Custom Search
Location:  Main Index » Forum Index » Tech Reviews
Advertisement
Advertisement
Recent Topics
Tech Reviews
 
Pioneer DV-563A
DVD-A/SACD Progressive Scan DVD Player
Manufacturer: Pioneer

By Mike Rollett
SPot Senior Editor

Model number: 

2003-08-19 - " The Pioneer DV-563A DVD player is Pioneer’s attempt to provide a low cost, progressive scan DVD player that also offers DVD-A and SACD playback, as well as bass management of both. "

Review:

The price of admission for all these goodies was originally targeted at $249 (MSRP), but the player is now widely available for $179.

Following what seems to be the current trend in lower priced DVD players, the 563A is only available in silver (as seen above) and is lightweight with a slim profile. Does the 563A hit its target of being the DVD player for everyone? Well, mostly it does. Let’s take a look at the details

.

Video

DVD Viewing –

Initial setup was very easy and intuitive with this player. The setup menus are well grouped and one can get everything set for their display without even looking at the manual (although I recommend you read it anyway).

As I always do with new DVD players, I put Avia in the 563A just long enough to make the proper picture setting adjustments (color, white and black level in particular), then popped in a few DVDs I’m very familiar with as well as some of the well known “test” DVDs (Monsters, Inc., Toy Story, Super Speedway and Moulin Rouge to name a few). Viewing was on a Mitsubishi WS-55807 that’s been calibrated (and recently tuned-up) by CraigM, using 6’ AR Master Series component cables.

Since virtually all previous Pioneer DVD players suffered from CUE (chroma upsampling error aka “the chroma bug”), my first task was to see if the 563A would be the player to break out of the mold and squash the bug, as has been widely reported. Viewing Mike’s car fender in Monsters Inc., you can see some CUE, but it was virtually unnoticeable at normal viewing distances and certainly was not objectionable close up, in my opinion. Similar results were obtained with Toy Story as well. It appears that Pioneer may have indirectly benefited from Denon’s work with Mitsubishi (maker of their MPEG decoders) in eliminating CUE from their current generation of decoders.

Other DVDs provided a nice clean image, albeit a little softer than Faroudja-equipped players in Video mode. Motion artifacts are minimal, even though the player does not have motion-adaptive deinterlacing. The player’s layer changes are slightly above average. They average around 0.5 to 1 second depending on the disk.

After watching various parts of a dozen or so disks, I was pleased with the video performance of this player, particularly in its price range. While the Faroudja-equipped players that used to be available in this price range are still the standard bearer for video quality, the 563A holds its own with most disks.

Test Discs -

Running the player through the Avia test patterns generally produced good results. The vertical lines in the 6.75 MHz circle resolution test were well defined, if a bit soft. Y/C delay was acceptable, with no smearing of the transition between the yellow and red bars.

Moving to the Faroudja test disk, the 563A had its problems with the pendulum/OK pattern. The “OK” flickered (though not as badly as with the Panasonic S35 I previously reviewed) and the pendulum had a slightly jagged edge as it moved back and forth. The same jagged edge was visible in the flag waving sequence as well, displaying the 563A’s lack of motion adaptive deinterlacing.

The 563A had a few problems with the WQHL Mixed Mode pattern. The transitions to video were not very clean, with some combing.

Audio

As the lowest priced combination player currently on the market, the big question in my mind was: “What’s the audio quality like? Well, the answer is pretty darn good. Not only does this player have the ability to play both DVD-A and SACD discs, but it also provides bass management for both. While I tried a few SACDs on this, I don’t currently have an SACD player to compare it to, so most of my comments will be regarding DVD-A. Listening was done through B&W front and center speakers, with Canton surrounds and a Definitive Technology subwoofer.

Setup of multi-channel playback is straightforward. I got out my trusty Radio Shack sound level meter, and proceeded to the Speaker setup, which is inexplicably located under “Initial Settings”, rather than “Audio Settings”. There are settings for speaker size and level, as well as for distance from listening position (delay). There are test tones available for setting speaker levels, but I can’t recommend using them as they don’t seem to be consistent. In particular, the subwoofer tone displayed an extremely low level signal, way below the subwoofer setup tone on Avia (which is -10dB actual, but reads closer to –3dB on a sound level meter). Using Avia, as well as the setup tones that are included with on the DVD-A Swingin for the Fences, by the Big Phat Band, produced results that were consistent with each other.

Completing the setup, it was now time to check out the bass management ability. There is an 80Hz test tone available on the aforementioned Swingin for the Fences DVD-A that can be sent to each channel. This resulted in minimal output from the mains or surrounds, with most of the output being routed to the subwoofer. The crossover frequency is not listed in the manual, but it appears to begin at around 100Hz or higher. It would be nice to control this crossover frequency, but I guess you can’t expect that feature at this low price level. Another test, which I was reminded of by John Kotches, are two tracks from the ELP disc, Brain Salad Surgery. “Still . . . You Turn Me On” and “Benny the Bouncer” do not have an LFE channel, so any output from the subwoofer would be due to bass management. Although neither song has much bass, what was there was coming from the subwoofer.

Now it was time for the fun part, so I popped in a DVD-A I’m very familiar with, which is also a great recording, Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature. While I couldn’t make a direct A-B comparison, this disc sounded every bit as crisp and clean as it does on my Panasonic RP-82, and much less strained at higher levels due to the bass management. I tried a number of other disks as well, and I could detect no sonic difference from RP-82 on any of them.

I then tried the SACD version of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which I’ve heard before on a friend’s system. This too had a nice clean sound which surpassed the redbook CD version I’ve heard hundreds of times. Speaking of CD playback, it was typical for a player in this price range, which is to say it’s average.

Conclusion

This player is one heck of an accomplishment in my opinion. For $179, you get good video and audio performance, coupled with the ability to play both high resolution audio formats, plus bass management. For someone looking for a player that “does it all” at a low price, or for someone starting out with DVD-A and SACD, this is the player to get. While it won’t replace my RP-82 on the video side, it could certainly do so for DVD-A playback. For an overall rating, I give it 4 paws.

Features:
  • DVD-RW (compatible with CPRM) DVD-R Capability
  • 10-bit/54MHz DAC (for Progressive Scan Video Output)
  • 192kHz/24-bit Audio DAC
  • JPEG PhotoViewer (FUJICOLOR CD / KODAK CD Compatible)
  • MP3 Compatible
  • Zoom Function (Still Picture)
Rating:

Advertisement

Location:  Main Index » Forum Index » Tech Reviews

Top of Page ^

(C)opyright 2000 - 2010 - All Rights Reserved. No information may be posted elsewhere without written permission.
Any company or tradenames, trademarks and alike are used for review purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.
FusionBB™ Version 2.3 | ©2003-2007 InteractivePHP, Inc.
Execution time: 0.084 seconds.   Total Queries: 18   Zlib Compression is on.
All times are (GMT -0800) Pacific. Current time is 05:59 AM
Top