Small is beautiful (Pioneer DV 444)

Member Name: mdtt1983

Product:	Pioneer DV 444
Date:	11/08/02 (205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slimness makes it easy to your hands round the back, Good picture quality, Good value

Disadvantages: Boring Remote control

Cuteness isn?t a word I would usually associate with DVD players. In fairness, its not normally used to describe any metal objects, except maybe if Cameron Diaz gets the lead in Terminator 3!
However I recently purchased the DV-444 from Pioneer and it has a slimline aluminium overcoat that almost warrants a motherly wiggle of the cheek. I measured it and it?s only 55mm tall and shop assistant told me, its currently making it one of the thinnest DVD players on the shelves, although it would probably be hidden behind an equally good looking price tag. Standard DVD players these days are becoming increasingly cheaper.

The on-screen navigator is a useful way to establish those all-important personal settings, but the menu system is a little basic and the controls aren?t always responsive to my requests. This doesn?t mean that things took too long to get my choices installed, as there are very few features to play with, but all the basic picture and audio fine-tuning facilities to get the best from my discs are on-hand.
There are a few extra touches, though. The ?last memory? facility stores a particular time frame on a DVD, so that even if I decided to eject the disc, playback will continue from the exact point. If you have the maximum capacity of five DVDs tagged up, then a pen and paper will suffice as a particular time or chapter can be accessed in seconds with the search facility.
In addiction, a conditional memory can store a selection of settings for 15 of my favourite movies, including parental lock-which may prove handy if you want to protect your kids from today?s seemingly acceptable level of movie violence. I actually don?t have any kids so I don?t have to bother with that quite yet.

Oh yes I nearly forget about the remote control. The remote is a commendable assistant to a lazy day?s viewing. Whilst some may yearn for swirls of colour and flashing lights, all the buttons here are nicely spaced out and easy to use. Although sligh
tly uncomfortable everything is in its rightful place and the playback, menu and search controls can be utilised in one flashing, colourful swing of the thumb.
For you serious DVD hunters, I don?t believe this player is a big boy but it?s sharp enough, cool enough and good enough for me.

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