Pioneer Magic (Pioneer DV 444)

Member Name: dazzyuk

Product:	Pioneer DV 444
Date:	14/06/02 (362 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality, MP3/SVCD/VCD/CDR/CDRW

Disadvantages: NONE

I had been watching dvd's on my pc for quite a while and enjoyed them apart from every now and again the sound would lose sync and the video would become jerky, mainly due to the fact my graphics card had no dvd support.

Anyway i decided it was time to buy a DVD player, i spent alot of time reading reviews on the Internet, and seen the Pioneer Dv-444 do very well in reviews. There were some other players i thought carefully about from Sony and Panasonic, but the Sony didn't read Cd-r and the Panasonic didn't have RGB video output an absolute must if you want to get the best out of DVD!

The first thing you notice about this player is its amazing good looks, It really is the most stylish DVD player i have seen.

Now, onto how the Pioneer performs in Picture quality. But before i start let me tell you the connections the pioneer has available for picture. It has RGB through a scart connection, S-Video jack, and a composite jack, you can also send s-video and composite though the scart, but you would be crazy not to use RGB as it is so much better than the other two.

So the video quality i am happy to say is just amazing, i played an old jackie chan film (police story) and was gob-smacked, this i can honestly say is how DVD should look, colour is spot on, image is so smooth and shiny thanks to RGB. I also tried a couple of VCD's and they also looked great, but this dvd player also plays SVCD (closer to the quality of DVD video but on CD).

I have had the dvd player connected to a surround amplifier and surround comes through in excellent condition. However my own set up is just stereo, but the Pioneer has Dolby Digital stereo downmix and also a Surround sound simulator called Tru Surround, i think this is another great function that adds more depth to dvd's in stereo.

The Pioneer DV-444 is also a great CD-player with MP3 support, which is nice as i have a big mp3 collection, you can have 256 mp3
's on 1 cd. They sound really good and plays bit rates up to 320kbps i have also listened to VBR mp3's with no hassle.

To sum it up, this is a very capable player, with support for just about every format out there. Most importantly this is how DVD players should be! Pioneer should be congratulated for their high quality.

Best Features

Stunning Video/Sound Quality
Great Looks Also Very Slimline
RGB Video output
MP3 Playback
CD-R/CDRW support
PAL/NTSC
VCD/SVCD
DTS/DOLBY DIGITAL OUTPUT (OPTICAL + COAXIAL)

Summary: