Awesome digital sound, excellent picture, value-priced, simple set-up

a little noisy

This is my first entree into the DVD world and I couldn't be happier. I searched around and got a good deal from Crutchfield ($226 shipping included). I've only had the unit for about a week and half and I've watched 7 DVDs, incuding the Matrix and Saving Private Ryan without any glitches whatsoever. I'm especially pleased with the simplicity of use. Basically, I just plugged it in and hit play. I'm using coaxial cable for the digital audio and the sound is absolutely phenomenal. I'm running it through a Yamaha RX-V992 with Polk Audio speakers all around and a Yamaha sub. Since my TV doesn't support S-video or component, I'm forced to use composite. Regardless, the picture quality is outstanding (I can only imagine how much better it would be with better cabling).
My only complaint and it's not really a complaint, is that although the CD sound is very good, my Pioneer Elite CD player does sound better (but it also cost a lot more). Part of me had been hoping I could replace my CD player with this to make room for a digital satelite receiver, but I don't want to give up the quality since I probably listen to more CDs than I watch movies.
In any event, the product gets a definite thumbs up, and aynone interested should not hesitate to buy this unit, especially at this price point. To be perfectly honest, however, I have not done any comparison viewing, so I cannot offer any perspective on any other products. For movie watching, it gets five stars; for CD playing, I'll give it four stars. So, overall it would get about a four and a half but since there is no option for 1/2 a star, I'll give it 5 stars so as not to dissuade anyone from buying this terrific product.

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PRICE. COMPONENT OUTS. SET UP MENU.

NO DIMMER FUNCTION. SPOTTY QUALITY.

PURCHASED THE DV525 IN EARLY FEB BECAUSE I WANTED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF COMPONENT INPUTS ON MY PHILIPS 60" TV. DID SIDE BY SIDE WITH TOSHIBA HOOKED TO S-VIDEO. BLUE APPEARED STRONGER IN ANIMATED "A BUG'S LIFE" WITH COMPONENT INS, SO I DECIDED TO KEEP IT. THREE WEEKS LATER IT STARTED GHOSTING AND DROPPING THE AUDIO. TOOK IT BACK TO C.CITY AND TRIED THE APEX. APEX HAD A WONDERFUL PICTURE BUT STALLED HORRIBLY BETWEEN SCENES/CHAPTERS. BACK TO THE PIONEER I WENT. HOPE THIS ONE WAS MADE ON A WEDNESDAY. USING DIG COAX FOR AUDIO OUT TO MY PIONEER VSXD608. IS ANYONE HAVING BETTER RESULTS WITH OPTICAL THAN DIG COAX?

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TOSHIBA 2109.

The cheapest DVD in the market.
Looks nice.
3 years worranty.

O.K. Here in Israel there is a tax on the entertaiments products, so this baby cost me about 675$. - no cheap but in compare to other company products such as Yamaha S-795 :that cost 1250$ it is a good deal (if you take into acount that each year at least 4 DVD models get into the A/V field).
I have a model made in Japan. and make no noise when running.
The Picture is very good, there is a good contrast level.
The sound has more treble then my sony cd player.
The remot control has all the features to oparete this machine and i'm sorry that they didn't put the random and standby buttoms on the fromt pannel.
I don't know if it is a malfunction of the DVD but in a wide screen recorded movies, there are two big black raws at the top and buttom of the TV screen although i set the DVD on the "Pan & Scan" option (option that should strech the vertical dimension and chop the sides.

In conclusion, this is a very good product, looks cheap, but do the job.

Go buy it.

Low level detail; cheap fun

Hashy highs; loose bass

On the advice of John Hillig and Stan Warren I bought this machine to replace my Rotel RCD855. Judging from it's sound (though I understand its video playback is pretty good also), I'd say it probably renders most 16-20 bit machines under $1K obsolete. The bass is a little loose and highs sound a bit dirty, but it passes tons of low level information totally obscured by the Rotel and other 16 bit machines I've heard. My Marantz DV18 does sound better though, for a lot more money. Bargain of the decade!

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Rotel RCD855; RCC935

Good Price.

Pregnant pauses.

Everybody seems to have nice things to say, so I hesitate to lay down this barrage of complaints. First off, my system: Kenwood VR-105, Analog Surround Sound System (i.e., non-digital, I borrowed it from Fred Flinstone); S-Video connection to my brand spanking new RCA 32" TV.

My first complaint: the terribly noticeable pauses in so many titles that I have bought and rented. I have a listed a few titles (and pause-times)here for your information and protection: "The Matrix" (67:42); "Contact" (60:35); and "Good Will Hunting" (77:50). There are more movies (in fact, almost every DVD I have watched), I simply didn't take the time to rewatch them all and find the times. The DVD reacts to the Chapter changes at these pause-times with a 0.5-1.5sec long pause, in which the screen is frozen, and the audio stops (my 8 year old VCR doesn't hiccough that bad!).

My second complaint: I found (relative to my new DVD player which I will mention below)that the picture sucked. In "The Matrix", and "Saving Private Ryan", the actors were as white as zombies and their lips seemed to glow a purplish-red. I wasn't sure if this was my TV (I bought both units at the same time) and so did not attribute the crappy image to the DVD player. However, now that I have bought a Proscan and see more life-like color and quality, I realize that it was the DV-525 that produced the bad image.

Needless to say I took it back, and got a refund ($444CDN). I took my business to The Future Shop where I bought a Proscan PS8675 ($429CDN), which has served me much better, and which I will write a review for in a month or two when I get a better feel for it.

The sound was alright, but bear in mind that I wasn't enjoying dolby digital, or dts.

In closing, I think the DV-525 is a low-quality mistake, which Pioneer will someday regret.

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This was my first DVD player.

price, ease of use, plays CD-Rs, picture quality, ...

None.

I picked this up a little over a month ago for $199 at Best Buy. I don't know their reason (sale, promotion, ...) for selling it at this price because I believe that it's back up to $249.

The setup was easy but the remote works a little funky. It seems that you sometimes have to hold the button down longer than you normally would.

I've been beating on it to make sure that it plays all of the DVDs and CDs. I rented Storm of the Century which is a double sided DVD. It had a huge scratch on it - I did not expect that portion of the disc to play and wouldn't have held it againt the player id it didn't. The movie played flawlessly.

Great, great player even at $250.

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None.

cost, ease-of-use, plays cd-r's, consistent output (no display glitches, pixelation, lip-sync, or similar issues)

remote buttons are tiny

I bought the 525 on the strength of the good reviews here
and because I need to play CD-R's, too.

I expected transport noise problems (there were none)
and I expected the remote to be hard to use but it wasn't,
even though the buttons *are* small. I've never used
a DVD player but in my typical male fashion (as my wife
would say) I set it up and played several DVD's without
ever cracking the manual. This is testament to its
ease-of-use rather than my technical skill. I've played
quite a few fast-paced movies including Tomorrow Never
Dies, The Spy Who Shagged Me, and The Matrix without
any display problems. This same copy of The Matrix
has choked friends' machines twice!

I had one minor problem in Tomorrow Never Dies where
I was rapidly switching between Next, Prev, Fwd and
Rev and I got it confused and it locked up and had
to power-cycle it but I haven't been able to reproduce
that, and no one should be doing that in real life.
Still, on that basis and the tiny remote buttons
I dropped its score to "4".

Otherwise this is a great unit, especially at its
price, and it's even more impressive considering
that it came out a year ago, so it's not even very
new technology.

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Pic, Sound, PRICE

Cheapo design (Philips-type plastic feel), noisy mechanism, definetly the remote.

I agree with most of the people here: It is a good player CONSIDERING it's price. Picture is good, sound is nice. A little too sensitive to "dirty" DVDs, though (with dirt I mean almost invisible fingerprints etc. The discs have to be absolutely spotless). The machine replaced an old Pioneer CD player (I've forgotten the model, but it too was cheap), which also was overly sensitive. A common problem with cheap Pioneers?
OVERALL: -Value for the money? -Yes. -The best player there is? -No, but many more expensive players have yet far to come. In other words: A good buy.

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Tried one or two here and there

Good picture, price, less buggy than most DVD players

Transport noise when spinning disks; poor fast forward

Bought this unit based upon reviews on this site. My only concern was the transport noise. On Apollo 13, the disk noise is audible only for a minute or so, then machine quiets down. I thought "fine, I can live with this." Then I watched Goldeneye and The Matrix. I could hear the disk spinning throughout the entire movie, especially during quiet passages. I installed the unit in a glassed-in TV stand and could still hear the Pioneer.

I went to the store and listened to the competition. The Sony's were almost as loud as the Pioneer, if not the same. The Toshiba 3109 was a little quieter. The Panasonic 120 took top honors will very quiet spinning. I return the Pioneer and will order a Panasonic.

If you can live with the noise, the Pioneer is a great unit. I found it too distracting and unacceptable. I also like the look of the Panasonic better with its blue vs amber display of the Pioneer.

price, picture, restart where you stop on a movie, plays several types of discs

no screen saver

Excellent player, especially for the price. Features are good. Bought the player based on reviews here. I was concerned about not being able to play certain movies. The second movie I played was the Matrix and it locked up. I took it back to the video store and exchanged it for another copy and had no problems. I have played most of the other movies listed as having problems and have experienced none. I think most problems others have experienced have been with a bad dvd and not the player. The unit is noisy while loading a disc but I cannot hear it during play. The picture is outstanding. I have not experienced the benefits of the dvd sound yet as I am still using a pro logic receiver. My new digital receiver should be arriving later this week. For the price, this unit appears to be the best based on other reviews, especially if you plan on upgrading to a digital TV in the future.