i apologize if this has been asked already in this thread - was too long to get through at 1am :/

i live in hong kong at the moment, so i'm using (what i assumed to be) the asian model of this player - dv-400v-s, and i'm having some really strange problems...

- originally this was connected to the tv with an hdmi cable. my tv supports 1080p so naturally the player outputs 1080p to the tv.
- then i bought an av-amp (denon 2807) and connected the amp/dvdp with another hdmi cable. this av-amp has upscaling built-in.
- when the player was turned on for the first time after connecting to the amp, it defaulted back to 480p.
- any subsequent attempts at changing the output resolution back to 1080p caused the entire screen to go back for about 2 seconds, then back on for about 2 seconds, and this repeats itself until the amp cuts out the signal. so i'm stuck with outputting 480p and upscaling it through the amp.

searches on google have turned up something interesting - apparently this has happened to other people as well when they tried to connect it through an av-amp or using a long hdmi cable (10m). i haven't tried other cables yet because i don't have any spares at the moment - will go out and get a new one tomorrow.

could this be a firmware problem?

any help/insights are appreciated and thanks in advance.

- bernard

Given that this player disables the optical out when you use HDMI, can someone suggest an good and similarly priced upconverting DVD player that will allow me to output video thru HDMI while simultaneously allowing me to use the digital out so that I can get dd5.1 and dts?

Unfortunately my panny 42pz700u can't send dolby digital to my receiver either :(. thanks.

Nevermind. After digging around this post I found the solution here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10890617#post10890617

Although it's bit of a work around it does work.

Hi everyone

im having some troubles using the pioneer dv-400v-s

i unpacked my brand new dvd and proceed to connect everything to my sharp aquos 42d62u (1.07 firmware) (using HDMI)everything went fine pioneer logo appeared on my screen, i changed the video output to 1080p but after a few seconds the screen went black and never came back, i had to connect the rca cables to see the image in 480i

the thing is i cant use hdmi output it doesnt work :mad:

is it because the player is defective or its incompatible with my lcd

if i disconnect the hdmi cable from my tv and connect it again works for 5-7 seconds then black screen again :(

I don’t know too much about HDMI, hence I was wondering if someone could tell if the following would be ok.

I have LCD tv with hdmi
And Sky+ with rgb scart.


Can I connect the sky+ to the pioneer euro scart (rgb) and then connect the pioneer to the tv via hdmi? Also, will sound be carried or do I need to connect audio a different way?

There is a reason i can only use one cable to tv, but long story! :)

Many thanks and apologies for the questions

You should be able to use the moddified* firmware!
How ever if you normally get Japanese in OSD menu, this might not be the case in moddified FW as the Japanese fonts are removed to make place for other fonts!
If this is the case, please contact me and I can have a special Japanese version made!

* All usage of moddified firmwares are done on own risk!

Hkan great job on the firmware, thanks. only thing i would like to point out that read me file only says "press enter" for region free, but you need to press and hold enter untill player shuts of. i spent quite a while loading diferent firmwares untill i figured it out.

also it says that player will go back to original region if turned of, that is not true it will only do that if it is unpluged from the wall.

thanks again if you could add something about above to read me file i am sure it would save a lot of time for noobies like my in the future

Given that this player disables the optical out when you use HDMI, can someone suggest an good and similarly priced upconverting DVD player that will allow me to output video thru HDMI while simultaneously allowing me to use the digital out so that I can get dd5.1 and dts?

Unfortunately my panny 42pz700u can't send dolby digital to my receiver either :(. thanks.


I use HDMI for the video and coax digital for DTS/DD and it works nice! Factory firmware.

I think you may be confused. If you're outputting the DTS bitstream from the player for your receiver to decode, the player won't mess with it. So if your receiver supports DTS 96/24, you'll get 96/24.

But if the player is doing its own DTS decode, either through the analogue outputs, or outputting PCM up the HDMI, then you'll get 48kHz output because its on-board decoder doesn't support the 96kHz extension.

(DTS 96/24 is backwards-compatible with normal DTS - it's a 1536kbps stream where 75% of the data is standard DTS that will be decoded by a standard decoder, and the other 25% is extra information used to reconstruct a 96kHz signal).

Excellent. Thanks for that! I think the PCM->48khz setting confused me. So I can get 96/24 ok with this player if my receiver supports it? Cool.

I wonder why these settings are greyed out and HDMI audio is set to ON? I still get DTS/DD via coax even though my LCD is receiving DVD audio via the HDMI.

Hi all!
Newbie to this forum here. Not sure if this has been discussed already, but how would you rate the PQ upconversion of this player to 1080i/p, compared to the built-in conversions of the new 1080i/p TV's?

I just bought a new Panny pz77 and wondering if this player will upconvert better than the native 1080p resolution or if buying a upconverting player is a waste of $$$.
Thanks. :cool:

qwertyspeed3,
Practically all nowadays HTDV sets do better upscaling job than any DVD players. Panasonic plasma HDTVs do excellent upscaling themselves (IMHO!). No, you do not have to spend $$$ for player just beacouse of upconversion feature.
Pioneer DV-400V great DVD/DivX player with good upconversion (to whoever this feature really needs), but for your case - no you do not need it. Just simply enjoy Pio's picture quality and Panny will do its job in respect to upscaling.

Hkan great job on the firmware, thanks. only thing i would like to point out that read me file only says "press enter" for region free, but you need to press and hold enter untill player shuts of. i spent quite a while loading diferent firmwares untill i figured it out.

also it says that player will go back to original region if turned of, that is not true it will only do that if it is unpluged from the wall.

thanks again if you could add something about above to read me file i am sure it would save a lot of time for noobies like my in the future

The player should not revert to original region even if it is unpluged from the power supply!
Actually have you read the 'ReadMe' file? It should say - Multiregional when Enter is pushed until the player turns off.

qwertyspeed3,
Practically all nowadays HTDV sets do better upscaling job than any DVD players. Panasonic plasma HDTVs do excellent upscaling themselves (IMHO!). No, you do not have to spend $$$ for player just beacouse of upconversion feature.
Pioneer DV-400V great DVD/DivX player with good upconversion (to whoever this feature really needs), but for your case - no you do not need it. Just simply enjoy Pio's picture quality and Panny will do its job in respect to upscaling.

Thanks SBrudzinsky for the info. Yah, i've watched a couple of movies using my old DVD player and the quality looked pretty good already (except for burned copies). So i guess i don't even need a progressive scan player since my TV does 1080P?

And correct me if i'm wrong, but the only major advantage in buying an upconverting dvd player if you already own a 1080i/p TV is really just for the HDMI interface (depending if the player has HDMI), which is almost the same as digital component video outputs?

The player should not revert to original region even if it is unpluged from the power supply!
Actually have you read the 'ReadMe' file? It should say - Multiregional when Enter is pushed until the player turns off.


you are right i might have miss red it. sorry

"Multiregional when Enter is pushed until the player turns off"

pushed and held would do better



thanks

Hi there,

It seems that when I plug in a USB HDD, the folders are not listed alphabetically. I have a large list of folders, and it's a real pain to navigate/scroll down because they are listed in date order. Any way to change this? Thanks in advance.

grol

I'm a new DV-400 owner and just starting to play around with my first upconverting DVD player. I have it hooked up to my Mitsu WD-65733 DLP TV via HDMI. I tried setting the Player AND TV to 1080P. I'd get a picture, but it was cracking and popping (for lack of a better description). Is there some trick to the upconversion? I thought the TV would do it, but whatever I have the DVD player at is what the TV shows it as. Any ideas? Is it the Player, the TV, or me? :)

I left the component and S-Video cables on (used those while waiting for the HDMI). Should I just yank those off?

Thanks!

Crappy HDMI cables might result in white speckles on the screen. You don't have to buy uber-high quality cables unless you are wanting quite long ones.

As the original poster posted, his DV-400V plays any region DVD even it says ragion 1. Anyone else can confirm that?

Basically I only want this DVD player play mutl-region DVD and can also display Chinese subtitle. Do i need to upgrade to the modified firmware?

Thanks

I just got this DVD player. I am trying to play WMV files. Some are 640 x 480, others are 720 x 480. I have tried them burned to a DVD, and on a flash drive. I can see the files, but when I play them, some (but not all) have the bottom half of the screen all garbled. Some of them work fine. It doesn't seem related to what the resolution is, since some of either resolution work. These all play fine on a PC.

Has anyone had any of these problems? Should I exchange the unit for another one? Thanks for the info.

So I tried connecting 3 different external usb hard drives all formatted fat32. On the DVD player display it switches from 'USB MODE' to 'USB DATA', but I don't see the file explorer pop up. Am I doing something wrong? Or are all 3 of my hard drives not compatible?

The manual said I'm supposed to see 'USB ERR' if its not compatible so I still have some hope.

It takes a few seconds before the file explorer pops up for me. Sometimes a bit longer.

hmm..i left it on for awhile and still nothing. All it says is "USB DATA"

I tried to update the firmware of my dv400 and it recognizes the update but I when I press PLAY it says "CHECKSUM FAIL" and that it can't copy the file. I have tried several times and in different CDs but still doesn't work. Anyone had this problem??

BTW, should my external hard drive be formatted as a primary or logical partition? Right now its logical

So I tried connecting 3 different external usb hard drives all formatted fat32. On the DVD player display it switches from 'USB MODE' to 'USB DATA', but I don't see the file explorer pop up. Am I doing something wrong? Or are all 3 of my hard drives not compatible?

The manual said I'm supposed to see 'USB ERR' if its not compatible so I still have some hope.

Did you make sure you plugged in you hard drive AC adapter? I think that is necessary for any hard drives to work.

Does anyone know if this player and the Pioneer Hard Drive recorders (DVR550 and DVR650) use the same upconverting engine?

Thx

I tried to update the firmware of my dv400 and it recognizes the update but I when I press PLAY it says "CHECKSUM FAIL" and that it can't copy the file. I have tried several times and in different CDs but still doesn't work. Anyone had this problem??

It means that someone have done something to the file and havent corrected the checksum! Or something did go wrong when you downloaded it!
Download again!
From where did you download the file?

Yes, It is using its own AC power

For those that want to know. The external hard drive has to be in PRIMARY partition. I used partition magic to do that. Now it works perfectly.

Just a quick question about the pioneer DV-400V-K. It says on the pioneer website and several other sites that this player upconverts to 1080p. Can I assume that it also upconverts to 1080i. It may sound like an odd question but I cant find anywhere that says if it does or not. My TV is only 1080i compatible and I am planing on buying this dvd player thru my airmiles account and they have a no return policy so I need to know before I buy it.

Just a quick question about the pioneer DV-400V-K. It says on the pioneer website and several other sites that this player upconverts to 1080p. Can I assume that it also upconverts to 1080i. It may sound like an odd question but I cant find anywhere that says if it does or not. My TV is only 1080i compatible and I am planing on buying this dvd player thru my airmiles account and they have a no return policy so I need to know before I buy it.
Yes, it does upscale to the following through HDMI: 720p,1080i,1080p
and also delivers 480i and 480p through HDMI and Component.

I updated the firmware of my DV-400 using the one from pioneerfaq. I was able to complete the update, reset the player, and verify that the version has been updated. But it still show up as Region 1. I did hold ENTER button until the player shuts off. Should I assume it is already multiregion? Couldn't test it yet coz' I only have my region 1 dvds here.

I updated the firmware of my DV-400 using the one from pioneerfaq. I was able to complete the update, reset the player, and verify that the version has been updated. But it still show up as Region 1. I did hold ENTER button until the player shuts off. Should I assume it is already multiregion? Couldn't test it yet coz' I only have my region 1 dvds here.

Yes it is now multiregional!
It will how ever still show the original region that the player was set to in factory!

....Can I assume that it also upconverts to 1080i. It may sound like an odd question but I cant find anywhere that says if it does or not. My TV is only 1080i compatible and I am planing on buying this dvd player ....

I assuming your HDVT is x768. For such native vertical resolution you do not need (and will not benefit from anyhow) 1080i. Your TV will downscale higher resolution signal to its native resolution. I would recommend to use 480p or 720p. Your TV will compensate gap in resolution by applying its own upscaling process.

i just bought my new pioneer dvd and noticed one problem with setting it up....I have it hooked up through my receiver using HDMI and when i first turned it on I got the Prioneer symbol to come up but the screen had a pinkish color. I investigated further and discoverd that when I leave it on the component function (HDMI default) i get this pinkish color on the screen but if I change the settings to either "RGB" or "full true RGB" the picture looks normal. Any reason to why I got a pinkish color using the setting that is specifically for HDMI?

Hi, can someone tell me if this player supports long file names? I have a Phillips player that truncates the file names, which is annoying trying to explore a disc.

It truncates them to 14 chars.

Pioneer DV-400V does not play ".mpg" files. You have to convert them into VCD format (if mpg or mpeg file is MPEG-1) or DVD-Video (if file is MPEG-2). Or just use Microsoft Media Encoder 9 (freeware from Microsooft) and create .WMV file from mpeg. DV-400V can play Windows Media Video (.WMV) format.

ugh, I just discovered this and I am very disappointed. I didn't bother to check because mpg playback ought to be pretty trivial, especially since previous Pioneer models supported them.

What the heck??

i just got a new TV and thinking of getting this player. How is the avi support? Can i just throw the files on a DVD-R, pop them in and watch them? Any other thoughts on the player?

It truncates them to 14 chars.
well, better than 8.3 on Philips

hey i just picked up a dv-400v and i noticed that my unit take a while to turn on. For example i press the power button, it takes about 5 seconds for anything to show up on the screen. is this normal?

Is there any way to get this player to upconvert over component output? I have a 64" Pioneer Elite RPTV and it does not have HDMI. I have heard that there may be a firmware mod to have this player upconvert over component.

hey i just picked up a dv-400v and i noticed that my unit take a while to turn on. For example i press the power button, it takes about 5 seconds for anything to show up on the screen. is this normal?

I've actually been curious about the same thing. In addition to this, it takes absolutely forever (+/- a few milliseconds) to bring up a file list on a usb thumb drive. Is everyone else waiting quite a while for the player to start up?

I was wondering if there is a way for 3rd party firmware to change the soft subtitling appearance for xvid movies

Right now you get a rectangular semi oblique line that superimposes it self on the picture, then on top of that you get the subtitle. This is for Xvid movies. For normal dvd movies you just get the subtitle imposed on the picture, and not the whole rectangular line.

I like things consistent, and quite frankly the way the subtitles are shown on xvid movies is very annoying.

Where can I get a Silver DV-400V in Toronto? Seems like BB, FS and 2001AV only have the black one.

Walmart (scarborough town center has some) carries only silver.

Ironic, since I had trouble finding black at BB.

Just go the 400V and I'm testing it out on my Sharp LCD...

Why does using HDMI connection cause the picture to reduce in height vertically at all resolutions? I've tried 480p, 720p and 1080i.

Whereas, when I flip over to component video, the picture fills more of the screen. Basically there is about 1.5" inches of black band above and below vs. like 3-4" of black band on HDMI...

I am trying to set a resolution of 720p(1280x720) on the Dell 2208WFP which supports resolutions upto 1680x1050. I do not get any picture- can someone help please?
Also i have just bought a new player Dv400 -but since am new to it do not know what all i should check to ensure its working correctly. Can i connect my comp/USB key and play a movie directly?
Thanks to anyone who can help

Does this thing have discrete power on and off?

I just got a DV-400V a few days ago, and seem to be having a weird problem. Basically, when I turn it on, the picture (whether it's an actual movie or the Pioneer screen saver or the menus) flickers. Perhaps one frame every second or so seems to be missing? Oddly enough, after a minute or two, it starts cutting out less and less frequently, and then it just runs fine afterwards, at least until it's turned off and allowed to cool down.

It's hooked up via a cheap HDMI cable to a Samsung 4061 LCD TV (1080p)...

Bad cable? bad player?

I got a wiered problem, when I try to play Xvid files on my DV-600 some of them give me Errror "The video resolution of this file is not supported"
I try use all HDMI and etc. no changes.
Resolution of file is 800x336
Please if you have some ideas let me know.

Has anyone had any problems of some XVID files skipping on their players? The same files would skip either when they were being played off my usb hard drive or from the dvd drive. The sound seems to be fine, the video would just freeze and skip.

The file that skips has this info from MPEG4Modifier
Packed bitstream: No
QPel: Yes
GMC: Yes (3 warp points)
Interlaced: No
Aspect ratio: Square pixels
Quant type: H.263
FourCC: XVID
User data: XviD0043

I-VOPs: 385 (1.07%)
P-VOPs: 10936 (30.41%)
B-VOPs: 22499 (62.57%)
S-VOPs: 2141 (5.95%)
N-VOPs: 0 (0.00%)

Max consecutive B-VOPs: 3
1 consec: 19.49%
2 consec: 78.81%
3 consec: 1.70%

Warp points used:
2: 34.66%
3: 65.34%

A file that didn't skip had this
Packed bitstream: Yes
QPel: No
GMC: No
Interlaced: No
Aspect ratio: Square pixels
Quant type: H.263
FourCC: XVID
User data: DivX503b1393p
XviD0041

I-VOPs: 478 (1.33%)
P-VOPs: 13515 (37.58%)
B-VOPs: 21972 (61.09%)
S-VOPs: 0 (0.00%)
N-VOPs: 0 (0.00%)

Max consecutive B-VOPs: 2
1 consec: 24.41%
2 consec: 75.59%

Bought this yesterday.
Black screen when set to 1280 x 720 on HDCP compliant Samsung 225 monitor hdmi->dvi. 480p works.
Won't even do 480p (or anything else) on my hdcp compliant hdtv thru hdmi->dvi.
So far only able to view 480p thru component on 32" Westinghouse tv.

I guess its the QPEL and GMC. Is there anyway to remove those w/o reencoding?

I got a wiered problem, when I try to play Xvid files on my DV-600 some of them give me Errror "The video resolution of this file is not supported"
I try use all HDMI and etc. no changes.
Resolution of file is 800x336
Please if you have some ideas let me know.

Max resolution that is supported for this player is: 720x576 (PAL) /720x480 (NTSC).

same problem for me too, i tried with other HDMI players, Sony NS78h and the philips latest, both gave outputs at selecting 720,1080i and even 1080p on my panel(as its supposed to support all of them)

Bought this yesterday.
Black screen when set to 1280 x 720 on HDCP compliant Samsung 225 monitor hdmi->dvi. 480p works.
Won't even do 480p (or anything else) on my hdcp compliant hdtv thru hdmi->dvi.
So far only able to view 480p thru component on 32" Westinghouse tv.
Try a different HDMI cable, it seems that it is sometimes picky about what cable you use!

Also just remeberd that I got reports saying that one firmware version, YGB7328I, is the only one working when you using HDMI --> DVI.

Hkan,
Thanks for the Pioneer FAQ!
Yep, I have the 1A firmware. On the hdmi->dvi to HDTV I get blinking red hdmi light on player but if I pull the hdmi cable out and stick it back in I get a picture (until the handshake fails) long enough to quickly go to initial settings and mess with the display outputs which leaves me with black screen either way ha ha.
On the samsung monitor I get solid red hdmi light on player but still black screen @ 1280 x 720.
If this player had slow forward and backward features I might keep it but I think I'm through with modern electronics. Having to do firmware and software updates regularly on every single piece of equipment in my house is insane. The available content is just not worth it. Thousands of $ just to see 1 or 2 decent movies a year.
I'm gonna buy a new HVAC system for my house instead of a new HDTV but only if the controls are analog not digital ha ha.

I just bought this player and it seemed to be the perfect machine. I like everything about it. Unforunately, after checking different dvd's it freezes on 3 out of every 4 dvd's and nothing I do will help.

The problem is most common on dvd-r's. This is a shame. I hooked up my old Panasonic and it will play anything that I put in it.

After a lot of reading, I thought I had found the perfect player. Has anyone else had this issue?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I bought this at BestBuy. Looks like I'm heading back.

I'm wondering if the Panasonic upconverter is worth considering.

Thanks for any advice.

I'm trying to calibrate my LCD using DVE. How did you you guys get this player to pass "below black" levels using HDMI? I don't see it.

those of you who have this player hooked up to a sharp d64 series, what output resolution have you found to give you the best picture? what about component vs RGB color?

Hello guys.
This is my first post here decided to registered to ask something.

I am pretty much a guy who has no music difference and what audiophiles might call deaf.

I can't tell a difference between Audio CD vs 320kbps mp3 vs 128kbps mp3.
They all sound exactly the same to me. (but I can tell a difference below 128kbps)

Anyways, with that in mind, would Pioneer DV-400V be a good option for me (doesn't care about sound...only PQ)

The reason why I am asking is because there is many reviews/comments here in this thread discussing certain models, and after people say which player they own and that it's very good, they follow up discussing sound quality which i do not care at all (i will be using TV speakers)

So, sound quality aside, how would Pioneer be any different than say Toshiba HD-D3 HD-DVD player (only it's upconverting function)

Because right now I have Toshiba HD-DVD player connected to 46inch Sony Bravia via HDMI, and I am satisfied with picture quality of upconverted DVD's

How would this Pioneer be in terms of picture quality compared to Toshiba HD-DVD player (once again, i am not comparing Pioneer upconverting function to Toshiba's HD-DVD function....i am only comparing upconverting vs upconverting of both players). Some people say it's picture is dark etc

I need to know this because I can't buy 2 players at the same time and compare. I can only get 1 after I return Toshiba HD-DVD player

AirForceElite,

As the matter of fact, I have both HD-DVD A3 and Pio 400v at home right now and what I can say is they are both displaying great PQ. Out of the box, the Pio settings were a little off but after adjusting it with side-by-side comparison in PQ from HD-DVD A3, I was able to adjust the settings on the Pio to match almost 100% with the PQ on the A3 (IMHO this A3 upconvert is the best before). Of course, I'm talking only with the upconvert functionality of the A3. So now I honestly can't tell the diffence if one of them is playing (standard def DVD wise).

Bottom line is, Pio 400v is a very good player and it can do the upconverting job extremely good and as good as the upconvert from the A3. Now, however, if you don't care about the region free player nor the DivX capability of the Pio 400v, then I would say having the HD-DVD player is more than enough. Why would you want to have another standard def player if you already have the HD-DVD player which does a very good job on upconvert for standard def DVD? In my case I bought the Pio a few months before the A3 so I'm kinda stuck with it :-)

Just my 2 cents,
Govee

Can anyone fast forward more than 1 speed on a divx video off a CD? I can only do one speed, and it isn't that fast. That's very, very lame. I often watch videos and leave and then pick up days or weeks later. I have to FF through to the part where I left off. At the slow FF speed I have it would take a while...

EDIT: Ok it looks like it will FF faster but not show any indicator of what level of FF you are on...

I ran into the same problem while watching divx files from a USB stick. Page 24 of the manual (unfortunately) states:

pioneerelectronics.ca/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_11221/449478215DV400VOperatingInstructions0523.pdf

You can fast-scan discs forward or backward
at four different speeds (only one speed for
DivX video/WMV).

This sucks since FF takes forever. So my next plan was to search in a file to a particular time. Page 29 says it can be done on a divx file, doesn't mention USB though. It says by pressing PLAY MODE and select Search Mode then using the number buttons to select a time, i.e. "4,5,0,0, Enter" starts 45 mins in.

I tried this on my 400v and pressing the PLAY MODE button didn't do anything from a USB drive. Tried a divx file from a DVD and it worked... guess they never got around to finishing off that feature on USB... great.

I gave up on the Pioneer and bought an Oppo dv-980h. Beats driving back and forth testing new players only to be disappointed.

I just did the same thing. I've tried 4 different players, and I'll be sticking with the Oppo. Tired of boxing up and returning.

AirForceElite,

As the matter of fact, I have both HD-DVD A3 and Pio 400v at home right now and what I can say is they are both displaying great PQ. Out of the box, the Pio settings were a little off but after adjusting it with side-by-side comparison in PQ from HD-DVD A3, I was able to adjust the settings on the Pio to match almost 100% with the PQ on the A3 (IMHO this A3 upconvert is the best before). Of course, I'm talking only with the upconvert functionality of the A3. So now I honestly can't tell the diffence if one of them is playing (standard def DVD wise).

Bottom line is, Pio 400v is a very good player and it can do the upconverting job extremely good and as good as the upconvert from the A3. Now, however, if you don't care about the region free player nor the DivX capability of the Pio 400v, then I would say having the HD-DVD player is more than enough. Why would you want to have another standard def player if you already have the HD-DVD player which does a very good job on upconvert for standard def DVD? In my case I bought the Pio a few months before the A3 so I'm kinda stuck with it :-)

Just my 2 cents,
Govee

what settings did you change on the player? i have a 46'' Sharp D64 and can't figure out what resolution i should be sending the TV. or if i should be using the RGB color or component.

Also just remeberd that I got reports saying that one firmware version, YGB7328I, is the only one working when you using HDMI --> DVI.

That is correct. When I purchased my unit from Best Buy a couple of months ago, it came with a newer firmware which only allowed DVI at 480P. I was choked, but I still kept the DVD player because of everything else it offered.

Just the other day I was able to find the YGB7328I firmware online and I successfully loaded it on my DV-400V. The second I did that, I was able to set my DVD player to 720P and it worked using my HDMI-to-DVI cable.

WG

The YGB7328I is avalible at www.pioneerfaq.info in it's original state!

Dear Hakan, I wrote a lot and just lost my reply so I will try to make it shorter.
Thanks a lot for ur help to region free dv 400. My CD with v 1.1 is already ready but something stopped me: on the polish forum u know about a guy faced troubles yesterday and today (aware of this) so I want to make sure about few things before proceeding.

1- after upgrade finishes what happens? Pioneer Logo is displayed again (dvd tray still out or it closes automatically?) and you have to switch dv400 by pressing down Enter (for how long?) or player switch off automatically and you have to switch on again and then switch off with Enter? I read those 2 different versions.

2- I suppose Enter means the button on the device and not the one on the remote?

3- once done which language is on the screen after you switch on? English? I used the CP1252 version. How can I then change the language (new menu or sequence on the remote? if so which one for which language?). I'm not confident with CP meaning, sorry.

4- I read about issue with USB after upgrade? Confirm?

5- after upgrade how does the menu look like: similar to Pioneer original or completely different?

6- does ur firmware add actions on the remote or only your polish friend one's did (sorry forgot the name and site link is at work only).

Thanks for ur help and the time for ur kind reply

The main reason I want to get this player is because of the USB port. I picked up the Phillips today with the usb but it kind of stutters when video (700mb avi file) is played through the usb port via a flash key. What I wanted to know was has anyone tried it on this pioneer? Does it play fine?

Dear Hakan, I wrote a lot and just lost my reply so I will try to make it shorter.
Thanks a lot for ur help to region free dv 400. My CD with v 1.1 is already ready but something stopped me: on the polish forum u know about a guy faced troubles yesterday and today (aware of this) so I want to make sure about few things before proceeding.

1- after upgrade finishes what happens? Pioneer Logo is displayed again (dvd tray still out or it closes automatically?) and you have to switch dv400 by pressing down Enter (for how long?) or player switch off automatically and you have to switch on again and then switch off with Enter? I read those 2 different versions.

2- I suppose Enter means the button on the device and not the one on the remote?

3- once done which language is on the screen after you switch on? English? I used the CP1252 version. How can I then change the language (new menu or sequence on the remote? if so which one for which language?). I'm not confident with CP meaning, sorry.

4- I read about issue with USB after upgrade? Confirm?

5- after upgrade how does the menu look like: similar to Pioneer original or completely different?

6- does ur firmware add actions on the remote or only your polish friend one's did (sorry forgot the name and site link is at work only).

Thanks for ur help and the time for ur kind reply

1) When player has finished installing the firmware, it will actually looks like it dies! screen will go black and dispaly on dvd goes black as well! Then the disc tray will close and CLEAR will be shown on display and on TV you will again see the PIONEER logo.
Now you can press and hold the ENTER button on your REMOTE CONTROL till player turn it self off! It will now be multireional!

2) See above!
3) In the OSD it supports this languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian. This is what the original Firmware supports.
The CodePage is for what languages it support in file browser.

4) What issues is this? I dont have any USB device so I can not test this!
5) It looks as the original, nothing is changed to the menus! Only changed the screensaver and the Pioneer logo!
6) All is stated in the readme file that comes with the firmware!
If you mean that the Dinderi added the dimmer function? This I havent added as it does not work!

what settings did you change on the player? i have a 46'' Sharp D64 and can't figure out what resolution i should be sending the TV. or if i should be using the RGB color or component.

I'm at work now so when I got home I'll write down my settings for you and anyone here to compare. BTW, I have Panny 50" Plasma and running HDMI to Denon 3806 receiver before going to the TV via HDMI also. Don't think that matters but just to let you know.

I just did the same thing. I've tried 4 different players, and I'll be sticking with the Oppo. Tired of boxing up and returning.

I too had tested several players (at least 8 of them) including the Oppo 980HD. I'm very picky when it comes to DVD players, and I stil don't know why to this day. :-) At first, I thought the Oppo 980 has an edge when it comes to PQ; but later I found out that it's all about adjusting to the right settings to match your TV's settings. Of course there is a better player compares to the others; but I don't think it's a significant diff when comparing the price between the Oppo and Pio 400v. Almost double the price for a tiny bit difference in PQ? Well, because I'm poor :-) Besides, I don't need all the bells and whistles that the Oppo offers.

[QUOTE=Hkan;12759824]1) When player has finished installing the firmware, it will actually looks like it dies! screen will go black and dispaly on dvd goes black as well! Then the disc tray will close and CLEAR will be shown on display and on TV you will again see the PIONEER logo.
Now you can press and hold the ENTER button on your REMOTE CONTROL till player turn it self off! It will now be multireional!

2) See above!
3) In the OSD it supports this languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian. This is what the original Firmware supports.
The CodePage is for what languages it support in file browser.

4) What issues is this? I dont have any USB device so I can not test this!
5) It looks as the original, nothing is changed to the menus! Only changed the screensaver and the Pioneer logo!
6) All is stated in the readme file that comes with the firmware!
If you mean that the Dinderi added the dimmer function? This I havent added as it does not work![/QUOTE

Dear Hakan thanks for reply.

USB:
one user posted on pioneerdivx saying that after upgrade he was facing troubles with usb (2,5 drives and usb pen). Dinderi had no troubles with usb pen (the power needed with 2,5 is well known) so I would guess ur v1.1 is fine. Can u just confirm that even if u have yourself no usb device other user do not have problems? (if u wish more info visit pioneerdivvx and see thread from powerbit dated 05/01/08).


Dinderi also confuses me a bit with one post. He said to a guy facing problems with v1.1 downloaded from ur site yesterday that he eventually fixed ur firmware to have enter-clear-and surround button work??? Kindly have a look at thread by rodry20 on 08/01 on pioneerdivx if u don't get my point.
To make it easy for me: switch off after upgrade by pressing down enter on the remote is already implemented in ur firmware v 1.1, correct?

original setted language is maintain after upgrade correct? (eg:english--->english)

I dont get the meaning of file browser? is that the file tree when an usb is connected or do u refer to dvd menu, or what? sorry for that.

Thanks in advance. Once this is definitely cleared from u I'll procede with upgrade.

ciao

I'm at work now so when I got home I'll write down my settings for you and anyone here to compare. BTW, I have Panny 50" Plasma and running HDMI to Denon 3806 receiver before going to the TV via HDMI also. Don't think that matters but just to let you know.

i would think the optimal settings for your plasma will be way different than they would be for my LCD no?

the scalers will be of differing quality, so the optimal resolution output could be different right?

i would think the optimal settings for your plasma will be way different than they would be for my LCD no?

the scalers will be of differing quality, so the optimal resolution output could be different right?

True, you're absolutely right! Well, but you can take mine and try out to see if you think it helps. In my opinion, the default settings out of the box for Pio 400v is not "Best" in general. However, the Oppo's players have better settings out of the box so for us as the consumers, in general uses, don't have to adjust them but can still see better PQ.

Hakan, in relation to our discussion I just saw you modified your V1.1 CP1252 on 09/01. So there was a problem somewhere? Can you confirm this is fine now!!!! so I'll burn a new cd before upgrading this week end. Would be nice to confirm me that.
thanks

Hakan, in relation to our discussion I just saw you modified your V1.1 CP1252 on 09/01. So there was a problem somewhere? Can you confirm this is fine now!!!! so I'll burn a new cd before upgrading this week end. Would be nice to confirm me that.
thanks

Jerry, I would just go ahead and burn it yourself. You'll answer all your questions.

I set my pioneer dv-400v to use 720p in the setup and it works fine when watching DVDs and such. However, when I watch an AVI on the flash stick, swtich the player off and then want to watch a DVD, the resolution gets set to 576p. I then have to manually change it to 720p in the menu.

Is this normal? I haven't modified the firmware at all.

Hi All,
I have a HDMI "handshake" problem between my Acer PH530 projector and Philips DVP5982 DVD player. In short, I couldn't get an image when I connected them by HDMI due to the HDPC complaint.
I am very pleased with the Acer projector so I will keep it but change the DVD player. Pioneer DV400-V is the first pops in my head because of the features and price. However, I hate to see this "handshake" problem again. Does anyone have sucessfully experience in hooking up DV400-V with Acer PH530 by HDMI? If so, I will go for it immediately.
Thanks.

Jerry, I would just go ahead and burn it yourself. You'll answer all your questions.

dear Vashwood,
with all respect for your opinion I don't understand ur comment. The player costs euros 129 in europe and although I would be glad to have it zone free I'm not ready to go into the venture of flashing it without knowing well what I'm doing at my own risk, as Hakan rightly say.
2 days ago another forumer had troubles with the Hakan firmware v1.1 CP1252. A guy called Dinderi helped him by modifying the Hakan firmware. To that Hakan confimed Dinderi he forgot to update that particular version. That's is why the guy had problems: as a result a new firmware CP1252 is on poineer Faq now.
Based on this recent confusion, I think it is correct to ask Hakan the owner of this firmware and the only one in the world who his able to have us dv400 zone free if things are fine now.
I'm not that much into electronics stuff myself, so I must be sure everything is fine because I don't want to turn my dv400 into a piece of brick (it is fully new). Yourself will probably not be there to help me in case of troubles right?
I believed forums were places where to seek for help. If I should do myself as you advised me, what is the point of register and discuss with a community of users?
So because I highly trust and respect Hakan for what he is doing for pioneer owners, I'll wait for his reply that I can procede without fear with the flash now.
Thanks again Hakan and regards to you Vashwood.

Hakan, in relation to our discussion I just saw you modified your V1.1 CP1252 on 09/01. So there was a problem somewhere? Can you confirm this is fine now!!!! so I'll burn a new cd before upgrading this week end. Would be nice to confirm me that.
thanks

Actually there was never a problem with the firmware! It was just that I forgot to implement some modifications, read me said it was there, so I updated all the diffrent CPs on the 22 November but I did forget to upload the CP1252, this I did when I got a report saying it didnt work to make the player multiregional!

Again it is always better to contact me direct at email found at www.pioneerfaq.info. It can take weeks before I remeber to visit a forum ;)

So jerry it should be no problems updating your player now, but as always, you make this on your own risk! Follow instructions and all should be well!

Actually there was never a problem with the firmware! It was just that I forgot to implement some modifications, read me said it was there, so I updated all the diffrent CPs on the 22 November but I did forget to upload the CP1252, this I did when I got a report saying it didnt work to make the player multiregional!

Again it is always better to contact me direct at email found at www.pioneerfaq.info. It can take weeks before I remeber to visit a forum ;)

So jerry it should be no problems updating your player now, but as always, you make this on your own risk! Follow instructions and all should be well!

Thank you Hakan, really.
And next time I'll for sure contact you directly on pioneerfaq so that I'll not disturb others with my stupid questions.
I like the net a lot because you find brillant people who remain humble and do not mind to share their knowledge and help others... so congratulation to you for your gentleman behaviour.
j.

The main reason I want to get this player is because of the USB port. I picked up the Phillips today with the usb but it kind of stutters when video (700mb avi file) is played through the usb port via a flash key. What I wanted to know was has anyone tried it on this pioneer? Does it play fine?


I didnt have a 1 gig usb flash drive/key, but I did test it on several 350meg tv xvid files I downloaded off the internet for several tv series.

No stutters at all. Just dont expect a .vob to play on ANY divx player without stutters. Not even the Oppo can do that.

In general playing xvid files off a usb key means rewinding and fastforwarding will be very slow and unresponsive.

Sorry for the delay. OK here are my settings:

- Sharpness: Fine
- Brightness: +9 (brightness has to be this high as I use "High Gamma" mode)
- Contrast: +9 (contrast does not have to be this high but I found a bit better)
- Gamma: High (dark level is good using this mode)
- Hue: 0
- Chroma Level: 0

I have Panny 50" Plasma set to Vivid mode. What I found is with this setting the Pio Player is almost 99% the same PQ with the HD-DVD A3 (with default settings) when playing standard def DVDs.

Note that these settings are just based on my preferences and by no mean the best settings! You can try it out and hope this helps!

I got a wiered problem, when I try to play Xvid files on my DV-600 some of them give me Errror "The video resolution of this file is not supported"
I try use all HDMI and etc. no changes.
Resolution of file is 800x336
Please if you have some ideas let me know.

I get the same error with an avi xvid video file that is only 640X368. Can someone tell me exactly what settings I would need to use to convert this file to in order to get it to playback on the DV-400. It works just fine on my computer. I have other avi files with smaller resolutions that will give me the same error so I would just like to convert the files to playback on this unit.

There is nothing wrong with that resolution. The problem must be with the media file you are trying to play. Use a tool like gspot and send us a snapshot of the video properties. Make a small sample (~10M) available for download so other members of the forum can try it out.

Failing that report the problem to pioneer support. Get them to release a new firmware to fix the problem, ask them to add .mpg support as well.

Here you go.

The manual states..."Switch on Virtual Surround to enjoy realistic surround sound effects from just two speakers."

Is anyone using virtual surround? I have the dv-400v connected to my Onkyo tx-sr304, via digi coax, which powers a 2.1 system. would it be worth it for me to turn on Virtual Surround? Not really sure how much it can really do for a 2.1 system.

The manual states..."Switch on Virtual Surround to enjoy realistic surround sound effects from just two speakers."

Is anyone using virtual surround? I have the dv-400v connected to my Onkyo tx-sr304, via digi coax, which powers a 2.1 system. would it be worth it for me to turn on Virtual Surround? Not really sure how much it can really do for a 2.1 system.

Virtual surround is mostly intended to enhance the audio hooked directly up to a TV without additional speakers, many TVs have their own virtual surround derived from the TV's internal speakers.

Virtual surround is mostly intended to enhance the audio hooked directly up to a TV without additional speakers, many TVs have their own virtual surround derived from the TV's internal speakers.

Ok. So since I have the dv-400v going to my receiver, it wouldn't do too much for me?

Hi after reading this thread I am a bit confused. Does it mean DV400 also support WMV like the DV600 model? Also if anyone can please light me up on how to apply the Haikan firmware that would be great. Do I just burn the file downloaded to a CD. I am having the Australian version btw. Thanks very much

Here you go.

File looks fine to me the "packed bitstream" might be the issue. You can unpack this using MPEG4 Modifier. http://www.moitah.net/

Hi after reading this thread I am a bit confused. Does it mean DV400 also support WMV like the DV600 model? Also if anyone can please light me up on how to apply the Haikan firmware that would be great. Do I just burn the file downloaded to a CD. I am having the Australian version btw. Thanks very much

Follow this guide. http://www.pioneerfaq.info/english/burn_guide.php

You should have no problem.

File looks fine to me the "packed bitstream" might be the issue. You can unpack this using MPEG4 Modifier. http://www.moitah.net/

Good program but I do not want net framework on my machine. I guess I will just have to look for a different download.

Follow this guide. [url]/url]

You should have no problem.

Thanks very much.

BTW I tested a few WMV files and none of them work on my DV400. Probably the Aus version only support WMA

This player doesnt have an issue with packed bitstream, last time I checked.

1ziggi1, you're using an old version of G-Spot, try 2.70. However it doesn't look like that file used GMC or Q-Pel, two options that would choke the player. I see references to DivX 5 and Xvid in the Metadata box, perhaps the file was re-encoded and that's the issue.

If none of your files have worked you may have a faulty player.

i have this dvd player hooked up to my Panny 50px77u via HDMI cable. the native resolution is 768 i think. what would you all recommend would be the best signal to send? 480p, 720p, 1080i or 1080p?

thanks

This is one of the players I'm considering as a replacement for my current dying player...

I read somewhere, can't remember where, that the 400v won't play DivX from an RW disc. Is this really the case?

Also, is the 400v pretty picky about the DivX and XviD files it will play, or not really? (I'm looking at another player (sony 77h) that doesn't do DivX, and I'm just wondering if the 400v is pretty good with DivX/XviD, and if it would really be benefetial to have over the 77h, which doesn't play DivX/XviD at all.)

Thanks! :D

You're using an old version of G-Spot, try 2.70. However it doesn't look like that file used GMC or Q-Pel, two options that would choke the player. I see references to DivX 5 and Xvid in the Metadata box, perhaps the file was re-encoded and that's the issue.

If none of your files have worked you may a a faulty player.

DIVX and XVID running ok so far. I tested 10 movies and only Transformers doesnt work.

WMV is a very different story. 8 out of 10 cannot play. My friends said maybe some of my WMV was encoded using WMV10 or something. Too technical for me lolz

I guess I should have done a little more reading before getting the philips. it seems that the pioneer may have the edge on PQ and some other features. Should I send back the Philips and get the Pioneer instead? It would only be a $20 difference, so no big deal.

I just want a player with decent PQ and that will hold out for awhile.

I want to have a client slide show this evening and thought I would display sample images on my HDTV by way of my Pio 400v using a CD or DVD.

I burned the files on the CD using Toast. I have used this many times, so don't think it's the Application

It does display them but it also plasters a error message saying "Can't play this format"

I have put the JPEG images on a CD. No music or anything just data files. The instructions on page 25 in the manual seem to say I can do this.

I have tried different profiles, RGB or sRGB, and different sizes and dimensions. Not big at all.

Any help would be appreciated. Would like to use tonight, Fri, but if I can't I can show the images on my Mac. They will just be smaller.

dave

Hi all. Although most of the review says that the PQ of this DVD Player is better than the Sammy 1080P7 but I personally think the sammy one is better.

BTW today figure out that I can use a external HDD with it. The HDD has to be formated to FAT 32 which limits you to 32 Gb on one partition only which is a waste but unfortunately you have to go with NTFS if you want to have more than 32 Gb. I plug one USB cable to my Nintendo WII and one to the DV400 and the HDD is fine, all movie can be played.

I have been searching for a power adaptor havig an USB connector but no luck so far.

I also found that the subtitle SRT files work but the font size is very small. If hakan can somehow increase the font size that would be great.

Hi all. Although most of the review says that the PQ of this DVD Player is better than the Sammy 1080P7 but I personally think the sammy one is better.

BTW today figure out that I can use a external HDD with it. The HDD has to be formated to FAT 32 which limits you to 32 Gb on one partition only which is a waste but unfortunately you have to go with NTFS if you want to have more than 32 Gb. I plug one USB cable to my Nintendo WII and one to the DV400 and the HDD is fine, all movie can be played.

I have been searching for a power adaptor havig an USB connector but no luck so far.

I also found that the subtitle SRT files work but the font size is very small. If hakan can somehow increase the font size that would be great.

The HDD does not have to be formatted with any partition. I am using a 300 gig HDD with only one Fat32 partition and it works great.

Hi 1ziggi1. Just curious what program you use to format the external HDD pls? I use Windows Disk Management and it limits the partition size to 32 GB

Thax

Moving up from an older DVD player, I'm quite happy with the PQ of the Pioneer. One thing that I find kind of annoying though is during slow motion play, a bright blue information bar displays accross the width of the screen and there's no way to get rid of it (at least no way I've found). I'm used to seeing these info displays for a second or two before they go away, but in this player, it stays on until you return to normal playback speed. Anyone know how to clear the annoying info bar?


Hi...New to the forum. This thread has been a Godsend.

I'm in the same boat as above...I too want to get rid of the annoying blue info bar on my brand-spanking new Pioneer. I use the machine daily for work and it's driving me bonkers.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks.

Hi 1ziggi1. Just curious what program you use to format the external HDD pls? I use Windows Disk Management and it limits the partition size to 32 GB

Thax
I used the CD that came with my HDD from Maxtor to partition it and format it to full capacity. All HDD manufactures have a program to format their drives and utilities to turn off or modify the sleep modes. Just look in your HDD's web site.

I just got a DV-400V a few days ago, and seem to be having a weird problem. Basically, when I turn it on, the picture (whether it's an actual movie or the Pioneer screen saver or the menus) flickers. Perhaps one frame every second or so seems to be missing? Oddly enough, after a minute or two, it starts cutting out less and less frequently, and then it just runs fine afterwards, at least until it's turned off and allowed to cool down.

It's hooked up via a cheap HDMI cable to a Samsung 4061 LCD TV (1080p)...

Bad cable? bad player?

I am having the exact same problem. Funny thing is I have the same TV and probably the same cheap HDMI cable (monoprice?) It flickers with a movie or just the menu or pioneer logo. It does this as soon as I start watching a DVD which would eliminate overheating issues. I took my original DV400 back and got a new one and it does the same thing right out of the box. I can only assume it is the hdmi cable or some conflict between the DV400 and the Samsung 4061. I am going to try a new HDMI cable. I'll let you know if that helps.

Hello,
yesterday I grabbed a just released DV-400V-S from walmart @ $109 CAD, I was passing by BB to return a faulty LG LDA-831 and found they have a couple of open boxed DV-400V-K reduced for the third time @ $69 CAD.
well ofcourse I picked up one, hocked it up, so far no problems whatsoever, I plan to return walmart's unopened, so I need to know if its worthy paying $40 extra to get latest build.
BB DV-400V-K , manufactured September 2007 (SN starts with GI), firmware YGB7821A.
WM DV-400V-S, manufactured November 2007 (SN starts with GK), firmware version unknown as I would like to help bringing down electronics industry costs by returning it unopened.

My question is, can any one of you guys who own a GK set or later confirms the firmware version on these sets ? I have read on another post that there is a YGB7821I out there, is that true ?!

Your help is really appreciated,
Have my best regards,

I guess I should have done a little more reading before getting the philips. it seems that the pioneer may have the edge on PQ and some other features. Should I send back the Philips and get the Pioneer instead? It would only be a $20 difference, so no big deal.

I just want a player with decent PQ and that will hold out for awhile.

I had a chance to compare both of these, and the pioneer has the edge, so I am going with it. The PQ, to me, was better than the Philips.

Has anyone encountered this?

I have used both DVE and the THX calibration found on Star Wars discs to calibrate.
Anytime I set the brightness on my TV above 50, the blacks start getting green. The higher the brightness, the more green it gets. I can't seem to get rid of this green tint no matter how much I tweak tint and the other controls. The best I can do is a compromise of settings between the 400v and my Toshiba HL67 which sacrifices brightness, thus losing detail in blacks.

I know that Toshiba 1080 sets have problems with green push, but all I have read says the 720p set has no such issues.

Any thoughts? Thanks.



EDIT/UPDATE: I just tested the DV400V back to back with an older Samsung Upconverting model (HD860). I put all my TV settings (Toshiba REGZA 720p) to "movie" for both HDMI inputs. I used the THX optimizer included on the discs from an Indiana Jones DVD set.

The THX screen used for setting brightness looked much worse on the Pioneer... lots of green at 30% and 60% gray and some at the deepest end of the gray bars. The Samsung, which has inferior picture quality, displayed grays much more accurately and with very little tint of any kind.

I WANT TO MAKE CLEAR that this MAY be an issue specific to my Toshiba/Pioneer combination, since I have not heard anyone else on this thread mention any issues with green on this player. Also, Toshiba has had a lot of green issues reported on this forum with it's LCDs. So it is very hard for me to say where the problem really lies. I do know I have not had any green problems with any other source.

I have returned the DV400 to Best Buy. Were it not for this color issue I experienced, I would give this player a 9/10. I still recommend it to anyone who knows enough to calibrate/troubleshoot to see if you have any problems like I experienced. I honestly wanted to keep it. I was thrilled with every other aspect of this player.

exchange the dv400 for another. I havent seen a green issue on that

I saw pioneer 600v is divx pro certified? is 400v is also divx pro?

I saw pioneer 600v is divx pro certified? is 400v is also divx pro?
Im pretty sure it is not. Gone thru the manual a few times
BTW whats the difference between Pro Certified and Non Pro certified please?

Hi,

I am wondering if you noticed a weird issue. When i am playing mp3 from the front USB port, if i turn off my plasma monitor (connected over HDMI to this box) there is a glitch in the mp3 playback. This is very consistent and happens both when i turn the monitor off or on. Has anyone noticed this?

-Raj

Hi...New to the forum. This thread has been a Godsend.

I'm in the same boat as above...I too want to get rid of the annoying blue info bar on my brand-spanking new Pioneer. I use the machine daily for work and it's driving me bonkers.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks.

anyone?

bueller? bueller?

many thanks.

FYI guys: this is on sale at woot.com... $59, just figured I'd give the heads up. If this is the wrong place to post this, I'm truly sorry!

FYI guys: this is on sale at woot.com... $59, just figured I'd give the heads up. If this is the wrong place to post this, I'm truly sorry!

Just bought for myself.:D

FYI guys: this is on sale at woot.com... $59, just figured I'd give the heads up. If this is the wrong place to post this, I'm truly sorry!
I just bit for one myself earlier this morning too, to replace my aging Philips DVP-642. DivX/Xvid playback, HDMI, upconversion, and Pioneer quality --I hope this works out. Also frees up a component vid, so I can hook up my Nintendo Wii in 480p mode.

Note to all interested --it is the silver version (DV-400V-S).

does the usb port support bus powered hd's ? does the unit playback .avi's larger than 1gb?

Hi 1ziggi1. Just curious what program you use to format the external HDD pls? I use Windows Disk Management and it limits the partition size to 32 GB

Thax

I believe XP limits the max FAT32 partition size. What we've always used is FAT32FORMAT to make 100, 250, even 500GB partitions with FAT32. Get it at http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/FAT32format.shtml

Enjoy!
-Ed

Hi,

I am wondering if you noticed a weird issue. When i am playing mp3 from the front USB port, if i turn off my plasma monitor (connected over HDMI to this box) there is a glitch in the mp3 playback. This is very consistent and happens both when i turn the monitor off or on. Has anyone noticed this?

-Raj

This is normal! There is nothing wrong with your player!

I believe XP limits the max FAT32 partition size. What we've always used is FAT32FORMAT to make 100, 250, even 500GB partitions with FAT32. Get it at http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/FAT32format.shtml

Enjoy!
-Ed

Thanks. I downloaded it the first one and my HDD is now running FAT32 no need to partition.

Hello All,
I am trying to make my Toshiba TV universal remote work with this player.
the Toshiba manual lists codes 052,053,054,055 the best I could do with these codes is control the basic playback functions, power and menu.
Yet, the eject, subtitles, angle, audio, setup keys aren't working.
I would appreciate it if you can share a code that fully work.
Regards,

looked around for others experience with x264 files found none . so downloaded
an x264 codec avi movie that played back like a champ . for those who might like to know .
anyone else get playback of unusual file formats or codecs ? mkv ?

looked around for others experience with x264 files found none . so downloaded
an x264 codec avi movie that played back like a champ . for those who might like to know .
anyone else get playback of unusual file formats or codecs ? mkv ?

Are you sure its an x264 codec movie? last time I checked this player (for that matter any dvd) was able to play back divx but not x264.

My first post on a forum is helpful, for a change, rather than asking for help!

I want to have a client slide show this evening and thought I would display sample images on my HDTV by way of my Pio 400v using a CD or DVD.

I burned the files on the CD using Toast. I have used this many times, so don't think it's the Application

It does display them but it also plasters a error message saying "Can't play this format"

I have put the JPEG images on a CD. No music or anything just data files. The instructions on page 25 in the manual seem to say I can do this.

I have tried different profiles, RGB or sRGB, and different sizes and dimensions. Not big at all.

Any help would be appreciated. Would like to use tonight, Fri, but if I can't I can show the images on my Mac. They will just be smaller.

dave

LonesomeDave,

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. On your Mac, your pictures probably have both a data fork and a resource fork. Your problem is that Pioneer DVD players are confused momentarily by the resource fork in your pictures before they read the data fork. The simple solution is go back into GraphicConverter or other program (even Preview will do it) and re-save the file as "web ready" without the resources.

An easy way to tell: If you can see a preview icon of the file, then you need to resave it so that you get a generic icon.

Hope this helps for the next client, at least. :)

--Omar

Quick question - can this play Divx files from a rewrittable DVD (+R/W) ?

Can't tell if it will work with RW's, but I just hooked mine up, and it's playing "SpaceBalls" in DivX off a Ritek -R just fine.

Scaled to 720p, it looks very good --much better than my Philips DVP-642 did.

EDIT: Does anyone know if this unit has a screensaver? That's the one feature I haven't found so far, and I'd like to have it.

EDIT: Does anyone know if this unit has a screensaver? That's the one feature I haven't found so far, and I'd like to have it.
Actually it does, the screen saver is the black screen with the dark pink Pioneer logo. it doesn't move on the screen but rather disappears and pops up.

Just received mine from W00T today. I'm sorry if this has been asked a million times, but will an external HD work thru the USB to play Divx movies? I'm planning to get the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 TB Hard Drive. Will there be stuttering due to the large capacity?

Just received mine from W00T today. I'm sorry if this has been asked a million times, but will an external HD work thru the USB to play Divx movies? I'm planning to get the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 TB Hard Drive. Will there be stuttering due to the large capacity?

Hello,
no problem, external HD should work through USB to play Divx movies, but it has to be in FAT32 and it has to be externally powered as well. I dont know if it would ever work if you left it unpartitioned, you need to experiment with that, someone reported that there is a limit to the number of readable entries in a single directory (files and folders) but you have to dig through the thread to find out the exact number.
If you are buying the HDD just for this player you should find a store with a good return policy just in case.

I do have a question for you, as you have just received this, can you confirm the manufacturing date and the firmware version on your unit ?

Actually it does, the screen saver is the black screen with the dark pink Pioneer logo. it doesn't move on the screen but rather disappears and pops up.
Hmm...if it pops up in the same location, it doesn't seem like much of a screensaver, unless you're saying it pops up in different locations without gliding across the screen. Didn't happen while I had it paused for two minutes --it must take awhile.

I did just find out according to the front of the unit that it should take RW media, though I haven't tried it. I don't need the USB port or RW capability, as I use my D-Link DSM-520 for playing DivX/Xvid/VOB files now.

Hmm...if it pops up in the same location, it doesn't seem like much of a screensaver, unless you're saying it pops up in different locations without gliding across the screen. Didn't happen while I had it paused for two minutes --it must take awhile.

I did just find out according to the front of the unit that it should take RW media, though I haven't tried it. I don't need the USB port or RW capability, as I use my D-Link DSM-520 for playing DivX/Xvid/VOB files now.

Yup, different locations, I can confirm that it was running after 10 minutes (when I checked back) but dont know when exactly would the screen saver start.

I just bought the DV-400V and for some reason when using the HDMI output (on 16:9 or 4:3 settings) I only get a small 4:3 output (480i?) in the center of my screen. I have a 720p projector and when I set the output to 1280x720, I get no output and have to do the hard reset. When using component I get a full 16:9 output, but it appears that it is not upconverting. The results (small square) are the same when using USB, and the cable works fine with other devices. Also I can switch to my HD Tuner over HDMI and the picture is fine (widescreen, HD) so I believe it is not my display.

Any ideas? I tried different firmware but see no change.

Hello,
no problem, external HD should work through USB to play Divx movies, but it has to be in FAT32 and it has to be externally powered as well. I dont know if it would ever work if you left it unpartitioned, you need to experiment with that, someone reported that there is a limit to the number of readable entries in a single directory (files and folders) but you have to dig through the thread to find out the exact number.
If you are buying the HDD just for this player you should find a store with a good return policy just in case.

I do have a question for you, as you have just received this, can you confirm the manufacturing date and the firmware version on your unit ?

Manufacturing date is Dec 2007, Region: 1 ROM Version: YGB7821A

Manufacturing date is Dec 2007, Region: 1 ROM Version: YGB7821A

much appreciated

I just bought the DV-400V and for some reason when using the HDMI output (on 16:9 or 4:3 settings) I only get a small 4:3 output (480i?) in the center of my screen. I have a 720p projector and when I set the output to 1280x720, I get no output and have to do the hard reset. When using component I get a full 16:9 output, but it appears that it is not upconverting. The results (small square) are the same when using USB, and the cable works fine with other devices. Also I can switch to my HD Tuner over HDMI and the picture is fine (widescreen, HD) so I believe it is not my display.

Any ideas? I tried different firmware but see no change.

Upconverting will not work over component vid connections, which max out at 480p resolution. It will only work with HDMI.

As to why 720p isn't working over your projector, my theory is that it could be your projector, as it the DV-400 is working well at 720p on my Panasonic 42" plasma. What make/model is your projector, and have you checked to see if there is a firmware update available for it?

The projector is the Mitsubishi HD1000U. As I said, it works fine with other HD signals. A quick Google search yielded no firmware resources, but that doesn't mean they're not out there.

EDIT: After trying the DVD player/HDMI cable out on a 17" LCD I have (720p) it worked fine. So what I'm left looking at is an older DVD player (Bravo D1, DVI->HDMI) that works fine upconverting to 720p with the projector but this one won't do 720p with the projector, but it will with something else.

The projector is the Mitsubishi HD1000U. As I said, it works fine with other HD signals. A quick Google search yielded no firmware resources, but that doesn't mean they're not out there.

EDIT: After trying the DVD player/HDMI cable out on a 17" LCD I have (720p) it worked fine. So what I'm left looking at is an older DVD player (Bravo D1, DVI->HDMI) that works fine upconverting to 720p with the projector but this one won't do 720p with the projector, but it will with something else.

You may wish to go to pioneerfaq.info and see if one of the other firmwares for the Pioneer player fixes things. Maybe going to the DVI-HDMI compatible firmware will help. I know it's a stretch, but worth a try.

http://www.pioneerfaq.info/english/dv400.php?player=DV-400V&question=Firmwares

Hi all, great site and group here! Just want to thank everyone for the post that fixed my problem getting the 1080i video to work via DVI cable. Just downloaded the firmware, burned it to a CD and popped in the machine and boom, worked flawlessly. I'm way more happy :) with my 400v now! Thanks again and keep up the good info!

nes-t

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, heard of it some time ago from a great French Canadian forum, Québec Audio.

Had a Pio 578A-S for three years and decided to upgrade to a DV-400V-K 3 days ago. I found transcoding videos to be a real pain in the ass and I wanted a DVD player with DivX/XviD support, a USB port... and 1080p upconverting just in case I decide myself to spend cash on a plasma display later while waiting for the BD vs. HD-DVD war to end.

I tested the player using a genuine LOTR:FOTR DVD, some DivXs/XviDs and mp3s. PQ is good, playback from USB and DVD runs flawlessly. Nothing to say about it for now. It is also a third less pricy than the Oppo DV-980H.

I was wondering if someone could post some screenshots of what the Hakan's firmware update looks like once it's installed ? Is it possible to customize the firmware update to suit specific preferences ? (screensaver, fonts, colors, etc..) ? If so, how ?

Sorry if my english isn't perfect...

Thanks ! :)

to javs1979 -- your English is perfect, dont worry about it! my French on the other hand.... :(

Anyway i just tought i'd post my $0.02 about the DV-400V for any new users who are thinking of buying one. I just picked up a 2nd hand DV-400V from Yahoo Auction here in japan, and am very impressed with it.
This thing is a beast. It plays just about anything i throw at it. Even some dual-layer DVD+R DL discs that i thought were coasters cuz they had errors at the end of the burn - i tossed them in, and it played them fine. Both PAL and NTSC dvdrs play perfectly. Movies burnt onto DVD-R DL and DVD-RW were both fine as well.

DivX and Xvids with idx+sub or srt subtitles both play perfectly with nice image quality. Divx subs in idx+sub format look perfect, just like a DVD, but srt subs are a little on the small side, but fine by my standards (good position and still readable size). One thing it did not play was an Xvid that was encoded (by an idiot) at 800 x ??? resolution, and one bad AVI that was not interleaved properly (but was fine once i re-muxed it with VirtualDub on my PC). One WMV file i also tried also played fine.

The USB feature is really handy. I've been using it for stuff i wanna watch quickly without burning onto CD first like TV episodes etc. I used my old Toshiba 5GB MP3 player as a portable HD, and plugged it into the usb port. Files play just fine off the portable HD, but the read speed was significantly slower. Also, seeking forward or backward was extremely sluggish and inaccurate compared to using cds/dvds. I havent tried a high-speed usb flash drive yet but am intending to pick one up for that purpose.

I would like to flash the firmware to make it region free though... anyone who's tried the Hakan firmware-- are all the options etc from the original firmware still intact? is the interface the same? Do divx/xvid SRT subtitles look better??

to javs1979 -- your English is perfect, dont worry about it! my French on the other hand.... :(

Anyway i just tought i'd post my $0.02 about the DV-400V for any new users who are thinking of buying one. I just picked up a 2nd hand DV-400V from Yahoo Auction here in japan, and am very impressed with it.
This thing is a beast. It plays just about anything i throw at it. Even some dual-layer DVD+R DL discs that i thought were coasters cuz they had errors at the end of the burn - i tossed them in, and it played them fine. Both PAL and NTSC dvdrs play perfectly. Movies burnt onto DVD-R DL and DVD-RW were both fine as well.

DivX and Xvids with idx+sub or srt subtitles both play perfectly with nice image quality. Divx subs in idx+sub format look perfect, just like a DVD, but srt subs are a little on the small side, but fine by my standards (good position and still readable size). One thing it did not play was an Xvid that was encoded (by an idiot) at 800 x ??? resolution, and one bad AVI that was not interleaved properly (but was fine once i re-muxed it with VirtualDub on my PC). One WMV file i also tried also played fine.

The USB feature is really handy. I've been using it for stuff i wanna watch quickly without burning onto CD first like TV episodes etc. I used my old Toshiba 5GB MP3 player as a portable HD, and plugged it into the usb port. Files play just fine off the portable HD, but the read speed was significantly slower. Also, seeking forward or backward was extremely sluggish and inaccurate compared to using cds/dvds. I havent tried a high-speed usb flash drive yet but am intending to pick one up for that purpose.

I would like to flash the firmware to make it region free though... anyone who's tried the Hakan firmware-- are all the options etc from the original firmware still intact? is the interface the same? Do divx/xvid SRT subtitles look better??

Great then. Thanks ! :) Was not sure because I don't use any slang at all. However, I may be easier to understand for non-English natives...

I still hesitate to use the new firmware. I don't need multi-region support and I know the player works real good with DivX/XviD videos out-of-the-box (certification helps). Some say : « if it works, don't fix it ! »... guess they're right.

Hakan, I saw you posted on this forum, if you read this post, is it possible to see screenshots of what the firmware actually looks like once it's installed ? Are legal considerations preventing you from doing this ?

Thanks again.

I still hesitate to use the new firmware. I don't need multi-region support and I know the player works real good with DivX/XviD videos out-of-the-box (certification helps). Some say : « if it works, don't fix it ! »... guess they're right.

Thanks again.

Hello,
I am still holding on the upgrade because its not actually an upgrade its more of a moded firmware of the latest version.
So from reading around I can say that they got the divx STR subtitle display enlarged (yup it is painfully small), changed the screen saver and splash screen (something including a dragon) and the colors and of the menus and length of the displayed file name.

well, the modifications are nice to have, but if you really dont need multiregion support and always use idx's merged into your divx files (no STR problem) then I would doubt you would risk fix something thats not broken.

ofcourse the original firmware is available if you want to flash it back (but again who knows ..)

I am holding my horses waiting for an upgrade that would address some real usability concerns :
- displaying divx menu whenever a the disc is inserted into the player (no actual reason to keep the splash screen and wait for you to press menu because thats what you would be doing any way)
- multispeed fast forward and rewind through divx files (all budget tight players do so, and LG 831 that use same MediaTek chipset also does so)
- divx, mp3, jpg's browsing under a single menu, there is no real reason why you have to switch the whole mode especially if you have them coexist on the folder on your disc.
- the ability to pan and scan 16:10 input on 16:9 displays, currently 16:10 inputs (true cinema aspect ratio) are letterboxed for 16:9 output, sometimes one would be willing to crop the picture to get a full screen view of the movie. funny thing my visionquest divx player used to do that by default, I used it for 7 months without noticing any distortion, till I did a side by side comparison with the pioneer and noticed that image is clipped from all four sides, yet one would be happy to have such control.
- bigger STR divx subtitles (referring to the original firmware not Hakan's), I really find it hard reading English subtitles on a 42" HDTV sitting 5 feets away.


it would be really much asking Hakan to address concerns like that, his region free mod was everything anyone would ever dream about for this player. But one should expect a company like Pioneer to really address users concerns and update the firmware, so lets all start shooting them emails (poccs@pioneer-usa.com)

Sorry for the long email but I had to let it out ;)

Hello there! I recently picked up this Pioneer DV-400-V DVD player and i am very happy with it. My last player was a pioneer and i though it was a great player. however i do feel that i might have a defective unit. The pioneer splash screen logo almost looks to have the color bleed off into the black area of the screen. I infact see it happening on all the reds on this player. I already took this one back and got another one and the same problem is there....Does anyone else see this when their unit is on? its not my TV because i just bought a new 32in LCD and am using the same cables as i was before with the last pioneer DVD player. thanx for your help!

To aasoror - I've just sent an email to Pioneer USA about the possibility to release a firmware update. I mentionned the issues you spoke of.

Hope other people will follow the move...

- multispeed fast forward and rewind through divx files (all budget tight players do so, and LG 831 that use same MediaTek chipset also does so)


I'm still trying to decide between the Pioneer or the Philips 5982. I know my cheap Coby player will fast forward & reverse at 2x, 4x and 8x on DivX files. What speed does the Pioneer do?

To aasoror - I've just sent an email to Pioneer USA about the possibility to release a firmware update. I mentionned the issues you spoke of.
Hope other people will follow the move...

- Thanks for your support, we did pay the premiums and we should get our concerns addressed. the email address I listed in my message above is the one for Canadian customer support, and I have sent them an email, no reply yet but will keep you updated.

I'm still trying to decide between the Pioneer or the Philips 5982. I know my cheap Coby player will fast forward & reverse at 2x, 4x and 8x on DivX files. What speed does the Pioneer do?

- I think 4x, but didn't verify that for sure. Dont let the shortcomings I listed bias your decision, there is lots of postings here for users who swapped their Philips 5982 for Pioneer.

Have to ask. Just bought the DV-400V-K and was wondering if the remote is suppose to light-up or glow when pushed? Does anyone know? I going to to try out this player tonight, but wanted to make sure something was not wrong from the beginning. My keys do not, but the remote appears to work fine. Like others have said, turning on the power from the remote seems to take a little while before the unit's display spools up. Thanks in advance. Great site.

Have to ask. Just bought the DV-400V-K and was wondering if the remote is suppose to light-up or glow when pushed? Does anyone know? I going to to try out this player tonight, but wanted to make sure something was not wrong from the beginning. My keys do not, but the remote appears to work fine. Like others have said, turning on the power from the remote seems to take a little while before the unit's display spools up. Thanks in advance. Great site.

mine doesn't glow either, although it looks like a normal backlit remote but it isn't I guess.
the power up delay isn't exclusive to remote, you got it also if you use the power button on the front panel.
Hope that helped,

Has anyone encountered this?

I have used both DVE and the THX calibration found on Star Wars discs to calibrate.
Anytime I set the brightness on my TV above 50, the blacks start getting green. The higher the brightness, the more green it gets. I can't seem to get rid of this green tint no matter how much I tweak tint and the other controls. The best I can do is a compromise of settings between the 400v and my Toshiba HL67 which sacrifices brightness, thus losing detail in blacks.

I know that Toshiba 1080 sets have problems with green push, but all I have read says the 720p set has no such issues.

Any thoughts? Thanks.



EDIT/UPDATE: I just tested the DV400V back to back with an older Samsung Upconverting model (HD860). I put all my TV settings (Toshiba REGZA 720p) to "movie" for both HDMI inputs. I used the THX optimizer included on the discs from an Indiana Jones DVD set.

The THX screen used for setting brightness looked much worse on the Pioneer... lots of green at 30% and 60% gray and some at the deepest end of the gray bars. The Samsung, which has inferior picture quality, displayed grays much more accurately and with very little tint of any kind.

I WANT TO MAKE CLEAR that this MAY be an issue specific to my Toshiba/Pioneer combination, since I have not heard anyone else on this thread mention any issues with green on this player. Also, Toshiba has had a lot of green issues reported on this forum with it's LCDs. So it is very hard for me to say where the problem really lies. I do know I have not had any green problems with any other source.

I have returned the DV400 to Best Buy. Were it not for this color issue I experienced, I would give this player a 9/10. I still recommend it to anyone who knows enough to calibrate/troubleshoot to see if you have any problems like I experienced. I honestly wanted to keep it. I was thrilled with every other aspect of this player.


_________________________________

UPDATE:

Well, after returning the DV400V I have purchased an OPPO 980H.
Apparently, there were NO issues at all with my DV400V, as I suspected. (I fixed the green through the service menu)
My Toshiba TV was entirely to blame for the excessive green I was seeing.
I have to give the 400V a very high recommendation. It does not have all the bells and whistles that the Oppo has, in terms of audio formats, but it is a great DVD player.

I would say the DV400V is about 90% as good as the OPPO for about for about 65% of its price. For around $100, I doubt you can beat it.

Picked up a DV-400V-K from Best Buy ($109 CAD) and promptly flashed it with the Hakan Firmware, works like a charm to play my PAL DVD's :) Excellent job you did on the FW Hakan!

Picked up a DV-400V-K from Best Buy ($109 CAD) and promptly flashed it with the Hakan Firmware, works like a charm to play my PAL DVD's :) Excellent job you did on the FW Hakan!

Hi all,

I decided to flash my DVD player with the Hakan firmware. Seems to work like a charm, too. A wider navigation menu with full-length titles is always a good thing.

However, I don't like the screen saver. It says "FAQ Pioneer" and the Pioneer word is cut out at the bottom. When I saw it, I almost felt like my player was broken. It is not... isn't it ? ;)

I know, I'm a little bit nit-picky but why not asking for a decent screen saver when you've got the rest working fine ?

Thanks for your effort Hakan, however your modified V1.1 CP1250 firmware freezes my player on any attempt to use USB port. It reads content and freezes on attempt to play it. Switched back to your version 1.0 and it works fine. Are you aware of this bug?

to javs1979 --
I would like to flash the firmware to make it region free though... anyone who's tried the Hakan firmware-- are all the options etc from the original firmware still intact? is the interface the same? Do divx/xvid SRT subtitles look better??

Yes and no. See above. You can try it on your player. It's easy and safe to flash it back and all versions of firmware are available on Hakan's web site. He did removed his tested by me and working fine region free version 1.0. If we will not hear from author and you need it then let me know where to send it.

After trying and returning the LG-831 and the Sony DVPNS78H. I have settled on the Pioneer, the picture quality on this player is superior compared to the forementioned. I am playing on a JVC 42" LCD

After trying and returning the LG-831 and the Sony DVPNS78H. I have settled on the Pioneer, the picture quality on this player is superior compared to the forementioned. I am playing on a JVC 42" LCD

Actually the Pioneer and the LG-831 have the same mediatek chipset, which makes their PQ (in terms of MPEG processing, de-interlacing and upconverting) is the same, the LG has pluses of optical output and multispeed fast forwarding in divx files. But, the Pioneer has a color control setting menu, which the LG-831 lacks for no obvious reason, this was a deal breaker for me and I swapped the LG for the Pioneer without a glitch. you also get WMV as a plus on the Pioneer although personally I have no much use for that.
Just my 2 cents,
Regards.

Hello All,
I am trying to make my Toshiba TV universal remote work with this player.
the Toshiba manual lists codes 052,053,054,055 the best I could do with these codes is control the basic playback functions, power and menu.
Yet, the eject, subtitles, angle, audio, setup keys aren't working.
I would appreciate it if you can share a code that fully work.
Regards,

I free bump!! :D I'm looking too. My Panasonic TV remote works with it fine using 0525. However I just got an Onkyo TX-SR805 and so far all the Onkyo provided codes as well as 0042 and 0545 (from the web) don't do squat for the Onkyo remote.

Maybe 0525 will work for you, and maybe one of yours will work for me. ;)

Purchased the Pioneer DV-400 last night and so far I think it's a great player. I have the audio connected via digital coax and I hooked up both the component and HDMI outputs to my Mitsubishi HC1500 projector. I set the DVD player to 1080i and the picture looks excellent over HDMI, I think it looks better than the component connection. Recommended.

Hi all,

I decided to flash my DVD player with the Hakan firmware. Seems to work like a charm, too. A wider navigation menu with full-length titles is always a good thing.

However, I don't like the screen saver. It says "FAQ Pioneer" and the Pioneer word is cut out at the bottom. When I saw it, I almost felt like my player was broken. It is not... isn't it ? ;)

I know, I'm a little bit nit-picky but why not asking for a decent screen saver when you've got the rest working fine ?

where do you get the file and the instruction? I could not get it from page 15 in this thread. error page.

Thanks

I just picked up a DV-400, got it for $87 at BB on a price match. It replaced my 2-3 year-old Toshiba DVD.

My first disc on HDMI was very disappointing. I didn't recall the scenes being so dark. So I hooked up my old player, and sure enough, the DV400 is a whole lot darker.

So I found the brightness adjustment, and when I turned it up to +18 it came out about the same.

But it still doesn't look quite as "good" as my old player. It's hard to tell because the disc I'm watching is "24" which seems to have a fair bit of grain anyway.

What video settings has any of you used? Have you had to adjust the sharpness or contrast?

Thanks, Rich

What video settings has any of you used? Have you had to adjust the sharpness or contrast?

Thanks, Rich

My player was crushing whites (even at the lowest contrast for my TV).
This was fixed by setting the contrast for the player to -6.
I ended out turning sharpness way down as per recommendation of the calibration disk I used.
Hope that helped,

where do you get the file and the instruction? I could not get it from page 15 in this thread. error page.

Thanks

Right here (http://www.pioneerfaq.info/english/dv400.php?player=DV-400V&question=Firmwares) my friend :)

Now I don't feel so bad that I'm not the only sucker that bought that thing. The one thing the Toshiba did that the Pio won't is play Divx on rewritables. I'm not sure why the Pio won't do that, seems kinda silly.

Is this true, that this player won't play Divx on DVD+RW disks?

Edit: I called Pioneer and they said it will play Divx on rewritables. But they did say it will not play dual layer disks. Has anyone had a problem playing dual layer disks?

What is the best setting for this player for 1080i TV? I have Panny 42PX600U

Amazon.com is selling for $69.98 with FS.

Sorry cant get the link to work.

What is the best setting for this player for 1080i TV? I have Panny 42PX600U

Amazon.com is selling for $69.98 with FS.

Sorry cant get the link to work.

for the a 1080i TV check the TV manual for the recommended input, my Toshiba 720p HDTV recommends 1080i input.
Regards,

p.s. for the link just search amazon for "dv 400v k" and you should find it no problem is $69.98 for the black one

Can you use the Search function or resume on Divx dvd's? thanks

Can you use the Search function or resume on Divx dvd's? thanks

Time search will work on divx, resume will work unless you press stop twice.

Thanks, Aasoror, much appreciated. I'm on my way now to exchange the Philips 5982 I bought for the Pioneer. One last question on the Pioneer, can it play Divx files or backup DVD's on DVD+RW?

Thanks, Aasoror, much appreciated. I'm on my way now to exchange the Philips 5982 I bought for the Pioneer. One last question on the Pioneer, can it play Divx files or backup DVD's on DVD+RW?

No problem, personally I didn't try DVD+RW, divx plays fine from DVD+R , DVD-R , USB, I dont see no reason why it can't be played from DVD+RW, besides the manual states no such limitation.
For real usability concerns check my post couple of pages earlier.

Hope that helped,

However, I don't like the screen saver. It says "FAQ Pioneer" and the Pioneer word is cut out at the bottom.

Does anyone know if there's a way to fix this using MTKRemaker?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again, Aasoror. Just got back from Best Buy and exchanged the Philips for the Pioneer. What swayed me most to get the Pioneer is build quality, the fact that you can resume and time search Divx (from what I hear you can't do that with Philips), it will pass 480i via HDMI, HDMI will pass 5.1, and the menus. Also, seems like more people are happy with the Pioneer vs. the Philips. Haven't hooked it up yet but I'll let you know if it will play Divx from +RW's.

Thanks again, Aasoror. Just got back from Best Buy and exchanged the Philips for the Pioneer. What swayed me most to get the Pioneer is build quality, the fact that you can resume and time search Divx (from what I hear you can't do that with Philips), it will pass 480i via HDMI, HDMI will pass 5.1, and the menus. Also, seems like more people are happy with the Pioneer vs. the Philips. Haven't hooked it up yet but I'll let you know if it will play Divx from +RW's.

Hope you enjoy the player, as this player has the advantage of having its own picture settings, I would recommend you using a calibration disk just to make sure you have optimum color reproduction.

Hope you enjoy the player, as this player has the advantage of having its own picture settings, I would recommend you using a calibration disk just to make sure you have optimum color reproduction.

where do I get the calibration disk for this player?

There is no calibration disk specific to this player, you can use things like Monster-ISF HDTV calibration disk, DVE (Digital Video Essentials) or AVIA

I have a question about getting sound to my A/V receiver via coax, and at the same time being able to get sound to my TV via the HDMI cable. I found the following post on how to do it, but my question is what settings is he talking about changing? What settings do I need to adjust? Is he talking about PCM vs. Bitstream?

"The Coax and HDMI audio will work simultaneously, however to make any changes to the digital coax settings, other that turning it on and off, requires you to unplug the HDMI cable, make adjustments, then when you are done, you can plug the HDMI cable back in. You will need a spare video cable that isn't HDMI to adjust your digital coax output. This is silly."

I bought a DV-400 today at Best Buy. Video to my Samsung LN-T4065 (1080p 40" LCD) via a Monoprice HDMI cable, audio via coax to my receiver. I've watched a movie on a USB stick and a DVD. With the player's output set to 1080p I notice periodic, very brief white flashes. Maybe a tenth of a second, and it doesn't seem to cover the entire screen. From what I've noticed, there doesn't seem to be any time pattern to them - sometimes a couple in a minute, then I won't see any for several minutes.

With the output set to 1080i, I don't notice the flashes. Does this sound like a cable issue, TV issue, or player issue?

Other than that, I'm happy with my purchase. Being able to play the DivX files from my computer is great!

I run my DV-400 to an Optoma HD80 upscaling to 1080p via HDMI1.3 cable. I notice that some dvds I get HDMI 1080p 60hz and on some dvds I get HDMI 1080p 30hz and some I get 1080p 50hz. Any reason for this and what does it all mean? How do I get HDMI 1080p 60hz all the time?

I have a question regarding the Hakan region free firmware.

1. The audio page (http://www.pioneerfaq.info/english/dv400.php?player=DV-400V&question=Audio%20Features) mentions the following:

All the 5.1 dvds i have tried are showing as 2.1 on screen even though they are coming from the amp at 5.1.
It should say 3/2.1 on your screen.
3/2.1 = 3 Front channels / 2 surround channels.LFE channel

Can someone explain this better? Does 5.1 Dolby Digital gets sent over the coax correctly? Is the problem only what is displayed on the screen. I think the english may be wrong stating "from" the amp.

2. The screen saver: how ugly is it? Does it look professional enough to install for a customer? Any screenshots would be appreciated.

I hooked up my DV-400 last night. Great picture although a bit dark. I did just get the DVE disk so I'll try calibrating with that. Divx playback is very smooth, much better than my cheapy Coby player. Divx on DVD+RW's work great too and also on USB. I tried Resume on both Divx and regular DVD and it works, so long as the power has not been shut off. I thought this was supposed to Resume even if the power is shut off?

I have a question re: Divx playback:
I converted a movie via Divx Converter to the divx format, copied over the file onto a CD-R, and it played in the player. However, the disc when playing was very loud...as in every few seconds you can hear the disc spinning and clicking in the drive. The "clicking" sound wasn't playing through the speakers but it was very loud from the drive itself. The movie was barely watchable because of how loud the clicking was. Anyone experienced this?

Hey there,

I'm going to buy a Pioneer DV400K tomorrow morning ($117 minus in store "balloon" discount at EHR in Hamilton Ontario) and I was wondering what exact file types for movies I can play through the USB port. My understanding from reading all the posts so far is:

1. DivX
2. possibly MPEG (3 or 4??)

What about WMV, XVID etc?

I am hoping this is not inappropriate here but I am looking for some guidance. I have a A3 just bought today at $99 and a Pioneer DV 400 VK both sittting here in boxes. I am looking for best 7.1 sound effect and best upconvert , between the two which one should I keep. I have a Sony hdtv that gets up to 1080i. Lookinng for any an all suggestions.

I bought a DV-400 today at Best Buy. Video to my Samsung LN-T4065 (1080p 40" LCD) via a Monoprice HDMI cable, audio via coax to my receiver. I've watched a movie on a USB stick and a DVD. With the player's output set to 1080p I notice periodic, very brief white flashes. Maybe a tenth of a second, and it doesn't seem to cover the entire screen. From what I've noticed, there doesn't seem to be any time pattern to them - sometimes a couple in a minute, then I won't see any for several minutes.

With the output set to 1080i, I don't notice the flashes. Does this sound like a cable issue, TV issue, or player issue?

Other than that, I'm happy with my purchase. Being able to play the DivX files from my computer is great!

Do you have an Onkyo TX-SR604 receiver by any chance?

I have the Harmony 670 and just got a Pioneer DV-400V DVD player. With the DVD player's remote, when you press Display, the display comes up on screen. Push it a second time, and you get a screen that shows more info about the DVD such as bitrate. Push it a third time, and the Display screen closes.

I programmed my Harmony 670 for the Pioneer DVD player. However, when I push Display on the Harmony, the Display screen comes up. But, when I push the Display button on the Harmony a second time, nothing happens. I can push it several times and the Display screen will never go to the Display screen with the more DVD info, nor will it close the Display screen.

I tried doing an IR learning for the display button on the Harmony, but it sill won't work properly.

Has anyone who has this player and a Harmony remote got this to work properly?

I thought the 400 disabled the coax out feature to a reciever if you used HDMI to a TV?
I heard that the audio must pass through the tv when using HDMI?

Do you have an Onkyo TX-SR604 receiver by any chance?

Nope, and old Aiwa from a HTIB that my sister gave me in December after they upgraded their receiver.

The player got worse tonight. I popped in my USB stick to watch a show and the player froze after 5 minutes. Had to unplug it because it wouldn't respond to anything. Started it up again and fast forwarded to the part where it froze before, and about 2 minutes later it froze again. Thought that my USB stick was going bad, so I decided to try a DVD. The white flashes were far more frequent and I was able to make out the static on the screen. Try another DVD, same thing. Put it on 1080i and it's fine. Tired of messing with it, so back in the box it goes!

I think I'm having the worst luck ever with players this year. I originally had a 4 or 5 year old Apex from Wal-Mart connected via S-Video to my TV. The motor became very noisy (it really hasn't seen much use), so I decided to try an HD-A3. It froze up on the second movie I tried to watch, so back it went a couple weeks ago. With the HDDVD announcements last week, I decided to stick to normal DVD's for the time being and picked up the DV400. And now it gives me troubles.

I bought it from BBY using in-store picking during their President's Day sale. The store had a sign up saying they don't do bestbuy.com exchanges, only refunds. So unless I want to pay like $20 more, I can't get another DV400 (I know I'll really like the front USB port, so I do want another!). It's all very frustrating.

I thought the 400 disabled the coax out feature to a reciever if you used HDMI to a TV?
I heard that the audio must pass through the tv when using HDMI?

This wasn't true in my case.

Bought mine from Amazon sale for $69. Got it today and updated to Hakan firmware.

Works nicely and it can switch from 16:9 to 4:3 automatically depending on the DVD content. You can also skip UOP.

Tried the USB feature by watching 5Th Gear avi from USB stick, worked without any issues, although fast forward only has 1 speed, instead of 2x, 4x, 8x, etc.

Good upgrade over my Samsung HD850, more refinement and features.

Only con is that the motor is noisy at times.

I have the Harmony 670 and just got a Pioneer DV-400V DVD player. With the DVD player's remote, when you press Display, the display comes up on screen. Push it a second time, and you get a screen that shows more info about the DVD such as bitrate. Push it a third time, and the Display screen closes.

I programmed my Harmony 670 for the Pioneer DVD player. However, when I push Display on the Harmony, the Display screen comes up. But, when I push the Display button on the Harmony a second time, nothing happens. I can push it several times and the Display screen will never go to the Display screen with the more DVD info, nor will it close the Display screen.

I tried doing an IR learning for the display button on the Harmony, but it sill won't work properly.

Has anyone who has this player and a Harmony remote got this to work properly?

I'm using a Harmony 520 w/the latest software and the display feature works fine, no learning required. The button isn't getting stuck down or anything?

Thanks for the reply, Masou. It doesn't seem that the button is getting stuck. One thing I did last night was the IR learning for that button and I did it in raw mode. It's working now, however I have to hold the button down for a couple of seconds to get it to go from the first Display screen, then to the screen about bitrate and then to shut off the Display screen. Another problem I'm having is with the up and down arrows on the remote also not responding properly. I'm starting to think it's the Harmony as the Pioneer remote works no problems. It's not a year old yet so maybe Logitech will let me exchange for a new one.

Thanks for the reply, Masou. It doesn't seem that the button is getting stuck. One thing I did last night was the IR learning for that button and I did it in raw mode. It's working now, however I have to hold the button down for a couple of seconds to get it to go from the first Display screen, then to the screen about bitrate and then to shut off the Display screen. Another problem I'm having is with the up and down arrows on the remote also not responding properly. I'm starting to think it's the Harmony as the Pioneer remote works no problems. It's not a year old yet so maybe Logitech will let me exchange for a new one.

That is definatly odd, are the arrows only giving you troubles with the Pioneer? If they aren't the remote is probably fine. Just for a bit of info, I'm using the latest Harmony software (7.4.2) and added the pioneer as a "Pioneer DV-400V-K"
Another thing likely worth investigating would be the "Confirm infrared commands" item under the settings for the DVD device.

Does anyone tried using pioneer Dv400/600 USB port to connect USB flash disk to play DVD movive (in .vob format)?
Thanks.

That is definatly odd, are the arrows only giving you troubles with the Pioneer? If they aren't the remote is probably fine. Just for a bit of info, I'm using the latest Harmony software (7.4.2) and added the pioneer as a "Pioneer DV-400V-K"
Another thing likely worth investigating would be the "Confirm infrared commands" item under the settings for the DVD device.

I am using the latest Harmony 7.4.2. I am so frustrated right now. I've tried adjusted timings and other settings, plus IR learning in raw mode, but it's not really helping. In the Pioneer, when I do a search by time, and let's say I want to go to 20 minutes. I press 2, 0 and then there's the decimal point. I tried to press 0 again but it won't go past the decimal point. The Pio remote works fine doing this, it's only the Harmony giving me problems. So now it's not just the arrows but this as well. Another problem is on the Harmony it says "eject" instead of Open/Close like on the Pio remote. So if I push eject on the Harmony, it will open the tray, but then when I push it to close it, nothing happens. One thing you mentioned has given me an idea. When I initially set up the Pio with the Harmony, I chose DV-400V, but did not add the K like you did. So I'm wondering if I should start all over again and this time put in the full model number The reason I didn't put the K in the first place was because since it just refers to the color of the unit (black), I didn't think it was important to put it in. But maybe it is?

One other thing I wanted to mention about the Harmony is that it works perfectly with all my other components. It's only the Pio giving me problems (and a headache).

Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.

I hooked up my DV-400 last night. Great picture although a bit dark. I did just get the DVE disk so I'll try calibrating with that. Divx playback is very smooth, much better than my cheapy Coby player. Divx on DVD+RW's work great too and also on USB. I tried Resume on both Divx and regular DVD and it works, so long as the power has not been shut off. I thought this was supposed to Resume even if the power is shut off?
Resume after power shut off is only supported for DVD's, why ..? beats me ..,

are you using the double layer DVE version ? this is the earlier version not the one with the HD-DVD/DVD hybrid edition, I dont know I was interested to know if someone got this player to play dual layered DVD's

Does anyone tried using pioneer Dv400/600 USB port to connect USB flash disk to play DVD movive (in .vob format)?
Thanks.

someone reported before that raw VOBs wont work outside the directory structure of conventional DVD's (i.e. you have to have Audio_TS , Video_TS and proper chapter naming .. etc)

Hey there,

I'm going to buy a Pioneer DV400K tomorrow morning ($117 minus in store "balloon" discount at EHR in Hamilton Ontario) and I was wondering what exact file types for movies I can play through the USB port. My understanding from reading all the posts so far is:

1. DivX
2. possibly MPEG (3 or 4??)

What about WMV, XVID etc?

Just in case you haven't already bought it and know the answer to this question.

1. DivX vedio
2. MPEG-3 (MP3) / MPEG-4 (the official version of XviD)
3. WMA (Audio) / WMV (Vedio proper resolution)
4. AVI (that is encoded with XviD)

should all work on USB, I have personally tested all but WMV

5. MPEG-I (the DAT content of VCD's) "WONT" work either on disk or USB :(,

I run my DV-400 to an Optoma HD80 upscaling to 1080p via HDMI1.3 cable. I notice that some dvds I get HDMI 1080p 60hz and on some dvds I get HDMI 1080p 30hz and some I get 1080p 50hz. Any reason for this and what does it all mean? How do I get HDMI 1080p 60hz all the time?

1080p 60hz North American Standard (I guess the input was in NTSC)
1080p 50hz European Standard (input was PAL)
1080p 30hz this is actually 1080i 60hz (north American)

I find 1080p 50hz strange to output (if you have the Region 1 version), but its stranger that your optoma accepted it, is the optoma a European set (or international 120/220v ?)

Hope that helped,

I have a Pioneer DV-400V upconverting DVD player hooked up with an HDMI cable to a Samsung 42" Plasma, HP-T4254. In the DVD player settings, it gives me an option of 1280x720p. When setting the player to this resolution the TV screen colours turn to pink and yellow tones. The DVD player also has an option of HDMI Color, Component, RGB Full. The colors turn back to normal when using RGB mode, which I'm not sure what this means but it fixes it. Regardless of the color issue, the picture on the screen scans up. Hard to explain but basically the screen continually rescans itself while moving the picture up the screen. When I change the DVD settings down to 720x480p the picture on the Samsung displays perfectly.

Is there something I'm doing wrong, is this TV not capable of 720p or could it be something else? The DVD picture using 480p is great but I feel I'm not getting the best quality by not utilizing the 720p feature.

Sorry for the long winded email.

I have a Pioneer DV-400V upconverting DVD player hooked up with an HDMI cable to a Samsung 42" Plasma, HP-T4254. In the DVD player settings, it gives me an option of 1280x720p. When setting the player to this resolution the TV screen colours turn to pink and yellow tones. The DVD player also has an option of HDMI Color, Component, RGB Full. The colors turn back to normal when using RGB mode, which I'm not sure what this means but it fixes it. Regardless of the color issue, the picture on the screen scans up. Hard to explain but basically the screen continually rescans itself while moving the picture up the screen. When I change the DVD settings down to 720x480p the picture on the Samsung displays perfectly.

Is there something I'm doing wrong, is this TV not capable of 720p or could it be something else? The DVD picture using 480p is great but I feel I'm not getting the best quality by not utilizing the 720p feature.

Sorry for the long winded email.

I've just checked amazon for your set, its supports 720p, this means it also supports 1080i, I would advise you to try operating the player in this mode and see if your problem persists.
Regards,
p.s. did you try different HDMI cable ? people reported that sometimes the cable is related to image quality problems.

I've just checked amazon for your set, its supports 720p, this means it also supports 1080i, I would advise you to try operating the player in this mode and see if your problem persists.
Regards,
p.s. did you try different HDMI cable ? people reported that sometimes the cable is related to image quality problems.

I tried a new HDMI cable, tried all 3 HDMI inputs on the TV and the player did the same thing when I tried 1080i mode.

I tried a new HDMI cable, tried all 3 HDMI inputs on the TV and the player did the same thing when I tried 1080i mode.

OK so I guess your best bet to solve this, is trying the player on another 720p set using different (manufacturer) HDMI cable or trying another 720p upconverting player your TV using different HDMI cable.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help,

are you using the double layer DVE version ? this is the earlier version not the one with the HD-DVD/DVD hybrid edition, I dont know I was interested to know if someone got this player to play dual layered DVD's

Yes, it's the older version on a DL disk and plays no problem. I haven't played the whole disk yet, but so far seems to be fine. I also have a movie backed up on a DL disk and that plays fine too.

Yes, it's the older version on a DL disk and plays no problem. I haven't played the whole disk yet, but so far seems to be fine. I also have a movie backed up on a DL disk and that plays fine too.

Much appreciated M4P, this is the second time the Pioneer CS got debunked, I guess they don't know their own hardware (and who does ;) )
Thanks again

You know before I bought my DV400, I called Pioneer and asked about dual layer disks and they told me "no" too. What's kind of funny is this little tidbit:

"Dual Layer recording allows DVD-R and DVD+R discs to store significantly more data, up to 8.5 gigabytes per side, per disc, compared with 4.7 gigabytes for single-layer discs. DVD-R DL was developed for the DVD Forum by Pioneer Corporation..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD

I bought it from BBY using in-store picking during their President's Day sale. The store had a sign up saying they don't do bestbuy.com exchanges, only refunds. So unless I want to pay like $20 more, I can't get another DV400 (I know I'll really like the front USB port, so I do want another!). It's all very frustrating.

I'll reply to myself. I took my player back to Best Buy today and they were very helpful. I returned the defective unit and they were able to pricematch to the sale price, so I was able to purchase another.

No problems with this one! Stayed in all afternoon and watched things off DVD and memory stick at 1080p - no problems! I think I'll be happy with this player now that I have a working one :)

Perry, Best Buy has this on sale starting today (Sunday) so I don't know what price you got but you might want to check it out. I bought mine last week and I'm going to Best Buy today to get a price adjustment :)

OK so I guess your best bet to solve this, is trying the player on another 720p set using different (manufacturer) HDMI cable or trying another 720p upconverting player your TV using different HDMI cable.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help,

Thanks for the help, I tried another upconverting DVD player and it worked perfectly in 720p. I guess my Pioneer is toast :o(

Perry, Best Buy has this on sale starting today (Sunday) so I don't know what price you got but you might want to check it out. I bought mine last week and I'm going to Best Buy today to get a price adjustment :)

Thanks for the heads up! That will save me about $12 over the President's Day sale price last weekend. Not enough to make a special trip, but enough to get me to stop by when I'm near the store later in the week.

hey guys ive two questions:


1. Can it play .AVI files?


2. Does it have ultra DIVX? also is it older version of Divx? when does it came out, and how is everybody review on this model?

3. Is it the ONLY model that have surround mode? (also a bunch of options like rock, club, etc..) kinda serves like a receiver?

anyone knows how to make the DV-400V recognizes external hard drive (1TB)?

Thanks

Bought mine from Amazon sale for $69. Got it today and updated to Hakan firmware.

Works nicely and it can switch from 16:9 to 4:3 automatically depending on the DVD content. You can also skip UOP.

Tried the USB feature by watching 5Th Gear avi from USB stick, worked without any issues, although fast forward only has 1 speed, instead of 2x, 4x, 8x, etc.

Good upgrade over my Samsung HD850, more refinement and features.

Only con is that the motor is noisy at times.

would you please show me step by step to update to Hakan firmware?

Thanks

hey guys ive two questions:


1. Can it play .AVI files?


2. Does it have ultra DIVX? also is it older version of Divx? when does it came out, and how is everybody review on this model?

3. Is it the ONLY model that have surround mode? (also a bunch of options like rock, club, etc..) kinda serves like a receiver?

1. as long as its encoded with MPEG-4 or XviD and not other AVI codecs.
2. Nope, its not certified for Ultra, January 07, check amazon for reviews and this 24 pages thread for issues and concerns.
3. Well, I know this one have, your best shot would be to check on other threads where owners of other players would be of more help.

anyone knows how to make the DV-400V recognizes external hard drive (1TB)?

Thanks

As long as its externally powered (as the port of the player is just 1.1), there is also a limitation of the number of entries in any folder (files + subfolders) but you can check earlier posts for the exact number.
Hope that helped,

would you please show me step by step to update to Hakan firmware?

Thanks

Hello,
Step by step instructions are in README.TXT available inside any of Hakan's firmware zip files at http://www.pioneerfaq.info/index.php?question=Firmwares
Regards,

As long as its externally powered (as the port of the player is just 1.1), there is also a limitation of the number of entries in any folder (files + subfolders) but you can check earlier posts for the exact number.
Hope that helped,

Do you just the thread #? I have been reading through page 9 and have not seen anything regarding external hard drive.

Hello,
Step by step instructions are in README.TXT available inside any of Hakan's firmware zip files at http://www.pioneerfaq.info/index.php?question=Firmwares
Regards,

Thank. I found the readme txt after I download it.

Do you just the thread #? I have been reading through page 9 and have not seen anything regarding external hard drive..

Ok I did a quick search, there is information about HDDs and USB on page 17, but the number of files limitation ... mmm .. it seems you need more digging, but you should be fine if you dont have a flat folder with 150+ files, 3 folders with 50 each should work just fine ;)

Ok I did a quick search, there is information about HDDs and USB on page 17, but the number of files limitation ... mmm .. it seems you need more digging, but you should be fine if you dont have a flat folder with 150+ files, 3 folders with 50 each should work just fine ;)

Thanks for your help. I also found some more info on how to FAT32Format on page 21. Again, appreciate your help.

Thank you for emailing Pioneer Electronics of Canada,

We don't have any firmware update available or coming soon,
Divx functionality is still very limited in our player unfortunately, but
the company is working on that.

Customer Call Centre
Pioneer Electronics of Canada
300 Allstate Parkway
Markham Ontario L3R 0P2
Toll free: 1 (877) 283 5901
Fax: 1 (877) 746 4848

To aasoror - I've just sent an email to Pioneer USA about the possibility to release a firmware update. I mentionned the issues you spoke of.

Hope other people will follow the move...

Thank you for emailing Pioneer Electronics of Canada,

We don't have any firmware update available or coming soon,
Divx functionality is still very limited in our player unfortunately, but
the company is working on that.

Customer Call Centre
Pioneer Electronics of Canada
300 Allstate Parkway
Markham Ontario L3R 0P2
Toll free: 1 (877) 283 5901
Fax: 1 (877) 746 4848
Thanks for the update ! Hope they actually are working on this.

However, when he or she says « Divx functionnality is still very limited in our player », he's kidding right ? The Pioneer Canada website states that the DV-400V is DivX certified :D. I thought certification was not just techno-babbling to fill the blanks.

You're luckier than I am, got no answer yet...

Thanks for the update ! Hope they actually are working on this.

However, when he or she says « Divx functionnality is still very limited in our player », he's kidding right ? The Pioneer Canada website states that the DV-400V is DivX certified :D. I thought certification was not just techno-babbling to fill the blanks.

You're luckier than I am, got no answer yet...

Well to give credit where credit is due at least they acknowledge the problem, which (by personal experience) lots of brand name manufacturers just wont do.
For the DivX certification, I guess its DivX corporation we have to blame, the player is listed at their own website, it turned out that for a player to be DivX certified it just needs to play DivX videos with "Home Theater" profile (720X576), correctly handles subtitles and multiple audio streams. For DivX Ultra a player need to be able to correctly enable the features available in DivX Ultra "Home Theater" profile, namely Chapters ;). They force no other requirements, like any of the usability concerns we have with the pioneer :(

Just unlocked my DV-400 and can finally watch Jerry Springer: The Opera. which has never been released on a Region 1 DVD. The man is a genius!

w00t just installed the new Hakan too, improvement over the original, thanks Hakan.

Only small problem i still have is that the display still cant fit really long filenames on the screen... for example when watching Terminator episodes i never know what episode i'm watching, because they all just show as "Terminator.The.Sarah.Connor.Chronicles.S01" in the file list, and even shorter "Terminator.The.Sarah.Connor.Chr" when i press the display button. The file list is better than before, but the filenames on the 'display' screen seem to be shorter than before with a bigger/bold font...
Subtitles are definitely improved tho:)

I've installed Hakan firmware and am very happy with it.

Today I downloaded one of those "720p.hdtv.x264" mkv files. It obviously didn't play in the DV-400, so I converted it to AVI with River Past Video Cleaner (I used the X-vid MPEG-4 codec). I tried it in the DV-400 again and whilst the sound played fine, I got a blank screen and an error saying the "video resolution was not supported".

Has anyone else experienced this?

I've installed Hakan firmware and am very happy with it.

Today I downloaded one of those "720p.hdtv.x264" mkv files. It obviously didn't play in the DV-400, so I converted it to AVI with River Past Video Cleaner (I used the X-vid MPEG-4 codec). I tried it in the DV-400 again and whilst the sound played fine, I got a blank screen and an error saying the "video resolution was not supported".

Has anyone else experienced this?

well any one who would try to play HD vedio's on a non-HD player would certainly experience that. Although the player is 1080p upconverting, its only capable of accepting 480p DVDs and DivX of resolution 720X576 which is 576p (for sake of comparison), to solve this just use Hometheater Divx Profile in you conversion tool and you should end up with a playable file.
Hope that helped,

I can not play long divx movies on my dv400 from my hard drive. I noticed it will play movies that are 2 hours long but not longer. Any solutions.

I also noticed that if i add more movies to my hard drive it will not keep the movies added in order.Example: a,b,c,d,e. If I add more movies to a,b,c,d it will be a,b,c,d,a,b instead of a,a,b,b,c,d.

My player will freeze when I try to play long movies from my hard drive. It will get stuck on play but will never show that the movie is loading. I then have to turn my player on and off. Any solutions?

I can not play long divx movies on my dv400 from my hard drive. I noticed it will play movies that are 2 hours long but not longer. Any solutions.

I also noticed that if i add more movies to my hard drive it will not keep the movies added in order.Example: a,b,c,d,e. If I add more movies to a,b,c,d it will be a,b,c,d,a,b instead of a,a,b,b,c,d.

I am not sure if the problem with the movie length, its the file size, it wont play divx files bigger than 1 GB (as far as I remember), you can use "avi-splitter"s to divide the movie into 2 files then it should work no problem.
For the file order, its ordered by date not by name (yes, you can't do anything about that, dont know about Hakan's firmware though)

Hope that helped,

Update : 2 Gigs is the limit thanks spidy :)

I did some research and it looks like the file size has to be smaller than 2 gigs. Any bigger and it will not play.

How many folders or sub folders does the player support?

Thanks 4 the help

How many folders or sub folders does the player support?

does some one know? whats difference between 400V and 410V?

I just purchased a DV-400V and all features work beautifully except 1: WMV files will not play. I have tried from both a USB flash drive and from a CD-R. The player recognizes the files as WMV on both the disk and the flash drive but will not actually play the files. The files are not protected by DRM, the resolution matches the specs in the Pioneer manual. I believe the files are WMV 9 encoded because they play without any problems in my Creative Zen that also requires that the files be WMV 9 encoded. Any ideas?

can any one tell me how to make a new pioneer elite dv-48av,,region free..zone free etc....james

can any one tell me how to make a new pioneer elite dv-48av,,region free..zone free etc....james

Well I think you would have better luck at the "DV-48 av thread" here : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=878504
Best of luck,

does some one know? whats difference between 400V and 401V?

I googled all over the place, there is nothing called 401v, unless you mean 410v, which is the 2008 version of the 400v and to be released around June 08, the press release lists nothing different that what we already have on 400v.
Hope that helped,

I googled all over the place, there is nothing called 401v, unless you mean 410v, which is the 2008 version of the 400v and to be released around June 08, the press release lists nothing different that what we already have on 400v.
Hope that helped,

my apologies! indeed! 410v

well any one who would try to play HD vedio's on a non-HD player would certainly experience that. Although the player is 1080p upconverting, its only capable of accepting 480p DVDs and DivX of resolution 720X576 which is 576p (for sake of comparison), to solve this just use Hometheater Divx Profile in you conversion tool and you should end up with a playable file.
Hope that helped,

Thank you!

I've had my DV-400V for a few weeks now and haven't updated the firmware. Here are some (windows) stats from an .avi file that I regularly play from DVD:

Duration: 3:05:48
Bit Rate: 192kbs
Dimensions: 720x480
Size: 2.67GB

So I think the 2 GB limitation is not universal to all firmwares/.avi formats.

I've not noticed the darkness issue, but, in double checking this file I noticed that I still that that input on my Panny set to Vivid. I'm still new to this HDTV stuff, perhaps it'll darken up when I switch to another picture mode:)

I'm currently using the 480i output, as that seems to give the best picture with my DVDs - apparently the scalar in my TH-50PC77U is better equipped to handle them. I haven't yet tinkered to find the best output for my vast collection of .avi's, but they're all different codecs and resolutions and seem to work fine with that output. Has anyone done that research and determined the output that works best over the majority of avi's with this TV?

I've had my DV-400V for a few weeks now and haven't updated the firmware. Here are some (windows) stats from an .avi file that I regularly play from DVD:

Duration: 3:05:48
Bit Rate: 192kbs
Dimensions: 720x480
Size: 2.67GB

So I think the 2 GB limitation is not universal to all firmwares/.avi formats.



Hello,
Very interesting,
Can you advise us with your firmware version perhaps there is a pioneer update over the YGB7821A released in August?
Regards,

Hello,
Very interesting,
Can you advise us with your firmware version perhaps there is a pioneer update over the YGB7821A released in August?
Regards,

Sure, no prob, I'll fish that out when I get home tonight. In the meantime, whoever received it from Amazon a couple of weeks ago will probably have the same version.

Can you advise us with your firmware version perhaps there is a pioneer update over the YGB7821A released in August?
Regards,

I had the previous firmware and wanted to upgrade so I contacted Pioneer tech support. He said I'd have to take it to a service center to update the f/w (???!!!). I told him I've had plenty of experience updating f/w and could he just send me the file since it's not on their website. He replied back again with I'd have to take it to a service center. I asked what was the newest version f/w and he never did reply. So I went to Hakan's site where he has the original f/w's posted and downloaded the YGB7821A but I didn't see anything newer than that.

I called Pioneer Tech Support on Monday re: my DV-400V's inability to play WMV files (see my Monday post to which no one has yet responded -- hint hint). I asked Pioneer about firmware updates. Pioneer said there is a Dec 2007 firmware update but they were unable to say what features/problems the Dec 07 update is designed to address.

After a quick poke through the menus, my firmware is: YGB7821A

Maybe I burn my DVD's better than everyone else:)

Some other facts from the file, under Video properties:
Frame Rate: 29 frames/second (probably rounded down from 29.97)
Video sample size: 24 bit
Video compression: XVID

Wow, here's an odd fact from VirtualDub:
Number of key frames: 1 (no wonder its so big!)

Cheers

The 2 gig size is only if you play a file from a hard drive. DVD should not matter.

How many folders or sub folders does the player support from a hard drive?

I just got the Pioneer DV-400V-K dvd player yesterday. I wanted to make this player Region Free. I can't find anything on the net to do this. Can someone help me? I am guessing I have to change the firmware. Is this Hakan firmware what I need to get? I take it I need to use the HDMI->DVI OK or the Original? Or do I need to do something else all together? Once I can play my other region dvd's I'll be happy. Right now all I can do is play Region 1 dvds.

I just tried making a disc for my player from the Hakan site. The instructions is for a different version of Nero than I have I believe. Anyway, the disc could not be read by my player to upgrade it. Can anyone offer some help? I have Nero version 6.6.1.4 I really want to get my player to be able to play different region dvds.

I called Pioneer Tech Support on Monday re: my DV-400V's inability to play WMV files (see my Monday post to which no one has yet responded -- hint hint). I asked Pioneer about firmware updates. Pioneer said there is a Dec 2007 firmware update but they were unable to say what features/problems the Dec 07 update is designed to address.

I got the same feedback from Pioneer Canada:
-----------------------
Thank you for emailing Pioneer Electronics of Canada,

I am sorry, there is a fimware update for the DV-400V-K
It could be done at our authorized service centres.
But service depart did say what the firmware is for.

Customer Call Centre
Pioneer Electronics of Canada
300 Allstate Parkway
Markham Ontario L3R 0P2
Toll free: 1 (877) 283 5901
Fax: 1 (877) 746 4848
------------------------

I called their nearest service center and they told me they only have FW for the HD players which you can download from Pioneer site, they never heard about an update for the DV-400V.
Emailed Pioneer again for further details but still waiting for a reply,

After a quick poke through the menus, my firmware is: YGB7821A

Maybe I burn my DVD's better than everyone else:)

Some other facts from the file, under Video properties:
Frame Rate: 29 frames/second (probably rounded down from 29.97)
Video sample size: 24 bit
Video compression: XVID

Wow, here's an odd fact from VirtualDub:
Number of key frames: 1 (no wonder its so big!)

Cheers

Thanks for the update, I guess they either had a minor firmware update without changing the firmware version (less likely), or amazon and woot are depleting old stock (thats why recent buyers are still getting the same firmware version).
If its out somewhere, it should be surfacing soon,

I just tried making a disc for my player from the Hakan site. The instructions is for a different version of Nero than I have I believe. Anyway, the disc could not be read by my player to upgrade it. Can anyone offer some help? I have Nero version 6.6.1.4 I really want to get my player to be able to play different region dvds.

It would help to know which part of the instructions you weren't able to find in your nero, the burning settings are the same for all versions they might just have different name. just make sure you have the disc name typed correctly its case sensitive, and that its a CD-R not DVD, and its not a multisession disc. (to see all neros setting dont use the wizards or "nero express" just open "nero burning rom" and start from there)