Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer DV454-S Silver DVD Player

...The quality of video and audio on offer is simply incredible.

My last DVD player was a Sony. Since my 3-year-old girl had put the poor unit through (what seemed like) a 10,000 hour tour-of-duty we decided it was time to renew.

I was lucky enough to test drive the 454s in the flesh at a specialist hi-fi store (I own a 32-inch Toshiba wide screen TV) and had originally decided to opt for a Toshiba player. Boy am as I glad I checked this out first ...

Quite simply, the Pioneer's output quality left everything Toshiba & Sony had in this price bracket for dust. Razor sharp picture, colours I hadn't even noticed in previous viewing(!) & optically delivered digital audio.

An important feature (to me anyway) was the ease by which 454s read home-footage DVD's I'd burnt on my PC (take note other manufacturers!). DVD-R in my test was a 99p DiskPlanet job with 45 mins of MPEG2 footage loaded. The 454s loaded all content with ease and skipped through my home-made chapters no problem.

No complaints - 5 star quality.

Yes, it is that good.

No, I don't know why it's this cheap.

This is my first DVD player and I wanted to be sure to make the right decision...and this is it. Spent a loooong time checking out its competitors and was fed up hearing about 'artifacts', 'poor audio', 'dodgy audio CD playback','stalling picture','no MP3', blah, blah, blah. I just wanted something to knock me off my feet without costing the earth. Test disks were 'Shrek' & 'LOTR'. Astounding rich colours and crisp sound. You will not be disappointed. Slimline and stylish. Just wish now that I got a bigger TV.