Just a quick heads up for those like me that have been looking for a long time for:

1. a brand player that is cheap
2. plays all formats inc divx/mp3/dvd/cd etc
3. has hdmi with upconversion
4. usb port (that works playing music and dvix after some playing around with my 60gb WD ext HD formatted to fat32)


Its not the be all and end all, but if you want a mini media centre for around $140 (what I paid at JB, RRP $180) then this is going to be hard to beat.

Im really quite happy with it right now.

glad your happy with your purchase, I am watining on dv600 it outputs sacd over hdmi.
Cheers
Rob

What setting are you running your video output on? I keep changing mine to 720P (big quality improvement on video) however for some reason every now and then, the player keeps changing back to 576p.Thanks

Is this a good buy ?

I'm thinking of getting an upscale DVD player but don't
know if it's worth is, considering getting a PS3 or HD-DVD player.

Steve,

not sure - is there a specific setting to select it or is it done in the menu of the player?

For the poster above - yes its a good player, especially if hdmi, upconvert, divx and usb are valuable to you.

The conjecture has been that usb has traditionally never worked or worked so poorly it was of no use - finally a player that it works on, with the above features, a name brand and $140.

That said, if you want to go the next level a ps3 is a good bet too. ( i personally dont like HD dvd)

Thanks but PS3 does upscaling as well, doesn't it ?

Steve, just a thought. I have an older model Pioneer Dv-696, up-scaled to 720p. I find that if the 696 is switched on before the TV (in my case, Pana plasma), dvd output defaults back to 576p, in which case I have to go into dvd set-up menu and re-set to 720p. However, if the TV is switched on before the 696 is switched on, it outputs correctly at 720p. Strange - but true ! Wonder if this may be the same with the Dv400 ???

Has anyone tried watching divx off an external hdd from the usb? I plan to buy the Seagate freeagent 80gb external hdd and watch movies from it, making myself a cheapish media centre. Would that work?

sounds interesting
so i want to know:

like above, does it play divx/xvid from usb
cheers

Yes it does.

It does, but I dont want to wear out a $1000 player.

Id rather wear out a $140 player.

To the people buying it , remember, you must format as fat32 (which windows WONT do for you) to make it work!!

Why won't widows format it in fat32?

google is your friend


http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm


i use it, it works well.

there's a philips one around the same price, but i don't know if it does upscaling

Sounds promising ... where can I find this player in Sydney? I didn't see it when I visited JB.

Does this upscale over component as well or only via HDMI?

Does anyone have this working region-free? If you needed to to a hack which instructions did you follow please?

Thanks,

MB

^^^

Yeah this player does the same thing when you turn it on before the TV. My DV400 doesn't upscale to 1080p and display properly via HDMI on my Samsung full hd 50" plasma for some reason, it draws white lines around really bright images and gives off bursts of static, maybe not the best marriage of DVD player and TV.

They're sold region-free.

Thanks Stone.

Interesting about the 1080p issues; I would have thought this was the same technology/components as the 600 model (which I am looking at) but that is reported as working very well at 1080p.

Perhaps it is a cable/connection quality, or power cleanliness issue. I think I have read elsewhere in the forums about people reporting improvements after changing cables and/or using a surge protector?

Does it support long filenames with divxs files?

I have the Dv-696 and had to mod the firmware to get it to display long files names.

Thanks to rezok for bringing this DVD player to our attention
It’s just what I’m looking for !

Downloading shows and copying to flash drive or USB connected hard drive to play back through the DVD player

Does the Pioneer DV400 do this reliably without any glitches ?

Not without glitches... It will play from a USB stick (haven't tried a hard drive) but all of the DVD player's user interfaces are disabled, so you can't bring up a time search or change any DVD player settings and fast forward only runs at one speed and it seems to be very slow. I fast forwarded 12 minutes of video and it took about 3-5 minutes.

I went back to using my old DVD-393 and DVD-RW's as those issues make it far too hard to navigate your video files. It also won't play variable bit rate MP3's.

I'm still experimenting with the external USB HDD- not being recognised as yet. Will try reformat and see how this goes.

USB flash drive is picked up immediately

I paid $159 at Myer/Grace Brothers last week. Incidently the Philips DVD with HDMI-USB is $118 but doesnt have near the same outputs as the DV400

That is similar to the el-cheap o Tevion DVD player from Aldi - only $35-

OK if playing a half an hour show straight through but try and fast forward or reverse and it falls to pieces

The Tevion also freezes up playing a home recorded DVD after an hour or so of playing but commercial DVD OK if you don't fast forward or reverse

I'll look for a review of the 'OPPO - DV-980H' it is supposed to play from USB without glitches

I'm having the same problem with my 50" HD Samsung and the DV400.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to fix the problem?

In the 6 weeks I have used DV400 / Sony Bravia- no problems. Shows 1080 everytime. Plays from external USB HDD without any issues. Long file names not supported, its a little slow to get started - the only small annoyance.

what are your experiences with fast forwarding and rewinding?

Pause, forward and rewind all work well.

The unit takes a little while to get going but really very happy with overall performance. It would be ideal if it were network ready!

Isn't fast forwarding an external USB device extremely slow? I used a 1GB and 4GB USB stick in mine and it was ridiculously slow to fast forward.

I tested this last night and yes the forward/reverse does stutter - I haven't had too much cause to use this function so hadn't noted it is not that flash.

Given my usage patterns though it hasn't created any pain - I really just start, stop or pause.

I don't know if it works better AVIs when reading of DVD rather than through USB input - the bottleneck may be the usb speed?

I think the USB speed is the bottleneck because mine worked fine on DVD but was far too slow on USB with the same content. I only noticed because I watch Top Gear quite often and prefer to fast forward the "Star in a reasonably priced car" segment and it took several minutes to fast forward 12 minutes of video when on USB. It was much quicker from disc

Also, if you wish to do a "Time Search" to skip directly to a certain time in the video, you can on DVD but USB locks out those menu options

Yes if you use the unofficial firmware

http://www.pioneerfaq.info/

That link is giving a "403 - Forbidden" error.

All, I bought a DV400 yesterday from Bing Lee at Hornsby for $149 (both Black and Silver). They had them for $199 but I had seen it for $149 at Bing Lee Chatswood, so just mentioned this and they matched the price. Was looking at Samsung and LG upscaling DVD players but thought the Pioneer was the better brand of the three and liked the USB port.

First impressions:
1. My first upscaling DVD player and whilst I did not expect BluRay quality, the upscaling does improve the definition a little over standard DVD player.
2. I have no issues running at 1080P connected via HDMI to my 50" Panasonic Full HD Plasma
3. The DV400 is region free out of the box (it is sealed with tape that says the unit has been opened by Pioneer Australia and modified to suit Australian Standards). I played my both my PAL Region 4 and NTSC Region 1 DVDs no problem.
4. The USB port is great. Plays MP3 and AVI off both USB Stick and USB HDD. Yes, you must format as FAT32, and due to this you have to partition the drive (mine is 80GB) down to a 32GB size, then you can format as FAT32. Oh, and don't bother creating more than one 32GB partition as it only recognises the first partition.
5. Forward and Rewind via USB is not great, as it jumps in big steps. Not an issue for me.

I am waiting for BluRay to drop in price and get some players that are A: Region Free and B: Play AVI, so until then I wanted a new player to replace my 6 year old Onkyo (that did not do AVI), so for $149 (plus $50 HDMI Cable) I am very happy with my purchase so far. To be able to drop 30 odd movies onto USB HDD and plug and play is great.

bigdaddydave, did you read the previous post by cjason?
I'm using a 500GB Lacie USB HDD with no problems.

If you rename your AVI files to WMV they will play on the Pioneer Blu-ray players. So far they all have for me.

Has the DV-400 or DV-600 have the option to force de-interlacing (Pick option: Auto, Film or Video)
As i have looked at the manual and cannot find any reference to this option...
Am i going blind ?

koaz

Hi,

Just wondering if this unit has a 5.1ch output? I would still like to use my current Technics HT.

I just picked one of these up, and am having some problems with it. I've got audio out (via composite) direct to an amp, and the video out via analogue too - direct to the tv. But all movies I've watched so far on DVD are out of sync (audio vs video). And one divX file that I played on a usb stick froze the player when trying to fast-forward.

^^ anyone? think I may take this unit back. the slow fast-forwarding is painful.

Hey...
I want to buy the lacie 500gb 3.5" and to connect it to my pioneer dv400 using the usb.
Do i need to do something or i can just connect them and i will be able to see movies from the HDD in my TV?

thanx.

I tried this last night with my external HDD and it picked it up straight away no need to do anything.
This is one of the better dvd players with DivX support that I have tried.

what kind of HDD u have (and what its size)?
thanx for your help.

I had an old Seagate 30gb one lying around, also didn't have it in a housing just a power plug adaptor and USB to SATA/IDE cable link and it worked fine so whatever HDD you use should be fine.

The HDD will need to be be formatted in FAT 32 in order for it to be recognised

The complication with this in this situation is the FAT32 file system has a number of limitations that make using a 500GB a bit of a hassle including limits on partition size

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006

Thank for your help but according to Vinny and Cjason (page 2) it is possible to get a bigger partition with a spesific format software.

Are these upscaling DVD players really worth it? Is there a noriceable quality improvement in the picture?

I can't afford a Blu Ray player at present/or to buy Blu Ray movies. I'm just looking for an upscaling DVD player less than $150 that I can play my favourite DVD's on.

Please let me know if it is worth it. I have a HD ready TV with a DVI inout so I would need to get a HDMI to DVI cable.

Cheers

The obvious answer is to try and find one you one and see if you think its worth it yourself.

For my part I've tried with both the player (a DV600) doing the scaling or letting the display do it and i thought the picture does look a little better when the player did it, not a massive difference but enough that i think its worth it.

BTW Im not sure if you can still buy the DV400 as it has been discontinued?

I think tou will find there is a 410 & 610 now

http://www.pioneer.com.au/Products/Home%20...0Recorders.aspx