The remote is a little cluttered with similar small buttons and hitting the right button in subdued lighting isnt always easy. Inside the slim box the DV-444 boasts a powerful set of signal processing electronics with separate sound and video circuitry and a very low signal to noise ratio. One feature that is used to promote the DV-444 is a progressive scan mode. Basically this means the player can send complete images to your television rather than two separate fields used to produce an interlaced picture. This is much more useful on American systems than on the British PAL standard. PAL runs at 25 frames a second and films are generally played back at this speed, despite being filmed at 24 frames per second. This explains why DVDs have a shorter running time than cinema releases. The speed difference isnt enough to make much of a noticeable difference. The main problem is the altered pitch of the sound. American NTSC system runs at 30 frames per second, which is too fast--and some clever jiggery-pokery has to be done to synchronise the frame rates which involves repeating some parts of the pictures. This is where the progressive scan mode can help by cleverly combining the frames to reduce distortion. The DV-444 doesnt do what is called a 3:2 pull-down however, which limits its effectiveness somewhat. Where the progressive scan does make a difference in the UK is when you have a 100Hz television capable of coping with the non-interlaced signal giving reduced flicker. Thankfully when running in standard interlaced mode the DV-444 produces excellent results with good colour reproduction and crisp detail. The DV-444 is stylish and capable and can seemingly play virtually any disc with aplomb. --Miles Berkeley