started to play up too much just before Christmas and so we decided to get up with technology and purchase a DVD Player rather than a replacement CD. After weeks of searching the electrical superstores we finally found somewhere with some knowledge and we purchased this Pioneer DV-370 model.

As we searched through the shops it became increasingly apparent that most of the manufacturers of DVD players have only one colour of paint in their stock rooms – silver. We really wanted a black one to match the rest of our hi-fi system. So we were really pleased when we found this model as it is black!!! Size wise it is 16.5”x9”x2.5” which means it is not too wide for our hi-fi cabinet – there is a massive different in widths amongst (and within) all the makes on the market. It is a matt black with 4 small black feet to lift it off whatever it is sitting on. This is a good selling point as the unit gets quite warm when it has been on for a while, but also means it will happily sit on top of our amplifier without causing any overheating problems there either.

The face of the player is rather attractive, with the DVD drawer in the middle and an LCD display screen on the right hand side. The LCD screen is very easy to read from across our lounge. Under these are the control buttons, which we hardly use as the unit comes with a very nice remote (and batteries). The units’ buttons are quite small and very positive to use however. The remote is light grey with a black back and darker grey buttons, about 7 inches long and 2 inches wide. We have found it very easy to use, although we have discovered that the actual player is slow to respond to the initial remote signal. So you have to press the on/off button ONCE and then wait for a couple of seconds for the unit to wake up – not a problem at all once you realise that this is how it works. There is a button to activate the drawer on the remote also. We have to be careful with that as we have a glass fronted cabinet so we would be able to open the drawer with the cabinet closed – could be very expensive! The drawer slides out very smoothly and fully to allow a disc to be inserted and removed very easily. A great feature is that is the unit has not been used for 30 minutes then it will turn its-self off.

At the rear of the player are various sockets for digital audio out (coaxial) plugs, video out plugs, component video out plugs and audio out plugs. It has one Scart socket and of course the power socket. The plugs fitted very snugly into the sockets we used.

The unit came with an audio/video cable (red/white/yellow plugs) a power cable and full operating instructions. We had the unit multi-regioned before we left the shop so we are able to play all types of DVD films. This player is able to play DVD-video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, Audio CD, Video CD, CD-R CD-RW and Fuljicolor CDs. We have also been able to play MP3 discs on this too and view JPEG files.

The unit has a 24-bit/a92Hz compatible DAC that means the player is fully compatible with high sampling-rate discs. It gives great surround sound too using Dolby Digital. It is also compatible with pure cinema progressive scan video if you have that sort of TV. It has a Disc Navigator system too, which means you can view as a thumbnail the first few frames of each title or chapter.

We have found the picture very good and there is a zoom function to enable you to change the shape of the picture depending on whether you have a wide screen TV or not – we don’t (yet!).

We find that this player plays CDs very well although my husband says that it is not as good as our player that died – but of course this one actually works! The salesman in the shop had actually said that it wouldn’t be quite as good on CD playback as our old Technics CD. Having said that I cannot tell the difference and my husbands hearing is very good at detecting differences in this sort of thing. So unless you are a real music buff insisting on tip top quality playback I think this player would be excellent.

The user manual is very comprehensive, although I have left my hubby to sort it all out as I am rather a technophobe. Although I have included some technical info in this review, I can confess that I don’t actually understand some of it totally, but feel it will be of value to those who know about these things!

All in all I think it was a very good buy for around £70 from an independent electrical retailer who actually knew what he was talking about – unlike a couple of the large electrical superstores who shall remain nameless although I am sure you know who I am talking about!

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