Customer Reviews

Pioneer DV-588A-S Slim Progressive Scan DVD Player

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pros: Great price, Plays everything, Great sound, Sharp picture from progressive scan, NSTC and PAL disc compatible (only region 0 or 1 however)

Cons: Cheap construction, Loading tray does not fully extend out, Colors are oversaturated (for my taste), Difficulty playing DVD discs with minor scuffing on them

The Pioneer 588a is the latest universal player by Pioneer which replaces the very popular 578a. I purchased this to play my SACD discs. My previous player was a Sony DVD player with 5 disc carousel and progressive scan from late 2002. I was trying to weigh purchasing another Sony 5 disc with SACD capability or this player, which can handle almost every format including DVD- audio. (Sony came up with SACD format as the next generation disc to the common redbook CDs, while Panasonic came up with the DVD-audio disc as the next generation disc. Hence, Sony machines currently do not play DVD-audio, and Panasonic machines do not play SACDs. That's what makes the Pioneer so competitive. It licensed both formats from each company and can play either of them. In my opinion, both SACD and DVD-audio are far superior to the current redbook CDs. SACD is favored more by the classical music audience, since the format gives an accurate timbre to the instruments (especially strings), while DVD-audio is favored more by the jazz and rock and roll crowds because the percussive instruments sound much better. SACD sounds too soft for this kind of music. No one really knows which of these two formats will outsurvive the other. It could be that another format might supplant both of them, who knows??)

Essentially this player is the same for the most part as the 578a, except that it can play DivX movies on top of everything else it could play before, DVD-Video, DVD-R & DVD-RW, and Video CD , SACD, DVD-Audio, CD, CD-R & CD-RW, MP3 and WMA CD-R & CD-RW and digital picture CDs (JPEG). It is also a bit slimmer and smaller than the previous model, with a different face on it.

The player is one of the most inexpensive out there in the market. Most of my stereo equipment is in the budget range, but I try to get the most bang for my buck. I would say that the components I get are excellent for the money spent. That said, this Pioneer has to be one of the cheapest built components I have ever handled. It is very light and the buttons on the outside are not very solid. It looks very delicate and fragile. You wouldn't want to accidentally drop this, because it will not survive. One of the things I did not like about this model is the fact that the loading tray does not fully extend out. It extends out about 7/8 of the way. You have to wedge your disc carefully into the tray to load it.

What this player lacks in overall build quality, it more than makes up for it with its firmware. This player handled every format I threw at it. Basically, it took approximately 15 seconds after loading the disc for it to identify what it was, before it could play the disc. The sound was excellent as far as I was concerned. Also, I had a 0 region PAL disc (bonus disc to Air's "Talkie Walkie" album), which the player does handle. So, there is a NSTC to PAL converter in this unit, just like the 578a has. It can play 0 and 1 region discs. I don't know if the region cracks have made it out on the Internet yet.

Compared to my Sony player, the CD audio was much better on this Pioneer. It got much more bass response and was less ear-piercing than the Sony, a more rounded sound. When I played DVDs, the Pioneer sound was much better as well. Sonically, this is a far superior machine compared to the Sony I had. It blows the Sony out of the water. Also, played scuffed CDs perfectly.

I hooked up the DVD picture using the three separate goldplated RCA plugs, red, yellow, blue. The picture was sharp and excellent. The colors were very saturated compared to my Sony. The colors really popped out. They tended to be warmer; there were more red tones coming through. The complexions on actor's faces were very ruddy, whereas the Sony was more neutral. The blacks were black, and there were more shadows on the Pioneer vs. the Sony. (Star Wars trilogy was used for this A/B test). I think overall, I prefer the Sony color saturation over the Pioneer which seems a little over saturated for my taste, but as far as sharpness and sound I preferred the Pioneer.

The main problem I have with my unit is the way it handles rental DVD discs. There were minor scuffs on these discs. It couldn't play them without getting hung-up. I don't know if my unit is just temperamental, or if this indicates that these units do not have much in the way of error control concerning DVD. I put these DVD discs on the Sony, which played through with no problems whatsoever. This is the main reason why I'm not that taken with this unit. I rent a lot of DVDs, and if it can't play them, then this is not going to work out too well for me.

Overall, I think this is a fine unit which does some things extremely well, but does have some limitations.

I bought the Pioneer DV-588A primarily as an audio player for CDs and SACDs. I cannot review the video capabilities as it is only hooked up to my stereo system.
The good news is that the audio quality this unit provides is outstanding. Even my regular CDs sound much better now, with an amazing clarity and bandwidth. I can now single out instruments that I have never heard before. In my opinion SACDs sound superior to regular CDs, especially with classical piano music.
As the other reviewers noted, the unit does look cheap and the mechanics do not appear to be forgiving. However, the biggest drawback is the very noticable running noise of the drive mechanism. No matter what disc you play (CDs, SACDs, DVDs), there is a constant buzz coming from the unit which makes listening especially to classical music not enjoyable. I brought this to Pioneer's attention but have not received an answer.

If you can place the unit somewhere away from where you are actually listening, this unit is a good buy for the money.

Great universal player. So far, it plays everything I tried (dvd, dvd-a, divx, vbr mp3 and more). Quality is excellent, but it takes several seconds to detect the type of disk.

Amazon will charge you $9.99 for the privilege of *not* accepting returns on this item after you unpack it, and it will *not* arrive with additional protective packaging. Keep this in mind when shopping for the best price.

The DV-588AS is one of the few DVD players under $150 which plays almost every standard audio and video format around. The audio and video are very good, particularly given its price.

WHY BUY DVD-A and SACD?

After listening to DVD-A and SACD for some time, I really have gotten to dislike listening to CDs because CDs sound harsh and brittle. CDs produce listening fatigue in minutes. Prior to the introduction of SACD/DVD-Audio, I needed to resort to the long playing vinyl album for serious music appreciation. These have their own problems such as limited dynamic range, transient distortion, poor pressing quality, tape hiss and noise, scratches and thousands of pops and ticks, rumble, wow and flutter, and expensive playback equipment which needed care and tuning. And worst of all, I had to get up to flip the album half-way through!

It is hard to explain the subjective difference between the sound produced by SACD and DVD-Audio and the sound produced by a CD. Essentially, trying to reproduce music with a CD is like trying to reproduce cool seaside air with the dry brittle air blowing out of an airconditioning nozzle in a jet airplane and a spray bottle of salt water. In a very literal sense, the CD format is like playing a violin with a hack saw -- there is simply no way to smooth out the saw teeth sufficiently to make it sound correct. SACD and DVD-Audio fix the problem by giving you enough data to filter out the audible errors created by digitizing analog sound.

WHY BUY THIS UNIT?

First, I do not recommend purchasing separate SACD and DVD-Audio players. On my home theater system, I used to have a Sony SACD player and a JVC DVD-A player. I had to run both through two 3-channel switching boxes with lots of extra audio cables, because both SACD and DVD-A require the single set of six channel direct feed inputs on my HT preamp. The extra cabling and connections partially defeat what one is trying to do with SACD and DVD-A because it degrades the sound quality. This unit solves that problem. And although it looks impressive to have two DVD players, the switching boxes look like @#$%!!

Next, this will play just about anything: DVD-Video, video CD, DVD-R, and video-mode DVD-RW. It plays super-high-resolution DVD-Audio and SACD (stereo and multichannel), as well as compressed audio files (MP3 and WMA) on recordable CD. It also plays DivX/AVI video files. DivX and AVI files are highly compressed near DVD quality video files which take about 1/10th of the space of a DVD video. These are the formats in which most of the TV shows I have downloaded over peer to peer networks are stored. (I spent months watching all 150 or so episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in order!) Only recently have DVD players started playing these types of files, but I suspect most of the next generation of DVD players will all be AVI enabled.

The literature says it does slide-shows of digital photos -- JPEG digital photo CDs, Fujicolor CDs, or Kodak Picture CDs. I never use them. As a bonus, it has progressive scan, and nearly twice the video processing power of previous Pioneer models with a 12-bit/108 MHz video digital-to-analog converter (DAC). As to the subjective video properties, the other reviewers will tell you it is very good. I can't tell how good the quality is because the video is fed out to the tuner card in my computer. I bought it for the MUSIC!

Finally, the unit compares well to much more expensive units. One professional review I read (which did all kinds of technical tests) said this is one of the few players under $150 he would recommend, and the video quality was comparable to more expensive units. C-NET did an A/B comparison between the nearly identical DV-578 and a Dennon unit which costs four or five times as much. They said that the Dennon sounds a bit better, was heavier and significantly more impressive looking. It certainly does not sound as if it justifies the price difference, unless you are an audio name brand (and appearance) snob.

The trade off for the low price is that it comes with a cheap remote, it looks like an inexpensive (cheap) player, and doesn't have much physical weight, which says Pioneer may be using cheaper components and may be skimping on the power supply. (There really is a relationship between the weight of audio gear really and sound quality!) But, as with all things electronic, over time, less buys more.

PRICE COMPARISONS

In short, there is nothing in this price range which will do what this unit will do. Even at full retail, the price to performance value of this unit is outstanding, if not unbelievable. The DV-578 is the first and only universal player I have found under $100. This unit costs about $20 more. (If you play DivX/AVI files, buy this unit. If not, the 578 is the better unit for you, but only because it is cheaper and has almost identical video and audio processors.) Toshiba had a $150 universal 5 disc player which was being blown out for about $100, but its video processors are not as fast, and it has terrible reviews and does not play Divx/avi files. The next nearest priced combo SACD/DVD-Audio player I have found is by JVC and retails for about $80 more. After that, you would have to spend hundreds more green backs to get any other combination SACD/DVD-A player. Yamaha has the C-750, a multi-disc universal player which retails for around $300 and can be bought on e-bay for under $200. It sounds very good, has good video, but it has issues. (I still love my old JVC FA-95GD DVD-Audio player, which was implemented much better than the Yamaha, but does not play SACD or DivX/AVI files.) Onkyo has a universal multi-disk player with a street value of about 5 bills - the ultra THX certified one is $2K.

INDUSTRY COMMENTS:

Hollywood and the MUSIC BIZ are screaming about people ripping and sharing video and music files. The following comments are from a person who has several hundred of CDs, almost as many vinyl albums, about 75 SACDs and DVD-Audio disks, and several hundred DVDs/Videos, and is not "ripping off" anyone.

MUSIC: Swapping music files is the new form of radio. If the POWERS THAT BE IN THE MUSIC BIZ properly marketed the SACD and DVD-Audio formats, as they did with the CD format when they AXED vinyl LPs, they might see sales increase. (We all bought lots of Beatles and Fleetwood Mac LPs, repurchased them on CD, and would probably buy them again on DVD-A or SACD if they were released.) At this time, DVD-A and SACD cannot be easily "ripped" and shared. Although you can digitize the analog output, there is no way (yet) to easily preserve the improved sound quality. I can't find a codec to play SACDs on my computer. Rather than go after file-sharing, they really should be pushing these new higher quality, 5.1 channel sound formats. Instead, those of us who know how good these new formats sound are stuck with paltry limited offerings ranging in the hundreds, rather than in the tens of thousands.

Why are the MUSIC BIZ execs not prosecuting MicroSoft, Real Audio, and the guys who make the software that converts CDs to MP3s, WMA and other formats that allow the CDs to be compressed and saved to a hard drive? This software was instrumental in allowing the Peer to Peer market to thrive and grow, particularly before high speed internet and 200 - 500 Gigabyte hard drives were common. Obviously, MicroSoft knew their compression software was going to be used for file sharing. Yet, it keeps coming out with better, smaller and more accurate compression formats. I think it has to do with the fact that the MUSIC BIZ bullies know they can't bankrupt MicroSoft, like they can with Napster, and, perhaps, because file sharing is part of their marketing strategy. They need MicroSoft.

MOVIES: People spend less money to see movies in movie theaters because there are more forms of entertainment, and, possibly, because the quality of the movies does not warrant spending big $$$ to see the movies Hollywood is producing at the inflated prices charged by movie theaters. (It costs almost $40 to take a family of four to a movie, not including popcorn!) In addition, many people just wait 4 months until the DVD comes out and rent or purchase it, sending the allegedly hungry movie mogul sharks into a second feeding frenzy. Then, the Moguls get a third feeding frenzy when they turn those movies into computer and video games. How many hundreds of millions has George Lucas, Inc. made on Star Wars games?

SOLUTION:

At least as to audio, part of the solution is these higher quality formats. The solution starts with cheaper combo DVD-A/SACD players. Then, they have to GIVE US A BETTER AND BIGGER SELECTION OF DVD-A and SACDs and stop bitching and prosecuting pimple faced teens who d/l music.

Strengths:
Nice compact design, sounds good, plays everything. VERY INEXPENSIVE

Weaknesses:
Nice compact (cheap looking) design, cheap remote, unit is a bit light on weight. Probably converts Digital Stream to PCM to process SACDs.

Frankly I was flabbergasted at the performance of this player. I have an Onkyo SP1000 and this player makes it look like a toy in all performance modes. I can't say much about the apparent lack of build quality but it performs better than any player I've run it against(Sony, Denon,McCormack and Pioner Elite. If you want the best player you"ll ever see at a price this low . grab one Don't let it's looks fool you, it's a great little player. The cosmetics aren't up to Elite standards but who cares. You don't listen or watch cosmetics. Go out get one while you can!!!

I bought this player after my Panasonic DVD-RV31 player died w/an H02 error. I was bummed at first because I'd had the Panasonic for a while and it always played everything I fed it and the picture quality was great. But when I got the DV-588A I was very surprised at how much better the picture was and I don't have a progressive scan TV. The sound was better on the DV-588A too. I haven't played many different formats on it but so far it's handled all DVDs, CDs, VCDs, DVD-Rs and DVD+R DLs with no problem. I like that it can handle DVDA & SACD. The only problem I have with this player is the tray not quite opening all the way and it takes a few seconds to boot up. The remote lacks backlighting and feels cheap but I use a universal remote so that's not an issue.

Great player for the price, it does everything I wanted it for. I can play any DVD, MP3, CD format. I am able to easily control the menu options for my home theater system. I would say this is a great deal.

I have tried 2 samples of this player and I am now sending back the second one, this time for a refund instead of an exchange. Both samples mistracked (skipped and froze) on a number of self recorded dvd-r discs that 3 other players that I have (older Panasonic DVD-S35,DVD-F85) and (newer Sony DVD-NS50P) tracked without any problems at all. These dvd-r's were recorded on top quality media (Taiyo Yuden and Ritek) using an NEC or Pioneer 108 dvd writer in my computer. I recommend that anyone who records their own dvd's should buy any dvd player only with a return privilage and test it with their own self recorded discs. For those who do not require playback of self recorded dvd's this player has many features but for my needs it failed.

Great product even though dvd is on the verge of deletion, but that remains to be seen I cannot predict the future.

I use it to watch dvd's whenever I rent them and also every night I play a dvd of mp3 songs I burned on it, and it plays all night, over 8 hours.