pioneer elite dv-45a (1 Viewer)

[frank<t]

what do you guys think about the pioneer elite dv-45a pros/cons vs all others

 

[Brian L]

frank,

There are literally 100's of posts on the 45A. Hit the search function....those threads will tell you what you want to know.

I have a 45A, and will offer the opinion that its subjective video performance can be much better than the test results at Secrets would lead you to think. Key word there is SUBJECTIVE. It will fail most OBJECTIVE video tests, but put in a movie and hit play, and it can look pretty damn good.

I am also very happy with the audio section for all media.

As for video, I am currently testing it against a Denon 1600, which is a top scoring player at Secrets.

With poorly authored DVDs (101 Dalmatians II), its no contest, the Denon kills the 45A, which combs horribly on that title. Turning off 3.2 detection takes care of the combing, but softens the image.

With decent software (Monster's Ins.) the 45A is a bit softer than the 1600, but you would not notice unless both machines had the same disc and you could toggle back to back (guess what I did last night?).

Then, I ran the 45A interlaced, and used the deinterlacer in my TV (Pioneer 533HD), while leaving the 1600 in progressive mode.

Again using Monster's, the softness on the 45A goes away. I spent about a 3/4 of an hour playing scenes on Monster's Inc and The Sum of All Fears on both machine simultaneously. You would be hard pressed to tell them apart.

One more comment. The 45A is listed as having problem with the "Chroma Bug" or CUE. On my display it just flat out does not show this, and believe me, I have looked, and A/B'd with the Denon which does not have it.

The scene from Monsters that's near Mike's Car which will show this, looks identical on my rig. It is possible, or even likely, that my display is masking this for one reason or another, but since I can not see it when compared to one of the best players ever, it is not going to be an issue for me.

You really want to try a 45A on your own display before condemming it due to its having the CUE. You may or may not see it.

As you can tell, I am on the fence as to whether or not I will keep the 1600. Running the 45A with my TV's deinterlacer has for the most part illiminated the advantage that the 1600 has in the video department, and since the 45A is a universal player with great audio performance, why do I need two players?

I have the better part of 30 days to try the 1600, and will be doing more tests, but so far, my 45A has held up well; much better than I would have thought.

BGL

 

[Doug_B]

Brian,

Appreciate the subjective reality check feedback on this unit. I've been considering this player or the 47Ai mainly for audio (and would get it audio modded), so I'm not as concerned with the video, although as a near term bonus, it would be nice not to have a separate player taking up another shelf just for video (RP-91 in my case). Adding your add'l comments on interlaced performance when using good deinterlacing performance from your display is another plus for me, as my display also has good deinterlacing performance (Infocus SP7200).

I have one question, concerning the user interface for audio. Do you ever need to go into the menu system to change from 2 channel to multichannel for either SACD or DVD-A? From reading the manual, it looks like this is necessary for SACD and maybe also for changing groups for DVD-A (when the disc requires 2ch/mch changes via a group change). The remote does have an Audio button, which appears would be sufficient when the DVD-A 2ch/mch switching is controlled in this manner, so no menu would be necessary. Given that I would typically not want to turn on my display just for audio, I am hopeful that in the worst case scenario, programming a couple of macros to do the 2ch/mch swap is feasible.

Thanks.

Doug

 

[Brian L]

I have one question, concerning the user interface for audio. Do you ever need to go into the menu system to change from 2 channel to multichannel for either SACD or DVD-A?

In my experience, you always need to use the players menu to change from MC to 2CH in SACD.

In DVD-A, the Audio button usually works, but IIRC, disc authoring can sometimes screw the pooch on that as well. In DVD-A, you may also be able to choose the group # from the remote, but it is not usually clear what mix is assigned to what group.

If I get a chance, I will try DSOTM, which has MC and 2CH Hi-Rez, plus redbook. I can say with 100% certainty that the menu is needed for the redbook layer, and I am pretty sure that for SACD the menu does allow you to choose MC, 2CH, or CD, and that the audio button does not permit this.

BGL

 

[Doug_B]

Brian,

Thanks.

In DVD-A, you may also be able to choose the group # from the remote, but it is not usually clear what mix is assigned to what group.

It's definitely a plus to be able to change groups without the menu system. For the few DVD-A's I have where each mix is in a distinct group, Group 1 has always corresponded to the mch mix and Group 2 to the 2ch mix. IIRC, these discs are the more dated of my collection, so maybe most new ones are supporting the "Audio" means of changing mixes within the same group.

Doug

 

[Steve_AS]

Brian,

Thanks for the comparison info. Can there ever be enough DV-45a threads for the likes of us?


Two questions just for thoroughness' sake:
1) how did you switch on your Pioneer TV's deinterlacer?
2) does switching to interlaced on the 45a simply entail turning off the 'progressive' light using the front-panel button, or are there menu changes to be made as well?

___

-S.

 

[Brian L]

Hey Steve...

Yup, I am a slut for 45A discussion.

As for the TV, you can not turn off the deinterlacer per se. If you send it an interlaced signal, it will convert to progressive; its native mode is 480P or 1080i. There is a toggle for 3.2 detection, but that just changes the deinterlacer from film to video mode.

And yes, the 45A has only the front panel switch to enable progressive scanning. There are menu items for 3.2 detection (Pure Cinema in Pioneer speak), but that only allows for automatic, film mode, or video mode.

Having said that, IIRC there is a menu choice that allows the player to switch in and out of progressive mode based on disc content, but I have read that flagging can be iffy, so I just leave that off, and switch with the front panel. Guess I am just a manual control kind of guy.

BGL

 

[Steve_AS]

Having said that, IIRC there is a menu choice that allows the player to switch in and out of progressive mode based on disc content, but I have read that flagging can be iffy, so I just leave that off, and switch with the front panel. Guess I am just a manual control kind of guy.

That would be the 'Auto Progressive' function, which I gather (though it's not explicily written) only operates when the 'progressive' light is switched on in front..IOW I'd guess that even if Auto Progressive is set to ON, and the source material is 16:9, it will only output a progressive scan signal if the front button has also been enabled.

 

[Brian L]

That would be the 'Auto Progressive' function, which I gather (though it's not explicily written) only operates when the 'progressive' light is switched on in front..IOW I'd guess that even if Auto Progressive is set to ON, and the source material is 16:9, it will only output a progressive scan signal if the front button has also been enabled.

That is what is supposed to happen, but I have read that the 16:9 flagging is also iffy. FWIW, that would be useful for TV's that lock into "Full" mode when receiving a progressive signal.

Since my set does not do that, I have full aspect ratio control at the set and can invoke whatever mode is correct for the software. I thus leave that off.

Side note: I have been in contact with Don Munsil, one of the Secrets authors with various questions about all this stuff. Don is a great guy, and always takes the time to help out. Anyway, I asked if I could simply leave the 45A 3.2 detection in the "on" position when viewing content that is known to be film based, since even films that are properly flagged still have flag issues at chapter breaks and edit points.

The short answer is that it may or may not help. FWIW, the answer he gave was more technical than that, but it exceeded my knowledge of the subject of deinterlacing!

As such, good cadence readers like Faroudja or SI based players will have the advantage on anything but perfectly authored discs, of which there seem to be few.

That said, as they say in the Secrets shoot out, any player will be able to do a good job with properly authored software (my 1600 vs. 45A testing bears that out); its the bad stuff that separates the wheat from the chaff.

BGL

 

[Brian L]

Note to frank.....looks like you are getting your moneysworth here! Maybe more than you really wanted to know?

BGL

 

[Ben LG]

Thanks for the review Brian, any thoughts on audio performance of the 1600?

 

[Brian L]

Thanks for the review Brian, any thoughts on audio performance of the 1600?

Actually have not tried it save for the digital out to my receiver for movies, which renders any judgement moot. I don't even have a stereo pair hooked up yet, although I will do that eventually.

I am very happy with the 45A for hi-rez and redbook, and since the 1600 only does DVD-A (as far as hi-rez is concerned) PLUS the fact that I have only one 5.1 input means that, assuming the 1600 passes muster for video, thats all I will ever use it for.

BGL