Slashdot Mirror

really? that is what they are famous for?
I have to google it...ah for cars:

http://www.pioneerelectronics....

So does this, but with both Androids and iPhones: http://www.pioneerelectronics....

> This is why I suspect Dolby Atmos will never be put on a consumer format.

Onkyo, Denon, and Pioneer all suspect otherwise.

It's usually more to do with the processing underneath than the panel itself. Samsung processing is mediocre at best, not even as good as Fujitsu Plasmavison or Pioneer panels from 5 years ago. Sharp have good panels, but poor DSP processing. Samsung have ok panels but better processing.

We no longer have high-end TVs on the market, so no excellent panels with excellent processing. Nobody has yet to beat Kuro and Aviamo.

I think this is the direction we need to go - Pioneer App Radio. The smart phone will be for everything, why aren't we using it to drive the display in the car?

You clearly didn't read TFA. It explains in excruciating detail why recording sample rates above 48 kHz are irrelevant with modern equipment that does high quality oversampling transparently. More importantly, unless you can prove your 96 kHz recordings sound better than the same ones downsampled to 48 kHz with a double blind test, your opinion is worthless because of confirmation bias. The 96 kHz recording sounds better to you simply because you expect it to. You might as well argue that a $400 two-way speaker sounds better than others because it's made out of wood from a whiskey barrel.

You clearly didn't read TFA. It explains in excruciating detail why recording sample rates above 48 kHz are irrelevant with modern equipment that does high quality oversampling transparently. More importantly, unless you can prove your 96 kHz recordings sound better than the same ones downsampled to 48 kHz with a double blind test, your opinion is worthless because of confirmation bias. The 96 kHz recording sounds better to you simply because you expect it to. You might as well argue that a $400 two-way speaker sounds better than others because it's made out of wood from a whiskey barrel.

pioneer still sells a laserdisc (video) player. how hard it would be to use this to read a LD-ROM (or whatever these were), i have no idea.

Or this radio made and sold in Japan (its a bit older, but it illustrates the point):

http://japan-auto-sound.com/images/206-0606_IMG.jpg

Checkout some of these radios sold in the west.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Source/CD-Players/Pioneer/FH-P8000BT
http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=IVA-W505
http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=IVA-D106

Check out the dash of the Nissan GT-R:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cars/nissans-gt+r-data+dense-dashboard-explained-324672.php

Compare the GT-R dash with the dash of the Corvette ZR-1:

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/chevrolet/0802_2009_chevrolet_corvette_zr1/photo_03.html

Here - check out some western dashboards

http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-2008/a/2008-Audi-R8-V12-TDI-Dashboard-1280x960.jpg

http://supercarspecs.com/images/porsche/2008porsche911gt2/images/2008-Porsche-911-GT2-Dashboard-1280x960.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/cars/1/0/y/5/1/bw_08reventon_dash2.jpg
http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-2008/klm/2008-Lamborghini-Gallardo-LP560-4-Dashboard-1920x1440.jpg
http://i.pbase.com/g4/68/763068/2/91636989.LEA7wlE4.jpg

Never buy music CDs. The MAFIAA gets a cut.

True.

Always buy "data" CDs. They're the same physical thing.

Partly False. They have a header on them so that standalone CD recorders, like the Pioneer PDR-609 can recognize them, those recorders will not record on regular DATA CD-Rs.

Otherwise though, they are pretty much the same.

Pioneer PD-F1009

Or something similar should do the trick. I recall seeing a 500 disk model from one of the home audio manufacturers once.

It will save you the job of ripping all those tracks and keep your material safe, clean and organised ready for play whenever you like.

I'm planning on getting one of these sets for CDs and iPoding in the car.

)Are there any machines available that are not crippled in this way?

The PRV-LX1 is a profesional level DVD recorder that should not suffer these problems you speak of. There is also the associated DVD players they offer as well.

The short of it is, the companies are doing something extra to bork over the customers with the stuff. A proper DVD recorder/player and VCR should have no problems playing back something from another machine so long as they both are following the standard.

It's not just the people at Samsung making these new players. Everyone from Sony to the small no name electronics manufacturers (except for Toshiba) are behind this. The difference between regular DVD's and these new Blu Ray's discs are that the Blu ray has more space which means they can add more info on the disc. According to Pioneer's new site, you get 6 times the video and picture quality. I'll prob wait for pioneer's model. Its coming out a little later but it'll let you burn on to the disc (while you're watching it) and it hooks up with a wireless connection to the computer. http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/top/ca t/article/0,,2076_310069741_310178603,00.html

Meh... I'll just wait a year or two for someone like Pioneer to release a model that will play both formats.

This is similar to DVD-A versus SACD (single- and then multichannel). In the beginning, manufacturers went with one (typically DVD-A, due to licensing rights from Sony on SACD) or the other. Now, there are plenty of models that will play both formats. My Pioneer (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/det ail/0,,2076_15020671_30442807,00.html) DV59-AVi plays both formats and will last me until WELL after the producers decide on which format to use.

1) a linux-compatible sound card with optical outputs for my stereo.
2) a pci to pcmcia adapter for a wireless card
3) a second video card (one outputs to the TV, the second to the kids' monitor and keyboard)
4) a second NIC (it's the router and provides QoS for VOIP)
5) a TV tuner card
6) second hard drive (you want lots of HDD space and a separate spindle for backup in a fileserver/HTPC)
7) an old-fashioned serial port for the infrared receiver (remote control)
8) Another obvious addition would be a high-performance graphics card for gaming on the TV, but I don't do that.

I realize you can get a small PC with some or many of these things now, but my point is a lot of those needs were originally unforeseen and you never know what will happen next. Of course there are external USB devices, but IMHO that's much uglier than one somewhat larger box.

As for larger boxes being ugly monsters, well it's personal taste but I note that many of the higher-end receivers are in taller boxes that look a lot like the cases in this review.

I'm in the market for a 400 CD changer and after much research, I had decided to buy the Sony CDP-CX455. Well, that was last month and fortunately I postponed the purchase another month. And today I'm ready to go with my previous second choice from Pioneer. I was seriously considering getting my wife a Vaio laptop on her birthday, Dec 1st. I'm in between Toshiba and HP now.

Sony and the others should begin to realize that they cannot treat their customers as criminals. They depend on us, not the other way around. The same people who bursted a vain in their forehead when they read about the rootkit are the same people who go out shopping for TVs, CD-Players, computers... To tell you the truth, I was happy with Sony products up until this huge pile of steaming crap surfaced, and let me tell you, they will never get another penny from me. Never.

just took a look at videohelp.com
When I checked the HD WMV box, the only player to come up was:
    I-O Data AVeL LinkPlayer2 AVLP2/DVDLA for $250
When I checked the WMV9 box, 3 standalone players came up, again no pioneer.
Searching for the Sigma EM8620L chip which is apparently the one that has the potential to do the HD WMV, comes up with 9 hits. Still no pioneer.
A brief browse over at http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/ I dont seem to see any dvd players that mention WMV period, let alone wmv9 of HD WMV. Granted I didn't do an exhaustive search, but I checked the specs on the top models in the two dvd player categories they had, elite and pro. Maybe they just like to hide it, or I need to dig down more.

Maybe you should learn how to use google or MSN Search. Here is the first hit I got even...

http://msmvps.com/chrisl/archive/2005/07/17/57932. aspx

And here is a link from last December on units available then as well.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000427023177/

Also if you do some further looking, many of the popular online Movie sources have just recently moved to WMV-HD - like AtomFilms.com etc.

I just did a quick google and pulled the first result and the second one that looked relevent. Interesting is that many of the newer IN-Car DVD players already support WMV-HD content as well.

So if you don't think this stuff exists, or I was making it up, sorry, take a reality check...

I just took a look at videohelp.com
When I checked the HD WMV box, the only player to come up was:
  I-O Data AVeL LinkPlayer2 AVLP2/DVDLA for $250
When I checked the WMV9 box, 3 standalone players came up, again no pioneer.
Searching for the Sigma EM8620L chip which is apparently the one that has the potential to do the HD WMV, comes up with 9 hits. Still no pioneer.
A brief browse over at http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/ I dont seem to see any dvd players that mention WMV period, let alone wmv9 of HD WMV. Granted I didn't do an exhaustive search, but I checked the specs on the top models in the two dvd player categories they had, elite and pro. Maybe they just like to hide it, or I need to dig down more.

The marketers don't want to sell what people really want in a DVR. It's not just control - its revenue; They push what keeps their revenue stream alive. All the retailers want to sell either TiVo, which they get a cut of, or a DVD burner only, so they can sell the media. The hard disk/DVD burner combos avoid all this - and consequently are nowhere to be found at most big box retailers. They do not want you to findout about free PVRs or even great combo units like those here:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/article/0,,2 076_4137_270670725,00.html

My pioneer amp/receiver does this.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/article/0,,2 076_4151_20157532,00.html

Product Brochure

This is probably overkill, but it is a really cool piece of equipment, and it doesn't rely on shitty windows software to do it's job. Unfortunately it costs $10000 fully loaded with 4 DVD-RW drives.

I want all my music needs sorted, car, plane and home.

When I am in my car I want to use the Head Unit to control my MP3 player, since the iPod is so common several companies such as Alpine and Pioneer supporting with there new Head Units (in Pioneer case you may already have a unit that supports the iPod Adapter).

I just bought a Pioneer DEH 7600 MP (£180) which is iPod Adaptor ready and the iPod Adapter will be available in March with a suggested RRP of US $140 (so with any luck it will be £100 in the UK).

For information on iPod Adapter goto:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/press/releas e/detail/0,,2076_4313_191756407,00.html

For information on a range of Pioneer Head Units that support iPod adapter goto:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/press/releas e/detail/0,,2076_4313_191756410,00.html

I want all my music needs sorted, car, plane and home.

When I am in my car I want to use the Head Unit to control my MP3 player, since the iPod is so common several companies such as Alpine and Pioneer supporting with there new Head Units (in Pioneer case you may already have a unit that supports the iPod Adapter).

I just bought a Pioneer DEH 7600 MP (£180) which is iPod Adaptor ready and the iPod Adapter will be available in March with a suggested RRP of US $140 (so with any luck it will be £100 in the UK).

For information on iPod Adapter goto:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/press/releas e/detail/0,,2076_4313_191756407,00.html

For information on a range of Pioneer Head Units that support iPod adapter goto:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/press/releas e/detail/0,,2076_4313_191756410,00.html

My requirements are to have my entire music is available wherever I go, when I am in car, when I am in plane at home, etc.

To be at home it must plug into my stereo, which like most MP3 devices is not a problem.

I want a MP3 player to be played for 18 hours on plane, (+ 6 more hours to allow me to get to hotel to charge unit). The iPod can do with the external battery pack, so I will not be limited to the internal 8 hours charge.

When I am in my car I want to use the Head Unit to control my MP3 player, since the iPod is so common several companies such as Alpine and Pioneer supporting it there new Head Units. I just bought a Pioneer DEH 7600 MP which is iPod Adaptor ready.

So I have just bought the Pioneer stereo to replace my old Sony Head Unit (Fortunately I could get my money back under warranty do to faulty CD Changer). I have to wait a few months before the Pioneer iPod adapter is on sale, but after reading the press release I can say I can't wait for it.

For information on iPod Adapter goto:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/press/releas e/detail/0,,2076_4313_191756407,00.html

For information on a range of Pioneer Head Units that support iPod adapter goto:
URL:http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/p ress/re lease/detail/0,,2076_4313_191756410,00.html

I have also looked into Sony's NW-HD3, but the Pioneer iPod adapter sold the idea of buying an iPod (plus with my bad experiences with Sony Support with Vaio Notebook).

I purchased the Pioneer 810H-S a few months ago. Yes, the TiVo service is great. (All the Anti's in the peanut gallery can leave now...)

I would do it again given that while I am highly tech-savvy, my wife is not. She knows her way around a computer but let's just say I won't be hacking my box any time soon. It's just not worth it to mess with what is working. FYI, I've only HAD to restart my box once due to any sort of technical issue.

As far as what you should buy "now" (vs. waiting indefinitely for the "perfect" device), I highly recommend looking at one of the TV Guide-based HD recorder/DVD burners out there. Even with the $100 rebate on activating the Plus service (I went with the unit lifetime), I'm still out $500-600 for the pleasure. FYI, TiVo equipped DVD burners come with a free Basic service. Off-brand units (LiteOn, et al) can be had for under 4 c-notes (like here or here...) with many of the same functions. Though I can't vouch for their usability. One thing that could really be an advantage would be the ability to edit out the commercials for burning to DVD, which my unit won't do.

Another consideration you had was the noise and I'll just tell you my unit is NOT quiet, thanks to a rear-mounted ~60 or 80mm fan. To keep it in perspective, it IS being used for television and movie watching. So it's not as though you can hear it very much. I wouldn't recommend this unit for a bedroom.

The nifty, but lesser used, features are nice. Like the Photo & Music over the wireless network from my computer. Or the online scheduling. Nice & handy, but those shouldn't be a deal breaker. To me, this new TiVoToGo "feature" falls in this catergory.

I think I covered the bases, but if you have any questions: shoot.

corn? pioneer?
sounds like http://www.pioneer.com/ might be able to team up with http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/ on this.

I'm surprised no one has mentoned the Pioneer DEH-P90HDD. This is a head unit that will play from an internal 10 GB hard drive, memory stick, or an audio/mp3 cd. Nice looking player, and I've alwaysed loved Pioneer, but it isn't cheap.. $500 to $600 on ebay.

Why not simply get a 6 CD changer that READS MP3's! Sorry, I don't think this guy is cool at all. I think he's a idiot.

Pioneer Car Audio that can play MP3 & WMA

I've got an integrated DVD-R/TiVo unit with a 300 GB harddrive (an easily performed hack, or you can get PTV Upgrade to do it). Works very well, uses the TiVo desktop software to gateway pictures from my Mac's iPhoto database and mp3s from my Mac's iTunes database. The network interface is attached through a USB port on the back of the DVD-R/TiVo unit, and a number of wired and wireless adapters are supported.

My one gripe is that the TiVo doesn't support AAC files yet. TiVo keeps promising that they are working on it, but do not provide a delivery date estimate. This has been the case for over a year.

Other than that gripe, it works great. My only real gripe is that if you transfer a show over the network to this TiVo from another TiVo using the Home Media Option, the TiVo won't burn it to a DVD-R... their notion of DRM.

Oh yeah... and of course, being a TiVo it runs Linux, so all sorts of hacks are available for it.

The market seems to have tried and given up on a simple solution for this one: caddies. Even Plextor at one time proclaimed in an old FAQ that storing discs long-term in caddies rather than jewel cases and installing caddy-load drives with nonmotorized, floppylike load/eject mechanisms represented the best approach for protecting both discs and drives from user-inflicted damage. I imagine they've taken this down since they no longer manufacture caddy-load drives.

Instead, the market is considering a new monster: slot-load drives. Maybe the drives have fewer problems, but discs get thrashed even more since they're not handled at the hub, and these drives usually don't support 3.5-inch or business-card discs.

And yet no mention of this?

I don't know whether to be amazed or disgusted.

Actually, there is only one Pioneer. :)

Game console features overlap with a DVR's features enough to say you will probably get a PS3 w/DVR cheaper than a PS3 + TIVO. TIVO's are selling for $150 and up with a $300 activation fee right now. The artical says the PS3 w/DVR will probably be $600 more than the PS3 which is about the cost of a middle of the line TIVO and far less than a TIVO w/ DVD-burner.

Well, not always -- if the SACD is not hybrid, it won't play in standard redbook CD players. There's usually a sticker on the package that reads "single layer" or "dual layer" SACD... only the dual layer will play standard stereo.

All this said, it's really annoying to have the SACD and DVD-A dual "standards". I am format-agnostic, but a lot more cooler music has been coming out on SACD, like the 30th Anniversary Dark Side of the Moon, and a whole collection of Bob Dylan albums; all of these have been remastered for SACD Stereo or SACD Surround Sound, and the quality is fantastic.

Anyway, my recommendation for a universal player is the Pioneer DV-563A... it's pretty inexpensive, at about $160 in the stores, and can handle both SACD and DVD-A. Just make sure your receiver can take those inputs as well...

I just bought a new rear projection HDTV from Pioneer and have hooked a PC in to the "composite" input of the TV. This TV has a HDMI input, but the documentation explicitly says that you should not hook a PC input to it. Is this just a "scare" tactic or is there a ligitimate reason not to hook the PC to it?

You mean like this one from Pioneer

Sure, it's a little pricey right now. However, given the way the market works, in 1-2 years, these should be pretty affordable.

You mean like this?

The A05 and A06 IS both DVD-R and DVD+R.

The A05 is not. If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Pioneer. They should know, since they built the thing...

Pioneer "50 Plasma HDTV

Everyone will forget about a wireless this or gizmo that, when this baby fires up and lights the room.

My DVD player has firewire output, it just has some sort of encryption on it. My TV only has component ins, and I don't have a matching receiver, so they're useless to me, but firewire for A/V use exists and is available for sale at your local stereo shop.

If you shop around for media, you can find blanks pretty cheap. I think the ones I'm using now cost 1.26 a piece, which is much cheaper than hard drives.

As for movies, I bought my dvd player and burner around the same to time to ensure compatibility. I also have found that ALL of my friends home DVD players can play movies that I have recorded. And I think it would be fair to say, that most of the players have been purchased within the last two years. Of course, your experiences may vary, I have just had great luck with dvd-r/rw.

G

On the OLED note: This might be a rant but here it goes. I was stoked when I heard about OLED. It was supposed to squash LCD because it was not only flexible/bendable but capable of better pictures (esp. at odd angles), smaller sizes, and required less electricity (for one because it apparently was able to hold an image w/o a constant signal of that image, so unchanged parts didn't need to have current sent to them to keep them on; sorry for the crude description). So, I was stoked, and the technology that was available has not been delivered (except a couple of cell phones and cd players).

So they have cheap portable LCDs. I want cheap portable OLED displays. PLEASE... It's time.

I've read that in terms of compatibility with consumer dvd players, the Pioner DVR-A05 is the way to go. If you're concerned about format, I'm pretty sure Sony and HP both make recorders that handle all four.

Hmmm.....

this

is what we use here at work for over a year now...

and it has a funny side effect of not letting the companies grubby hands in the softweare so they cant disable features at whim...

I don't mean to criticize geeks' choices of televisions and where they shop, but why is Best Buy (or Circuit City, or Tweeter, or Good Guys, or Ultimate) held up as the bastion of where technology is located? I work for an independent audio/video retailer, and as a specialty shop we are allowed access to better products, and can offer them at lower prices. Best Buy is a mass-merchant big-box store who retails through an internet portal and through several hundred retail locations, but they don't and can't carry the best product lines from manufacturers, and they definately do not have the best prices. I wish that in the future, if Taco or any other geek would like to link to a product that they think is awesome, they should link to the manufacturer's page, such as this one for the actual product, rather than a retail page.

Incidentally, the model shown on the Best Buy page is for the PDP-5031, not the PDP-5030, which is the actual Pioneer Model. This is most likely a situation where Best Buy has a unique model number so that they cannot be price-shopped, but is also probably a lower-grade (and therefore cheaper) display than the acutal 5030 (for a better profit margin). In reality, if you are serious about a plasma display, especially the Pioneer or Sony models, then a specialty retailer is where you would want to look, because Best Buy does not and cannot carry Pioneer Elite products, such as the beautiful PRO-1000

In short, just because a retailer has a product, and it has a manufacturer's name on it, and it carries a hefty pricetag, does not necessarily mean that it is the best and (in this case both literally and figuratively) brightest that the manufacturer has to offer.

I don't mean to criticize geeks' choices of televisions and where they shop, but why is Best Buy (or Circuit City, or Tweeter, or Good Guys, or Ultimate) held up as the bastion of where technology is located? I work for an independent audio/video retailer, and as a specialty shop we are allowed access to better products, and can offer them at lower prices. Best Buy is a mass-merchant big-box store who retails through an internet portal and through several hundred retail locations, but they don't and can't carry the best product lines from manufacturers, and they definately do not have the best prices. I wish that in the future, if Taco or any other geek would like to link to a product that they think is awesome, they should link to the manufacturer's page, such as this one for the actual product, rather than a retail page.

Incidentally, the model shown on the Best Buy page is for the PDP-5031, not the PDP-5030, which is the actual Pioneer Model. This is most likely a situation where Best Buy has a unique model number so that they cannot be price-shopped, but is also probably a lower-grade (and therefore cheaper) display than the acutal 5030 (for a better profit margin). In reality, if you are serious about a plasma display, especially the Pioneer or Sony models, then a specialty retailer is where you would want to look, because Best Buy does not and cannot carry Pioneer Elite products, such as the beautiful PRO-1000

In short, just because a retailer has a product, and it has a manufacturer's name on it, and it carries a hefty pricetag, does not necessarily mean that it is the best and (in this case both literally and figuratively) brightest that the manufacturer has to offer.

Don't bother with the cables and charging the batteries and all the rest of the hassle.

Just get an mp3 car unit

I bought a Pioneer DEH-7400MP MP3 CD player and I love it. It was about $300 and had free installation. It's a no-brainer to burn a ton of MP3 music onto a CD-R. I usually use fairly large VBR files and I can fit 100 tracks on a CD no sweat. It has an organic EL display with interesting little canned videos, but of more practical importance, it can display the directory name, file name, ID3 track or artist name in ascii.

I bought it about a year ago. Now the units are getting cheaper. Browse through crutchfield because you can easily see what is available and what it costs. Look under:

Car Audio and Video CD, MP3 & DVD Receivers CD/MP3 Receivers

You can probably get something installed in your car for under $200. You might want to double check that the unit you buy shows the id3 information because some don't.

Oh yeah, if your friend likes the music you're playing, you can just give away the CD and burn another one later.

My Pioneer (Premier) DEH-P730 came with an ability to hook something up to the head via a box that took two RCA jacks and turned it into their proprietary connector that they use to connect CD players to mutli-CD players and even the satellite radio service XM receiver. The connector box is the CD-RD20 and looks like it conditions the signal (although I would not know either way). I know that the newer models support MP3 and WMA discs and probably support the file name, if not the ID3 tags. The one I have supports CD Text. It's MSRP was $400 at the time, but I got it from one of those eBay stores for $200, new. I'm not exactly sure, but it looks like only the lowest level Pioneer CD player does not come with CD text. I know that this is not exactly what you wanted, but I hope it's somewhat helpful none the less.

-Peapod