Pioneer DV-C302D: a great DVD player for everyone
Written: Aug 24 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fairly easy to use, very versatile, excellent manual makes it a breeze to install, built-in Dolby Digital decoder
Cons: Is a DVD carousel really necessary?
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| rcube's Full Review: Pioneer DV-C302D Multi-disc DVD Player |
I have to admit it...I am a late bloomer when it comes to the wonderful world of DVD's. Yes, I had seen them here and there, but still I hadn't decided to buy my own DVD player. But summer arrived and I thought: It is time... After looking over various DVD players, I decided to jump in to this wonderful world with a Pioneer DV-C302D, and boy, what a way to go in!
Eye candy...
Nothing short of outstanding. I use the S-video cable, and it simply looks great. Let me wanr you that the cable was a bit expensive at Radio Shack. I couldn't tell the difference between the other video options though: composite and component video cables. I have a "projection" TV in which you can't really appreciate the difference in image quality when using the different connection options. But I did compare the image quality I get on my TV with my friend's Sony FD Trinitron WEGA (XBR) TV which provides an option for component video (we both bought the DV-C302D). After comparing the two TV's, I went home, pulled out a piece of paper, grabbed a pen and wrote: Dear Santa: since I've been a good boy all year long....SEND ME A WEGA TV!"
The Menu makes "visuals adjustments" a breeze. You can easily change the screen size to fit your TV: 4:3 (letterbox) for conventional TV's and 16:9 (widescreen) for the very nice HDTV's. It also lets you change the Picture quality: Cinema which provides a sharp, clear black picture for images with high contrast, Animation which provides images with bright clear colors, and Standard which has no special effects. Changing camera angles in videos that provide this option is as simple as clicking one button (appropriately called ANGLE).
Music to my ears...
The player provides connections for stereo, surround and 5.1 channel surround sound systems; it has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder (no separate decoder needed). It has coaxial and digital outputs to route the Dolby Digital or DTS bitstream to your compatible receiver. I use an optical cable, which again was really expensive! But if true digital quality playback is what you want form your movies, this is definitively the way to go.
There is a big difference in sound quality between the regular surround sound and the 5.1 Ch provided by the DV-C302D. For those of you who don't know what it is, in 5.1 setting each speaker has its own sound channel: center, front L & R, rear L & R for a total of 5 channels. The subwoofer is the ".1": another separate channel. The mayor difference I found between the two settings was in the quality of the sound in the rear speakers. It is a lot clearer and sounds "more real" when creating background sounds.
There are many other sound features like 96kHz sampling rate for digital audio, MPEG output, and more.
Conclusion...
The DV-C302D has many more features that I haven't mentioned like captions, language settings, parental lock, and Memory settings (Multi-language subtitles, Picture quality, Multi-Angle, and more settings) for DVD's you often watch.
The manual is very well written and very comprehensive. Newcomers and experts with DVD's will find it very easy to use. The detailed illustrations really help when setting things up.
On the other hand, there are some minor negative aspects that should be pointed out. Personally I think that having the option of having a 3-disc carousel (or any size carousel) isn't a real advantage over a single DVD player, unless you actually have 3 movies that you like watching over and over again. You might like this feature but I really don't see a use for it. It simply doesn't work like audio CD changers where you can have 5-10 CD's and listen to them all the time. Now that I know a bit about DVD players I may have made a different purchase. If there was a player as versatile as the DV-C302D but for single DVD's at a cheaper price, I would have gone for that. I've looked around, for curiosity's sake, and found the Sony DVP-S560D which has the Dolby Digital decoder, but on the other hand, no DTS. I would have to try it out to see if it is as good as the DV-C302D.
For people who like things simple, the on-screen menus to configure the player may seem a bit overwhelming because they are REALLY comprehensive. But the smart guys at Pioneer who think of everything included a Basic and Expert Menu Modes. The Basic Menu is significantly easier to use because you don't see some of the Expert features.
All in all, this is an excellent DVD player. I recommend it to anyone who likes to get the very best in versatility, visuals and sound, the first time around.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rcube
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Location: San Juan, PR
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
-Hippocrates
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