PIONEER AVH-P7500DVD

MSRP: $2700.00

When I get a new piece of equipment to evaluate, the usual question is, what will it do? In this case, it's easier to figure out what it DOESN'T do. The AVH-P7500DVD is Pioneer's new flagship in-dash DVD player, with a list of capabilities that seems to go on forever. It is also the first mobile player to support DVD-Audio playback, an ultra-high resolution audio-only format.

Built-in functions start with the DVD transport, which has the ability to play back DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, video CD, audio CD, DTS CD, and MP3 files on CD-R and CD-RW discs. An AM/FM tuner and a television tuner with powered true diversity antenna are included, and you can add XM Satellite Radio along with multi-CD and multi-DVD players. There is tight integration for a navigation system and additional AV sources (VCR, game systems, etc.) with a rear monitor output that can be split from the front monitor to display a separate source for the kids (or whoever is riding in the back). You can also connect a rear-view camera to display what's behind the vehicle, and it will automatically switch on when you put the vehicle in reverse.

The most visible feature of the deck is the integrated display screen. This is a motorized 7-inch-wide TFT active matrix screen with a native aspect ratio of 16:9 (same as DTV) with 336,960 pixels (1440x234). It hibernates inside the standard DIN-size chassis until you apply power to the ACC line; then the screen slides out horizontally and rotates up into the viewing position previously selected by the user. The physical angle of the screen is continuously adjustable from 50 degrees to 110 degrees, allowing the unit to be mounted anywhere from the bottom of the center console to an overhead location. You can also choose to have the screen scoot back about a half inch after it deploys to give you more clearance if your shifter is interfering. If you prefer to open the screen manually, there is a setting that prevents automatic deployment. A small, segmented display is mounted to the top of the screen so that when it is closed you still get basic information about the source, track, channel, etc. However, the obvious intent of the design is to have the screen open during normal operation in order to take advantage of the large display area for touch-screen menu operation.

The sensitivity of touch-screen operations is excellent. I never had problems getting a response, which is more than I can say for other touch-screen systems I have looked at. The menus are context-sensitive, meaning that the content of the menus changes based on the source you have selected. I found the entire menu structure to be intuitive and easy to master, despite the incredible depth of control provided. Rather than piling too many functions on the screen at one time, there are "pages" in the menus that keep the display uncluttered and easy to read.

Display adjustments include brightness, contrast, color, and hue. There is also a dimmer adjustment that has three separate memories: one for bright sunlight, one for twilight, and one for nighttime. This dimmer is independent of the "illumination" line that is hardwired to the headlight switch and controls only the brightness of the sub-display, located on top of the screen. The brightness and contrast adjustments also store two separate settings for day vs. night lighting conditions. Several different widescreen modes can be selected, mainly for enlarging a standard 4:3 video signal to the native 16:9 format of the screen. One of these, called JUST (for Justify), expands the picture horizontally in a graduated way with more stretch at the edges to reduce the perception of image distortion (similar to a wide angle lens). The Entertainment button switches background wallpapers, animated level meters, and short movie loops (race cars, dolphins, etc.), and can also display the current video source during audio playback.

Below the screen is a half-height removable (for security) faceplate that contains the volume knob and the selection joystick that you can use for manual seek tuning, fast forward and reverse, and to navigate the menus. Also on the faceplate are several buttons for the main functions that are heavily accessed, in most cases providing shortcuts so you don't have to go to the menu system. The DVD slot is at the top of this mini-faceplate.

With half of the dash-mounted unit taken up by the display screen, there is not nearly enough room to house the electronics needed, so there is a hideaway unit you must mount in a separate location. This unit is a rectangle about 11x7 inches by just over an inch tall. Two 3-meter-long multi-conductor cables with large proprietary connectors carry all of the signals that need to travel between the two units. The main audio outputs and secondary function leads (illumination, antenna power, external amp remote turn-on, and cell phone mute) come from the main head unit, and connections to other external devices are made at the hideaway unit.

A great little remote is included that has essentially all of the controls replicated on it, including the selection joystick. On the side of the remote is a slide switch that changes its operation when you are viewing a DVD or watching the TV tuner.

The DVD player works in a similar fashion to the familiar home DVD, with the notable exception of a "preferences" menu system that lets you choose defaults for DVD playback. With this menu you can specify, for example, that you always want to see subtitles and hear playback in Spanish (if they exist on the disc) and that you want to lock the aspect ratio into letterbox mode (which you may want to do if you have a second display in the rear that is not widescreen capable). There is also a Parental Lock option on this menu with eight levels of censorship to choose from that will skip scenes deemed too violent or sexy for kids (function must be programmed into the DVD disc itself). The player supports multi-angle discs, allowing you to change the camera angle in certain scenes, and anamorphic resolution enhancement. As with all commercial DVD players, the unit will only play discs that are coded for the region of the world in which it will be used (in this case, Region 1, which is USA and Canada). There are decoders for both Dolby Digital and DTS surround formats. Playback control has the usual features of pause, slow motion and frame-by-frame play, skipping to the next title and/or chapter, and the ability to search for a specific time index. Buttons are provided for changing the audio and subtitle languages on the fly (during playback). There is also support for dynamic range control when using Dolby Digital, a feature that reduces the dynamic range (the difference between loud and quiet sounds) for playback at lower levels.

Audio CDs can be titled with 20 character names: up to 48 discs for the built-in transport and 100 discs for optional external CD changers. CD-Text is supported for discs that are encoded with it. MP3 playback has support for ID3 tags in ISO 9660 level 1 and 2 format, as well as Romeo and Joliet. A maximum of 32 characters will be displayed for file and folder names. MP3 folders and tracks can be scanned, playing the first 10 seconds of a track and moving to the next. Other transport controls for MP3 include random, repeat, and fast forward/reverse (with no audio output).

The AM/FM tuner and the TV tuner have the ability to scan for the strongest stations in the area and memorize them into the current band. There are three bands of six FM stations, one band of six AM stations, and two bands of 12 TV stations. Support is also provided for XM Satellite Radio if you purchase the optional tuner. XM stations can be displayed and selected either by category or station number, and you can store up to six favorites.

Audio adjustments begin with a parametric equalizer with storage for nine curves (four factory presets, four custom, one flat). Each custom curve has three bands at any of 26 ISO 1/3-octave center frequencies and 12dB of cut/boost in 2dB increments. A position selector sets the delay on each speaker for optimum listening in the driver's seat, the passenger seat, or both.

Each speaker output has level and time alignment adjustments, and LPF/HPF (crossover) selections at six different cutoff frequencies. A test tone (pink noise) rotates through all outputs for level adjustments, and holds at the speaker you are adjusting until you are finished and the rotation continues. The time alignment lets you adjust the delay at each output in 1-inch (25.4mm, 73.6uSec) increments up to 200 inches (16.7ft, 14.7Sec). Using the microphone provided, you can run an automatic time alignment, equalizer, and speaker level adjustment for any given location in the vehicle. You can switch between the memorized settings created by this automated procedure and your own custom settings at any time. Equalizer and time alignment functions are disabled when playing a disc with a sampling rate above 96kHz, and playback is only provided through the front speakers. These sacrifices are made to hand over more DSP power to the playback of the audio. The subwoofer output has a polarity switch to invert the signal to subwoofer. Source level adjustment is provided for AM, CD, DVD, AUX, and external units, with +/-8dB gain. The Direct setting shuts off all audio adjustments except volume level so you can easily compare your adjustments to a "flat -- no delay" condition. Additional processing includes Dolby Pro Logic II, which creates five full-bandwidth channels from two-channel sources, with settings for movies, music, and "matrix" (for weak FM reception). When in Music mode, adjustments are provided for Panorama (on/off), Dimension (front to rear +/-3), and Center Width (0 to 7). These settings let you control the imaging. Automatic muting/attenuation of the audio -- either when your cell phone rings or voice guidance is apparent in the output -- from the optional navigation system can be adjusted for Mix (equal level of both sources), or attenuation of the current source by -10dB, -20dB or full mute.

This is a fantastic display of engineering excellence, with so many expansion capabilities that you are not likely to think of an application that is not supported. The audio and video quality is excellent, and learning to use the deck is a piece of cake. If you are looking for the centerpiece for a fully enabled mobile multimedia system, this is it. v

DVD-Audio
DVD-audio is a relatively new format that takes advantage of the huge 4.7 GigaByte storage capability of the DVD-ROM to provide very high quality audio recording and playback. The format uses a lossless compression scheme, and can be recorded with a sampling rate of 192kHz and a quantization of 24 bits (linear). This yields a frequency response out to 96kHz and a theoretical maximum dynamic range of up to 144dB. Compare this with the maximums of 22kHz and 96dB for standard CDs with their 44.1kHz sampling at 16 bits. However, you won't find any DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) that achieve 144dB, with the best DACs just coming to market claiming a 120dB dynamic range. I don't know of a speaker system that will stay linear over even that range, and any outboard gear you connect will likely have a dynamic range of 100dB or less. What all this really means is that the playback media can no longer be singled out as a major source of distortion, and the anti-aliasing filter is completely outside the range of sounds even your dog can hear. There are heated arguments in the audio community over the need for such overkill, but until a player (and equalizer, crossover, amplifier and speaker system) is released that can actually achieve something close to the theoretical capability, these arguments are pointless.

The DVD-Audio format also supports up to six channels of simultaneous audio at lower sampling rates, which is ideal for high-quality surround sound recordings. This is more likely to be the choice of content producers using the format, since going beyond 96kHz/24-bit (the DVD-Video standard for audio tracks) is far less impressive than surround sound vs. stereo. In addition to the audio features discussed above, the format is capable of storing other information, such as still images (slide show), short video clips, and text (i.e. lyrics).