Sound. Sound. Sound. Great picture quality.

The remote layout. Play/Pause need to be bigger, and not be surrounded by other buttons so close. Also, there is NO button for 4:3/16:9 modes, you have to access them through the menu (6 clicks vs 1). Highly recommended.

Great picture quality, excellent sound for those without dedicated sound receivers. Multiregion, haven't found a disk it wont play.

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Pioneer 116

looks, sound, picture, remote

none

Just wanted to say that this is a great dvd player. It has a great picture and the sound is great matched up with my marantz SR8200 reciever. I highly recommend this product to anyone. I tried out the yamaha 520, but it is no match for this marantz. The remote is a beauty and the screen saver is very cool as well.

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yamaha, panasonic

Impressive detail; good colour; very good movie sound; plays MP3’s; regiofree with a simple handset region hack and last but not least: excellent CD sound. Plays DVD+RW (http://www.dvdplusrw.org/resources/compatibilitylist_dvdvideo.html)

Cannot show time remaining in a song while listening to CD music (only ellapsed time). Cannot play VCD or SVCD I read just a few day’s ago that it cannot play CD’s with the new (Sony?) copyprotection (just like a Denon DVD 1500) but haven’t had such a CD until now. It played everything without problems until today.

I was also waiting for my DV4200 to be delivered because it was not available in gold in the Netherlands. At the beginning of Februar it arrived so I have this unit for about two month now. In the meanwhile my dealer gave me a DV 3100 to match my new Marantz A/V receiver SR 4200 witch i bought at the same time. (Note: never buy this DV 3100, it has problems with playing a lot of –rental- discs!) Because I didn’t wanna go down in quality (I owned a Yamaha receiver and Cd-player) listening to stereo the so called one-in-a-box solutions were not an option for me. Good quality for movies but not for listening at audio CD’s. Another reason I removed them from my shortlist was that I didn’t wanna say goodby to my nice looking en superb sounding JMLab’s Profil 5B. So I was searching for a DVD-player at a certain budget who gave me good hometheater-sound and even more: at least the same level of (CD-) stereosound. On my shortlist was left the NAD T-531 and the Marantz DV 4200. The Marantz however does pull a little ahead of the NAD on CD replay. The Marantz is cheaper en much better looking. In fact, I think a NAD doesn’t look at all. And not having the NAD T-741 receiver Dolby Prologic II, I decided after a few hours listening to buy the Marantz duo. The Marantz DV 4200 is NOT an almost basic Philips DVD-player (as mentioned in a review at the DV 4100); it is in fact a modified LG DVD-4950 DVD-player, which model picked up the maximum of 5 stars (class leader!) in the december 2001-issue of WhatHifi! Marantz tuned it by spending some extra money on the really sound-critical stuff. And it worked, in the may 2002 issue of Stereoplay, they noticed that it was one of the best sounding (especially with CD’s) DVD-players to buy. And it is cheap too, in Germany it costs Euro 350! (i payed a hunderd EURO more in the Netherlands just 10 kilometers away from the border So, when it come to listening to stereo, the Marantz really shines! With the “source direct” on and using an analogue connection (in my case a Monster Interlink CD) between the receiver and the DVD player there are not many wishes left. Voices have beautiful character and are well-focused, instruments sounds natural and the bass is powerful. The mixture in total is very good and it is great fun listening for hours. I’m aware of the fact that it always can sound better. But in this case, a DVD-

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Marantz DV 3100

*Good picture *Very good sound *Fast loading *Easy to use *Region free *Tidy look. A panel without much jibberish and flashing lights.

*Can`t play VCD (or S-VCD), but somtimes they actually do even if the manual says the opposite. (haven`t tested this yet) *The colour might turn grey-ish instead of black on older movies.

I`ve used this DVD-player for about a week and I`m quite satisfied. The picture is great, colours are good and the sound sounds(duh) natural and warm. I`ve tested it with cd`s and mp3`s, and had no problems at all. The sound was very good, although I don`t have a huge home theatre to test it on. I run it through a NAD 2x45W. That "grey instead of black colour"-topic that has been mentioned has proven valid only a copuple of times, but usually on very old movies where the quality wasn`t good in the first place. On newer movies, I haven`t seen this at all.

Ease of use. Great sound. Remote controller.

Poor picture (colour mixed, undetailed, black is not black but dark grey)

The overall quality is good, even though the plastic front bezel looks really cheap. It''s very easy and fast to set up. The sound is really great (DVD and CD), but the pictures are poor, considering the price of this equipment. I''ve made a comparison with one ONKYO DV-S555 (same price): the video output of this one is much more detailed, sharp and contrasted. The ideal solution should be having the sound of Marantz and the pictures of Onkyo!

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Onkio DV-S555

CD quality, looks

Black regions in the picture is not black but grey. I experienced a lot of CD-R''s to suddenly skip a track, which did not have this problem with other DVD an CD players.

I was waiting for my DV4200 to be delivered for two months because it was not available in Gold in the Netherlands. I also bought the Marantz SR4200 and I had to view my DVD''s on an older Philips DVD player for this period of time. When they delivered and connected my new Marantz I directly noticed the picture of it. My television (Philips) has a black line tube, so I''m used to see a picture with good contrast and a nice black where black is supposed to be. The Marantz however is not able to give me that image. The black is not black but grey ! Ok the picture is sharp and all, but I expect from a DVD player to have a good picture with good contrast. My older and cheaper Philips DVD player has a better image than the Marantz. CD quality is improved, but I guess I will always hate this machine for not showing me good contrast.

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Philips DVD 701

Seamless movie playback Excelent 2 channel stereo Looks good. Probably Marantz''s best remote to date!

Plastic facia, but for the money you can''t really complain.

(Note : Purchace price in Euro not USD) Firstly, I''m not into MP3 and VCD so the lack of these features won''t be included as a weakness. This product looks good and for the money is very well specified. It''s seamless with movies, unlike my previous DVD, a Philips 711 which skipped regularly(even after ROM upgrade). Image quality and audio form DVD''s are excelent, like most other machines in this price range. However, if you will be using this machine for music, well you''ll be seriously impressed. For the money, I don''t believe you''ll find a better player. I purchaced this with a Marantz SR5200 and am using a pair of KEF q35.2 and the stereo reproduction is superb. For movies I am also using a Kef Q95.2c centre and a pair of Tannoy Mercury m2''s as a rear. My next purchace will be a sub and a rear centre but that''s all to be decided. To conclude, this is a very good DVD player and represents excelent VFM.

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Philips DV711

Everything

Nothing really apart from mp3 management.

Have to say that I didnt notice the plastic facia at all. My only gripe is with the mp3 management. The CD I made had different folders and caused the machine to 'crash'. I have to say I love it to bits though.

Excellent audio reproduction, clear natural playback, good zoom and direct time selection on DVDs

Poor MP3 file management, plastic front face

I bought this unit to match my new Marantz SR7200.

Lets start with the good points:-
It has excellent picture quality and matches well to my Panasonic wide screen well(most DVD players in this price range are comparable) Impressive audio play back for both DVDs and CDs, CDs sound as good on this unit as my dedicated CD player. Came multi-region out of the box (even though it has a region 4 logo on the back). Has all the standard feautures you need. Multiple zooming sizes. East to read and identify on screen icons (as opposed to say the Yamaha models). Direct time position jump to any where on DVDs. Easy to use remote control. Simple uncluttered look. Yet to find a disc format/type it has troubles with.

Bad points- MP3 file handing is average. Will not automatically play MP3s. You have to manually select the track you want and can only select one at a time unless you program up to 60 in program mode (time consuming to do). Only remembers 1 disc in resume mode. Plastic front face compared to metal face on previous models (not as professional looking). Flimsy disk tray.

Overall a very good unit, if you want good video and audio playback and not to concerned with MP3s I recommend it.

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Yamaha S520, Pioneer DV344

Excellent picture; sound; looks; functionality and multi-regionRCE compliant via hack using supplied remote control.

Does not play VCD's

Pro's:
- Superb picture quality
- Excellent sound for both DVD and Audio
- Good looking player with nice layout of buttons
- Fast tray
- 2 x RGB Scart sockets (UK model) with both Coaxial and Optical outputs
- Plays CDRCDRWMP3 discs
- Multi-region/RCE compliant via a hack using the supplied remote control
- Ultra fast at skipping DVD/Audio tracks
- Excellent Zoom feature
- Nice, simple and clear OSD screen
- Can disable Scart output when playing audio discs for improved sound
- Well laid-out remote control including Eject button

Cons:

- Little slow at reading discs, typically 6 secs+ though faster than the DV3100 and DV4100ose
- Does not play VCD discs
- Spatializer logo is missing from the front panel. Looks like it is a production fault as there is a space present where the logo should go.
- Thick plastic facia instead of metal (though it does look like brushed metal)

The DV4200 is a superb player and I even preferred it to the award winning DV4100ose, and it is cheaper too.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz DV4100ose; Yamaha S510; Toshiba SD210E