no pauses or skips. i once had a freeze but it turned out to be the hamburger hill dvd. must have been foot in mouth or something. beautiful picture. clear, crisp sound. no tech troubles after a year thank heavens. dont see them anymore at my best buy. hope theyre still out there

remote buttons a bit close to each other especially the direction buttons surrounding the play button. go for one button and sometimes hit another. could be me and my fine motor skills but dont really think so.

wonderful! happy to have it.

Similar Products Used:

n/a

Same as listed in other reviews -- plays everything, plays well, component output

Remote control STILL hard to use after 1 year's experience, cheap construction (does not affect play).

Now that I've had my 525 a bit longer than a year, I'm still happy with it as a basic DVD player -- it plays everything I put in it -- but am starting to get worried about quality. I use the component outputs, and over the last few months, one of the components has been dropping out shortly after a disc is started. Turning off the player and resuming restores the picture, but it usually takes a few cycles of this before it plays fine for the rest of the movie. If you're buying this or a similar entry-level Pioneer in the future, you might think seriously about an extended warranty (either with your credit card or a dealer that you know will be around in a few years' time).

Sweet, sharp picture.

No Zoom, some Ghosting.

TWO MONTHS LATER......
Well have used this product for two months now, (check out my review 10/29/99. I found only one problem. The pictures exhibit some slight ghosting, which most people might not notice. I tried to get rid of it by upgrading from factory cables to Monster Video 2 cables , no difference..! Fortunately, i bought through crutchfield. After speaking with their tech, they sent me a replacement unit(hooray for crutchfield). It still had the same problem. The panasonic i used did not have this problem. I then went to best buy to test drive some units, none of them came close to the picture quality of the pioneer. So i've decided to stick with my player. you can see the ghosting when you start it up without any disks, the text is i think to sharp/digitized thus you get this slight double image.When playing movies it almost completely goes away, not really noticeable unless your looking for it.
these plus the first movie batch have shown no problems- speciesII, aliens, GI Jane, Enter the Dragon(yes!!), etc
I give this player a four because for the awesome sound and super rich picture at that price you cant do better.
One star goes for slight ghosting and no zoom..!!

Similar Products Used:

panasonic A120

video quality, CD-R support (for VCD and audio), DTS/DD optical and wired outputs, etc.

sure, the remote

I bought the DV-525 for $279.00 at Best Buy (they screwed up, it was supposed to be $299.00), plus a $50 rebate, the standard pack of 5 DVDs and some rentals. Thankfully, no Pokemon DVD :-)

I chose this unit specifically for the CD-R compatibility (this has to be intentional, it requires a second laser runnning infrared, rather than DVD's red laser) since I edit home movies on my graphics computer and store them as Video CDs. It plays VCD and CD-R audio flawlessly.

The video quality is superb. This is on my Hitachi Ultravision 50UX22B projection set, via S-Video inputs. I'm expecting the component output will come in handy when I upgrade to 16:9 and at least 60", sometime in the next two years.

I can't really comment direcly on audio quality, since I'm using the DACs in my Sony STR-DE935. I run S/PDIF digital form the Pioneer, and have never had a glitch. For those new to digital audio (I've been using S/PDIF and AES/EBU in music for years), you should look for the S/PDIF (coax) I/Os on your DVD player and amp. Optical sounds cooler, and technically, if you had to run it 100ft, it might be. But they're gouging in price for decent TOSlink cables today, and cheap ones, made of plastic instead of glass, will definitely see dropouts. A good (Hosa quality, don't waste it on a Monster Cable product) RCA-type coax cable will run dropout free here, and you won't have to spend $50. That IS the point of digital, after all -- price isn't the issue is was in the analog world. Take it from an engineer.

But the sound I get is to die for, but if you don't have full surround sound, get it. Now. And if you're concerned about quality and fancy cables, get the decoder in your receiver, which is really what this player is designed for.

As for the fit and feel, I'm of a different opinion than most. Ok, the remote does suck, it's like something out of the early 80s. But my Sony universal remote handles the job fine, with light-up buttons and all. Most people using this unit have too many remotes anyway (I have five in the Hitachi room alone).

The look of the unit, I think, is pretty cool. It would definitely belong in some of the darker movies I'm fond of, you can see the 2001 monolith in it. As for being too light, don't always consider that a problem. In the world of all mechanical, weight might have some correlation with quality. In the digital world, it has a negative correlation with quality -- the fewer parts in a DVD player (or computer or whatever), the higher the reliability. Time will tell, but rejecting it because its lighter than what you're used to is like rejecting a 500MHz laptop computer because it's lighter than your old '486 box.

I have played The Matrix, Dark City, Bladerunner, The Stand (DVD18), and a handful of rentals so far. All ran good. I caught the layer change in The Matrix, but I always catch the projector change spots at the movies. It was pretty fast, not objectionable, better than the PC-DVD system I've been using.

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Several PC-DVD solutions

Great anamorphic downconversion! CD-R playback a big plus.. 96k/24bit digital output. Great if you have a Denon AVR-3300 or other 96/24 external converter. Component Output!!

Spinning discs do make some noise in the tray. I only notice this when nothing is playing though. Rather plain and boxy housing. On screen menus are about as inspiring as the housing. Picture not quite as sharp as my A-110

As stated above, this unit has wonderful anamorphic downconversion. The Pani A-110 which this unit replaced did not have the smoothest downconversion. I think the overall sharpness of the Pani was better, but that sharpness came at a cost in terms of anamorphic titles. Overall, the Pioneer's output has a much more pleasing look.

I can play CD-Rs on this thing. Why don't all DVD players have this ability. My $90 Pioneer PC DVD ROM Drive can handle them too. cost reduction it seems is not a valid reason for leaving this feature off! Thanks Pioneer for remembering your customers.

In regard to the spinning disc noise... just put a disc in and hit play. Trust me you won't notice it after 30 seconds. If you do, you're spending too much time worrying about your equipment and not enough enjoying DVDs.

The Pioneer could learn a thing or two from Panasonic in terms of user friendly, aesthetically pleasing menus.

The remote for the Pioneer is better than most, buttons being a bit on the small size.

I've yet to experience a glitch with the 525. My A-110 had some chapter skipping problems. It also had the Venetian Blind Effect with a few tiles, The Saint, Tomorrow Never Dies, etc.

Overall a great player..... With the $50 rebate and prices around $250 or less, this player is hard to beat. Why pay more when this unit has 95% of what a video DVD player can offer in terms of quality and features.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic A-110

Sound,picture,price

Remote control

I got this unit after reviewing this site and reading wonderful things about this Pioneer model. Well, I'm not disappointed. First of all, the quality of the picture is awesome, I only have regular composite visual inputs on my Panasonic TV but still the improvement over regular TV and VCR playback is incredible. Then, the sound is magnificent, it immerses you in sound and feel. And, the price factor you can't beat, got it for 279 at Costco ( 50 dollars rebate from Pioneer on top of that). The tray noise that many people talk about is not a big problem since you cannot hear it when you are watching a movie in AC-3 or DTS anyway.
I was looking at a Sony model which looked a little fancier than the Pioneer but I have no regrets about my decision on this model. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good quality and affordable DVD player.

Great video, Reads CDR's and Video CDs, Price

Lousy remote

This thing is as good as it gets for the price. Has read all the DVD's I've tried including dual layers like American Pie(VERY funny movie :D). It also reads music CDs as well as CDR's and Video CD's. The picture quality thru the S-Video connection and the audio is fantastic. The DD 5.1 really sounds great(it also has a DTS out as well). The one downside is the remote, but after setting up my Radios Shack 15-1994 remote, I never use Pioneer's remote anyway. The price is great too(got it at Costos for $223). Great all around player!

great picture. i'm using the s-video. i just got a pioneer 608 and hooked up the optical output and it sounds great. easy to use

none really. out of about 20 movies it had a slight pause 3 time between tracks on different disks. not enough of a problem to distract me from enjoying an awesome home theater experience.

this player is as easy to use as a cd player. the remote might not have a ton of functions but it gets the job done. it gets easier to use the more you use it. some people have complained of noisey drive. but mine is no more noisey than the cd drive in my computer. a little noise when i put a disk in but after that i don't even hear it running. the picture is great. its sounds great and the price is great. what more can i say.

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none other that a friend bringing over his pc with dvd. what a pain that was.

JEEZ JAYSON, I LIKE MY DV-525 ALSO, BUT YOU SOUND LIKE YOUR A SALESMAN ON SOME SORT OF CRUSADE! DO YOU OWN PIONEER STOCK OR SOMETHING! TAKE A PILL! DON'T TAKE OTHER PEOPLES "OPINIONS" SO PERSONAL. I'M DONE NOW.

Good sounding and picture

Lightweight

I have been using this player very satisfatorily with Camelot Dragon 5.1 and Denon AVR-5700 and Bettercables component cable.

Just wonder anyone has used this player to play 24/96 two discs. I got a 24/96 DAC and wanted to take digital output from the 525 to feed the DAC.

Some Chesky and Class Records DAD's are on the way to my place for a fun test.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DVD-414