Pioneer Elite DV-45A DVD-A SACD Player

I really had no intention of buying my Pioneer DV-45A DVD/DVD-Audio (DVD-A)/SACD player; I got it out of necessity. I used to have a Panasonic RP-91 DVD/DVD-A player, and it was a great unit and I was very happy with it. When I bought my Sony G70 projector I knew that I was eventually going to get myself a HTPC because the 480P output from the RP-91 wasn’t going to cut it – I needed 720P. When I got my HTPC I was just going to use the RP-91 for DVD-A duty and call it a day. Then my RP-91 died an untimely death and I was without a DVD player; and since I can’t imagine life without movies, I needed something to hold me over. I didn’t have the budget to build my HTPC yet and I was still researching them as well so I needed something that wasn’t too expensive and that I could still use after I built the HTPC. It was then that I decided to get myself a player that would do both of the multi-channel audio formats, DVD-A and SACD, since this is something that cannot currently be done via a HTPC.

At the time the Pioneer DV-45A was one of the cheaper DVD-A/SACD players, I have had good luck with Pioneer products in the past, so I went ahead and picked one up. Compared to my RP-91 the video quality is crap but it didn’t bother me too much because I wasn’t going to be using it to watch movies for long. I don’t have a lot of DVD-A or SACD discs but it’s great having the ability to play them; and I am sure as time goes by I will add more and more discs to my collection. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Mood is absolutely amazing to hear in high resolution 5.1 sound, that disc alone almost makes it worth having a SACD player.

The reasons leading up to me getting the DV-45A kinda sucked, especially since I loved my RP-91, but it all worked out in the end. I now can enjoy both DVD-A and SACD (with the RP-91 I would have only had DVD-A capabilities) and the Pioneer DV-45A kept me watching movies until my HTPC got built.

Unfortunately the bass management on this player is problematic. You cannot choose crossover points; and if you choose large for any of the speakers, no information from that speaker will be routed to the sub, regardless of frequency. For best results set all speakers to small and subwoofer to yes. If you want to get the absolute best performance you can out of this unit, I suggest picking up an Outlaw Audio ICBM to handle the bass management.

Pioneer Elite DV-45A Specs

Features
PureCinema Progressive Scan (3-2 Pulldown)
54MHz/10bit Video DAC for high-quality DVD pictures (Analog Devices)
Super-Fine Focus Filter with 4:4:4 Video up-sampling (Progressive Only)
Video Parameter Adjustments w/ 3 User Memories, Fine Focus, Contrast, Sharpness,Brightness PureCinema (on, off, Auto), Hue, Chroma Level
Parallel S-Video / Composite Outputs
Pioneer Exclusive Viterbi Error Correction with Accurate Digital Servo for Superior Reading Accuracy
Still Step Play Forward and Reverse
Slow Motion Playback

Audio Performance Features:
DVD Audio Playback
SACD multi-channel playback (1 bit)
MP3 Playback Capability
Twin-Wave Laser Pickup for: CD / Video CD / CD-R / CD-RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW playback (recorded in Video Mode)
Triple 192KHz/24-bit (3×2) Audio DAC’s for superb sound quality (Burr Brown)
Dolby Digital and dts Digital Outputs
Dolby Digital and dts Decoders
Bass Management

Output Terminals:
Video:
Component Video (Y, Cr, Cb) Output x 1
S-Video (S2 Compatible) x 1
Composite Video Output x 1

Audio:
Dolby Digital / dts / LPCM Coaxial Output x 1
Dolby Digital / dts / LPCM Optical Output x 1
Analog Output x 2 (2ch)
Analog Output x 1 (6ch) ther:
SR System IN & OUT

Dimensions:
Height: 4-1/8″
Width: 16-9/16″
Depth: 11″

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