Product Description

Video Features * 108 MHz/12-bit D/A converter * Dual PureCinema Progressive Scan (PAL/NTSC) * DVD-Audio/Super Audio CD (SACD) playback * Dual-Layer DVD-R*1/DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW*2/DVD+R/DVD+RW playback * SVCD/VCD/CD/CD-R/CD-RW playback * 1080p upscaling with HDMI output * Official DivX Ultra Certified product* * WMV playback * PhotoViewer*3 (JPEG Playback) * Video Adjust function with Sharpness/Brightness/Contrast/Gamma/Hue/Chroma Level/BNR control * Zoom function * PAL/NTSC Dual System with PAL-NTSC video converter Audio Features * 192 kHz/24-bit D/A converter * SACD output via HDMI * WMA/MPEG-4 AAC/MP3 playback * Built-in DTS/Dolby Digital decoders (5.1- channel audio outputs) * Dialogue Enhancer * Virtual Surround Conveniences * USB Terminal * PHOTO + MUSIC MIX (JPEG Slideshow with Music) * Advanced GUI * Disc Navigator for easy browsing * Last (Position) Memory: 5 (DVD)/1 (VCD) * Resume function*4 * Screen saver * Auto power off Terminals * 1 x HDMI out * 1 x USB host (front-in) * 1 x Component out * 1 x S-Video out * 1 x Coaxial out * 1 x Optical out * USB Specifications: * Dimensions (W x H x D) 420 x 49.5 x 215.5 mm * Weight 1.8 kg * Power Consumption (in use/standby) 12 / 0.8 W * 110V/220V (worldwide voltage)

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Product Details

Publisher	Pioneer
Features	Plays DVD Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW (Video Format), CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, WMA, MP3 and JPEG formats Plays All-Region DVDs: Region 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 0 PAL/NTSC Compatible Plays DVD-Audio and SACD HDMI Output (720p/1080i/1080p)
MPN	DV-600AV-K
Brand	Pioneer
EAN	4977729858822
Label	Pioneer
Studio	Pioneer
Product Type Subcategory	2300515
Title	Pioneer Dv610av-k Black Multi Region Code Free Hdmi Upconverting 1080p DVD Player
Batteries Included	No
Model	DV-600AV-K
Manufacturer	Pioneer

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Customer Reviews

Terrific DVD player

Review by John B. Hudson, 2010-08-24

Having been alerted to the issue of the aspect ratio of the USA release of the film, "Shadows in the Sun," by a reviewer on Amazon.com, I took his advice and bought the Region 2 PAL version from Amazon.co.uk. I played it on my new DVD player bought from Amazon.com - the Pioneer Dv610av-k. The results are spectacular on my HDTV! The machine plays the Region 2 DVD beautifully. My regular North American Region 1 DVDs also play beautifully. Both the video and sound fidelity are superb. The remote has the best arrangement of keys of my many remotes. The instruction manual is one of the better ones I've used. This DVD player is a joy to use.

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Good value, great features

Review by Cheeky Monkey, 2010-08-10

Does what it claims it does. I purchased this as a second player to my primary player which is a $2000 Pioneer Elite Blu-Ray. As a second player I wanted it to convert region 2 (UK) DVD's. It works so far, perfectly without problem. If you want a multi region DVD player this is the one. Pioneer brand is still one of the best.

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excellent sacd & dvd audio player

Review by L. Szu Tao, 2010-07-08

Tons of features, crystal clear sacd and dvd audio sounds, and of course your regular dvd up convert play.

Direct DSD signal from sacd via hdmi, though I found that the LPCM 5.1 does sounds better so you should select this option instead of DSD.

My only complain is that you cannot eject when the power is on standby, and that you have to wait 5-10 seconds before you can eject the tray after you turn on the unit. Also the tv hdmi hookup seems to disrupt pure sound play from the player (cd and alike), so you have to turn off the tv.

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Does what you'd expect.

Review by PSony, 2010-04-05

I recently started to import dvds because the US versions lack the extra content that is available overseas. I searched around Amazon for a region-free dvd player with HDMI output and decided on this one because there has been nothing but positive reviews for it. Out of the box, all you have to do is plug in the power cable, connect it to your tv with your cable of choice, and you're good to go. You should go to the main menu and set up the display output options (aspect ratio, resolution). It comes with a round-to-flat pin adapter, but it's not necessary since the power cable is already a flat pin type. I've played region 1 NTSC, region 2 PAL, region 4 PAL, region 0 NTSC, and region 0 PAL dvds in this player and they all work fine. No need to switch regions or anything; just put in the disc, close the tray and it plays. It also upconverts your dvds for hdtvs.

The only cons I've found is that:

-the fast-forward/rewind speed is only up to 4x
-when switching audio tracks while the movie is playing, it takes about 2-3 seconds before the new track plays
-the player does not automatically switch aspect ratios to accommodate dvds; if you have output set to 16:9 on a widescreen tv and the dvd is 4:3, the picture is stretched out and you have to go to the main menu and manually set output to 4:3 if you don't want the picture to be stretched
-batteries rattle a bit in the remote

Those are very minor problems compared to what this player can do for you. With this machine, I no longer have to pay attention to region codes or tv signal formats.

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A True Universal DVD Player.

Review by George Denver, 2010-03-26

DVD was invented in 1995 & it's taken more than 10yrs to perfect the DVD player. The early DVD players all suffered from the same problems that plague Bluray players of today. They were plagued with slow loading times & they came locked - region coded. Even today, there are a lot of DVD players out there that are region coded & they need to be hacked, if U intend to play international DVDs.

The Pioneer DV-610AV is a true universal DVD player because of the following reasons:
1) Out of the box, this player comes unlocked. It plays DVDs from all 6 DVD regions.
2) Universal power supply, it works on both 110V - 220V. It comes with two power chords, one with the N. American flat pin & the other one has the Asian (Chinese) round pin. It can be plugged anywhere in the world with the help of the right pin / plug adaptor.
3) It plays almost all formats other than High Definition formats such as Bluray. It even plays DVD Audio & SACD.
4) Available in both black & silver. This sure adds up to the universal appeal that many other DVD players lack.
5) All the video / audio connections U'd ever want - HDMI, Component video, Composite video, S-Video, Coaxial audio, Optical audio & 5.1 channel analogue outs.

I bought a Pioneer DV-610AV('S' - Silver) from B&H, NYC in Jan 2009 for USD120. After using it for over an year, I'm truly impressed with it's capabilities. The DVD upconversion to 1080p over HDMI to a Panasonic 42in G10 plasma is as good as anything I've ever seen on an upconverting DVD player. The video upconversion of the Pioneer DV-610AV is much better than that of the Panasonic G10 plasma TV. I found that a lil' hard to digest, especially when the DVD player cost just 1/8th the price of the HDTV. It's a very simple test. U'll output the DVD player at both 480i & 1080p. If 480i looks better than the 1080p, then the video scaling of the HDTV is better than that of the DVD player, if the 1080p is better than 480i, then it's the other way around.

A unique selling point of the Pioneer DV-610AV is it's capability of playing home made / burned DVDs without a hiccup. This function is important to me as I make a lot of Windows Media Videos (WMV). This DVD player is especially very good at playing WMVs & DVDs that contain it. There are far & few DVD players that can boast this capability.

The Pioneer DV-610AV has a 24bit/192khz DAC due to it's ability to playback DVDA & SACD. The DAC in the Pioneer DV-610AV sounds a lil' warmer than the DAC used in Onkyo TX-SR604 receiver. Most budget DACs sound almost the same, but I really enjoyed listening to 2 channel music in my Zone 2 setup consisting of Mordaunt Short 902i bookshelf speakers. I had the analogue out of the Pioneer DV-610AV connected to Zone 2 in the Onkyo TX-SR604 receiver. I was happy with this 2 channel setup till I recently upgraded to a Musical Fidelity V-DAC. Of course, the MF V-DAC sounds more richer & warmer than the budget DAC used in the Pioneer DV-610AV. It gets more evident when used / tested with better amplifiers & speakers.

This DVD player comes with the 'auto turn off' function, it's especially good if this player is ever to be used as a CD player / source for Zone 2. When activated, this function turns off the DVD player, 30mins after the CD has stopped playback. This is surely an option to have when U do not have a 12V external trigger. The 12V trigger is a very impressive function & one that I really like a lot. It may be used in sync with other devices, such as an a/v receiver that has a 12V external trigger and a sleep timer, to auto turn on / off all devices that are connected to the 12V trigger. I really love this function & it is not to be expected in devices at this price point.

These days, almost all manufacturers are turning to 'Black' as their choice of color, due to cost cutting. Not that silver color costs more, it's just that making a product in multiple color options adds cost. Gone are the good old days when most equipment were available in Silver, Gold & even Champaign. As much as black looks cool, it's sad to see that customers are now being forced with no color choice. Brushed Aluminium (Silver) used by Onkyo remains my all time favorite finish for an audio equipment. It's got a vintage & nostalgic feel to it. I'm glad that Pioneer at least gave a choice of both black & silver color for this DVD player. Sadly, even Pioneer has taken the 'Black' route & now offers all it's Bluray players only in black. As of this writing, the only budget Bluray available in silver color is the Onkyo BD-SP807 & that too in Europe. Lol. Europe is the only market that still demands & has a taste for silver colored audio / video equipment. It really looks classy & that's what sells there. Only the very high end brands like Lexicon, Mcintosh, Krell etc still sell silver colored gear in the U.S.

Before buying this player, I had considered the following players:
1) Onkyo DV-SP506: This player came region locked & at the time, there were no known hacks for this machine. This player had the best build quality of all the budget DVD players I had considered. Silver color was only available in Europe.
2) Oppo DV-980H: This player is easy to hack. It was available only in black color & I wanted silver. It had lots of issues with home made / burned DVDs, especially the one consisting of WMVs. It also lacks auto off which is found even in the most basic DVD players. They don't have this function even in the Bluray players they are selling currently. Lol. C'mon Oppo, wake up.
3) Cambridge Audio Azur 540D V2: Almost the same carbon copy of the Oppo DV-980H, except that it is also available in black & silver. The silver here looks more like raw aluminium. Lol. All other short comings of the Oppo DV-980H is still applicable here.
4) Denon DVD 1940CI: It seemed like a lot of potential initially. But there were lots of issues with home made / burned DVDs.
5) Marantz DV6001: Very identical to the Denon DVD 1940CI & it had the same short comings.
6) I w'd never consider any of Sony's products that are plagued with company made proprietary hiccups. There are hiccups from anything U buy from Sony. So why buy from a brand that's non flexible?
7) LG, Samsung etc were never up to my taste for a DVD player.

I finally settled for the Pioneer DV-610AV which was cheaper than the above mentioned DVD players, & yet it had all the functions & performance that I was looking for in a budget DVD player. Having said that, there are a couple of things that c'd have been improved:
1) The build quality of this DVD player is just ok & nothing to boast about. I really wish the build quality of this DVD player was at least close to Pioneer's own Elite DVD players. And may be a lil' more quiet operation w'd have made this a hell of a DVD player.
2) Random play is good but shuffle play w'd have been better for CD playback. Almost all universal Bluray / DVD players suffer from this. This is where a dedicated CD player still has an advantage.
3) It w'd have been great if we c'd change the player menu settings without stopping the DVD / CD, a la (in the style of) Oppo.
4) I don't have SACDs or DVDAs but I do have HDCDs. If this format w'd have been included, this w'd have been the universal DVD player to beat.
5) Auto turn off is good, but a 12V external trigger w'd have been a dream come true. Lol.

I know I'm expecting too much from a USD120 budget DVD player, but that's just me. Lol. Pioneer has got a universal DVD player right at this price point, with the DV-610AV & goes on to prove that it does not have to be expensive to really perform well. This is a great DVD player regardless of price. Unfortunately Pioneer c'd not perform a similar trick with their Bluray players which severely lags behind in the competition. Anyone who is not ready for a Bluray player yet & is still looking for a truly capable universal DVD player, sh'd put this player right on top of the list.

This DVD player was especially made for the Asian & European markets. The ones sold in the U.S. come without a warranty. Now that's a risk U'll have to consider before buying the Pioneer DV-610AV universal DVD player. And it's almost the same risk U'll be facing, when U plan to buy an unlocked universal Bluray player.

Just my $0.02.

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