Progressive Scan: If you don't have a progressive TV, you cannot use it. Although, pretty much EVERY player is now progressive.
Incremental Zoom: Don't know anymore. Malatas used to be but I'm not sure now. It was usually called X-Y scaling back then.
R1, R0: Well, it better be able to play EVERY one of these if purchased in R1. Do you mean other formats? DIVX, WMV, VCD, etc? Because those are not "DVD".
Region free is easy enough these days.
Spiky
08-02-05, 03:46 PM
Overscan has been in everything for decades. It is basically a big technical mess if you truly want to get rid of it. Every type of program will often be different. SDTV, HDTV, DVD, VHS, different channels do it differently (I think), meaning you would have to change it on the fly to fix it in everything. Most don't want to get into the mess.
I saw this oddball thing watching tennis on NBC earlier this year. With my widescreen TV and bars on the sides, I am seeing the full width of the 4:3 signal. As soon as they do a replay, it doesn't quite fill the 4:3 area, as if the live data has overscan but the replay does not. So I could see the replay with a couple inches on either side of it showing the live TV behind.
I wish Pioneer had a model exactly the same as the 588A ($130) but minus the DVD-A/SACD capability, maybe the 285S, gotta research that. I will almost certainly be getting one of these since my Malata blew up a couple weeks ago. I like Pioneer's 480i output on almost all of their machines in history. Not that I've seen every single one.
Only thing is, Pioneer is not great for region free, complicated firmware alterations are necessary. If you decide on that route, the International Forum actually has more discussion of region free hardware than this one.
It's tough to answer about PQ, it is fairly subjective to most people. And it matters what display you have. For 480i (and ignoring the chroma issues on most players), I have liked most recent models I've seen from Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, JVC, Malata, Denon and some others. I have not liked Philips or GoVideo. I'm sure others will kick in some comments, too.
Big Worms
08-02-05, 11:00 PM
Overscan has been in everything for decades. It is basically a big technical mess if you truly want to get rid of it. Every type of program will often be different. SDTV, HDTV, DVD, VHS, different channels do it differently (I think), meaning you would have to change it on the fly to fix it in everything. Most don't want to get into the mess.
I saw this oddball thing watching tennis on NBC earlier this year. With my widescreen TV and bars on the sides, I am seeing the full width of the 4:3 signal. As soon as they do a replay, it doesn't quite fill the 4:3 area, as if the live data has overscan but the replay does not. So I could see the replay with a couple inches on either side of it showing the live TV behind.
I wish Pioneer had a model exactly the same as the 588A ($130) but minus the DVD-A/SACD capability, maybe the 285S, gotta research that. I will almost certainly be getting one of these since my Malata blew up a couple weeks ago. I like Pioneer's 480i output on almost all of their machines in history. Not that I've seen every single one.
Only thing is, Pioneer is not great for region free, complicated firmware alterations are necessary. If you decide on that route, the International Forum actually has more discussion of region free hardware than this one.
It's tough to answer about PQ, it is fairly subjective to most people. And it matters what display you have. For 480i (and ignoring the chroma issues on most players), I have liked most recent models I've seen from Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, JVC, Malata, Denon and some others. I have not liked Philips or GoVideo. I'm sure others will kick in some comments, too.
They do the Pioneer DV-285S is the same as the 588 minus the DVD-A/SACD stuff.
"The slim, stylish DV-285A-S delivers exceptional all region performance at a low, low price. It has a built-in PAL to NTSC converter so you can play discs from nearly anywhere."
Are they saying it already has these things builit-in, or are they selling their own modded version?
edit: I'm also looking at this: JVC XV-NA77 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=282858&is=REG&addedTroughType=search). It's supposed to have good PAL-NTSC conversion and it uses the mediamatics chip, which make me wonder if it has X-Y scaling. Anyone know anything about this player?
DJ_Longfellow
08-03-05, 11:46 AM
I have the Pioneer 588 and it's great. I probably should have just got the 285 model, since I don't really use SACD, but I did anyways.....
But yeah, the Pioneer is a good DVD player (and I had to replace a Panny RP82)
BigPete
08-08-05, 08:17 PM
It doesn't look like the DV-285-S has an optical out for audio. Guess that takes it out of the running for me ...
Spiky
08-09-05, 11:04 AM
The DV-285S looks like it could work for me. Anyone know if it requires modding to go region-free? I saw the same model on HKFlix:
"The slim, stylish DV-285A-S delivers exceptional all region performance at a low, low price. It has a built-in PAL to NTSC converter so you can play discs from nearly anywhere."
Are they saying it already has these things builit-in, or are they selling their own modded version?
edit: I'm also looking at this: JVC XV-NA77 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=282858&is=REG&addedTroughType=search). It's supposed to have good PAL-NTSC conversion and it uses the mediamatics chip, which make me wonder if it has X-Y scaling. Anyone know anything about this player?
HKflix is selling the 285 physically modded I would assume, that's what the specs indicate. Pioneer usually has a funky remote mod, or firmware that is tricky to do, or physical mod. It is not the easiest. For $140, that seems like a great buy to me. I'm going to skip the region free this time and go with the 285 later this month.
The JVC appears to have a decent zoom function, but maybe not the XY scaling full capability of the Mediamatics chip. I don't know for sure, just reading the B&H specs.
Spiky
08-09-05, 11:08 AM
On the overscan issue:
I've been playing with overscan on my TV. It allows me to get rid of it completely if I choose, but that is seldom a good choice. Most programs have a few pixels of crap at the edges. I was watching CSI in HD last night and if I went to zero overscan, there was a bright green line at the right side of the screen.
My TV came set to 94 for overscan. Not sure, I think that means 6% missing, which is typical as I recall for TVs. I generally have it set to 98 now to get a bit more picture. 100 is always too much.
renaldow
08-09-05, 05:22 PM
Also look at some of those refurbs on HKFlix's site. Those are some pretty good deals for a decent region free player!
Buy: