Customer Reviews

Pioneer DV-383S Multi-Volt DVD Player

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Although the manual and description state that this player automatically switches between PAL and NTSC, it does not at first. When you start using it, the NTSC dvd's will play fine, but the PAL may appear colorless (almost black and white).

Since this product is not intended for the US market, Pioneer USA does not support it. (They don't even have the manual).

Trough forums online we found the solution: Hold the "ON" button and the "Fast Forward" button simultanuously for a few seconds, when turning the unit on. Eventhough it shows "NTSC" in the display, it was now able to play both formats perfectly in color and switches between PAL and NTSC automatically. Even after turning the DV-383-s off, and back on.

Other than this 'flaw', it seems to be a very compatible player and a good deal for that price.

I've tested this player with DivXTestCD ver. 1.1 and player passed virtually all tests: all bitrates, different resolutions, different compression options (QPEL, GMC, packed pixels etc). It only had problems (serious A/V sync issues + framedropping) on AVI files with WMA sound track - but I need to say that I've never encountered such files in real life. It is not documented but player supports also OGG audio & OGM video! So, in short, it plays: Video: AVI or OGM files with DivX 3-5 or Xvid; MPG files with mpeg1 or mpeg2 video; VCD, CVD, SVCD, DVD. PAL & NTSC. From CD or DVD. Audio: WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA files; PCM, Dolby Digital (AC3), MPEG1 (MP3) & MPEG2 sound tracks inside video files (WMA has serious issues if inside video file); DTS for DVD. From CD or DVD. Subtitles: all existing formats (all present on DivXTestCD ver. 1.1). Graphics: JPEG. Player has built-in PAL<->NTSC transcoder that is _DEACTIVATED_ by default (set to AUTO). If your TV understands only NTSC (or only PAL) then you should switch the player into the appropriate mode - everything is described in the manual (and also in another reviews here). It has zone _1_ on the back but other reviewers wrote that it is multizone - may be, never tested. Hope so :-) It can be connected to 110-240V AC power supply. Universal player :-) I like the player a lot. Anyway I should mention the downsides: 1) All player functions are supported ONLY for VCD/CVD/SVCD/DVD formats, other formats has some limitations. For example, for MPEG4 (DivX, Xvid) player supports only one FF speed and doesn't remember last playback position. 2) Player supports video post-processing only for MPEG1/MPEG2 video (VCD/CVD/SVCD/DVD and separate MPG files) but NOT for MPEG4 (DivX/Xvid). Actually this means that at the same bitrate MPEG4 will give _significantly_ WORSE quality compared to MPEG2 - it will be much more "blocky" (DVD compressed to CVD/SVCD with good compressor will look on this player way better than DivX version. You'll need at least two DivX CDs to get the same quality). I guess that this is a chipset limitation :-( 3) Player doesn't have random playing mode for audio files (but has for chapters on DVD - what a useless feature!!!). I'd say that this is very interesting player and it definitely worths its price even considering the downsides (other players have more ;-) And it really plays EVERYTHING! Ok, nearly everything! ;-) Hope this review will be helpfull for somebody.

I had the Phillips 642 for 2 weeks, and was somewhat disappointed at the compatibility of some Divx and Xvids I had, and the remote stinks. With the 642, many of the Xvids were VERY blocky unless you pressed stop, then menu, then play again. Works, but gets old fast. Also audio would get out of synch. Had a whole season of TV episodes in Divx, encoded EXACTLY the same, yet some of them would randomly have inverted colors. And the displayed file names were too short.
The dv-383 plays everything great. Regular DVDs, DVD rips on dvd-r, +r, +rw and -rw, SVCD, CD audio, MP3, WMA, etc... Picture quality is excellent. I don't have a high-end audio system, so I can't say if it is better than the 642, but it sounds very good. Out of the box it does not display long file names, BUT you can easily upgrade the firmware for one that does, and enable a lot of other features. The remote has excellent distance and angle reception, and I really like the controls on the front panel of the player, so you can use them instead of the remote (you are right there putting in the movie anyway, why not just push the buttons there instead of hunting for a lost remote?)
Check this forum for modified firmware
http://board.softpedia.com/index.php?s=1c28fc47274113fb97cddf34e40db65e&showforum=24

Here are some of the improvements-
- fixed filename/directory displaying in filebrowser (many thx to cHiEsA)
- displaying first 50 chars of filenames/directories in filebrowser
- CP1250 chars displayed correctly in filebrowser and on OSD after pressing "Display" button
- fully working volume under '1' and '4' keys on RC (hold these keys longer to change volume level) + displaying volume indicator on screen + saving volume level on turn off
- MUTE under '7' key on RC (hold this key longer to on/off MUTE) + displaying indicator on screen
- picture format switching (Letter box, Pan&Scan, 16:9) with '5' key on RC (hold this key longer to switch the picture format; works even during movie playback)
- VFD dimmer under '0' key on RC (hold this key longer to change VFD brightness)
- shortened key delays on RC (for 2nd functions and repeatable keys - arrow left/right/up/down)
- new features in "Audio" menu:
* Treble Boost
* Bass Boost
* Super Bass
- reorganized "Initial settings" menu
- new option in "Initial setting" -> "Video Output": "TV Type" (Multisync, PAL, NTSC) [restart your player to accept the new setting]
- new submenu in "Initial settings": "Subtitles", and new options in it:
* Font - changes the font codepage of MPEG4 subtitles; available codepages:
CP1250 - EASTERN EUROPE:
Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Croato-Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Swedish, Slovenian
CP1251 - CYRILLIC:
Bulgarian, Russian, Albanian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Macedonian, Malaysian
CP1255 - Hebrew
CP1254 - Turkish, Portuguese
* Subtitle colors - changes colors and background of MPEG4 subtitles
* Subtitle position - changes the position of MPEG4 subtitles [Reload the disc (eject it and load again) to accept the changes]
* IFO/VOB palette - changes the interpretation of VOBSUB (.sub+.idx) subtitles palette. - new feature in "Initial settings" -> "Options": "DVD Fast Start" - turned on causes that DVD-Video movies will be played without showing the FBI screens, ads, menus, etc. Player will jump directly to the main movie.
- changed icons and some colors in the filebrowser
- actual folder name displayed in white color

Got this for it's versatility, and it doesn't disappoint. Plays DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, VCD, SVCD, DivX, XviD, all regions, NTSC and PAL (converts PAL to NTSC, and can go the other way if desired). No modifcations or hacks needed to do any of this - full functionality came out of the box (be sure to read page 39 to set the output video format when first connecting it).

Quality is as good if not better than my Sony DVD player. Overall a solid player and feature set for 99 bucks!

I just got my player today, and it's even better than I could have imagined. I'm not a tech person, but I was able to hook the player up in under 30 minutes. I didn't have to do anything special to get it to play DVDs from 3 different regions, including in the PAL format. It does it all AUTOMATICALLY--all I have to do is put the DVD in the tray! What could be easier? Both picture and sound quality are better than my old player, which did NOT play DVDs from outside my region. The player is sleek and about half the size of my former player. I could not be more satisfied with this product. HIGHLY recommended!!!!

I am very pleased with this product, so far my european DVDs have worked very well. I have yet to try it in Europe for the dual voltage.

This is an excellent dvd player and if you compare the features it offers for the price, it is five stars. When I received the first player, it did not play region 2 dvds. I sent it back and in three days I got another one, working perfectly. I enjoyed the business with North Star, though I was not lucky enough with the first player. Since then it has been working perfectly, with image and sound as good as another dvd player I had already at home for two years, also from Pioneer, but four times the price of this one. Definitively it was not worth the difference, till now.