Pioneer Elite's DV-79AVi "Universal" DVD player ($1,000) won't play HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, but it does play nearly everything else on a 5" consumer disc format. A glance at the specs tell you what formats it's designed to handle, though with all such players there will be exceptions. For me, it never hiccupped with any DVD-Video, CD, CD-R/RW, DVD-Audio, or SACD discs I threw at it. For the present, I don't speak either DVD-R/RW or MP-3/CD-ROM, so I did not check either format, though the player is specified to handle them.

Touch me
Ergonomically I had only two complaints: Pioneer's video menus cover too much of the screen while you're making adjustments, and it isn't all that easy to find the right tiny button on the non-illuminated remote.

As an upconverting player, the Pioneer will play DVD-Video discs from its HDMI output in 480i (sometimes useful—though it's rare on today's HDMI players, and some displays will not display it, either), 480p, 720p, or 1080i—but not 1080p. Only 480i and 480p are available in component. (Our usual regular caveat here for new readers: Upconversion of DVDs can sometimes be advantageous, but it does not actually increase the resolution of the source. A DVD remains standard definition even when upconverted to 1080i.)

PCM (two-channel), Dolby Digital, and DTS are available in digital form from the coaxial and Toslink digital audio outputs. All of these are also available from the 5.1-channel analog outputs via the player's on-board DD and DTS decoders. If you go the 5.1-channel analog output route, the player offers individual channel level settings and, for some source formats, individual channel delays and speaker setup (small/large/sub on or off etc.) as well. There are also separate L/R two-channel analog outputs.

DVD-Audio and SACD may be accessed in two ways. The most elegant is from one of the player's two i.LINK (IEEE 1394) interfaces. These are designed to carry DVD-Audio and SACD in digital form to i.LINK equipped AV receivers (including select Pioneer models) and preamp-processors. The i.LINK connection offers the full bass management and other digital setup functions of your receiver for DVD-Audio and SACD without unnecessary A/D and D/A conversions.

You may also access DVD-Audio and SACD (plus 2-channel CDs and Dolby Digital and DTS DVD-Video sound, if desired) from the player's multichannel analog outputs. The D/A converters for those outputs provide resolution up to 24-bit/192kHz. Hi-res audio from some DVD-Audio discs may be accessible through the HDMI v1.1 connection, but not all. For hassle-free playback, I'd recommend sticking to the analog multichannel outputs or (with a compatible AV receiver or pre-pro) i.LINK.

The bass management on the Pioneer's multichannel analog outputs is functional not only on Dolby Digital, DTS, and CD material, but on DVD-Audio and SACD as well. The player also provides optional audio processing features, including Legato PRO (upsamples the data to an unspecified higher frequency) and Hi-Bit (increases the bit-depth of 16- or 20 bit recordings to 24 bits). Legato PRO and Hi-Bit operate on two-channel CDs only, not on DVD-Audio, SACD, Dolby Digital, or DTS, and function only on the analog audio outputs. I left them off for my tests.

Video features include more than a dozen video adjustments, including Chroma Delay and Gamma. There are three different memory settings for these adjustments.

There is a control in the HDMI Initial Settings Menu, called Color, which offers four choices. From what I could see, three of them provided virtually identical images: RGB, Component, and Component (12-bit). According to the manual, the latter is designed to provide increase color gradations on compatible sets. It did not look any different to me than the other two settings. However, a fourth setting, Full Range RGB, appears to use levels for passing computer video over DVI. It does not display above white or below black on digital video sources. Ignore the manual's peculiar recommendation for this setting ("Use if colors are weak.") and stick with one of the other three choices.

See Me
Pioneer's de-interlacer/scaler could be tripped by a few test patterns. It did not hold a constant 3/2 pulldown lock on difficult, unflagged material, and in general performed best with the PureCinema mode set to Auto 2.

But in normal viewing I had no complaints at all about the DV-79AVi's video performance. I've used it for nearly all of my standard definition DVD watching over the past several months, including reviews of home theater gear (both audio and video) and DVDs. It never distracted me with scaling—or any other—artifacts in normal viewing. Its resolution and color are pristine. It displays below video black and above white. In everything that matters to me in day-to-day performance with real-world discs, it never let me down.

I should emphasize that most of my viewing of the Pioneer (including comparing it with other players) was from its HDMI output. Component worked fine, and if you are forced to use it, at least temporarily, you won't be disappointed. But long term, I can't imagine why anyone would spend $1,000 on a DVD player and not use it, or plan on using it eventually, with the video output that provides the best performance.

Hear Me
For my listening tests I used either a coaxial digital connection (for DVD-Video sound and CD) or the player's 5.1-channel analog outputs (DVD-Audio and SACD).

I had no complaints at all about the Pioneer's sound on DVD-Video discs (Dolby Digital or DTS), but then most good DVD players do a fine job of this as long as their digital outputs are used into a high quality AV receiver or pre-pro.

On CDs, the Pioneer surprised me in that it exceeded even the very fine performance I heard from the older (and more expensive) Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi. Certainly most of the credit here for both the DVD-Video(DD and DTS) and CD (PCM) performance goes to the D/A converters in the Anthem processor I used for most of the listening tests, but I've been around the block long enough to know that, for CDs at least, the digital transport matters, and I had no complaints about the DV-79AVi on that score.

I listened to both SACD and DVD-Audio in two ways: using the built-in bass management in the player by running its analog outputs through the new NAD Masters' Series M55 pre-pro, and using the bass management offered by the Anthem Statement D1 pre-pro. The latter reconverts the 5.1-channel analog inputs to digital to perform this processing. That may appear to be a negative, but the results were equally superb in both cases.

I'm not sure how many readers are still interested in DVD Audio and SACD. As active formats, they're now on life support. That's a shame, because on the setup I used to audition them with the Pioneer player, the best discs from both formats sounded silky smooth, sweet, and detailed in a way that ordinary CDs rarely do.

Listening to the subwoofer by itself, however, revealed that the Pioneer's low pass filter has a slower than optimum rolloff, which allowed a bit too much midbass into the subwoofer. While the subjective affect of this wasn't at all obvious or troublesome in my room, how much of a problem it would cause in another system will depend on the characteristics of the room, the subwoofer, and its placement.

In This Corner
As of August 2006, the most important challenger to the Pioneer—or any other expensive DVD player in today's market—is probably the $500 Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player. For half the price of the Pioneer, the HD-A1 will give you excellent video performance on standard DVDs, first-rate upconversion, and the ability to play back HD DVD discs with pristine images and superb sound as a bonus. But you don't get SACD or DVD-Audio playback on the Toshiba, and you do have to tackle the quirky and often irritating ergonomics of this first-generation HD DVD machine.

I compared the video playback of the Pioneer to the Toshiba on standard DVDs with both of them first set to 1080i. The Marantz VP-11S1 projector performed the 1080i to 1080p upconversion for both.

On most test patterns and real program material, the Toshiba looked just a hair sharper than the Pioneer. With real-world discs I saw no other differences in any important performance characteristics.

The added sharpness of the Toshiba gave it the edge—no pun intended—on program material having little or no edge enhancement, such as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. But the Pioneer looked arguably more filmlike on otherwise good transfers occasionally marred by EE (e.g. Legends of the Fall). Nevertheless, on this state-of-the-art video display, the visible video differences between the players were remarkably subtle.

The two players were even closer when I switched the Pioneer to 720p. I left the Toshiba at 1080i. (My Toshiba has turned crotchety when I try to change back from 720p to 1080i, so I prefer to leave it in 1080i.)

As for the audio, while the differences were subtle, they were not insignificant. The Pioneer sounded just a little more open and transparent, with a bit more air on top and slightly better depth. Most of you won't care; both players used this way sounded perfectly fine. But audiophiles happily pay many times the difference in price between these two players every day for improvements that are no more dramatic.

A Minor Glitch
After months of flawless operation, the Pioneer now occasionally refuses to respond to a "Play" command with a disc in the open drawer. So far, I've been able to get around this by first pushing the "Close" button followed by "Play."

Conclusions
It may lack the latest wrinkle in upconversion (1080p) but only a few of you will find this a downer. In every other respect that matters, the Pioneer DV-79AVi is a superb DVD player. It may be your last SD DVD player in an increasingly high definition world, but if you have a large collection of CDs, DVDs, and perhaps even SACDs and DVD-Audio discs as well, you can pay a lot more than this for only marginally better performance.

Highs and Lows

High
Superb picture and sound on DVD-Video
Excellent sound from all audio formats: DVD-Audio, SACD, and CD
Bass management for DVD-Audio and SACD

Lows
Expensive in today's DVD-player market
Too much midbass output from the (analog) subwoofer output
No 1080p upconversion