Pioneer DV-563A firmware campaign
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No it doesn't. But you don't need a player that decodes HDCD if you've got a receiver that does. You just connect the two with a digital cable and the receiver does the job. The trouble with the Pioneer is that it somehow alters the stream and the receiver doesn't recognize it as HDCD just regular PCM. Strange ****.
I wrote about it to Pioneer and I had the usual reply : send the unit in for repair. They don't seem to get that it's a problem with the player not my particular unit (I've read other reports about this issue on other boards).
I wrote about it to Pioneer and I had the usual reply : send the unit in for repair. They don't seem to get that it's a problem with the player not my particular unit (I've read other reports about this issue on other boards).
BOSSMAN
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I see. I have noticed the HDCD moniker on a few Harmon players, and I always just assumed it was a player-centered decode. I have only a handful of HDCD coded discs myself, and I never really bothered myself much with supposed benefits of HDCD after reading the less-than-glowing opinions I have seen on other forums about it. Can you really hear much of a difference with it?
Got a callback from Pioneer. I was at a meeting, so they left me a voice mail. Calling them back today and boy, will they get an earful!!!!
They want me to send the player to a service shop in Ohio! Not very local for me! On top of that, they want me to pay to ship it out there! That is inconsistent with what Pioneer told another poster on this board! And no word on turnaround time. Pioneer will only pay to ship it back.
I am pissed! But there is more.
I'm supposed to send a copy of the sales receipt and brief note explaining the problem with the unit. As far as I'm concerned, the shop should be aware of the problem already based on the case#. And regardless of whether the player is in or out of warranty, why should the consumer pay for a design defect! Designed and put in there by the company at the time of manufacture! This isn't a case of breakdown or design defect. It is a case of bad engineering that prevents the player from doing what the company claims it can do!
This is unacceptable to me. These players should be RECALLED and replaced with properly designed models.
They want me to send the player to a service shop in Ohio! Not very local for me! On top of that, they want me to pay to ship it out there! That is inconsistent with what Pioneer told another poster on this board! And no word on turnaround time. Pioneer will only pay to ship it back.
I am pissed! But there is more.
I'm supposed to send a copy of the sales receipt and brief note explaining the problem with the unit. As far as I'm concerned, the shop should be aware of the problem already based on the case#. And regardless of whether the player is in or out of warranty, why should the consumer pay for a design defect! Designed and put in there by the company at the time of manufacture! This isn't a case of breakdown or design defect. It is a case of bad engineering that prevents the player from doing what the company claims it can do!
This is unacceptable to me. These players should be RECALLED and replaced with properly designed models.
I can't really tell since I never really heard an HDCD in all its glory because of the aforementioned reason. I guess it all depends on the master and on the ear. A couple Neil Young fans who have the equipment necessry to decode HDCD really think it's great. Some are even more impressed with it than DVD-A... Yeah, I know... 
@:
Anyways, it's mastered in 20 bits so 5 bits extra isn't nothing (according to HDCD techs the 16th bit isn't really used in PCM) so I guess you must hear a difference.
@: Anyways, it's mastered in 20 bits so 5 bits extra isn't nothing (according to HDCD techs the 16th bit isn't really used in PCM) so I guess you must hear a difference.
OK. Now I'm pissed off.
I was just on the phone with Pioneer service and the guy I spoke to clearly didn't care and wanted to get rid of me. Of course he was completely unaware of the problem but then spoke to someone else and again told me that I must ship the unit in. Then comes the best part. He says that once the unit is upgraded they can test it with a DVD-A I have to send and that's gonna cost me 50 bucks! Of course I have to pay for shipping too. I told him that this was ludicrous given the fact that this is a defect in the design of the player. He then told me that when the unit was designed it played all DVD-As perfectly and they're not responsible for anything that happens later. He then hun up on me.
PIONEER SERVICE IS A ******' DISGRACE! I advise you all to keep that in mind next time you buy any HiFi equipment.
I once called Harman Kardon service and even if the problem didn't come from their unit the guy spent half an hour talking to me and explaining stuff. What other companies have a bad reputation with service. I guess any mainstream company like Toshiba, Panasonic must be the same...
I was just on the phone with Pioneer service and the guy I spoke to clearly didn't care and wanted to get rid of me. Of course he was completely unaware of the problem but then spoke to someone else and again told me that I must ship the unit in. Then comes the best part. He says that once the unit is upgraded they can test it with a DVD-A I have to send and that's gonna cost me 50 bucks! Of course I have to pay for shipping too. I told him that this was ludicrous given the fact that this is a defect in the design of the player. He then told me that when the unit was designed it played all DVD-As perfectly and they're not responsible for anything that happens later. He then hun up on me.
PIONEER SERVICE IS A ******' DISGRACE! I advise you all to keep that in mind next time you buy any HiFi equipment.
I once called Harman Kardon service and even if the problem didn't come from their unit the guy spent half an hour talking to me and explaining stuff. What other companies have a bad reputation with service. I guess any mainstream company like Toshiba, Panasonic must be the same...
BOSSMAN
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Well, I can only speak for the Canadian division, but I took my player in person to the Markham, Ontario service center yesterday, and just told them I wanted the firmware update for this model. They took it, gave me a receipt, and said they would call me when it's ready. I wasn't really pressed for any questions regarding the problem, so I just assumed they knew what I was asking for. They were non-committal about how long it would be though.
You are lucky. Your cost is only time. You personally explained the situation at least to a degree that you are comfortable with.
Don't know how far your Markham service center is from your home. Ohio is about 600-700 miles from mine. I have to ship mine and that may cost $25 or more. At least I kept the box and packing material. Then I have to write a "brief" note explaining the problem. Yeah, right. I can see the tech pulling out a 2003 DVD-A test disk and passing my player with flying colors! Then shipping it back after 6 weeks.
Don't forget that I have to tell him what the problem is! At first they said they would notify the center as to the nature of the problem. Now it's my job !!!!!!They even gave me a phone # to call the service center-which by the way is just a run of the mill local authorized repair center. Not an Pioneer location. If I can't reach them with my cell-add the cost of out of state phone call during business hours.
This is not acceptable.
Don't know how far your Markham service center is from your home. Ohio is about 600-700 miles from mine. I have to ship mine and that may cost $25 or more. At least I kept the box and packing material. Then I have to write a "brief" note explaining the problem. Yeah, right. I can see the tech pulling out a 2003 DVD-A test disk and passing my player with flying colors! Then shipping it back after 6 weeks.
Don't forget that I have to tell him what the problem is! At first they said they would notify the center as to the nature of the problem. Now it's my job !!!!!!They even gave me a phone # to call the service center-which by the way is just a run of the mill local authorized repair center. Not an Pioneer location. If I can't reach them with my cell-add the cost of out of state phone call during business hours.
This is not acceptable.
What a freakin' nightmare. If it was me, I'd put the damn thing on eBay and go buy a DENON!!
BOSSMAN
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This has been annoying (especially after waiting forever for those Neil Young discs to arrive), but I have to admit that Pioneer Canada has been good to deal with thus far, at least from the poeple I have talked to. I was fortunate enough to get a hold of someone from their technical department through their web site, and received a prompt reply from a person who was thankfully already aware of the problem, so I was spared the agony of actually having to explain to some uninformed customer service nit-wit what a DVD-Audio was. (I can't believe some of the responses people are receiving from Pioneer USA regarding this problem; it's almost as if they have no concept or knowledge of what their own equipment even does, much less how it's malfunctioning).
When I brought my player in to the service center here, I actually offered them my copy of Neil Young's 'American Stars N Bars' and and note outlining the problem, but they declined both of them. I did make a point of stating that it wasn't outputting the Advanced Resolution layers on newer DVD-Audio discs due to a change in the authoring of the discs, but I guess when I just told them I wanted the firmware update, they immediately knew what I was after. I was also assured (by a previous email) that the firmware update would be of no cost to me.
Still, Pioneer's options for rectifying this problem are making it such a headache for their customers that they're really deterring a lot of people from doing anything about it. (Hardware forums are brimming with complaints about the DVD-A incompatability issues affecting this player, but I still haven't read about, or heard from anyone that's had the update completed yet, even though it's been apparently available for a couple weeks now - at least in Canada). The Markham office is only about an hour from where I live, so it wasn't such a big deal for me, but if I lived as far away from a capable service center as some people, I would be admittedly displeased. I would be reluctant to mail Pioneer my player if it had to travel 700 miles as well. That's ridiculous, and I feel for you man. I am glad they owned up to the problem and didn't get involved in a blame game with the labels over their authoring specs, but I think this whole thing has sullied Pioneer in a lot of people's eyes unfortunately.
It's been an inconvenient pain, but I'm confident about the prognosis. We'll see.
When I brought my player in to the service center here, I actually offered them my copy of Neil Young's 'American Stars N Bars' and and note outlining the problem, but they declined both of them. I did make a point of stating that it wasn't outputting the Advanced Resolution layers on newer DVD-Audio discs due to a change in the authoring of the discs, but I guess when I just told them I wanted the firmware update, they immediately knew what I was after. I was also assured (by a previous email) that the firmware update would be of no cost to me.
Still, Pioneer's options for rectifying this problem are making it such a headache for their customers that they're really deterring a lot of people from doing anything about it. (Hardware forums are brimming with complaints about the DVD-A incompatability issues affecting this player, but I still haven't read about, or heard from anyone that's had the update completed yet, even though it's been apparently available for a couple weeks now - at least in Canada). The Markham office is only about an hour from where I live, so it wasn't such a big deal for me, but if I lived as far away from a capable service center as some people, I would be admittedly displeased. I would be reluctant to mail Pioneer my player if it had to travel 700 miles as well. That's ridiculous, and I feel for you man. I am glad they owned up to the problem and didn't get involved in a blame game with the labels over their authoring specs, but I think this whole thing has sullied Pioneer in a lot of people's eyes unfortunately.
It's been an inconvenient pain, but I'm confident about the prognosis. We'll see.
They may be aware of the problem but to ask for 50 bucks to do a test after doing the firmware is a joke! C'mon! Any respectable company would just admit their player has a problem and assume the costs. Also they would send a mail to every registered user of a flawed unit.
Not only do I have to pay for shipping but then I have to pay to make sure the player actually works after the update is done. This means that when I receive the player it can be totally screwed up and they won't assume any responsibility.
By the way I live in Montreal which is a 7 hours drive from Toronto. Do I feel safe putting my player in the hands of Canada Post? I don't think so. They told me there are Pioneer service Centres in Monteral but they won't be able to do the upgrade. WTF does that upgrade involve!?
Not only do I have to pay for shipping but then I have to pay to make sure the player actually works after the update is done. This means that when I receive the player it can be totally screwed up and they won't assume any responsibility.
By the way I live in Montreal which is a 7 hours drive from Toronto. Do I feel safe putting my player in the hands of Canada Post? I don't think so. They told me there are Pioneer service Centres in Monteral but they won't be able to do the upgrade. WTF does that upgrade involve!?
I'm not confident about the prognosis at all and I await the results of the upgrade. So far, the affected disks are ones I'm not interested in. If the disk manufacturers were smart, they would rethink using this copy protection in the future. Given it's price & features, I would assume the 563A is the most popular DVD-A unit on the market and in consumers' homes. Why make a disk that won't be bought (or will be returned) by half of your customers? I also assume Pioneer is thinking the same thing and is in no rush to upgrade all their units for a problem that may go away. When the time comes, if it comes at all, I can always pick up a low end DVD-A only unit to play those disks. I know that defeats the purpose of having a unviersal player but ya gets what ya pay for! The 563A is still the cheapest SACD player out there.
Kevin...You nailed it, Ya get what ya pay for. Does the 45a play these discs?
If I payed 300+ for this player I would be mighty pissed. What Pioneer fails to understand is that if they screw up on fixing this problem(does'nt look good right now) I will never buy another Pioneer product and I will steer any one I know away too. 2 of my friends brought the 563a on my raves of the player....now I feel like a jerk since one of them is a big Neil Young fan.
I hope Pioneer makes it easier for us to fix this problem.
If I payed 300+ for this player I would be mighty pissed. What Pioneer fails to understand is that if they screw up on fixing this problem(does'nt look good right now) I will never buy another Pioneer product and I will steer any one I know away too. 2 of my friends brought the 563a on my raves of the player....now I feel like a jerk since one of them is a big Neil Young fan.
I hope Pioneer makes it easier for us to fix this problem.
BananaSlug
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
My thought was that I'd just buy a new player and return the old one with the new receipt when I came across a disc it wouldn't play - assuming that Pioneer hadn't gotten their **** together on the firmware upgrade issue by that time. I bought mine from Circuit City via the web, and my receipt has a serial number on it... So, that won't work - at least for Circuit City. Maybe this could help someone else though - not sure if all stores print the serial numbers on their receipts.
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Bought my player at Best Buy end of January. It was manufactured November 2003. So we are only talking a 2-3 month wait for the updated units to hit the shelves. With the February sales many units flew off the shelves at my local Best Buy. So the wait may be less. But how can you check the manufacture date without opening up the box to check out the back of the player?
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