Excellent player with great video and sound quality

Tray is a little noisy

I've had this player for over 3 weeks now and had no problems whatsoever. No skipping, lip sync problem or what have you... Image quality is superb (although im using MIT cables which may help) and sound is awsome. All in all, i would recommend it to anyone.

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Toshiba 3109

price, GUI

construction, remote

Terrible design on the remote. The menu scroll buttons are not unlike any other buttons on the remote. The chassis is kind of shoddy and cheap. I thought UPS delivered an empty box, but the unit is extremely light. These minor flaws are offset by the price. I paid around $220 for mine shipped.

Play CDRs

I love to sing Karaoke with my copied VCDs and DVDs. I am waiting for 5 bonus movies and $50 rebate (I don't know... sometimes we should not trust mail-in rebate). I love this consumerreview.com too.

Component Output, Three viewing modes-Cinema,Cartoon,Standard

small buttons on remote,

It's performed flawlessly on the few DVD's I've tried so far (The Matrix, 13th floor, Austin Powers-the spy who shagged me). The condition memory for 15 discs is a Plus. Crystal clear pause. The drive is noisy on open/close, but runs quiet,(mine is behind a glass door). It's a great player for the price. I will re-review in a few months.

Anyone interested in the POKEMON DVD?

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none

Excellent Value, Component Video Out, Doby Digital and DTS, good reliability

Unintuitive remote design, no smooth scan feature

I liked the Pioneer DV525 for its value. Pioneer was always a leader in lasedisc players, but unfortunately their first run of DVD players was poor. However i have been quite impressed with teh 525. It has a very crisp picture (as viewed on my new Sony V-Series TV) and the benifit of component outs is great for the furture. The remote however is full of tiny buttons that while are functional, are not as intuitive as the Sony remotes I have (VCR, TV, Receiver). Once you get used to it its not that bad. Anyway most serious home theater users will get a Universal remote. The lack of a smooth scan is unforgivable though as it is standard on most entry level players. I also really like the look of the player. It is finished in deep black and has a very smart looking amber display. Better than the white displays i see a lot of companys using. At 300 most places, this is a great deal of DVD player for the money. The remote and lack of a smooth scan however make me give it only 4 stars on rating. But at the price its forgivable I suppose.

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Sony 530

Great machine. Especially as it is the only one of two machines at the moment that I am aware of (especially under $1000) that will play VCD AND CDR.. Which means you can make your own vcds and mini-dvds....

Highly recommended.

Visit www.dvdmonthly.com for dvd reviews!

Great little unit. Worth every penny and performs as well as any in the $500 range...

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Yamaha DVD-S700
Pioneer 414

Component Video Output, Optical Output, dts and dd Output

Player is somewhat loud, remote only operates player

This is a great player. It has plenty of included features to keep up with your system upgrades.

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sony and rca models

Anamorphic downconversion

Could hear disc spinning during play

I did a lot of research before picking up a couple of players over the last few weeks. After trying the Toshiba SD-2109 and not being satisfied (see that review), I picked up the 525. I had read here about the problems with lip-sync and the noise of the disc spinning in the tray, but I was hoping that those problems had been solved. Unfortunately, as soon as I put the first disc in the tray after hooking it up I could hear the low pitched whine of the disc spinning. I started the movie and sat on my couch across the (albeit small) room. I could still hear the disc spinning during conversation or the quieter parts of the movie. Personally I found this far too annoying. I know that if I had kept it, I would have gotten used to it, but for the money I was spending, I refuse to "settle". So, I exchanged it for another one. Took that one home, didn't even bother to hook it up. Just put the disc in and started playing it. Same noise. Put the TV on just to throw in some noise to try to cover the whine. It was just to obvious. I took it back and got the Proscan for $150 at Circuit City -- so far, I am very happy with it.

On the positive side, I was impressed with the way that it handled the anamorphic downconversion (I have a 27 inch Sony), especially on Shakespeare in Love, a movie that the Toshiba had all kinds of problems with (the Proscan is at least on par with the Pioneer, maybe even a little better). However, the picture is definitely "softer" on the Pioneer than the Toshiba. So, in essence, if I had a 16:9 aspect ratio TV, I would have definitely kept the Toshiba and would highly recommend it to anyone who does have a widescreen monitor. The Pioneer I wouldn't recommend to anyone -- I feel that strongly about the noise. Pioneer must feel the same way -- why else would they be offering a $50 rebate on it? If you can find the Proscan still (and don't object to the DIVX label on principle alone) I would definitely recommend picking it up if you can get it for $250 or less.

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Toshiba SD-2109
Proscan 8680

great picture and INCREDIBLE value

noisy transport mechanism.

This is my first DVD player I've owned. I am very pleased with it considering its price. Best Buy had it for $299 and advertised the $50 rebate from Pioneer. I guess Onecall.com has a better deal at $249 along with the Pioneer $50 rebate. Anyway, The only annoying thing about this player is the noisy transport. I can hear the darn thing during quiet moments. ANNOYING. I am an audiophile and do not want a big cabinet between my speakers to put the player into. Other than that it is AWESOME. Do not let this minor flaw discourage you from this player. It has really opened my interest to home theatre. Now I find myself dreaming about having a new monitor/TV with component video inputs. Maybe I'll just live with my Sony 19" Trinitron monitor for now and wait till HDTV comes down in price. But then again it would really be cool to see the awesome picture put out from this player into a larger monitor with component inputs....decisions,.....decisions. If you are a movie buff, this will light your fire for home theatre at a very cost-effective price-point. You will not be dissatisfied. 4 stars only because of the slightly noisy transport. This noise also varies from disc to disc. On the other hand, some may not be able to hear the noise, and some may not care. It's a great player. Enjoy.

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Works great, has all the basic features

setup obscures view too much

This player has everything technology-wise one could ask for
from today's players. Component & S-Video outputs, DTS & Dolby digital, coaxial & optical sound outputs.

Missing some bells & whistles (like zoom) that I don't care about.

No problems observed in first few DVDs watched. It wouldn't load very scratched rental The Jackal initially, but wiping off an incredible # of fingerprints fixed that. Drive is a little noisy, but no worse than a typical VCR. Inaudible if behind glass.

The setup screen obscured the screen almost totally. This was a drag when trying to see the effect of image enhancement settings (cinema, animation, none). No big deal though, not enough to subtract a star.

Fantastic deal if you take advantage of the $50 rebate (go to http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/promotions/DVDRebate.htm ) AND take advantage of the 5 free DVDs and 12 Blockbuster rentals (go to http://www.valueamerica.com/rebates/freedvdoffer.pdf ) .

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