Pioneer DV-383S Multi-Volt DVD Player

by Pioneer

Product Details

• Item Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds
• ASIN: B000AN5DT0
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,032 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

This product was not intended for sale in the USA. It may not come with a Pioneer USA limited warranty. Pioner DV-383S DVD Player - With it's slim form factor, this DVD player can fit in nearly any home entertainment cabinet. It plays Region 1 DVD movies, yet has the unique features of having PAL output and 220 volt support. This product was not intended for sale in the USA. It may not come with a Pioneer USA limited warranty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Victory!! Greatest PAL to NTSC conversion for price found here!!, November 18, 2005

By 

Bricolo "TJ" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pioneer DV-383S Multi-Volt DVD Player (Electronics)

Feeling a little disappointed with the limited range of region 1 I started importing years ago and this by far is superior PAL to NTSC to all those other cheap players. Picture and sound processed through this machine seem much the better in comparison with the Phillips DVP642. I have more than 100 PAL DVDs and from what I see in comparison is a better moving image with sound seeming to line up perfectly with on screen action. There are some nightmare stories out there about some region free players; this is not one of them, it is a dream come true, finally realized.

This player has the ability to create its own chapter menus; that is to say while playing the DVD press the home menu button and select `Disc Navigator' then chapter and you will see four screens per page on a player created backdrop. This will please many people that hate the fact that some releases do not provide chapter menus or if do, do not provide an image to match with that but rather a snappy phrase to represent the events.

ABOUT MAKING THIS CONVERT PAL TO NTSC:

To make this a little more clear, to make this convert PAL discs to NTSC you must do the following on the FRONT PANEL of the device, NOT THE REMOTE:

1. Turn the Player off

2. hold down the next chapter button →→│ then press the Stanby/On button

The TV system changes as follows:

Auto→NTSC

NTSC→PAL

PAL→Auto

And the cycle begins again.

The system is preset to Auto, which tells the player that your TV can read both PAL and NTSC signals. If your TV is like most US TVs the NTSC will come in beautifully but the PAL will be in black and white and distorted. From here, do the process above to change it to NTSC mode. NTSC mode means your DVD player thinks your TV is an NTSC TV and will make the appropriate changes for PAL to play on it. If done one more time you will place the player in PAL mode and in the US your NTSC signal will appear as PAL, in black and white and distorted. If somehow you have slipped into the wrong mode just repeat the process until you get the one you need.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real multi region player, February 28, 2006

By 

Yuriy Bubnov "History reader" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pioneer DV-383S Multi-Volt DVD Player (Electronics)

Yes, I did a magic ajustment - PRESSED THE POWER BUTTON AND FAST FORWARD BUTTON WITH THE MACHINE PUT IN STANDBY (FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 39). Now I have a Hi Quality Multi Region DVD Player that plays region 1,2,3,5 DVDs (do not have region 4 in my collection) flawless. The most amazing thing it plays DVD-R and DVD+R DL I thought were botched because they were freezing up during the play on Cyberhome Multi Region Code Free Region Free Zone Free All Region 110/220v Dvd Player w/ Progressive Scan (2 of them), Panasonic (it is made in 2002) and on my computer DVD-ROM. The player is visible enhancing the quality of picture in comparison with other players that I have in my possession. Finally I found the player of my disire.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Picture, Plays Everything, Simple to Use, Good Value, January 24, 2006

By 

Ron A. "Movie Buff" (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pioneer DV-383S Multi-Volt DVD Player (Electronics)

The 383s has a small foot print, low profile, and appears to be built to a high standard. The disc tray and door are robust and operate smoothly and positively. The unit's specifications suggest that the picture produced by this DVD player should be very good indeed, and in fact it is. The progressive scan output produced a richly detailed image, almost three-dimensional in quality, whether from an NTSC or PAL source. The picture was significantly better than that produced by my old player which was not a region-free, code-free device. The Pioneer has a 12MB PAL converter which produces a sharp, steady image with no shudder, color shifting, or other conversion artifacts. The PAL conversion is nothing short of remarkable. The remote and on-screen display are well designed and easy to use. Follow the instructions for setting the unit to NTSC output (page 39 of the user manual) and you'll have no problems. Yes, there are cheap, off-brand players out there at roughly half the price of the Pioneer, but the chances are the disc drawer and drive mechanism will fail prematurely or you'll begin to get read errors. There are also a few better units than the Pioneer at twice the price or more. But you probably won't notice the difference in picture quality. Given how often formats change and technology evolves, it doesn't make sense, in my opinion, to buy a unit at a higher price point that's destined to become obsolete in a year or so. The Pioneer does the job and does it well.