Rating: 
Summary: Pioneer hits a home run for great picture, sound & value
Review: After buying a 30-inch widescreen Philips digital display, my nearly 4-year-old Magnavox DVD player just would no longer provide the quality I needed. Thus, I began the search for a quality progressive scan player that would take full advantage of my new TV.
After buying and trying ~$100 players from Samsung and Panasonic, which I both promptly returned, I expanded my mindset. I looked at the Harmon/Kardon DVD22, which costs a hefty $200 and this great Pioneer DV-578A, which clocks in ~$50 less. I decided to take the Pioneer home and I am completely pleased.
It has a rich, clean 480p image with ample blacks and no unwanted imagery or need for excessive adjustment of my picture to compensate. The on-screen menus are more comprehensive than any other player I've plugged in, giving you lots of control and adjustability based on your system. It is SACD compatible, but I've not tried any of those yet. It has the optical and digital coax outputs, as well as built-in audio outs.
If you're like me, a mid-level A/V nut who's not ready for the ridiculous prices of Denon and the whole HiFi Buys crowd, the Pioneer is a great choice for a DVD player.
Rating: 
Summary: Pioneer 578 - not for SACD
Review: I bought one at Best Buy and picked out a number of SACD and DVD-Audio disc to take home and try out the new machine. Well on a few of the disc it was very nice but on some there was a horrible popping on some tracks (not just between them). I went back to the store where they had the machine set up as a demo and I was surprised that it didn't have the same problem. I then realized that they had it playing through 2-channel and had not used the 5.1. When set to 5.1 it had the very same problem. I'll be taking it back and saving some more money for the Denon.
Rating:
Summary: Nice universal player
Review: I bought this for DVDs, and the Hi-Rez DVD Audio and SACD.
So far I am impressed on all counts. I have played DVDs in Dolby EX, DTS ES, Superbit, as well as several DVD AUdios and SACDs. The picture is excellent and the Hi-Rez sound is awesome. You would have to pay more than 3 times this price to hear anything better, assuming you have equipment thats good enough...
The 563a also downconverts SACD to PCM (if you want bass management) as do all units in extistence to date, so ignore the previous reviewers comments on this issue. And this player has the proper 80hz crossover frequency for subwoofers, that the previous model did not.
Later on I will get a $1300 Denon 3910 Universal player to go with my $1200 Denon reciever, but for the money this little player sounds very nice indeed!
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD Player...love it!!
Review: I just bought this player because my old Hitachi wouldn't play anything with a high digital content (Star Wars ep 1&2, Monster's Inc, Spiderman etc..) or any of my homemade dvd-r's, which was very frustrating. I read a lot of reviews of this and similar products and I finally decided to give it a try and I LOVE IT. It has played everything I have put in it. Star Wars ep1&2 have never played so beautifully, my dvd-r's made on my imac play flawlessly with no skipping or garbled sections (I have used expensive 4x Apple dvd-r's and Compusa's 1x cheapies and they both played great), jpeg cd's work great and you can even put them on slideshow mode to watch your pictures like a movie. I haven't tried any SACD's (I don't own any) but I thought the audio was great on all of the dvd's I tried. The player itself is small and compact and makes almost no noise at all.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent player, excellent picture and features!!!
Review: I just purchased this player and could not be more pleased. The picture quality is fantastic and I can play SACD's, DVD-A, DTS discs, DVD+R. I had purchased a Toshiba SD-3960 but had to return two of them as they didn't work. This is so much superior that I am truly amazed. I payed $149.00 and for the money. it's a terrific player. Admittedly, I'm not using this player strictly for SACd's, it's my main DVD player and the picture is wonderful, true colors, crisp images, nice blacks, truly enjoyable.
I haven't had problems playing SACD's like the previous review. Really, can't recommend this player more! I'll never purchase Toshiba again now that I've seen the quality of this player.
Rating:
Summary: Just play it all
Review: I just went to London and was struck by the overwelming choice of hi-fi - note that I live in Brazil where most of it is minisystem... And I noticed this stylish player - the Pioneer DV-575A - that claimed that could play almost everything, from the obvious CD and DVD-video to SACD, DVD-Audio and DIVx.
Having bought it, I was very happy to see that SACD sounds much better than through multi-channed emulation from the stereo track. DVD image is great. Fast forward is very smooth. And as a bonus I managed to get a region-free unit that dispenses with remote keying. It just plays it. Also, it works seamlessly with PAL and NTSC discs.
I use an Infocus X1 projector, so now I can see all discs without having to think about where it comes from.
In summary, very happy with the performance and the features.
Rating:
Summary: Pioneer 578 - not for DVD-A
Review: I picked up a unit from Best Buy, and it worked swell for about 26 days.
For some unknown reason, the audio playing from DVD-Audio discs suddenly sounded as if was coming from underwater. The odd audio only occurred in 5.1. When playing the same DVD-A discs in stereo, the audio sounded normal.
5.1 SACD discs played without a problem, as did DVD-Video discs. From some of the other reviews, it appears there are those that didn't experience any problems.
If you desire to purchase this unit, I'd advise buying it locally in case you need to return it if turns out to be defective. I had to return mine and ended up purchasing a Sony DVD/SACD changer instead.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent sound and video, but a bit more $ than average
Review: If you're looking for top-notch audio and video reproduction for your home theater system, this DVD unit is a nice choice. It offers both coaxial and optical connection for audio which is very nice and offers top-notch audio quantity. You'll be able to hear all kinds of subtle sound effects which you never have before. For example, I watched the DVD for Matrix Reloaded and in the "Burly Brawl" sequence when Neo grabs the pipe and is fighting the Agent Smiths with it, you can hear the Doppler Effect of the air whooshing through it as he's whacking away. Yes, it's that good. The video quality is top-notch as well.
That being said, the price tag is a bit higher than the average player. The average player from Samsung, Phillips, etc. seems to go for the $65-70ish range right now and most any name brand will offer satisfactory quality. Some might argue (not completely without merit) that for the casual user that satisfactory is good enough. To be sure it's a fair question to ask yourself whether that extra money would be better spent on extra DVDs over a bump in AV quality from adequate up to excellent. To me the better reproduction qualities coupled with Pioneer's reputation for their players exhibiting greater reliability and longevity was enough to make the extra costs worthwhile. You might decide differently. If you do decide on this one though I have no doubt that you'll be extremely pleased with it.
Rating:
Summary: disappointment
Review: The Pioneer 563A had a problem playing long DVDs, and had limited bass management. But it played high quality SACD sound. The DV-578-A does not do this but cuts the quality down to 88.2/24 rather than the approximately 192/24 it starts with from the SACD.One expert says: "563A DOES NOT convert DSD to PCM, it is a true DSD machine. The 578A "junk" converts DSD to 88.2/24 PCM" I bought a 563A at closeout price.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing SACD Performance
Review: Well, I bought the new DV-578A mainly because it is plays SACD's. I've accumulated about a dozen hybrid SACD's and have been wanting to hear them in Hi-Rez. Well, it is an understatement to say that I was very disappointed when I sat down to listen to the 578 and discovered that there is a noticeable "pop" between tracks on most SACD's. I've been through two units now and they both have the same problem. The pop only occurs on the SACD layer, never on the regular CD layer. What's the point of buying a machine with Hi-Rez audio capabilities when it only has issues playing the Hi-Rez sections of Hi-Rez discs? I've contacted Pioneer about the problem and was told that they know nothing about it. There's always a chance that a firmware upgrade could come at some point, but I would not hold my breath waiting. At this point, I'm ready to just return this thing for a refund and completely write off Pioneer's inexpensive equipment. I'll buy an SACD deck from another company with better quality control. FWIW, the video quality on the 578 is fantastic, as is the sound quality on standard CD's. However, this is all essentially meaningless to me considering that I bought it mainly as a SACD player. Bottom line: if you have any intentions of using this as a SACD player, look elsewhere!
|
