A black box which plays DVD's and CD's.
Written: Sep 02 '01
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Pros: Plays just about anything you throw at it in superb quality.
Cons: Not for the style conscious, No RGB output, No Zoom function.
The Bottom Line: If you want your player to look good rather than do it's job properly then look elsewhere. If you want a black box which plays DVD's then look no further!
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| MacLellanA's Full Review: Pioneer DV-343 DVD Player |
Just to set things straight from the start, I'm talking about the European model of the DV-343 here at a cost of £180 from http://www.linkonline.co.uk. I bought the player with the 'Paragon' upgrade, making in fully multi-region, RCE (Region Code Enhancement) enabled and macrovision disabled (allowing you to record from DVD to VHS). It would appear there are a few differences between international models - ie. - my player DOES NOT have an optical digital output! (only coax). Just to get the specs out of the road...
REAR CONNECTORS:-
1 x Analogue Audio L/R OUT
1 x SCART connector
1 x Composite Video OUT
1 x S-Video OUT
1 x Digital Audio (Coaxial) OUT
1 x Control IN
1 x AC IN (220-240V)
FRONT OF PLAYER (from left to right):-
- Power Button
- DVD Drawer
- LED Display (mostly light blue, some red icons)
- Open / Eject Button
- Forward / Reverse buttons
- Stop Button
- Pause Button
- Play Button
SPECIFICAIONS
Power consumption (on / standby) - 11W / 1W
Weight - 2.7kg
Dimensions - 420(W) x 278(D) x 95.5(H) mm.
Frequency Response - 4Hz to 44khz (DVD fs: 96 kHz)
S/N Ratio - 118 dB
Dynamic Range - 103 dB
THD - 0.0016%
This is a very nice little DVD player for the money, capable of playing DVD Video, Video CD, CD, CD-R and CD-RW. It is also switchable between PAL (50Hz) and NTSC (60Hz), it's default setting being 'Auto'.
Since here in the UK we're normally several months behind the USA in terms of film releases, it's generally a good idea to get a Multi-Region player in Europe. The upgraded player is also RCE enabled and macrovision disabled. Macrovision prevents recording from DVD to VCR but causes great problems if, like me, you have VCR's in several rooms but only one DVD player! This player records from DVD to VHS fine.
When playing DVD's I honestly cannot fault this player at all. Excellent picture quality through the S-Video connector and perfect sound quality from the coaxial digital output. My only qualm would be that the player can be quite noisy on some DVD's, although this can rarely be heard when listening to movies at normal, wall-shaking levels! :)
As for music CD playback, a number of magazines have expressed opinions of DVD players "not being as good at playing audio CD's as a dedicated CD player". Sorry, but what a load of crap. I compared audio CD playback directly between the DV-343, a Technics SL-PS70 and a Marantz CD-50 CD player and could not tell any difference between the three! After all, I'm sure the electronics involved in DVD playback is far more advanced than that of similarly priced standard CD players. Er, anyway - I've tried a host of CD's CD-R's and CD-RW's - no problems at all.
It's not all good news, but nothing major for a player in this price bracket. There's no RGB output, although personally I can't tell the difference between S-Video and RGB output anyway. There's no Zoom function and there's no Digital Optical output - only Coax, so bear this in mind before laying any cables! The remote is a bit fiddly but I've seen a lot worse. As for the styling of the player, well it's a black box with a few rectangular buttons on the front. If you want your player to look good rather than do it's job properly then look elsewhere. Otherwise you can't get much more 'bang for your buck' with the 343.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 220
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Epinions.com ID:
MacLellanA
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Member: Andy MacLellan
Location: UK
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 1 member
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