Amazon.co.uk Review
The Pioneer DV-444 is a sleek DVD player capable of playing almost any disc and boasting an impressive array of picture controls. If looks alone were the deciding factor when picking a DVD player then the DV-444 is a winner: it is a very swish-looking piece of kit and is incredibly slim.
It's not short on features either: it's capable of playing finalised CD-R and CD-RW discs; it's also able to play MP3 files. You can even select individual tracks from an on-screen menu. There are plenty of settings to experiment with including sharpness, gamma, chroma, hue, contrast and detail levels. There is also a basic mode if all the possibilities get too much for you, or you don't understand them. This is a sensible idea that should be used more. It makes the player simple to use, without having to cut back on features for more experienced users. Another well thought-out idea is the internal memory, with which you can save personal sound and picture settings for later recall.
The remote is a little cluttered with similar small buttons and hitting the right button in subdued lighting isn't always easy. Inside the slim box the DV-444 boasts a powerful set of signal processing electronics with separate sound and video circuitry and a very low signal to noise ratio. One feature that is used to promote the DV-444 is a progressive scan mode. Basically this means the player can send complete images to your television rather than two separate fields used to produce an interlaced picture. This is much more useful on American systems than on the British PAL standard. PAL runs at 25 frames a second and films are generally played back at this speed, despite being filmed at 24 frames per second. This explains why DVDs have a shorter running time than cinema releases. The speed difference isn't enough to make much of a noticeable difference. The main problem is the altered pitch of the sound. American NTSC system runs at 30 frames per second, which is too fast--and some clever jiggery-pokery has to be done to synchronise the frame rates which involves repeating some parts of the pictures. This is where the progressive scan mode can help by cleverly combining the frames to reduce distortion. The DV-444 doesn't do what is called a 3:2 pull-down however, which limits its effectiveness somewhat. Where the progressive scan does make a difference in the UK is when you have a 100Hz television capable of coping with the non-interlaced signal giving reduced flicker. Thankfully when running in standard interlaced mode the DV-444 produces excellent results with good colour reproduction and crisp detail. The DV-444 is stylish and capable and can seemingly play virtually any disc with aplomb. --Miles Berkeley
Product Description
The Pioneer DV-444 DVD player is both sleek and stylish with a classy silver finish. It has a redesigned internal construction and slim loading mechanism, which results in an extremely slim player. It's loaded with the latest technology, including SRS TruSurround, which creates a virtual surround sound effect from stereo speakers. The DV-444 also includes both optical and co-axial digital audio outputs that can stream Dolby Digital, MPEG Audio, DTS and linear PCM, enabling full system integration with a broad range of audio/visual components. The Pioneer DV-444 has it all--good looks, great DVD video, stunning audio reproduction, including support for MP3 files and simple-to-use onscreen navigation.
