Need Cheap DVD Audio/SACD player.

I'd recommend the Samsung over the Pioneer - at least the 563a player. The 563a has a bug that does not allow it to play DVD-A titles by Rhino and (I believe) Universal. The Sammy 841 plays everything I throw at it and I'm sure you can get it for a good price. Though it does have DVI out as well and therefore may run a bit more than the Pioneer for that feature, but so many people have returned them for DTS issues and DVI black level problems (which won't matter to you anyway) that you should be able to find an open box one at a great price.


And FWIW (though haven't seen the Yamaha C750) all the cheap players that I am aware of do not do bass management very well (large setting - all bass goes to the speaker except .1 channel, small setting, the player is preset at a crossover level -for the Pio 563 it is 200hz for DVD-A and 120 hz for SACD). If your receiver does not offer Analog bass management, you may need an external device like the ICBM from Outlaw audio. I bought one (originally for the Pio 563a) and it made a world of difference. However, I went the the Sammy 841 as I wanted the DVI out and universal capabilities, as well as the fact as previously mentioned the Pio 563A does not play Rhino Discs without hiccups (the sound cuts out, it starts about 15 minutes into a title and increases in both occurences and lengths as you listen to the title longer).


As for a fix -I have emailed Pioneer customer service numerous times and have never heard back from them. I doubt I'd ever buy another Pio product again (my last purchase was a Tohsiba RD-XS32 HDD DVD burner, would have bought the Pio 520H but now you know why I didn't! ).

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I dont disagree with you. For the $150 or under pricepoint, the 563 and even the 578 are great bargains and excellent performers. Anyone that expects it to perform like $400-$500 uni's is deluded. This is where I think it is getting a bad rep. I dont know what some people expect for under $150?


I have a 563, and after the firmware upgrade to 1.906, it plays everything....

3 days....


There is an authorized service place less than 20 minutes from my house...you can look them up at the pioneer site. My player was only about 6 weeks old, I called Pioneer, they said just call and take it in. My understanding is that firmware upgrades are covered for 3 years from date of purchase, regardless of the 90 days or 1 year on everything else in the unit.


Call Pioneer customer support USA:

1-800-421-1404 option 2, option 6


I dont know why anyone would wait to get this done, or at least spend the 5 minutes to figure out where they can send it, and how long it would take?


So after you get the nearest service place, you call them to get their time frame.

Problem is (or was) here in Canada no one was recognizing the problem (from Pioneer) and didn't know anything about an upgrade.


Besides - that to me is still very crappy service.


Samsung - they just released a 'fix for DVI' for their 841 players. My guess is they won't 'recognize' their 'problems' either - but I DOWNLOADED it, burned it on a CD. loaded it in my player, and 3 minutes later the Samsung works perfect (regarding DTS dropouts and IMO the blacks via DVI are better now to - but impossible to do an a/b comparison).


If Pioneer was good, they would offer the same upgrade as Samsung did, rather then me having to send my player away for a simple fix.


But hey - if you guys like the PIO so much - pm me, I'd gladly sell you mine at a good price (it's boxed up, sealed and in storage right now).

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How about $199 (bstock) for an Outlaw ICBM? I use one (originally bought it for my Pioneer 563a and use it with my Samsung 841 now).


What you do with it is instead of plugging in your analog cables into your Receiver, they go into the ICBM. The ICBM has outputs to your receiver. You set you speakers to LARGE in the player so the full range goes to each input of the ICBM. The ICBM has dials for the front L/R, Center, surround L/R, and Rear (which can be split - if you have a rear). As well it has a volume control for the LFE, and a volume gain for your sub.


The cross overs are set at 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, and off. The ICBM will direct all the LFE, along with any bass below the cutoff points you have set to your sub. I haven't seen all the high end players out there, but from what I understand the ICBM is the most flexible device you can get for analog bass management and at least matches but most likely exceeds any thing else out there! Plus, it's a lot cheaper than buying a $600 + player or a new receiver that does analog bass management.


Check it out - two big thumbs up for this here! A very cheap upgrade for what you gain from it.

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How do you do the upgrade? The Help file (in PDF) about upgrading left out a pertinent detail - what kind of CD do you burn the files as? Data or Audio CD? And can it only work with PC downloads?


For those who want to know about the Samsung DVD-HD841 upgrade, click here.


So does this fix the black crush problem on the Samsung?



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I used Nero and copied it as a 'data CD'. It's rather simple actually, took less than 30 seconds to burn, and about 3 minutes to load in my player. There are two files, I loaded them in the same order as they unzipped in the download :

build.img

update.ver


As for Black crush - I have the player hooked up via component and DVI - when looking at a star field (space scene) I cannot find any 'missing' stars on the DVI as compared to the component, and the DVI stars seem a bit brighter (it could be though just because the picture on the DVI is much more detailed and sharper since it is set to 720, which is the native resolution of my set).


I don't know why Pioneer doesn't offer the same type of service - sending a player away for a simple (?) fix is a waste to me.

Okay, Samsung USA has four Hi-Def Conversion players.


HD-841 is DVI out only with DVI-DVI cable as part of the cables given.


HD-941 is HDMI out only with HDMI-HDMI and HDMI-DVI cables as part of the cables given.


HD-850 is DVI only with DVI-DVI cable, but it is not a universal player.


HD-950 is HDMI capable but I guess it's not released yet.



So here's my question : does the 941 is basically the same as the 841 but with a HDMI output? As in same black crush problem (which I guess is fixable using the same upgrade method) but via HDMI? And does it mean it can digitally output DVD-A and SACD digital audio signals to a HDMI capable receiver?



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