Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)DVD was invented in 1995 & it's taken more than 10yrs to perfect the DVD player. The early DVD players all suffered from the same problems that plague Bluray players of today. They were plagued with slow loading times & they came locked - region coded. Even today, there are a lot of DVD players out there that are region coded & they need to be hacked, if U intend to play international DVDs.
The Pioneer DV-610AV is a true universal DVD player because of the following reasons:
1) Out of the box, this player comes unlocked. It plays DVDs from all 6 DVD regions.
2) Universal power supply, it works on both 110V - 220V. It comes with two power chords, one with the N. American flat pin & the other one has the Asian (Chinese) round pin. It can be plugged anywhere in the world with the help of the right pin / plug adaptor.
3) It plays almost all formats other than High Definition formats such as Bluray. It even plays DVDA & SACD.
4) Available in both black & silver. This sure adds up to the universal appeal that many other DVD players lack.
5) All the video / audio connections U'd ever want - HDMI, Component video, Composite video, S-Video, Coaxial audio, Optical audio & 5.1 channel analogue outs.
Design, features & performance:
I bought a Pioneer DV-610AV('S' - Silver) from B&H, NYC in Jan 2009 for USD120. After using it for over an year, I'm truly impressed with its capabilities. I have the Pioneer DV-610AV connected to an Onkyo TX-SR604 AVR Onkyo TX-SR604 7.1 Channel A/V Receiver (Black) with Mediabridge HDMI Mediabridge Ultra Series - High Speed HDMI Cable With Ethernet - Category 2 Certified - Supports 3D & Audio Return Channel - (3 Feet). The DVD upconversion to 1080p over HDMI to a Panasonic 42in G10 plasma Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV is as good as anything I've ever seen on an upconverting DVD player. The video upconversion of the Pioneer DV-610AV is much better than that of the Panasonic G10 plasma TV. I found that a lil' hard to digest, especially when the DVD player cost just 1/8th the price of the HDTV. It's a very simple test. U'll output the DVD player at both 480i & 1080p. If 480i looks better than 1080p, then the video upscaling of the HDTV is better than that of the DVD player, if 1080p is better than 480i, then it's the other way around.
A unique selling point of the Pioneer DV-610AV is its capability of playing home made / burned DVDs without a hiccup. This function is important to me as I make a lot of Windows Media Videos (WMV). This DVD player is especially very good at playing WMVs & DVDs that contain it. There are far & few DVD players that can boast this capability.
The Pioneer DV-610AV has a 24bit/192khz DAC due to its ability to playback DVDA & SACD. The budget DAC in the Pioneer DV-610AV sounds a lil' warmer than the budget DAC used in Onkyo TX-SR604 receiver. Most budget / cheap DACs sound almost the same, but I did enjoy listening to 2 channel music in my Zone 2 setup consisting of Mordaunt Short 902i bookshelf speakers. I had the analogue out of the Pioneer DV-610AV connected to Zone 2 in the Onkyo TX-SR604 receiver. I was happy with this 2 channel setup till I upgraded to a Musical Fidelity V-DAC Musical Fidelity V-DAC Upsampling Digital to Analog Audio Converter. Of course, the MF V-DAC sounds richer, warmer, wider & deeper than the budget DAC used in the Pioneer DV-610AV. It gets more evident when used / tested with better amplifiers & speakers.
This DVD player comes with the 'auto turn off' function, it's especially good if this player is ever to be used as a CD player / source for Zone 2. When activated, this function turns off the DVD player, 30mins after the CD has stopped playback. This is surely an option to have when U do not have a 12V external trigger. The 12V trigger is an impressive function & one that I really like a lot. It may be used in sync with other devices, such as an a/v receiver that has a 12V external trigger and a sleep timer, to auto turn on / off all devices that are connected to the 12V trigger. It is not to be expected in devices at this price point.
These days, almost all manufacturers are turning to 'Black' as their choice of color, possibly due to cost cutting. Not that silver color costs more, it's just that making a product in multiple color options adds cost. Gone are the good old days when most equipment was available in Silver, Gold & even Champaign. As much as black looks cool, it's sad to see that customers are now being forced with no color choice. Brushed Aluminium (Silver) used by Onkyo remains my all time favorite finish for an audio equipment. It's got a vintage & nostalgic feel to it. I'm glad that Pioneer at least gave a choice of both black & silver colors for this DVD player. Sadly, even Pioneer has taken the 'Black' route & now offers all its Bluray players only in black. As of this writing, the only budget Bluray available in silver color is the Onkyo BD-SP807 & that too in Europe. Europe is the only market that still demands & has a taste for silver colored audio / video equipment. It really looks classy & that's what sells there. Only the very high end brands like Lexicon, Mcintosh, Krell etc still sell silver colored gear in the U.S.
Before buying this player, I had considered the following players:
1) Onkyo DV-SP506: This player came region locked & at the time, there were no known hacks for this machine. This player had the best build quality of all the budget DVD players I had considered. Brushed Aluminium (Silver) looks stunning. Onkyo DV-SP506 1080p Upscaling Super Audio CD/DVD Audio/Video Player - Silver.
2) Oppo DV-980H: This player is easy to hack. It was available only in black color & I wanted it in silver color. It had lots of issues with home made / burned DVDs, especially the one consisting of WMVs. It also lacks auto off which is found even in the most basic DVD players. They don't have this function even in the Bluray players they are selling currently. C'mon Oppo, wake up. OPPO DV-980H 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI and 7.1CH Audio.
3) Cambridge Audio Azur 540D V2: Very identical to the Oppo DV-980H, except that it is available in black & silver colors. The silver here looks more like raw aluminium. All other short comings of the Oppo DV-980H is applicable here. Cambridge - 540D v2 - HDMI DVD Player - Silver.
4) Denon DVD 1940CI: It looked like a product with great potential but there were lots of issues with home made / burned DVDs. Denon DVD 1940CI - DVD player - upscaling.
5) Marantz DV6001: Very identical to the Denon DVD 1940CI & it had the same short comings too.
6) I w'd never consider any of Sony's products that are almost always plagued with company made proprietary hiccups. So why buy from a brand that's always so non flexible?
7) LG, Samsung etc were never up to my taste for a DVD player.
I finally settled for the Pioneer DV-610AV which was cheaper than the above mentioned DVD players, & yet it had all the functions, features & performance that I was looking for in a budget DVD player.
The Pioneer DV-610 c'd have improved on the following:
1) The build quality of this DVD player is nothing to boast about. I really wish the build quality of this DVD player was at least close to Pioneer's own Elite DVD players. And may be a lil' more quiet operation w'd have made this a hell of a DVD player.
2) Random play is good but shuffle play w'd have been better for CD playback. Almost all universal Bluray / DVD players suffer from this. This is where a dedicated CD player still has an advantage.
3) It w'd have been great if we c'd change the player menu settings without stopping the DVD / CD, a la (in the style of) Oppo.
4) I don't have SACDs or DVDAs but I do have HDCDs. If this format w'd have been included, this w'd have been the universal DVD player to beat.
5) Auto turn off is good, but a 12V external trigger w'd have been a dream come true.
Conclusion:
I know I'm expecting too much from a USD120 budget DVD player, but that's just me. With the DV-610AV Pioneer has managed to make a superb universal DVD player at a decent price point & goes on to prove that it does not have to be expensive to really perform well. This is a great DVD player regardless of price. Unfortunately Pioneer c'd not perform a similar trick with their Bluray players which severely lags behind in the competition. Anyone who is not ready for a Bluray player yet & is still looking for a truly capable universal DVD player, sh'd put this player right on top of their list.
This DVD player was especially made for the Asian & European markets. The ones sold in the U.S. come without a warranty. Now that's a risk U'll have to consider before buying the Pioneer DV-610AV universal DVD player. And it's almost the same risk U'll be facing, when U plan to buy an unlocked universal Bluray player.
Just my $0.02.
Brgds.
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Pioneer DV-610AV-K Black Multi Region Code Zone Free DVD Player with HDMI 1080p Output. Play all region 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 PAL or NTSC DVDs.Universal Region Free DVD Player with HDMI Output (Silver) A high-performance DVD Audio/Video & SACD player featuring HDMI 1080p upscaling, USB, WMV playback, and DivX® Ultra This ultra-slim, universal DVD player is multi-format and will play your entire DVD and CD collection, including DVD Audio and SACD. You can play content from your USB memory stick or audio player (the player has a front-in USB), or enjoy other compressed movies and music formats that you have downloaded from the web and then burnt onto CD-R/RW (MPEG, MP3, WMA or JPEG files for example). This player is DivX Ultra certified, which means that you can enjoy the highest quality possible from compressed files. The 600AV has an HDMI output with 1080p upscaling, ensuring that what you see is of the highest possible quality, regardless of the source. In addition, the 600AV has Virtual Surround Sound, which enables surround sound effects from just two speakers. When you're watching a DVD, you hear a deep, realistic 3D soundspace from a pair of stereo speakers.
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