Very good picture quality and a great value for the money

a cheesy remote and a little noisy

Since I bought the player I don't think I've used my VCR to this date. I couldn't believe the difference I saw in the picture quality compared to VHS. the unit makes a little noise, but that gets drowned out by the great sound. I got this DVD player at a grand opening of a store for only $380 CDN. and for the that much you can't go wrong and it has every feature you'd need.

Price. Picture quality.

Transport noise.

I bought this unit in early november for 225.00 (after the 50.00 rebate) and have been very happy with it. The player does make some noise when playing disks, but it is hardly noticeable when playing most movies. Besides, try to find a DVD player at this price that does not have some transport noise. The picture quality is good with an S-video cable and is great with component cables. I bought some Canare true 75ohm component cables from Custom Audio/Video Connections (830-625-6745, 1m for 70.00) and was very impressed by the level of color saturation. If you get a chance, check out the greens on the moss in Excalibur. The cables made the picture much brighter as well so I had to adjust the settings on my TV. Consequently, the shadow detail improved quite a bit. Overeall, an excellent player for the money and features.

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Philips DVD825

Clean, crisp, clear picture and sound! Great value. Plays CD-R and CD-RW's (nice feature thanks to the dual laser pickups.

Slightly noisy drive mech, but who cares, mine is behind a glass door with sound coming out of my speakers (Imagine that!)

Overall, this unit rocks! I am very pleased with the value. The picture is among the best and I have not seen any lip-synch problems. Remote could be better, but it is not as bad as some have reported (or maybe I am not that picky)I picked up my player at Best Buy for $269. Also, thanks to Pioneer, I will get an additional $50 off that! plus the five free movies and 13 free rentals. I almost purchased the Toshiba 2109, but thanks to a decent rebate and the ability to play CD-R's and CD-RW's, the choice was clear.

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Sony

Very clean picture with the component video output.

Kinda loud while reading a disc. The remote is not that great, but it's not as awful as I was lead to believe

I picked this baby up from an ezbid auction for $216.00 w/shipping. So far this DVD player has been truely excellent. I have not been able to take advantage of it's audio capabilities yet, but I will let you know when I do. The picture is amazing, using the component outputs is a must. This is a great DVD player, w/o a decoder, for anyone looking for a top quality player w/o spending lots-o-cash.

NO PROBLEMS!!

What everyone else says, loud tray and bad remote.

After searching far and wide, I've finally settled on this DVD player.

Excellent picture and sound. Low price. $50 rebate. Free DVDs and rentals. And a stupid Pokemon DVD.

What else can you ask for?

A must buy.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 530 and Pioneer 414

Picture/Sound/Price

None so far

A great player at a great price. I have played appx. 10 dvd's with 0 problems. A bargain at $249 (W/$50 Rebate)

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic A112U

Picture Quality, Price & Lack of Lip-Sync Problems

Nothing not already mentioned

Just another review that confirms the excellence of this unit. I've had no problems with it after playing several DVD's...no lip-sync or tray/mechanism noise. The on-screen menus and the manual are good and the picture and sound are excellent. I found the remote to be pretty good too, once I got my glasses out so I could memorize the buttons. The music quality with CD's is also very good.

A Side Note: This forum is for people who have bought and used the subject equipment...not for people who's friends own it, who demo’s it for 3 minutes at a dealer or is looking for someone to do the research to find the lowest price for them. When someone asks a question or some other nonsense and then "gives" the equipment a 3, 4 or 5, it just screws up the ratings...as well as the number of ratings...I hope no one answers someone's email, when they ask for the cheapest place to buy something. I wish the webmaster or someone would sort through the reviews and delete the inappropriate ones, as is done in the SMR Forums.

Great value, excellent A/V, wonderful CD-Audio

Tray and remote are on the chintzy side

This was unbeatable at the special Best Buy deal I worked out--after the $50 rebate and 10% off coupon it comes to under $200.

This is my first DVD player and without a doubt it is the best format I've ever seen (that isn't professional). I have rented many DVDs and they all performed flawlessly no matter how scratched and smudged they were (center hole and edge, renters, is it so damn difficult? What do people do to these things, use them as coasters?!). The only one that didn't is "Days Of Heaven" and this turned out to be a congenital defect, reproduced on a brand-new disc--the problem happens only once for one second in a specific place on the disc.

On a more positive note, the one CD of mine that used to skip and flake out doesn't with this player--so overall the error correction on the 525 is phenomenal. I also love it as a CD player, even though the disc loading/reading is slower than my CD player was--the fidelity is so much better it's scary! All the harshness and grittyness is gone, and it's like getting a whole new music collection again!

The only minor complaints are those you also read in the other reviews--DVDs sometimes can be heard spinning, and the remote does have the 'chicklet' problem for the buttons...but when you factor in how good the rest is, and what a bargain the 525 is at under $250, it's a no-brainer. When I put it behind a proper hi-fi cabinet with a glass door, that's one problem GONE. I love this format!

P.S. Please refrain from posting NON-REVIEWS with questions and influencing the score!? There's a MESSAGE BOARD SECTION that sees plenty of traffic on this site for that very reason. This is the section for REVIEWS.

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My first DVD player

Component Out, DTS

I've had this player for a couple of months now, and I can say that I'm truly impressed with the image quality, and overall quality of the player. It's definately worth the money (bought it at 180.00). Pioneer is also honoring their 50.00 rebate coupon to customers that DIDN'T buy their player from *authorized* online retailers (Crutchfield, and Circuit City). I didn't think I was going to be eligible for the rebate (they changed the terms of the rebate after I bought it), but it seems they don't want to lose customers.

Plays VCD on CD-r format

Remote

I bought the pioneer after doing quite a bit of searching. I needed a machine that would play VCD that I have from overseas on CD-r format. If you travel overseas especially to Asia you will find any movie for cheap, not bootlegs but authorized copies. Movie companies found out it is better to get some money than to let bootlegs control the entire market.

VCD is also the main format in Asia for movies. Many players play vcds, but not on cd-r format. So I was limited to only a few models, one of which is the pioneer. I also make my own animation and convert home movies to digital vcd format. So my needs are specific to a machine that would play cd-r. I can't understand why other manufactures would not make their machines as such especially in the future with advent of digital cameras and digital camcorders.

I do not have the noise problem that others speak of when a disc is playing. I do agree the buttons on the remote are a bit small and a bit difficult to use in the dark.

How ever it played any disc I put in there. Even one with scratches that would not play in others.

Overall I would highly recommend the player especially with the $50 rebate as well as the five free movies and 13 free rentals.

Another note which I did not consider but may be important is the warranty. Pioneer provides 1 yr parts and labor. Not the typical 1yr parts 90day labor. The reason I bring this up is that a fiend on my has a Sony DVD that died after 5 months of use. Sony charged him $95 in labor. Hopefully I will not need to use the warranty.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Toshiba