The
DVD format advanced from a high concept to a hot commodity blindingly fast.
Navigating the crowded aisles of their local video stores, DVD enthusiasts —
who just yesterday felt like elite, high-tech trailblazers — today rub
shoulders with increasingly large crowds of new converts. And as models of DVD
players have multiplied in number, so have their features and capabilities.
With the format in its fifth year, there’s something to meet the needs
of just about everybody, from bargain hunters seeking to score a player at a
rock-bottom price to hard-core audio/ videophiles looking to add progressive-scan
playback and DVD-Audio capability to an ever-expanding system.
One of the nicer consequences of DVD’s rapid rise has been that the price spread between basic players and feature-packed high-end models has narrowed. Today, a little more than a hundred bucks is all you need to get into the game, while $800 or so can buy you a truly state-of-the-art machine. We rounded up four DVD players that illustrate today’s broad range of options — and prices. Our goal wasn’t to compare the four players with each other so much as to gauge each one on its own merits while seeing what additional dollars can buy as you step up the ladder.
| Oritron DVD 800 | |
| DIMENSIONS | 14 inches wide, 2 3/4 inches high, 10 3/4 inches deep |
| WEIGHT | 6 1/2 pounds |
| PRICE | $220 |
| MANUFACTURER |
Oritron Products, Dept. S&V, 11733 Missouri Bottom Rd., Hazelwood, MO 63042; www.oritron.com; 314-731-5677 |
Unboxing Oritron’s DVD 800, my first thought was, “Doesn’t look bad for an inexpensive player!” While its official list price is $220, we’re told that at some large discount stores it sells for not much more than half that. Only 14 inches wide, the DVD 800 is noticeably more compact than the average player. Its attractive silver-toned case looks so good, in fact, that it was only after plugging it in that I began to feel I’d descended into DVD’s bargain basement.
The player’s display is limited to a green LED that glows when it’s turned on — there’s no readout for the disc title, chapter number, playing time, or any of the other informational amenities you’d find on other players. (You can access the information onscreen, though, via the remote’s Display button.) If not for the large Oritron logo on the front, I’d have sworn it was made by Fisher-Price!
The forlorn feeling I got staring at the barren display only deepened when I picked up the remote control. Small and flimsy, it provides a smattering of tiny, poorly labeled buttons. At this price, I wasn’t expecting a backlit remote, but its buttons didn’t even glow in the dark. Then again, none of the other players in this group had backlit remotes, and only the most expensive one had a remote with glow-in-the-dark buttons.
As expected, the video output options were limited to composite- and S-video.
Naturally, I used the S-video connection to get the best available image.
It was only after I configured the DVD 800’s settings via its goofy, cartoonish
onscreen menus (more echoes of Fisher-Price) and finally got around to watching
some DVDs that I started to warm up to the Oritron again. Though short on features
and ergonomic refinements, it worked just like any other average DVD player.
There are four fast-search speeds in both directions, and the two slower speeds
provided reasonably smooth images. The player’s manual lists a zoom function,
but I wasn’t able to make it work. In addition to DVD-Video discs and CDs,
the Oritron was able to play a rewritable CD-RW and a write-once DVD-R made
on a Macintosh computer’s DVD drive, but it failed to read a write-once
CD-R disc.
For such an inexpensive player, the Oritron had acceptable audio and video performance. With every disc I watched, it provided consistently clean images and passed the Dolby Digital soundtrack to my receiver without a glitch. In a surreal scene from The Avengers (1998) — a board meeting where everyone is dressed in brightly colored teddy bear costumes — the player rendered the garish hues without any color noise or bleeding. I was also impressed by the detail in the furry textures.
The only significant anomaly I encountered came when I viewed static test signals from the Ovation Software Avia setup DVD. Eyeballing the sharpness test pattern, I noted both picture jitter and bleed-through above and below the vertical edges of the pattern’s graphics. Fortunately, these problems didn’t materialize with the movies I watched, even in graphics-heavy title and credit sequences.
Oritron’s DVD 800 is a fully functional DVD player that doesn’t sell for much more than an average VCR. At this price you’d expect a manufacturer to cut corners, and you can find evidence of that in almost every aspect of the DVD 800. But when you come right down to it, a DVD-Video player’s primary function is to play movies, which is exactly what the DVD 800 does — and surprisingly well, too.
| JVC XV-S45GD | |
| DIMENSIONS | 17 1/4 inches wide, 2 3/4 inches high, 101/2 inches deep |
| WEIGHT | 5 3/4 pounds |
| PRICE | $250 |
| MANUFACTURER |
JVC of America, Dept. S&V, 1700 Valley Rd., Wayne, NJ 07470; www.jvc.com; 800-526-5308 |
With a champagne-gold finish and a sleek display window extending over most of its front panel, JVC’s XV-S45GD looks like a much pricier DVD player. So I was surprised to learn that it’s the entry model in JVC’s DVD lineup and lists for only $250. Also contributing to the player’s streamlined appearance is a bare minimum of buttons occupying its front panel. Controls include buttons for play, pause, stop, scan, and skip.
The S45GD’s full complement of A/V outputs includes component video and both optical and coaxial digital audio jacks. Its solidly built remote control is comfortable to hold, with large, clearly labeled buttons. The keypad is neither backlit nor glow-in-the-dark, but there’s enough differentiation in button shape and spacing to let you operate the player in a dimly lit room.
Setup was simplified by an onscreen menu system featuring large, clear graphics. The only thing that struck me as slightly funky was the procedure for switching between the player’s component- and S-video outputs. To make the component-video jacks active, you have to press and hold the stop button with no disc inserted — not a complicated maneuver, but an awkward, unintuitive one.
JVC packed a few neat disc-navigation features into the S45GD. Pressing the Digest button on the remote control after hitting play calls up a grid of still images pulled from the opening scenes of each chapter on the disc. You can use the arrow keys to select a scene, then hit the enter button to jump directly to it. There are a total of five fast and five slow scanning speeds in each direction, and the 2x and 5x speeds provided impressively smooth motion. Finally, a zoom feature lets you double the size of images and scan across them using the arrow keys on the remote.
The JVC player delivered a crisp, clean-looking picture through its S-video output. I could see plenty of detail in the earthy cobblestone sidewalks and brick cottages of the rural village John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) strolls through in the opening of The Avengers. And when Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) appears in the next chapter, both her red dress and the pop art paintings lining her walls came across vividly, with no color noise or smearing. The player’s relatively poor component-video performance in our bench tests (see “in the lab,” page 00) made me wonder if I should even bother using that output. However, when I viewed the same scenes on a big-screen TV using a component-video connection, I didn’t see any problems.
The JVC had no difficulty reading any of the discs that I tossed into its tray, including CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and even DVD-Rs. From a user standpoint, the only complaint I had was the painfully long time the player took to read a disc once it was inserted. At times it took so long for a disc to load I figured either the player or disc must be damaged.
JVC’s XV-S45GD offers solid performance plus a few cool features at a very reasonable price. Better yet, it looks like the kind of player you’d have to spend a few extra C-notes to get your hands on. The only other things I could ask for would be a progressive-scan output and the ability to read DVD-Audio discs — features that would raise the price by hundreds of dollars. As it stands, I’m comfortable recommending JVC’s entry-level player to anyone looking to join the DVD party without spending a lot of money.
| Pioneer DV-444 | |
| DIMENSIONS | 16 5/8 inches wide, 2 1/4 inches high, 11 1/8 inches deep |
| WEIGHT | 6 3/8 pounds |
| PRICE | $449 |
| MANUFACTURER |
Pioneer Electronics USA, Dept. S&V, 2265 E. 220th St., Long Beach, CA 90810; www.pioneerelectronics.com; 800-746-63377 |
To judge from the rail-thin fashion models we constantly see in magazines and on TV, these are fat-phobic times we’re living in. That’s one reason Pioneer’s DV-444 commanded my attention. At only 2 1/4 inches high, it’s one of the slimmest DVD players I’ve seen. Adding to its appeal is a jewel-like silver finish and an uncluttered faceplate that offers only the most essential controls — including play, stop, pause, and skip/scan buttons — plus a three-step dimmer for the LED display.
The DV-444 lists for $449, although you might find it selling for as much as 40% less at some large retail chains. Its video output array includes a component-video jack that you can set to deliver either interlaced or progressive-scan signals. In addition to DVDs and CDs, it will play CD-RWs, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and even discs loaded with MP3 files — a way cool feature in a reasonably priced player.
The Pioneer provides a number of picture controls for both its interlaced and progressive modes. For interlaced signals, there’s contrast, sharpness, chroma level, hue, and something called Fine Focus that boosts high-frequency video information. The progressive mode adds controls for noise reduction, Detail, chroma delay (to prevent color bleeding), and gamma (to draw out detail in shadows). You can store your settings in any of the player’s three custom memories or select one of two factory presets, Cinema or Animation.
Pioneer packages a very basic remote control with the DV-444. Its keypad isn’t backlit, and the small, poorly differentiated buttons don’t glow in the dark, making the remote hard to use in dim environments. On the plus side, you can set it up to control your TV — though given the remote’s deficiencies, I’d prefer to use my TV set’s remote to control the player.
Playing The Avengers through the Pioneer’s interlaced component-video output, I saw very detailed, robust-looking images. When Sir August de Wynter (Sean Connery’s character) tosses poison darts at his fellow teddy bears in the boardroom scene, the texture of the costumes came through clearly, and the colorful fur looked crisp and free of video noise.
When I switched over to viewing DVDs through the player’s progressive-scan output, I wasn’t nearly as impressed. The picture was comparatively soft, and I could see a small amount of noise in flat patches of color. When I watched some of my progressive-scan torture-test DVDs, such as Chapter 8 of Dragonheart, I also noted a fair amount of artifacts on the edges of objects and in areas of fine detail. Such flaws are the result of a line-doubling circuit that lacks 2:3 pulldown (often called 3:2 pulldown, but 2:3 is more accurate) to compensate for the different frame rates of video and film. On the plus side, the Pioneer’s progressive-scan output was free of the color streaking that we’ve observed in the images from a few other, more expensive progressive-scan players we’ve tested.
Pioneer packed a number of interesting features into the DV-444, and it performed fine through its interlaced output. But the one feature that really comes as a surprise for a player in this price range — its progressive-scan output — failed to deliver all the goods. Still, if you’re looking for an ultra-slim DVD player that offers MP3 playback along with everything else, this Pioneer model might be for you.
| Panasonic DVD-RP91 | |
| DIMENSIONS | 17 inches wide, 4 inches high, 10 1/2 inches deep |
| WEIGHT | 7 3/4 pounds |
| PRICE | $800 |
| MANUFACTURER |
Panasonic, Dept. S&V, One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094; www.panasonic.com; 800-211-7262 |
With a faux brushed-aluminum faceplate and angled front-panel display, Panasonic’s DVD-RP91 looks like the kind of component a rich guy would drop three grand on without batting an eye. So if you do happen to get sucked in by the RP91’s styling, you’ll be glad to know that it’s priced at an earthbound 800 bucks. In a world of very inexpensive DVD players, that may still seem like a lot — until, that is, you peek under the Panasonic’s hood. Not only does the RP91 deliver progressive-scan video signals with 2:3 pulldown, but it also plays DVD-Audio discs, CD-R and CD-RW discs encoded with MP3 files — it even plays DVD-RAM Type 2 discs, like those used in DVD camcorders and DVD-RAM recording decks.
The front-panel controls include the usual assortment of play, stop, pause, and scan/skip buttons. In addition, there are buttons to select interlaced or progressive-scan output, switch off the video circuits for listening to CDs or DVD-Audio discs, and turn digital video noise reduction on or off. Another button labeled Re-master upconverts CD audio tracks to an 88.2-kHz sampling rate. Interesting feature, but I couldn’t hear any difference.
The remote control is crowded with a fair number of buttons, most of them encircling a central joystick control on the upper half. Although the keypad isn’t backlit, the buttons do glow in the dark and are nicely differentiated in shape and size. The remote can be set up to control a few functions of a TV, including power on/off, volume up/down, and channel selection.
As you might expect from a player this packed with features, setup was a bit more involved than usual. I chose the lighter, standard setting of the player’s black-level control (7.5 IRE) — there’s also a dark setting that delivers boosted, though inaccurate, contrast — and then selected my display type. The four options are somewhat confusingly called Direct-View, CRT Projector, LCD Projector, and Projection TV (meaning rear projection).
There’s another menu to select speaker size and delay times when the player’s internal Dolby Digital/ DTS decoder and 5.1-channel analog audio output are used. As in most other current DVD-Audio-compatible players, however, the Panasonic’s bass-management settings don’t apply to DVD-Audio playback, which in most cases generates six full-range analog signals that must be sent to a preamp or receiver’s multichannel audio input.
Hitting the display button on the remote while playing a DVD calls up a number
of additional menus. Some of these unlock strange and useless features, such
as presets that lend the video a negative, black-and-white, or sepia look. Bizarre.
Others are more useful. The video-adjustment menu allows you to make fine adjustments
to contrast, brightness, sharpness, color, gamma, and three separate types of
noise reduction. Additional adjustments become available when the progressive-scan
output is active. The player remembers the individual settings you’ve made
for as many as 200 discs — possibly your entire DVD collection.
One especially cool feature of the RP91 is aspect ratio control when the player
is in progressive-scan mode. The control lets you display a 4:3 image on a 16:9
screen with correct geometry, either at center screen for 4:3 images, or zoomed
to full-screen for nonanamorphic letterboxed programs. This feature is important
because many HDTV monitors with 16:9 screens lock into a widescreen display
mode when fed a progressive-scan signal from a DVD player. This isn’t a
problem if the disc is an anamorphic widescreen transfer. But if the program
is in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio — full-screen or letterboxed —
the widescreen display may stretch the image, making it look distorted and unnatural.
The Panasonic produced fine-looking images from its interlaced output, but the player’s outstanding feature was its progressive-scan output. Viewed on a widescreen HDTV monitor, the boardroom scene from The Avengers was rich in contrast, the colors deeply saturated without appearing soft, with loads of fine detail visible in the furry costumes. The image was solid and filmlike, and no motion artifacts accompanied vertical camera moves.
Readers who’ve been following the progressive-scan DVD player tests in Sound & Vision will be happy to learn that I detected none of the color-streaking artifacts that have plagued other players we’ve recently tested. In “Ringo’s House” from the Beatles’ animated Yellow Submarine, for example, the edges between the red and blue stripes of Ringo’s shirt looked completely solid and straight. On a few other players I’ve used — including some costing more than twice as much as the RP91 — the red stripes had streaky, jagged edges that were pretty distracting.
To test DVD-Audio performance, I played the Buena Vista Social Club disc (Warner Bros.). On a five-channel mix of “De Camino a la Vereda,” the lead vocal emanates from the front left/right speakers while a chorus of backing vocals spreads around to the rear and trumpet runs and percussion instruments come at you from all sides. The trumpet sounded extremely vivid, crisp, and lifelike. Listening with my eyes closed, I felt as if I was sitting among the musicians as they played.
With its all-around excellent video quality, DVD-Audio playback capability, and competitive $800 price, Panasonic’s DVD-RP91 is the most impressive DVD player I’ve had my hands on so far. Its ability to read DVD-RAM discs helps sweeten the deal, although that feature won’t be much of a factor until DVD recorders become more widely available and prices reach more affordable levels. (So far the only stand-alone DVD-RAM recorder is the $4,000 model Panasonic introduced last year, although the company plans to offer a $1,500 DVD recorder in October.) In a world where $800 won’t get you a great many things, it’s nice to know that it can buy a state-of-the-art DVD player.
I’ve been amazed at how quickly the DVD format has found acceptance with the general public. And now that I’ve had a chance to try out these four players, I’m also amazed how closely performance and features correspond with price — at least with DVD players, you tend to get what you pay for. With its progressive-scan output, DVD-Audio playback, and other advanced features along with its excellent video and audio performance, the Panasonic DVD-RP91 more than justifies its price. Pioneer’s DV-444 also offers progressive-scan playback, but owing to its less-than-stellar image quality in that mode, I’d mainly recommend it to someone looking for a DVD player that also handles MP3 playback. The entry-level JVC XV-S45GD offers solid features and performance at a very reasonable price. Finally, Oritron’s heavily discounted DVD 800 gets you into the game with a few compromises in features but little compromise in basic performance. One of these players is the right fit for you. So hurry up and go get one! What are you waiting for?