Frankly, I haven't had this unit long enough to give it much of a review - but it's going back to where it came from after only a week! My main problem has been that the 825 decides to stop playing audio CDs whenever it darn well feels like it. After the first day out of the box, I haven't been able to get through an entire audio CD. Movies have been alright, but there have been the occasional 1- 2-second pauses. This should not happen, and thusly I'm moving on to the Sony DVP-S550D.

Worked great...at first.

Deserted the front line in the face of fire.

This is a followup to my previous review. After 27 days of fine
performance, my DVD 825 started freezing up during playback of DVD's that it had played quite well up until this point. My King Crimson "Deja Vroom" DVD reduced it to tears. Fortunately, my easy 30 day return window had not expired so I went back to Circuit City and got my money back. I noticed all along that this unit ran quite hot, and I suspect that this had more than a little to do with my problems with it. It was reasonably well ventilated with a full inch of space above it and no glass door or anything like a fire breathing amp running directly below it. Nevertheless, I could have melted solder on that thing when it was in hard service. I hated taking it back with it's pretty blue light and all but.....oh well. Hope you folks have a better experience than I did.

Plays most video CDs very well, plays CD-Rs/RWs, very clear picture and sound

Small delay in fast forward/rewind, the audio cd playback is good but it cant seek fast enough. No component out, had trouble with DTS output also, does it even work? Locks up on some VCDs even after firmware upgrade.

I dont understand the sheer number of complaints about this player, I've had mine since May 1999, and It's still running perfectly two years later. You guys must have gotten all the lemons in the store. haha.

If you can find one of these cheap, definitely buy it! I like it a lot and wouldnt consider upgrading for a while yet.

Played Everything fine in the begining...

Honeymoon is OVER!

This played great during the first year. All the Hard movies, ie; Matrix, Gladiator, MI2...fine...still does. But now for some reason, it doesnt wanna recognize the single layer discs! Gold discs(Dual layered) work fine, but if I want to play barebones discs, I have to stand there and monkey with it over and over, shuting it off and then turning it back on! I dont know what the problem is, but I will not get it fixed or pay for an upgrade! I'm gonna buy a Toshiba SD 3205, 2200, 2008, or a 2109...all researched by me on this site. I wish I knew about this site beforehand. I'm not about to throw it away, but I'm getting a backup player and I'm gonna take out the most warranty for the buck you can buy! I wanted to get a DVD/LD combo, but The reviews for pioneer arent that great. For first time dvd buyers...DONT BUY CHEAP!!! you'll be sorry.

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First player

plays all formats vcd, dvd, cd-r, cd
good picture, good sound

slow, lame remote, really sensitive to flawed discs

Well, it seems that the machine was made to break as soon as phillips one year warranty runs out and I neglected to renew it. I expired about 2 weeks ago, and all of a sudden my player will only play Armageddon, nothing else, just armageddon. Maybe it's gotten snooty and only prefers criterion discs? When I put in a netflix disc, or my copy of the fifth element, it tries to read it, then hangs and spits it out after about a minute. But Armageddon is fine!
any clues?
Other than that, this has been a fine first dvd player and we use it all the time(maybe that's it). THe sound, picture and even the setup menus are great.

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first one

Price, good sound, good picture.

Kind of noisy
El control remoto

This is my first DVD player and I´m satisfied so far... Easy to set up, not a single problem when playing highly damaged discs...
The best choice if you want to get a DVD player for the first time...
The oldest TV set at home looks great with the 825 playing on it...
Only one thing: what is all that none sense about " the regions"?
Here in Mexico we´re region 4, but we still are NTSC...
Can my 825 play all those regions or what?
The remote control is a small piece of plastic - like a Fisher-Price toy, it looks harmless but if you lose it you´re doomed, there´re some functions you can only execute using the remote...

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This is my first DVD player

Price, good sound, good picture.

Kind of noisy
El control remoto

This is my first DVD player and I´m satisfied so far... Easy to set up, not a single problem when playing highly damaged discs...
The best choice if you want to get a DVD player for the first time...
The oldest TV set at home looks great with the 825 playing on it...
Only one thing: what is all that none sense about " the regions"?
Here in Mexico we´re region 4, but we still are NTSC...
Can my 825 play all those regions or what?
The remote control is a small piece of plastic - like a Fisher-Price toy, it looks harmless but if you lose it you´re doomed, there´re some functions you can only execute using the remote...

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This is my first DVD player

Nice picture, dolby digital, optical output

No componet video output

I bought this when DVD was relatively new. I have thoroughly enjoyed this DVD player. I have never used it for DTS, but it has performed flawlessly with Dolby Digital DVD's. The picture surpasses anything I have used previously. The only reason I replaced this DVD player is because I bought a High Definition TV (Sony 53hs10) and I needed a DVD player with componet video outputs. I'm not sure how much this DVD player is going for now, but for a basic system, I think this DVD player is very good.

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Replaced with Pioneer 434 progressive DVD player

superlative sound, very good video quality, solid build

noisy transport, no programming capability

The last few weeks was spent shopping around for my first DVD player. I have now in my possession 2 DVD players: a Pioneer 525 and this Philips/Magnavox 825. Most likely I will end up keeping both players. The Pioneer is a sperb DVD player and will stay with the home theater set-up but the Philips will definitely be part of my separate audio-only set-up. As I pleasantly discovered, the Philips has awesome sound from its own DAC or better when used as a transport with my MSB Link DAC. I bought the 825 for $199.99 and let me tell you - if you are looking for a replacement CD player that can also be used as a DVD player, the 825 is one.
Yes, it has a noisy transport but as soon as you hear the sound, you'll not even pay attention to the noise.
I have tried many CD players, transports, DACs up to $1,000 and nothing compares with this Philips 825/MSB link DAC combination. How's the sound? coherent from top to bottom, very palpable, clear and natural-sounding midrange, very open, harsh-free top end, 3D soundstaging. This is sound that puts the musicians in your living room. Enough said. The 825 is worth 2 to 3 times its price for the sound alone. You get the DVD capability as a bonus.

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Pioneer 525

It played many types of disc formats;cd-r,cd-rw,vcd,dvd,cd

Breaks down after time

I would saw look at other modles of dvd player befor buying an 825. The picture through the s-video was good with no real color exagerations or any apparent fuzzy lines that I caould see. The dd sound through the fiber optic connection was also pretty good. I have owned this player for over a year and just replaced it because of all the obvious reasions. The player started to only play dvd half of the time and the remote broke wich left me stranded, but fortunetly I fixed it by replacing the remote sensor.
Cd play back on it was realy noisy, but the sound was ok if you turned up the volume so you can't here it. If you play it at low volume you will realy here it. The only real good thing was it played all my cd-r and cd-rw's.

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panisonic rv-30, pioneer dvd-333