Review: The new Pioneer DV533K DVD Player
Mal P
I've managed to purchase one of these machines after waiting for over a
month for it to be released in Australia, and I thought you might like to
hear my thoughts on this excellent DVD player.
I purchased mine fully modded from Trevor Lees for $650 plus shipping and it
arrived the day after he recieved my money order.
For years I've been using a Creative Dxr3 (Hollywood Plus clone) to watch
DVDs on my TV... with one small problem. The TV (and reciever) was 40 metres
away in the living room, hooked up to the Dxr3 via 40 metre lengths for
video and digital audio. As you can imagine, setting a movie playing, and
then running to the living room to start watching, isn't exactly a
recreation of the "cinematic" experience. Unless you were off on a toilet
break or something.
Anyway, I decided to finally fork over for a DVD player, and initially, I
was going to go for the Pioneer 344 player, as it had garnered good reviews
and I respected the Pioneer brand for it's reputation with DVD playback.
I've had luck with their DVD-ROM drivers, friends have had luck with their
players, so why not? Besides, Pioneer were the only "top 5" brands around
that offered NTSC to PAL60 conversion, which I needed for my old TV. I was
reluctant to spend money on the cheaper players, mainly due to the hit and
miss ratio associated with them. Some friends I know have had tremendous
experiences with such cheaper players, and they have truly turned out to be
absolute bargains offering brand name features and performance at half the
cost. But some have had... not so good experiences with them, and for
someone who has endured many a crash with his PC DVD player... I wanted as
little trouble as possible.
Anyway, I was about to purchase the Pioneer 344, but I read a post in this
newsgroup about a new player from Pioneer that was coming out... and so my
curiosity was intrigued. I decided to withhold my purchase of the 344 until
I had more information on this new player. After much research and E-mailing
of Pioneer officials, it turns out the new player was the "Pioneer DV533K"
which, above all, had the rather 'neat' feature of Mp3 playback. I had to
wait a month to buy it though.
So, the features of the Pioneer DV533K:
*540-line playback resolution (I'm not sure whether this is visible on
anything but the most high-end TVs, but eh)
*DVD/SVCD/VCD/CD/CD-R/CD-RW playback.
*NTSC to PAL60 format conversion
*Mp3 playback
*192khz/24-bit DAC (the European model has Burr-Brown DACs, but not sure on
the Aussie version)
*MP3 playback
*Karaoke features
*Adjustable Video settings
*Smooth variable fast forward/rewind!
*TruSurround by SRS (bleah)
*Component/S-Video/Composite video output
*Screen Saver
Ok, so I get the player, and plug it in, hooking it up via digital optical
cable to my Sony 50ES DD/DTS reciever. The first thing I notice is that the
player is a slim-line model, gold coloured and looks quite attractive. It's
not the yellowish-gold as the brochures make out, but a rather posh
creamy-gold. Mind you, I would have preferred black, but hey, it's just a
colour. The build quality is a notch above that seen in the 344/535 lines as
it seems very solid, encased in metal and the buttons and drive tray very
firm. In fact, I'd say the build matches that of the old Pioneer 515 series
around a few years ago. The manual is comprehensive and detailed enough for
a reasonable individual to work out what's going on.
So, I pop a disc in the drive (the Matrix - don't like the movie but a good
test disc). The player loads the DVD automatically and very quickly. Menu
navigation is fluid and quick. The player responds instantly to the remote
control commands. Just to note that the remote control is absolutely
superb... the navigation keys are right under your thumb, and very easy to
locate. The other functions keys (fast forward, next, pause etc) are all
located in comfortable positions and after a while, you can remember the
location of each key by simply feeling the remote with your fingers, even in
the dark.
Once the movie is actually playing, the playback quality is breathtaking.
I'm not sure whether it's because I had been running composite video over 40
metres previously, but the picture is a lot sharper and doesn't "colour
bleed" anymore. I'd say it's equivalent to the Pioneer 535/344 etc. I think
pretty much everyone knows what that looks like. I'm not sure I'd notice the
540-line feature, even if
I had a fancy TV, but the quality is no worse than in previous models. About
this chroma-bug... I'm not sure how to detect it, but someone in the states
report that they can't find the bug with their equivalent model (the DV440).
You can adjust the video by going to the setup menu. There are three preset
modes, "standard" which is just taking the source from the DVD untampered
(the most used by me), as well as "cinema" and "animation" which adjusts the
contrast/brightness levels to suit different types of film. There are also
individual options to adjust the sharpness, contrast, brightness, colour etc
and save them in two different memory slots. The "display" key on the remote
lets you view the various data on the CD, such as time left and bitrate etc.
The fast forward and rewind are absolutely wonderful. Anyone who is used to
the 4-second "jerk" that was the prior Pioneer norm will be delighted. There
are three variable speeds to choose from. You press the forward button once,
and it begins a 2x speed fast forward. You press it again, and it moves on
upto a 4x fast forward. Press it again, and you have an 8x fast forward. You
can also press the forward button and keep it pressed, giving you a 2x fast
forward until you release the button. All this works in the opposite
(rewind) direction as well.
The slow motion features are also smooth, allowing you to view at 1/2, 1/4
speed or 1/16 speed in both directions. There is also a frame advance button
that again lets you go back.
Note that if you keep a scene paused for a long time, the screen saver kicks
in, thus stopping your tube from burning in.
Every disc I've thrown at it have played superbly and without flaw. I'll
need to go and nab a copy of the "The Cell" to see if it works, but I don't
doubt it will as Pioneer already have a firmware upgrade available for the
535/344 for the fix, and I'm sure it has been incoporated into the 533K
firmware.
I unfortunately haven't listened to the quality of the on-board DACs, as I
just use the optical out. CDs load quickly, and you can fast forward/rewind
tracks as well.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of this player is the Mp3 playback
option. I burned a CD of around 150 files in 5 different folders to test
this feature. Note that the player will recognise a maximum of 250 folders
and 250 files. It will work with fixed bitrate files from 64kbps to 320kbps,
but it will *not* work with variable bitrates. That's ok, it's rare to find
a variable bitrate mp3. You can use 44.1khz or 48khz files. The player will
show on both it's display panel and the TV navigation screen the ISO
standard 8.3 letter filenames.
When you are playing the MP3 CD, you can see the folders on the left, and
the tracks within the folders on the right. Using the arrow keys, you can
select the folder or track and press Enter to play. You can setup a
playlist, or use a random play function. You can also FF or RW the songs.
The "display" key will show the bitrate for the files as well. An Mp3 CD is
loaded very quickly.
A picture of the Mp3 navigator (note - promo pic from some website):
http://www.avland.co.uk/pioneer/dv545/mp3menulrg.jpg
It also seems that the "crackle" that older Pioneer models and older Sony
recievers have had no longer is a problem... I've not noticed it on any of
the titles that I have played.
The player plays back VCDs and SVCDs just as competently, and also allows
you to smooth fast forward/rewind along with all the other functions
available for the DVD format. One niggle is that it always seems to start a
VCD in "PBC" or "Playback Control" mode... anyone know how to turn that off?
One of the handy playback features is something called "Last Condition
Memory". It stores all your disc settings for up to 15 different titles. I
have a music DVD that always defaults to the DD2.0 track, and you have to
enter the menu to change it back to DD5.1... with Last Condition Memory, the
disc automatically starts playing using the DD5.1 track. Bliss.
Overall, this is a fantastic player for the money, and I'm absolutely
delighted with it. I doubt you could find a better, more feature and
performance complete one at this price. Today, I popped an Mp3 disc in
there, set it on random for the 170 or so songs and sat down to do some
reading for Uni. Bliss :)
Sincerely,
Mal
theBlob
>Hi everyone,
<giant snip>
thanks for the comprehensive report
couple of questions
what are the video output options?
how are the layer changes?
blob
Indecisive
"Mal P" <pandor...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9o4e6i$b733h$1...@ID-106478.news.dfncis.de...
Trevor S
news:9o4e6i$b733h$1...@ID-106478.news.dfncis.de...
> Hi everyone,
>
> firm. In fact, I'd say the build matches that of the old Pioneer 515 series
> around a few years ago. The manual is comprehensive and detailed enough for
That is what I have, the Asian gold verison with compenent out, not the s-video only
Aussie version.
<Snip>
> control commands. Just to note that the remote control is absolutely
> superb... the navigation keys are right under your thumb, and very easy to
Good to hear the 515, 525, 535 had ... err... ordinary remotes, not that I use mine as I
have a Pronto to do the work
<Snip>
> About this chroma-bug... I'm not sure how to detect it,
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.h
tml
> Every disc I've thrown at it have played superbly and without flaw. I'll
> need to go and nab a copy of the "The Cell" to see if it works, but I don't
> doubt it will as Pioneer already have a firmware upgrade available for the
> 535/344 for the fix, and I'm sure it has been incoporated into the 533K
> firmware.
Interestingly my 515 played it back with out a hitch. Albeit the title has atrocious,
nearly unmatchable edge enhancement on large screens
<snip>
> One of the handy playback features is something called "Last Condition
> Memory". It stores all your disc settings for up to 15 different titles. I
Doesn't work on my 515 for at least 50% of the titles I have tried it on :( I get a disk
error logo pop up on screen.
How are the layer change speeds, seamless or around the 0.5 sec - 1 sec mark of the older
Pioneers ?
Trevor S
Mal P
> what are the video output options?
It has Composite, S-Video and Component outputs. You can set the S-Video
output to different "tolerance" levels for some sensitive TVs as well.
> how are the layer changes?
Standard. 0.5 to 1 second. You do notice the pause, but that sort of delay
isn't really a big factor. I believe it already has a memory buffer to
handle the smooth fast forward/rewind etc, so I'm a little surprised they
haven't extended it a little to overcome it.
--
Cheers,
Mal
theBlob
>> what are the video output options?
>
>It has Composite, S-Video and Component outputs. You can set the S-Video
>output to different "tolerance" levels for some sensitive TVs as well.
cool
>> how are the layer changes?
>Standard. 0.5 to 1 second. You do notice the pause, but that sort of delay
>isn't really a big factor. I believe it already has a memory buffer to
>handle the smooth fast forward/rewind etc, so I'm a little surprised they
>haven't extended it a little to overcome it.
pity
thanks
bloberino
Mal P
> Good to hear the 515, 525, 535 had ... err... ordinary remotes, not that I
use mine as I
> have a Pronto to do the work
The 533K uses the same remote as the 344/535, so err... horses for courses
;)
> Interestingly my 515 played it back with out a hitch. Albeit the title has
atrocious,
> nearly unmatchable edge enhancement on large screens
Ahh edge enhancement... the saviour of the cheap ;)
> Doesn't work on my 515 for at least 50% of the titles I have tried it on
:( I get a disk
> error logo pop up on screen.
Just tested it again... it seems it loads the Condition memory everytime the
disc tries to change to the default audio settings etc, over-riding the
disc... it works well, they must have refined the settings, allowing a
little "cheating" of the DVD spec you might say. You can also load the menu
directly from the "stop" state, allowing you to skip past all them FBI
warnings etc. Heh, more cheating.
> How are the layer change speeds, seamless or around the 0.5 sec - 1 sec
mark of the older
> Pioneers ?
I'd say the same... 0.5 sec sounds about right.
Just to add to my review, the player is actually very quiet! While it of
course makes *some* noise, it is inaudible from the sitting position, even
when the volume is muted.
Cheers,
Mal
theBlob
>Just to add to my review, the player is actually very quiet! While it of
>course makes *some* noise, it is inaudible from the sitting position, even
>when the volume is muted.
this is good news too, the 5x5 series were all a little noisy for mine
don't know about the 344
blob
napalm68
Creative as my only player, and I have never SEEN a layer change.
Fortunately, I have the computer in an adjacent room to the tV so a very
short 1.5m cable run... I even use a keyboard extension cable so I can have
the keyboard in the lounge.
.
"theBlob" <m...@here.com> wrote in message
news:4Tjp7.61197$bY5.2...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Richard Bolt
I ordered it from Trev last week and just got notice of delivery today.
I'm itching to pick it up and start using as soon as possible :)
Peter
Khan
cheapest ever decoder (Creative CT 7160) and I have no idea what a
layer change looks like either. Maybe PCs have a buffer to handle it
or something.
"napalm68" <napa...@flashmail.nospam.com> wrote in message news:<V5lp7.61465$bY5.2...@news-server.bigpond.net.au>...
Chris Mayer
> need to go and nab a copy of the "The Cell" to see if it works, but I
don't
> doubt it will as Pioneer already have a firmware upgrade available for the
> 535/344 for the fix, and I'm sure it has been incoporated into the 533K
> firmware.
I also bought one from Trevor Lees on Saturday. I have "The Cell" and it
plays fine.
Dion Mikkelsen
P" <pandor...@hotmail.com> was placed on the record as saying, and I quote:
>The 533K uses the same remote as the 344/535, so err... horses for courses
>;)
I just picked up a DV344 ... I'd have to argue with you that I think the remote
is terrible! Very chunk and the main buttons are too small. But I'm probably
just spoilt by the illuminated and extremely well designed remote of my Philips
VR899 hifi VCR ... that is sheer beauty to use :)
>I'd say the same... 0.5 sec sounds about right.
Same for the DV344.
>Just to add to my review, the player is actually very quiet! While it of
>course makes *some* noise, it is inaudible from the sitting position, even
>when the volume is muted.
Ditto for the 344.
Dion M.
http://dionsplace.terrashare.com/
"Great minds talk about ideas. Average minds talk about events. Small minds talk about people."
Louis Solomon
> and I have never SEEN a layer change.
this is cause most PC dvd drives can read at fast speeds like 8x and this
means that if the software uses a buffer of approx .5 sec, and trys to keep
this topped up (easy at 8x), then during the "layer change", the player part
of the software is still reading from the buffer.
in a nutshell, it's cause the PC players use large ram buffers, and have
fast drives with high transfer rates, and low seeks
--
Louis Solomon
www.SteelBytes.com
Michael
they just playback at 1X?
I still see layer changes on my H+/DXR3.
"Louis Solomon" <lo...@steelbytes.com> wrote in message
news:Z4Up7.183$cu4....@ozemail.com.au...
David Sauer
Mikkelsen) wrote:
>I just picked up a DV344 ... I'd have to argue with you that I think the remote
>is terrible! Very chunk and the main buttons are too small. But I'm probably
Wanna swap for a 525 remote?
Dion Mikkelsen
dsa...@ozemail.com.au (David Sauer) was placed on the record as saying, and I
quote:
>On Tue, 18 Sep 2001 08:06:46 GMT, dmikk...@start.com.au (Dion
Isn't it the same ?
Just a general comment, but based on my 2 Philips components (TV and VCR),
Philips have it all over Sony and Pioneer (the other brands of AV equipment I
have) when it comes to remote control design. Ergonomics+++
Mal P
Good God no ;-) Trust me, you are experiencing the creme of the crop of
under $1000 DVD remotes with the 344 one.
Cheers,
Mal
Damien Smith
> they just playback at 1X?
> I still see layer changes on my H+/DXR3.
Yeah, I've got a Hollywood+ and it always has a .5 second pause at a
layer change even when playing a movie that has been copied to the
hard drive.
Incidentally, I'm one of the suckers with a Sony receiver who bought a
Pioneer 535 and has to put up with massive crackling in menus and huge
dropouts at layer changes. I wonder if I can trade in on one of these
533k babies......
Michael
like the kind hearted Mal P can test them for us, on his new beast. :)
"Damien Smith" <smith...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3ef9c07a.01092...@posting.google.com...
Mal P
But sure, if you can find me a R4 title that crackles regularly, I'll go
rent it and check it out.
--
Cheers,
Mal
"Michael" <quadha...@HAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:oeSq7.78009$bY5.3...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Dion Mikkelsen
P" <pandor...@hotmail.com> was placed on the record as saying, and I quote:
>> Isn't it the same ?
>
>Good God no ;-) Trust me, you are experiencing the creme of the crop of
>under $1000 DVD remotes with the 344 one.
I'll take your word for it :)
Michael
the menus.
"Mal P" <pandor...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9ogvn3$d1vne$1...@ID-106478.news.dfncis.de...