Ease of use and simple setup

None

This is an incredible value for the person or persons that just want to sit down and relax with a movie . All controls are user friendly and uses simple onscreen programing . It's funny how I tried more exspensive ones but ended up with the lower priced ( but excellent!!!! quality! ) model that simply does just what you want it to do! And as far as the tray being kinda loud as it slides in and out! WHO CARES! I'm not gonna sit there for three hours pushing the open/close button!

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 5109 , JVC (all three models ) , Sony

Great picture - at least as good as the Toshiba 2109

Light weight

Terrific for the money. What made it even better was the price at a company called ecost.com. - Go to their site and
you will find the best prices I've ever seen. $229 for the
Pioneer 525, $489 for the Toshiba 5109 progressive scan - much less than else-where!!! They also sell JBL / Infinity

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2109 - Panasonic k-520

Excellent Picture & Sound Quality.

None (unless you're into those funky little features you'll never use after you're done playing around)

I've always had good luck with Pioneer products so I wasn't hesistant when I read some good reviews on the 525. My Pioneer Laserdisk Player continues to run strong after many years & I still use this for CD's since it has a 5 CD turntable. I'm glad I chose the 525. I don't have any complaints. I don't need all the extra little features they throw into many other DVD players (zoom into a spot on a movie....why?). I just wanted high quality sound & video...and that's what you get with the 525.

I've got a Monster Cable Optical Connection to a Sony DE835 Receiver & get great sound. Since my 3 year old Toshiba 50" TV has no component inputs, I use a Monster S-Video connection & the picture is stunning. If you aren't using the S-Video or Component Video Output, go buy the cables & do it now!!! I first used the Video Essentials DVD to adjust sound/video but now recommend the Ultimate DVD Platinum Edition to test & adjust the picture & sound.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Laserdisc

Price/performance, Passes pluge, DTS, VIVID&SHARP!

Remote (who cares)

I got this little gem for $199 from onecall.com . Before I bought this unit I was using a Sony 330. I decided to upgrade due to the component video outputs on this unit. I have this DVD player hooked up to my Sony XBR250 Wega. This player is wonderful. It provides a much better than my Sony 330 did. I called Custom Audio/Video Connections(830-625-6745) and ordered a set of their highly rated Canare component video cables I had heard so much about on this site. I used the Canare cables to hook up this player to my Wega. The picture with these cables is absolutley incredible! I had purchased a set of the Monster component cables from Best Buy before I got the Canare's so I was able to do a comparison. The Monsters paled in comparison so I took them back. I don't know what makes these cables so much better, but I sure could see the difference. Video quality is awesome with this player, and audio is powerful. I highly reccomend this player to anyone who wants performance for less $. I also highly reccomend hooking this player up with the Canare component video cables if your tv has component inputs, you won't be sorry. GREAT product Pioneer.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 330

Great picture on a 53" rear projection TV

none for my purposes

I have a Sony RPTV and the image from my DVD player is better than 70 mm. If you just want to throw a movie in , push play and get a wonderful picture and sound , this is a great DVD player for $250. I don't care how the remote is . I just push start and sit back and enjoy.

On Screen Display, Speedy chapter changes, 94kHz/24 bit audio, straight foward remote..

Tray a little noisy

I know Product Reviews isn't the forums area..However, the review before this one had some faults..First off, I think this is a great DVD player for the cash..You get lots of features and more output options than any other DVD in this Price Range. Another nice option is the 96kHz/24bit D/A that provides great audio from CD's.

In the review before this one the pauses he was experiencing were layer changes. This is on the DVD disc and prevents you from having to get up and play a "b" side to continue...Also as far a color goes, this unit was dead on...I'm using A Sony Wega and experienced no color problems at all. I even used my Avia Set-up disc to verify...This DVD player does have pre-set imaging that you can choose...They are Standard, Cinema, and one other one that slips my mind. They physically change the picture signal that is sent to your TV/Monitor..I think he might not of understood this...Oh well, glad he's happy with his Pro-Scan..

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 3109, RCA 5220

Easy to Use, Inexpensive

None major

This is an excellent player for the price. Got it for $239, and 5 free DVD movies. The load is noisy as stated in other reviews, but who cares? After you load the movie you dont hear a thing...not even during silent parts of the movie. I dont understand how other reviews state that they can hear the player while the movie is on...either they have superman hearing or have their ears next it to it. Rented Zorro, and Bond, no problems at all. I'm sure that other players in this price category are fine as well. All I can say is that the colors were vibrant. I've never seen what a DVD for $500+ does to the picture, but then again I dont care. This was more than enough. It even comes with component video connections. I'm giving it only 4
3 stars on overall, only because I havent compared it to others in its price range.

Similar Products Used:

None

Component Video Output, Optical Output, dts and dd Output.
Crystal clear pause, no Lip Sync, High end image and audio. Reads VCDs & CDRs. Best 'value dvd' (Price for quality)

Construction Quality (Light building), No Zoom, No Smooth Scan (FFWD/FRWD), Only A/C3 Ready (No decoder - Not a weakness if you own an A/C3 reciever), Noisy Mechanism, during 'Menus' (not significant when movie runs, can be solved if behind glass), Remote control is only basic (Not universal, no blacklight)

Mostly praised for: Price, Image Quality, CD-R Compatible.
----------------------------------------------------------

Highly recommended, tho might be considered less 'solid' than the Toshiba 3109/2109 (which also include A/C3 decoder).

On the bright side, it's image quality is really top notch and can be competed with top class player, did as well as $800+ players as far as image is concerned when evaluated.
Ya can also appriciate the DTS with a decent reciever.

It's weaknesses are really acceptable considered the price for the player, and never caused any real problem.

I can assume that Pioneer long known lip sync problem is fixed on their DV525 model after reviewing about 80 movies with it.

Be sure not to settle for the player only and add a decent S-Video cable (THROW the thin yellow cable recieved with the player as soon as you can).

If you are about to spend big time cash for your home-theater, ya sure can do better than the DV525, but on its price rate, nothing can beat it so far.

Price/Performance, Available Inputs/Outputs, Optical, Coaxial, Component, S-Video, Remote, Haven't tried CD-R's but good to know it supports the format

Not the Greatest Looking DVD on the market, Noisy Loading Tray.

I got my unit from an u-bid auction at $208 delivered. Frankly I should stop right here cuz at this price I have NO right to be critical.. not that I have any cmoplaints about this great DVD. I was lucky to have made one good choice in my Home Theater setup (I'll be posting my nightmares with the Onkyo TX-DS575 and TX-DS777 receivers shortly in the Receivers section).

The unit doesn't look like a top of the line audio/video equipment and I don't mind that. It goes into my rack and I can only see the indicators in the front panel which aren't all that bad! I really don't get some people's facination about the weight of a DVD.. HELLOOO!!! THIS IS NOT AN AMPLIFIER PEOPLE!!! It's not supposed to weigh a ton and weight doesn't determine it's quality. In fact the more efficient the design of those circuit boards, the less the number of IC's and the lighter the unit. so lighter = better here.

Setup was easy and straightforward and the remote is wonderful. I can't imagine anyone having gripes about this remote. On Screen display was simple and the manual is easy to follow too. Much better and thicker if I may add than the ones that accompanied the receivers!!

I have an AIWA 20" combo TV so do not have the luxury to test the S-Video and the component connections. However the composite connection works fine. No marked improvement in quality when i threw away the bundled interconnect and put in a more expensive gold plated one.. I guess the differences might appear if I use the S-video or the component outs.

One optical and one coaxial digital audio output is ok with me. I am using the optical output and it works great. Haven't been able to compare it with the coax though.

Dolby Digital movies are detected without any problems and the player tells you by means of an indicator on the front panel. When playing CD's however the unit does not provide a DTS indicator. My DTS CD's play ok but without the DVD indicating it. I haven't had a chance to play a DTS movie yet so don't know if it happens on that too!

It does exhibit an audible noise in the loading tray when it's operated and also when u'r skipping chapters. Some have ignored it, others put it behind a glass door.. I don't mind as long it stays silent while it plays the movie.. and it sure does.. dead slience, and believe me i'm anal about it. I've returned two Onkyo receivers just cuz they had that infamous hiss and despite the dealers insistence that people ignore it and it's supposed to be there I disagree.. I should only hear what the producers of the material I see and hear want me to hear and see. nothing more, nothing less. This DVD player certainly shows me everything with clarity and I'm happy to have made this choice.

Will recommend to everyone to check this unit out and definitely buy it because the standards are still unstable and before we know Pro Scan DVD players would have been outsmarted by some new technology and we could be stuck with $500+ pieces of outdated equipment. At around $200, the Pioneer DV-525 DVD player is the best DVD Player money can buy.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic A120U

Plays all formats, good value for $$$, nice features

At this price? Have you read reviews of other brands at this price? I can handle a noisy loading tray.

Excellent player for the money. The remote is normal size. After reading these reviews I expected to open the box and put out a remote the size of a computer mouse, but I truly dont understand what the problem is with its size. If you fingers are normal size(index less than 10 inchs long!!) you will have no prob with it.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba DVD-ROM 1102