Finally, a review on this much talked about player. Recently this player has attracted more attention and comments than any other I have known on the DVD market! Prices for this little gem range from around £169 (online) to £199 (high street), and it's worth every penny! My own player came from Comet (£199), which ended up at £179 due to a family member working for Kingfisher purchasing for me.
Firstly, lets clear up recent misunderstandings about the model number. XD-DV refers to Aiwa's coding for a digital video device. 370 is obviously the model and range number. The K & the N is where the confusion has arisen. K is the country code, however I am unsure if this is country of origin, or country the player is destined for. The N is simply the colour. N is gold, or "Champagne" as most people now refer to it.
After my previous experiences with DVD players, I was losing faith fast. 2 Samsung 709's, an REC 3000, a Limit JDV300, and a Pioneer 525 came and went before I discovered a cheap LG 2280. The 2280 couldn't access multi region, and after fitting an incorrect firmware chip to the LG rendering it temporarily useless, I needed another player to fill in 'til the new LG chip arrived. The Aiwa 370 was that player, and has become the REPLACEMENT for the LG.
First impressions of the Aiwa are of a nice looking, smooth formed player that would fit well into most TV/VCR or Hi-fi set-ups, as long as the colour matched! Full "CD Player" type controls are located on the front panel of the player, and the "Menu" buttons are there in the now common "jog/shuttle dial" position and style. Very handy if your batteries die or your remote becomes faulty!
The only "glitch" with the player's front panel is the standby LED. Even when in standby mode, it glows green. Unusual as the LED glows red on power up for the first time!
The remote control, as with all DVD players, has its faults. It is, however, very functional and well laid out, similar to the Aiwa Hi-fi remote series (and using the same casing as the Hi-fi remotes) The downside on the remote is the location of the "power" and the "open/close" buttons. "Open/Close" is in the top left position usually occupied by standby, and takes a little getting used to! Lots of discs get ejected before you get used to that Power key!
Access times vary from disc type to disc type. The 370 can play CDR, CDRW, MP3, VCD and of course, DVD discs. Anything up to a 45 second delay can be encountered when loading an MP3 disc depending on the disc structure and track content. (45 seconds doesn't sound like much, but try looking at your watch for the next 45 seconds…it seems like a lifetime!) Initial disc load tends to create a lot of player noise too as the laser skips to and fro reading the TOC.
Operational noise when a disc is played (on any format) is almost non-existent and scene selection/track access is similarly quiet. So far the player has taken every disc I've thrown at it (even my problem ones) and happily played them. Even my R2 "Scream" disc, which has a bad mark on the disc and froze on all my other players, played flawlessly. Another problem disc was the R2 "Perfect Storm" which froze at the layer change, however it turned out to be a faulty disc, and the replacement flows along without interruption. Interestingly enough, both these discs are from Warner!
RCE hasn't been tested yet (waiting for my copy of The Patriot to arrive) but another forum member has informed me that it plays ok. With the Aiwa, layer change pauses seem to be a thing of the past!
The Aiwa is a "near clone" of the LG 3350, but has the addition of VCD playback. It does not, however, have an onboard Dolby Digital decoder (just Dolby Dig. & DTS outputs) or as many "bookmark" style functions, though this was not important to me in my choice of player.
The on screen GUI menus are almost (if not exactly) identical to the LG. Easy and quick to navigate, and all the usual options are there. The audio outputs can be ranged from PCM through to Bitstream etc as with most players nowadays. A 96 kHz 24 bit D/A converter is housed within the player for excellent audio playback (again, better than my other previous players including the Pioneer.) Video output options are 4:3, 4:3 Pan and Scan, and 16:9 wide.
The rear connectors are 1x SCART (RGB, Composite and S-video capable), Phono (composite video and stereo L/R audio), and S-Video minidin. Coaxial and optical connectors are there for those with DTS and Digital amps.
Macrovision cannot, as yet, be disabled with a hack, requiring an inline decoder for those among us with projection TV's or the necessity to run through a VCR. The multi region hack, however, is amongst the easiest to perform. (Hack as follows…Power on player. Press "pause" on remote. Enter code "314159". Player display reads "COdE - -", Enter desired region (0 = all, 1=USA, 2= Europe etc.), Press "pause" again, Power off player, Wait a few seconds and then power on again.)
Picture quality is astounding, using the C-Cube Ziva 4.1 chip. Build quality is superb.
The bad points? Yes, there are a few.
- MP3 track access with numerical keys isn't available. Up/Down/Enter accesses fine though.
- Open/Close remote position is silly! (as mentioned above)
- No "Resume from standby" option. (one of the few "bookmarking" features that are actually useful!)
- VCD discs wait in "Stop" mode after loading. Play has to be selected manually.
- The previously stated disc loading times.
- No macrovision defeat
- If the Pal/NTSC/Auto switch is in the NTSC position, Pal discs will NOT play! (thought my player had bought it when that happened!)
For the player's good points, a separate review would be necessary as they are too numerous to mention!
Final roundup:
Picture Quality 10
Easily the best player I've had to date for reproduction
Sound Quality 10
Even makes my TV sound like a good Hi-fi amp!!
Build Quality 9
Very sturdy, but I'm sure there would be improvement available somewhere
Features 6
Does a lot, plays a lot, but it doesn't have many of those book mark type facilities, or the onboard Digital decoder.
Playback 10
No disc I have in my 70+ collection has yet to flaw on this baby!
Speed 5
Takes forever to read a disc, but seamless from then on! (NO noticeable layer changes)
Appearance 9
Personally, I think it's one of the best looking players to date!
Average 8.5
For the features that lack, and the disc load times the player loses the point and a half. Add a Dolby digital decoder, speed up the load times, and add the bookmark features, and you would have the PERFECT DVD player!
Jimbo
