Performance, value, simple appearance

Remote

I purchased this DVD player because it fit my budget and was an Onkyo. I had already bought an Onkyo surround receiver, and it sounded great. Onkyo has a great reputation in the stereo world, so why not stay with success. I am very satisfied. I cannot hear the DVD player during movies, the sound and picture are great, the operation is pretty simple. My only complaint is that the remote is small, with even smaller buttons, does not match any other remote in the world, let alone the room, and is not back-lit; which makes it very difficult to adjust if you are watching movies with the lights off.

Very nice picture and sound. All sorts of outputs for flexible connection configurations. Zoom feature. Full-function front panel.

Remote. Blue light on front panel.

This is my first DVD player. I bought it after reading good reviews on this site and got a good deal on a refurbished unit at uBid. The picture and sound easily beats my VCR. Although I can't compare it against another DVD player, I don't see how the picture and sound can get much better with a different DVD player -- maybe I won't know until I see it. This player has flexible connection outputs -- component video, s-video, composite video; optical digital audio, coaxial digital audio, and stereo audio. I really like the zoom feature which turns a wide screen picture into a letter-box, and then into full 4:3 which fits my small-screen TV, while not degrading the quality of the picture. On the audio side, the onboard DAC is pretty good. It plays audio CDs just as well or maybe even better than my H/K FL-8450 CD player.

Many reviewers mention the remote as the weakest part of this player and I also agree. The buttons are tiny and you must point the remote within a narrow angle of the player. The good thing is that if you don't want to use the remote, you can access every function through the front panel. Getting a universal remote with learning capability will help. The One For All Cinema 7 IQ remote has received good reviews on this site. Check it out. The blue light on the front panel seems to serve no purpose but saying you are using the DVD player. It shines into your eye and distracts you. I wish I could put a black tape over it.

5 stars for value. 4 stars overall for there's still room for improvement.

Similar Products Used:

VCR

Picture, Sound and build quality

None

This is my first dvd player and it is expensive. The price that i pay for it i would have bought top of the range Panasonic and Pioneer with built in Dolby digital and DTS decoder. This machine stands above the rest compared to Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer in terms of quality build and performance. I spend lots of time doing research comparing different machine, but this machine come on top of my list. Watching movies on this machine brings a whole new life in my living room. The most unfortunate was when there was no picture coming to the tv using s-video cable. I took the machine back to the dealer thinking it was a faulty machine. After some test with the salesman we discovered that the s-video cable was faulty. What a relief!! I cannot wait for the day I will get my av receiver to exprience 5.1 digital sound. Right now I am just renting those dvd movies and cuddle myself on my couch waiting for winter to come and pass using the two channel stereo. What a great machine!!!!

Will play some CD-R's!

See prior review

This is an addition to my prior review. I burn CD's on my computer using Easy CD Creator 4.0. (5.0 came out recently.) If I use the CD-R's designated for audio use only, once they are "finished" by the program, I can play them on the DV-S535. They sound fine, in fact.

I should add that the copies I make on my computer are far from perfect, and I am in the market for a component CD Recorder to put in my home theater/audio system. If any of you have any recommendations, feel free to e-mail me. Right now, I am looking at CD Recorders by Denon and Harmon Kardon, both of which can both decode and copy HDCD disks. I am probably going to try to "wait out" the SACD/DVD Audio format war, and then buy a high end (or at least higher end) DVD player with both progressive scan and the successful format of high definition audio. Right now, I do not have a TV that can make use of progressive scan, and there is very little DVD Audio and/or SACD software on the market, so I feel I can afford to wait. JLP

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-404 (3 disk changer)

Picture, sound and audio sound. Looks.

A miniscule pause at layer change in U-571.

Well I decided to upgrade to a unit that combined quality audio and quality DVD. Simplifying now that I'm in my 40's. Looked alot. Settled on Onkyo 535b. Seems like I'm not the only one as they are hard to find. The local Bose Factory Outlet also carries Onkyo. Go figure. I guess many don't so they had four available while all other Onkyo dealers were out.

Audio: Is as good if not a little better than my Nakamachi 3s. It really does a good job of audio cd's. The Burr-Brown DAC's do make the audio for analog CD inputs perform very well. My reciever does not have optical in for the CD option. I know I can use the DVD for both but I don't like the extra sound effects assigned to the DVD when I play audio cd's. Want just clean cd audio and not dsp adding extra stuff. The burr-brown dac's do a good job for the cd audio analog out. It is also nice that I can set the audio out to bitstream for DVD's and not lose the analog outputs for the CD usage.

Video: Picture stunning. As good as the Toshiba was its hard to find a huge difference in the picture. It is subtle but the Onkyo adds a little more depth. Curvers are curvier. I think its more about the crispness of the contrast and shadows. Again, something very subtle but it the picture on the Onkyo is easier to look at than the Toshiba. The Toshiba 2109 is fine. Onkyo a little better. I hope you know that the Onkyo is a Toshiba with better DACs and more features. So I didn't expect a big difference. But it is a couple of generations past my 2109 and the picture shows it. Especially like zoom going off by itself now instead of needing to cycle through the menu.

The remote is fine. Only problem is my Sony remote doesn't have the codes pre-programed for the Onkyo DVD.

Layer changing pauses seem to be more about the software/rom than the player. The momentary pause in U-571 was barely noticable. It was more noticable on the Toshiba. By the way, if you haven't cranked U-571 through DTS decoding you simply must!

Good player, looks great, sounds great. 299 is a tad high, not too high. Would prefer 259. But it seems to be selling faster than they can make them so buyers don't have any wiggle room on this one.

Its little blue light looks nice with my Sony little blue light for multi-channel decode.

Only thing now is I have to sell my Nakamachi 3S and my Toshiba 2109.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2109 and 1600

The picture and sound are unspeakably excellent. The black level is a plus but there is one weakness about it that I will go into. Onkyo also did a very good job of incorporating a "true" surround sound effect into it.

When I turn on the Black level enhancement, for certain movies, there is a glitch when there is a pure white screen. For example, during Independence Day, there are flashes from scene to scene and this causes a glitch on my t.v. It does not do this when the Black Level is at normal so I am thinking that my T.V. cannot handle this enhancement.

I got this DVD player around Christmas time and was considering buying either the Toshiba, Sony, or the Onkyo. After reading the reviews on this website, I knew that I had to get the Onkyo. The picture and sound quality are excellent.

DTS, Coaxial out, Multi-angle, built, sound & pic

Remote control !

Great sound and pics, fit perfectly with my Onkyo 575x receiver. Cool multi-angle feature.

For the price and the quality... Buy it !!

Similar Products Used:

Sony dvd

execellent picture; very good sound; easy of use; plays CD-R, of course not all brands

a hate the remote

I'm happy with Onkyo DV-S535 all the way. It was a little bit expensive but it's worth the money. Excellent picture, very good sound...

Ok, the remote is ugly...

And it plays CD-R's. Not all brands. It plays without any problems Traxdata and Intenso CD-R's.

Vidio and sound

Remote.

I have the same complaint as everyone else about the chinsy remote, but I have others that are just as bad and it doesnt bother me that much.I plan on getting an expensive learning remote to replace the SEVEN existing remotes I have when funds permit! God knows when that will be!
One of the deciding features is the excellent zoom function. I dislike watching a wide screen DVD with the top and bottom
black bars and zoom takes care of that situation nicely.
the sound and picture us better than most of the others and MUCH better than my old CD player WHEN playing CDs.
I was thinking of buying a new DC player because the DVD players Itried which WIll play CD-RS lacked other features I wanted.
Onkyo says this player !!WILL NOT PLAY!! DVD-Rs or DVD RWs!
SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE
I found that the onkyo WILL play CD-RWs And I had a cdr which someone gave me that did play.but other's didnt.
I have a new plexwriter 12/10/32s burner that when you put a disk in and go to 'properties,it will tell you the Mfr,type,time capacity/and MEDIA TYPE
The MEDIA TYPE IS THE IMPORTANT PERAMETER.
Trying different brands I have found Types 1,3,5,6 and 8 so far.CD-RW TYPE 8 will play on the Onkyo 535 ,
and ALL CD-R TYPE 1 will play.
ALL type 1 seem to have the EXACT SAME shade of SKY BLUE on the recording surface!
The Brands I have found that are type 1 media are:
MITSUI, TAIYO YUDEN CDR-74sy 16X, SONY CDR-AUDIO FOR Music Use, And the one that someone gave me which is a memorex type one but it seems they can't identify it! I bought some they told me were the right ones,they turned out te be type six and didn't work.
Regardless wether they call it a data disk or a music disk,if it is a type one sky blue it will work.I found that MUSIC DISKS record data just as well.
I found a supplier who has at least 3 brands and will send by mail or UPS. Prices seem reasonable.I just got a 50 spindle 0f 80 minute Taiyo Yuden for $42.50' others cheaper.
If you want the name E-mail me or call mr ,(863)292-0787.would appreciate if you find other type-1 brands so I can make a list. Also see if these will play on other DVD players that aren't supposed to play them

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I got a 2 week trial of seven different brands,and chose this one.

Picture and sound quality, solid build, coax and optical digital outs, zoom and multiangles (neither one of which do I feel is a necessity).

Seems somewhat slow to load and the remote could use a better layout along with larger buttons (but don't let that steer you away from this DVD player).

This is my second DVD player. My first was a short lived Pioneer DV333. The digital sound kept dropping in and out so I returned it, though I now feel the fault was my own (an inadequate digital out cable).

I am glad I decided on the Onkyo DV-S535. It looks and feels far better than the Pioneer DV333, and has many additional features for only $30-70 more. The Onkyo is slower to load than the Pioneer, but I don't feel that's a big issue.

As for performance.... the picture and sound are top notch. Toy Story The Ultimate Gift Box is incredible on this player. One problem though, the first disc (Toy Story 1) would not play. Yet it did play on a Sony player at the store. I exchanged the box set for a new one and the new discs worked fine. However -1 star in overall rating for that.

The Onkyo also sports a very solid build and a nicely designed exterior (far better than the Pioneer DV333). One small feature I really like is the addition of a cool bluish/purple light which comes on when a disc is loaded.

As for the remote, the main buttons I use (play, pause, ff, etc.) are very small. You have to look closely to see what you are pushing.

Bottom line......this is an awesome DVD player.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV333 (not too similiar, but another DVD player I have used).