Pioneer 668 advice

Z

Zoidy

Guest
sorry for the new thread, but i find not many ppl look at older threads

ended up buying a pioneer 668 for £499.. lovely picture and great 2 chan audio.

thing is, i cant get the digital coax output to work. my old player was hooked up via optical for both movies and music..
i managed to get a nice deal on some qed cables so i can now have 2 chan audio running through some qunex 2's and the movie sound running through a nice digi coax. the 2 chan audio works fine, but no DD or DTS. ive tried every setting on the player well i think, ive tried other cables, and even my old dvd player running with a coax lead. but still nothing. i have tried to adjust the input settings on the yamaha A2 but still nothing..

full details at ..

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=117133
 
actually ;)

while im sitting here bored.. apparently to make the 668 play my r1's it needs a CD for multiregion conversion. can this be downloaded? or dealer only?
 
ahh i c.. well the guys at the shop i got my player from said it costs 40 quid.. i just gotta take it in there.. couple of mins waiting and its done . will probably do that :)

thanks again carlos :D
 
zoidy: is the 668 a good dvd player???

i mean: you have noticed improvement in the image and the color?

thx:clown:
 
hmm.. bearing in mind my old player was a yamaha.. the pioneer is a great improvement.. been watching finding nemo this morning on R1 without prog scan and the picture improvement is amazing to say the least. and thats really just plug in and play.. there is a professional setup menu for the picture which im not going to touch for a while as i have no clue what im doing there.. but maybe the picture can get even better. the 4 shops i went to all had 668 or 868 running on various plasma's, breathtaking might not do it justice ;)

movie sound is improved but ive also changed from optical to digi coax which may of helped also.. cd playback is nice, never had the chance to audition a arcam 78, none of the arcam dealers i went to were very friendly. but thats was another £150 anyways.. "where do you stop" :)

overall im pleased with the player and feel with all its functions i doubt ill need to buy a new one for a very long time, shame pioneer hasnt sorted out their ability to make nice remote controls :D must get my marantz set up again heh

also.. if any 668 owners out there are willing to give me some hints on what to do in the profession visual mode settings i would be very gratefull :)
 
Hi Zoidy.

Is layer change in 668 noticeable or not?
And what about DVD-Audio and SACD performance?

Best Regards,

Mike
 
Zoidy,
The 668 can be made region free from a programable remote.
It does not use or require a cd to update it. Just the handset code.

If you have a pronto or similar just cut and paste this code to a button and send to the player when its in standby, job done.

0000 0067 0050 0000 0154 00af 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0014 045d 0154 00ae 0016 0040 0016 0040 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0016 0040 0014 045d 0154 00ae 0016 0040 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0016 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0014 00af

may save yourself 40 squid
 
mmm. ive got a marantz rc 5000 .. would this be the same? if so thanks v much ;)

well it probably does work, but it seems my marantz is broken as i am unable to upload a new configuration to it. shame heh
 
Originally posted by Mike@Portugal
Hi Zoidy.

Is layer change in 668 noticeable or not?
And what about DVD-Audio and SACD performance?

Best Regards,

Mike

layer change.. didnt notice it on finding nemo. will check a few others. wont be able to try dvd audio for a while as i cant find anything i like ;) but have a couple of sacd titles coming which i already have on cd.. just to see if sacd is worth the money or not :) will post back with layer change and sacd results
 
Originally posted by Zoidy
mmm. ive got a marantz rc 5000 .. would this be the same? if so thanks v much ;)

well it probably does work, but it seems my marantz is broken as i am unable to upload a new configuration to it. shame heh

Yes the marantz 5000 should be fine if you can get it working.
Pity to have to spend the extra money, if you don't have to.
Have feedback from others that the code works perfectly across all of the current model range.
 
well got the marantz to DL .. used it on the player and the 668 exploded hehe j/k. the code works perfectly.. even tried a couple of RCE's in it and works great

thanks VERY much for saving me that cash :)

the R1 picture shifts to the left.. but using prog scan button brings it back to centre with a much improved quality also. (i thought prog scan needs a compatible display source to work? )
 
I have this player too (£479 from AskDirect.co.uk), hooked up to a Toshiba 42WH36P.

The images delivered from this player are fantastic, a huge improvement over my old Panasonic DVD-XV10.

In progressive scan mode it excels.

Was watching Identity the other day, and you can literally see every raindrop landing on the faces of the cast. The sound is also an improvement, bass is tighter, and the sound steering so accurate you don't realise it is there. Vocals are also more open, and explosions a lot more controlled.

But visually, you can't beat this player, it is amazing, it is almost exactly the same as its bigger brother the 868, just not as good with 2 channel CD's (I have a MArantz CD5400 for that anyway).

I have a few multi-channel DVD-A discs on order (REM greatest hits, and Linkin Park: Reanimation), so look forward to experiencing them as well.

Very impressed, would recommend this player to anyone.
 
Originally posted by Zoidy
well got the marantz to DL .. used it on the player and the 668 exploded hehe j/k. the code works perfectly.. even tried a couple of RCE's in it and works great

thanks VERY much for saving me that cash :)

the R1 picture shifts to the left.. but using prog scan button brings it back to centre with a much improved quality also. (i thought prog scan needs a compatible display source to work? )

Glad to hear it worked out for you.
Just hate to see people pay £40 for two minutes work :devil:
 
One silly question: I thought it doesn't pay to program your DVD player to region-free as there (supposedly) is a copy protection software (RC something) in newer DVDs which checks this automatic (?) response by the dvd-player and doesn't allow the DVD to run.

In other words: Can I make my DV-668 region-free (automatic/manual ?) and run all/most of the NTSC discs ??? :confused:

Thx
 
This is 'RCE' (Region Code Enhancement), used on a few R1 DVDs to detect multi-region players. Many MR hacks these days also defeat the RCE mechanism .. AFAIK it's mainly DVDs from Columbia Tri-Star that use it, you just need to ensure the MR mod. on your DVD player also takes care of RCE. Also, even on players where RCE refuses to allow the DVD to play it's often easy to defeat it by playing an R1 DVD first, though I personally don't have experience of that.
 
well i try not to buy region 1's after hearing that the picture quality is not as good.. so the only RCE disc i have afaik is charlies angels.. which plays with no probs.

in response to the guy asking about me noticing layer changes.. i have watched 3 movies.. shrek, confidence and starwars episode 2 and have not noticed 1 layer change.. but i cannot vouch for all dvds.

1 thing i have been wondering since getting my player multi region.
after watching shrek i was amazed how great the picture quality was, especially for a region 1. i am a newb to dvd players.. does prog scan make a region 1 better than a region 2? i ask the question as i was once told that region ones come with "half" the lines.. i have no idea though :D

all in all.. after having much more time to listen to music and watch dvd's (with some self tweaks) i cannot praise this player enough. TOP quality imho :)
 
Originally posted by joys_R_us
One silly question: I thought it doesn't pay to program your DVD player to region-free as there (supposedly) is a copy protection software (RC something) in newer DVDs which checks this automatic (?) response by the dvd-player and doesn't allow the DVD to run.

In other words: Can I make my DV-668 region-free (automatic/manual ?) and run all/most of the NTSC discs ??? :confused:

Thx

Simple answer is yes you can do this.
The mod for the pio's copes with RCE disks extremely well.
I have not found one disk with RCE that my 565 or 340 will not automaticaly regonise and play.

;)
 
Thx this is great ! Does anybody know if I can use a Palm Vx oder Ipaq 4150 for this job ?
 
Originally posted by joys_R_us
Thx this is great ! Does anybody know if I can use a Palm Vx oder Ipaq 4150 for this job ?

Yes you should be able to use the Palm to do this.
There is a remote control emulator for the palm available, that I know others havused for this purpose.
Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head but if you do a search at www.remotecentral.com you should find it.
Beleive it is free, as is a similar program for the ipaq.

Hope this helps a little.

Edit:
Actualy try looking under PDA remotes here:
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-pda/list.cgi
 
right.. finally got my only SACD disc ;) unfortunatly you lot probably wont like it.. but its the only sacd i could find that i could compare to an already owned cd.

Mariah Carey - #1's

well.. i am no novelist. and my english sux ;) but what i noticed..

firstly they removed 2 tracks off the sacd which are found on the cd.. and also it is a 2chan sacd disc..

the SACD disc is quieter, vocals were alot more "natural sounding".. bass seemed more controlled and not so in ya face. the highs were alot better than the CD version.

all in all.. i am not going to change my whole collection for SACD as it isnt THAT good .. not like the jump from cassette to cd or video to dvd.. but it is better..

id like to put an arcam dvd88+ playing cd's next to it and just swap sources between the 2
 
668 may play sacds better then cds only because its cd replay is poor. Any £100 BRANDED cd player should beat it . Friends 868 sounded pretty good all though i did not hear it with cds for very long, as i had been to busy listening how great it sounded with dvd films easily beating 668. i posted a thread (with no replys) to see if any one had demo,d against a denon 2900.i use naim av2 nap power amps and suspect these dvd players are just not good enough well roll on march for the return of the king the dvd 5. regards red
 
march? rotk i thought was august?

the 668 is better than what i had.. and if i was going to spend more than 500 quid id of got an arcam not the 868 ;) but its all personal pref i spose ;)
 

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