Pioneer DV-696AV DVD Player

Products from East Asia have been dominating our review studio for so long that I've almost become fluent in Chinese and Korean. Oh, I'm not complaining about quality or performance; it's just that I'd like a change once in a while – a new brand, a different style of design...

But that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime I've managed to get hold of a gadget from Pioneer that's come all the way from Tokyo, Japan. The company deserves credit for 'pioneering' (heh!) a lot of technological advances over the decades – this includes the first CD player, DVD gear, OLED, plasma displays, and what-have-you.

The Pioneer DVD player that came in for review is the DV-696AV. It's been around in the market for a while, and perches comfortably in the middle segment. After reviewing so many TVs, it’s rather a relief to do something else, so you can imagine why I was excited.

Design and Features
The DV-696AV has a very tough, straight-edged look about it, with its flat rectangular surfaces joined at sharp cliffs all around. It’s not like some audio amps which can actually cut you, but it gives the product a very 90s look, and probably a high-end tag.

The design is simple and straightforward. The unit we got was all in one color, just like Henry Ford's original Model T Ford. Yes, even the buttons were black! (If you have the silver version, replace the last word of the previous sentence with silver.) It more or less conforms to one rack unit standard as far as size goes; weight-wise it’s medium.

The Pioneer logo on the top left of the front panel is the only element that's in a different color. The menu navigation buttons are on the right extremity, arranged in a circular joystick style, while tiny round buttons for random functions are placed in a line below the screen. The tray is bang center of the front panel, along with a camouflaged eject button.

The player has many features – it not only plays DVDs but also SACDs and DVD Audio, which would be music to audiophiles' ears. DivX, JPEG, MP3 etc are all invited to the party. Pioneer's higher-end models play Blu-ray as well; just to remind you.

This model has an HDMI out, with upscaling capabilities, so it fits the needs of the day perfectly. Dolby and DTS are supported as surround sound outputs, through an optical out at the back panel. The player also has composite video, component video, S-video, SCART and analog 5.1 channel out.