I've just got the latest What HiFi, which only gives the Pioneer 540 three stars, and five stars to the Panasonic.

They state that "as a straightforward DVD player on shop-bought movies, iys performance, while decent, exhibits a lack of fine detail and sharply defined edges. There's a soft hazy quality to images that doesn't compare favourably with the razor-sharp definition of some rivals." There is a similar comment about the sound quality.

What Video gave the Pioneer five stars, but nonetheless says that "we get the impression that it could all be a little sharper".

So what do users think?

I was thinking of the Pioneer rather than the similar Panasonic, but am now not so sure.

I bought the Pioneer because it played DivX and because it was made in the UK.

The sound quality is excellent via digital coaxial through my Sony AV amp and Tannoy speakers, not too sure about picture quality because my current TV doesn't do it justice and doesn't have component inputs. I'll post more when I get my new TV

FWIW here is my assessment. I am a professional broadcast engineer of nearly 40 years experience! I have only just received my Pioneer.

I got both the Pioneer (440) and my Humax 9200 to record the same programme, a Thunderbirds show that was originally recorded on 35mm film. The film print had seen better days and was exhibiting considerable surface 'distress' and film grain.
The Humax in effect was simply showing the show as broadcast by Freeview digital. This had very considerable digital 'artifacting' due to the nature of the MPEG2 compression process. This tended to emphasise the film grain and noise (scratches, dirt, etc).
The Pioneer transcodes the Freeview broadcast data, in this case with the default 'SP' setting. The effect was a very slight softening of the wanted image, but a very considerable reduction of the digital artifacts and thus an apparent reduction of the film 'noise'.
This is by no means a comprehensive test, but it simply indicates that life is a lot more complicated than the magazine reviewers would have you believe.

I am suprised by the comments on Thunderbirds.
The series was digitally remastered about 6 years ago for dvd and a surround remix added.
The clarity of the pictures is so good that the strings are far more noticeable than they ever were before.
I have not seen the current Thunderbirds broadcasts but would assume that BBC2 are showing the remastered versions as they have before,so the picture quality should be perfect,or as perfect as DTT allows.
The remastered prints are a far cry from the ITV days of scratched,washed out,incomplete,jumpy and very variable prints.
To get the best from the Pioneer,recordings should be done in XP.