Secrets review of the Pioneer DV-588 is now up

[tomdkat]

The review.

This will be my next Pioneer DVD player, replacing my DV-656a.

Peace...

[deepfry]

So I finally hooked up a set of the analog audio cables to my dv-588a and was rather disappointed - the bass all but disappeared for movies. I have all the speakers set to small and the subwoofer set to on, but there is nowhere near the bass there is when using either the coaxial or optical digital audio outs.

Anyone have any suggestions to try? I still don't have an SACD or DVD-Audio disc to test it out with but it's disappointing that there is such a dramatic difference using just a regular dvd.

[tomdkat]

You should continue to use the digital audio connection for DVD-video playback and use the analog connections for SACD and DVD-A playback.

Peace...

[Iguana Man]

Why the Pio? Why not $20 more for the Toshi 5980? It passes blacker than black?

Just curious why the Pio is your choice.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Why the Pio? Why not $20 more for the Toshi 5980? It passes blacker than black?

Just curious why the Pio is your choice.

Well, the Toshiba 5980 doesn't play DVD-A/SACD. It's an upconverting player that has an HDMI output. Apples & oranges, baby.

EDIT: The Toshiba SD-6980 would be the machine to get since it's a universal upconverting player w/ a $200 MSRP, meaning the street price could be around the $150 mark. Not bad, provided the player doesn't suck.

Peace...

[PunkMunkey]

Have you considered the Oppo HD970?...pretty much the same deinterlacer/scaler (Mediatek) and it does do DVDA/SACD...it'll pass pluge and has no Y/C delay, as a matter of fact it's seems it's got all the strengths but none of the drawbacks of the Pioneer (including region free capability)...it even upconverts if that's what you're into. It is about $30 more than the Pioneer however.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by PunkMunkey

Have you considered the Oppo HD970?...pretty much the same deinterlacer/scaler (Mediatek) and it does do DVDA/SACD...it'll pass pluge and has no Y/C delay, as a matter of fact it's seems it's got all the strengths but none of the drawbacks of the Pioneer (including region free capability)...it even upconverts if that's what you're into. It is about $30 more than the Pioneer however.

And from what I hear it only outputs 480i/p over component and all other resolutions over HDMI. Also, the Secrets test of the Oppo 970HD indicated this playback issue with SACD:

Originally Posted by HomeTheater HiFi Secrets report

A bug that I ran into with the 970HD is playback of DVD Audio and SACD via HDMI. I am currently using the Anthem Statement D2 A/V processor in my system, and it is HDMI 1.1 compliant. But for some reason, the only way to get the full output support of DVD Audio and SACD is if I set the output of the 970HD to 1080i. Otherwise it is truncated in both resolution and number of channels present. Anything other than 1080i results in stereo only playback, even if 5.1 sound was selected. I informed Oppo and Anthem of the issue, and it is being looked into. Oppo has tested this feature on numerous receivers that support HDMI 1.1 and apparently some have this issue and some don’t, so if this is an important feature to you, make sure you check it out if you purchase this player. Oppo’s customer support is superb, so I am quite sure that they will do anything and everything they can to help.

I don't think he's looking to replace his DV-588a at the moment.

Peace...

[PunkMunkey]

Originally Posted by tomdkat

And from what I hear it only outputs 480i/p over component and all other resolutions over HDMI. Also, the Secrets test of the Oppo 970HD indicated this playback issue with SACD:

I don't think he's looking to replace his DV-588a at the moment.

Peace...

Well, most upconverting DVD players do only pass 480i/p over component to upconvert over component is actually circumventing CSS encryption (there are some older and "gray markey" models that will upconvert over component). Essentially, only HDMI and DVI are legally "allowed" to pass a signal higher than 480i/p.

As for the DVDA/SACD glitch you mentioned, it's only apparent when one is passing the multichannel signals over HDMI...using analog outputs renders the glitch a non-issue.

In any case, my initial comment was wasn't meant as a slight to the Pioneer player (I happen to own a firmware modified 578A and love it) but I do think that the Oppo is a better player out of the box (both in audio and video quility) even if it is $30 more.

[deepfry]

Well considering I've had the player for over a year now and am not looking to replace it....I don't think the Toshis' were out when I picked up the Pioneer. And I got a really good deal on the Pioneer to boot.

anyways, thanks for the advice Tom, I think I will do just that (assuming I ever do get my hands on a dvd-audio or sacd disc....sad that I've had the player for the year but have yet to get my hands on one of the advanced audio cds to play in it....)

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by deepfry

anyways, thanks for the advice Tom, I think I will do just that (assuming I ever do get my hands on a dvd-audio or sacd disc....sad that I've had the player for the year but have yet to get my hands on one of the advanced audio cds to play in it....)

I'm in the same boat in that I haven't played any SACD or DVD-A discs since I don't have any audio connections to my receiver yet.

Peace...