Easy to use, Inexpensive, good sound and picture quality

Fast forward and reverse is a bit jerky.

A Great DVD player for the price. I bought mine day after christmas for $240 after rebate. The sound through the optical cable to my Dolby Digital/DTS receiver is great, and the picture quality is fantastic on my Sony 32" TV.

I would recommend this player to anyone looking for an inexpensive player.

Similar Products Used:

None

Good Color, reads difficult DVDs, good warranty

Noisy, noisy, noisy, video jaggies, poor menu interface

I bought this player to replace my nearly two year old Pioneer DV-505 which has been a solid performer and was turned into a 96/24 music deck for my stereo system. The noise from the drive mechanism of the 525 during playback was immediately distracting but I figured I would get used to it. Everyone in the family also noticed jagged video reproduction in high to low contrast transisition areas. The unit was driving my 50" Toshiba via the component outs.

After ten days of use, I finally threw in the towel when I realized the whine I was hearing throughout "Terminator 2" was from the DVD player. Evidently this drive noise varies from player to player. The reviews here bear this out. A friend bought one at the same time I did and his is quiet.
Returned mine and exchanged it for a Panasonic DVD-A120. Quiet, good menus, good video & the display is dimmable.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-505, Panasonic DVD-A120

Beautiful sound, picture quality

TRANSPORT NOISE RUINS IT

I bought this unit primarily too play classical CD's, with DVD's as a bonus. It made all my CD's sound like new, compared to the Magnavox LD player I had been using. I loved the sound, hated to talk it back, but the extremely loud transport noise drove me crazy. (I'm the kind who unplugs his fridge to listen to Mahler.) I took it back, bought the JVC 511 because it is very quiet, but guess what? The sound I get from the JVC is much more--I lost the incredible sense of detail I got from the Pioneer.

Should I keep this unit as a transport and buy a good Receiver? I don't care about home theater, 10-channel, surround/explosions--I just want a very clean 2-channel system to listen to my CD's on. Any good recommendations?

Similar Products Used:

JVC XV-511BK

picture and sound quality, great value

remote buttons are a little small but not really a big problem

I researched this purchase as it is my first dvd player.
Overall picture quality is excellent with component video.
Sound through coaxial cable to receiver is outstanding. For a dvd player around $200.00 including rebate I'm very pleased with overall performance as opposed to other reviews on this unit. If my Lab puppy chewed up this unit, I'd replace it with another 525 in a second. Highly recommended.

Plays everything I have tried, including homemade VCD burnt onto CD-R

The disc spin noise is quite noticable during quiet parts of films.
The remote is nasty - especially fast forward/rewind.
No menu navigation control on the player itself - just the remote.
Noticable layer transition pause.

Price paid was about £250 (GBP) from Techtronics for a multiregion chipped UK version.

Player has worked fine, trouble free for over six months.

Does a reasonable job as a CD player too, and plays CD-R discs with no trouble at all.

As others have commented, the remote is a pain. For example, the subtitle button cycles: Off, English, French, German, ..., back to off. So if you are playing a disc with ten subtitle tracks, you have to press the button once to turn on the english subtitles, and ten times to turn them off!

The value rating is based on todays prices, as this is now an end of line product. I would have been about **** when new.

In terms of feature, things could be better - for example there is no zoom.

Similar Products Used:

LG 3350

plays anything sounds great -picture quality

none

I can say i have had this player for 10 months and i have had no problems so far .i have played about 40-50 disks and pic quality is still as i pulled it out of the box .Only problem has been the odd dirty disk- clean the disk and off you go.Music sounds great i have put my sony cd player in moth balls the sony sounds basic to the 525 in music-DD sound out standing coupled with my denon avr2801
IAM very happy with this player no regrets

plays anything sounds great -picture quality

none

I can say i have had this player for 10 months and i have had no problems so far .i have played about 40-50 disks and pic quality is still as i pulled it out of the box .Only problem has been the odd dirty disk- clean the disk and off you go.Music sounds great i have put my sony cd player in moth balls the sony sounds basic to the 525 in music-DD sound out standing coupled with my denon avr2801
IAM very happy with this player no regrets

Good basic DVD player

I have never been a fan of Pioneer...now I know why. I've waited 8 months to write this review because I wanted to see how well this machine lasted.

Now 8months later, I find that this is indicative of Pioneer - it worked great new, but really went downhill. I've only used it to play maybe 20 DVDs/VCDs and now it won't play anything else other than DVDs. Everytime I put in a CD or a VCD or a CD-R, it spins up, stops, spins again, then ejects the media.

I really haven't used it that much and I certainly did not expect the quality to be this bad. If you still see these for sale, even if for a great price, move on and buy a better machine - a better brand.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 3109, APEX 7103

Good basic DVD player

I have never been a fan of Pioneer...now I know why. I've waited 8 months to write this review because I wanted to see how well this machine lasted.

Now 8months later, I find that this is indicative of Pioneer - it worked great new, but really went downhill. I've only used it to play maybe 20 DVDs/VCDs and now it won't play anything else other than DVDs. Everytime I put in a CD or a VCD or a CD-R, it spins up, stops, spins again, then ejects the media.

I really haven't used it that much and I certainly did not expect the quality to be this bad. If you still see these for sale, even if for a great price, move on and buy a better machine - a better brand.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 3109, APEX 7103

Good basic DVD player

I have never been a fan of Pioneer...now I know why. I've waited 8 months to write this review because I wanted to see how well this machine lasted.

Now 8months later, I find that this is indicative of Pioneer - it worked great new, but really went downhill. I've only used it to play maybe 20 DVDs/VCDs and now it won't play anything else other than DVDs. Everytime I put in a CD or a VCD or a CD-R, it spins up, stops, spins again, then ejects the media.

I really haven't used it that much and I certainly did not expect the quality to be this bad. If you still see these for sale, even if for a great price, move on and buy a better machine - a better brand.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 3109, APEX 7103