Great picture, great sound. Easy to use, reads every disc you throw at it.

Looks plastic

I think this is the best dvdplayer around for a reaonable price. It's just great. Perfect picture and sound. Mine is aslo multiregion, when I play region 1-discs the picture quality is not as good as region 2, but that's because of the NTSC-standard, which is, in my opinion, not as good as the European Pal-standard. CD-R works perfect, as do home-made VCD's and Photo-cd's. I'm avery happy with the product, it is as good as my old Aony, which cost a lot more!

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Sony dvps 525

Plays CD-R, excellent audio and image. Low price.

Noisy on some DVDs, movie "freezes" on layer change.

This unit gives you much for the money. It has NTSC->PAL60 conversion, 96/24 DAC, optical/coaxial digital out as well as analogue out.

It also has RGB out if you use the SCART connector. This gives you a superior image with sharp edges and no transition noise between colors.

The drawback is the noise and the pause when the laser pickup changes layer on the DVD. If Pioneer get rid of these problems I would have given this unit 5/5 stars!

Finally, I bought this unit at Reference Audio in Stockholm and that was the last time I bought something there. The salesman was rude and he didn't pay me much attention as a customer. (Köp inget där kära svenska läsare, ni ångrar er sedan!)

The best advantage is viewing RCE dvd movies with no tricks
(like Patriot R1 , The 6th day R1)

A bit noise from the tray

Good player with a good price

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ELTAX 650-s dvd

Great picture with DVD and CDR.
Great Sound with audio CD and DVD

Screen Display not easy to read

This is my first DVD player and is the best sound and video i have seen for a similar product. Unlike computer DVD, it has excellent picture. Well worth the $650.

Bright sharp picture / clear audio / Mod / I/O options / Good control features

A bit flimsy. Cheap tray mech. ( a little noisy ). CD replay is OK, but not as good as a decent CD player.

Its a difficult decision purchasing a DVD player within this price bracket, but I think Pioneer have the right idea.
I purchased a modded version, and must say that it works very well. Macrovision has been disabled, and Region 1's work OK. ( expt. X-Men. seems to get a bit confused near the additional footage section)
This is my first DVD player, and I am very impressed with the quality and audio of such a cheap device. Even got RGB out on the SCART.
I spend all day loking at TV broadcast monitors with Hi-res inputs, and this cheap device plugged into a £250 4:3 telly from Currys has blown me away.
Im never gonna buy a VHS again !!!
Highly reccomended.

PS. Bit naff as an audio CD player. Sounds a bit thin.

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DV 636.

Reads CD-Rs, multi-region, multi-system

some minor flaws

When I bought a DVD player, I was specifically looking for one with S-video, optic out, multi-region, multi-angle and
can play VCDs. Which was the reason I bought this model. Another reason was my trust in Pioneer's optic lens
(I think Pioneer brand laserdisc players were the most durable laserdisc players). I was planning to buy one with an AC3 decoder or progressive scan, but players that have those features were really expensive. So I opted to buy this one. I think no other DVD player could read CD-Rs (if it could read MP3-CDs it would've been better). At 24bit, its a great audio cd player (I listen more to music than watch DVDs). A few bugs I encountered was whenever I'm watching vcd movies with multiple tracks, the display screen on the player just shows "PCD" instead of the track number and time. Very minor problem, but really annoying.
(If anyone knows how to fix this pls mail me). All in all ,
this is a great dvd player. Even at its cheaper price,
the quality and features are still comparable to other more
expensive dvd player models of different brands. It's a best buy!

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Onkyo TX-474
JBL N-Center
Wharfedale Diamond 7.2

Good balance in picture and sound.

The CD tray sounds a bit noisy and cheap.

Excellent product if you into good quality of picture and sound. Very user Friendly.I'm using it with a Toshiba 48 inch TV with wonderful results. Good lines on good quality movies, and the sound is very natural. I'm running the sound via a Sennheizer Digital Sound Processor, only on a two speaker sound system. My sound system consists of the old era Sansui amplifier and speaker system. The results are excelent.

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None

Plays every cd (CDR, CDRW, VIDEOCD...)
Looks good
Very crisp picture and good sound

Can't be made multiregion with remote :-(

Excellent player compared to price. First I bought HK DVD1 and took it back the same day, because it didn't read CD-Rs. Then i bought used Philips 950 from a friend. Its still my "second" player that I use for watching R1 DVDs. At last I bought Yamaha DVP S 510 but it broke and they gave me refund from the store and I bought the Pioneer.

I use it also for playing music CDs and I think the sound is very good for a DVD player.

I haven't had any problems with the "noisy tray".

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Harman/Kardon DVD1, Philips DVD 950, Yamaha DVP S 510

Easy to use and easy to install, great remote, got DTS and Dolby great for the whole family! Fast response!

Feels cheap and light, but don't be fooled! You can hear a bit of hiss of the DVD player if you stand about 1m close to it, but who cares? Doesn't make a difference! Terrible rewind / fast forward and no zoom.

The first thing one would notice is that it is extremely light in weight when unpacking.
Connecting it up is as simple as putting in a video cable (RCA or S video or Component video - RCA cables included) and plugging a optical cable from your DVD to Amplifier for your surround channels. Otherwise there is 1 set of stereo outputs for some people.
This DVD can read ALL ZONES that I have tested: Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 6 with no problems, plus it also reads CD-R, CD-RW and VCD ; even the power required is all zoned (110V/220V).
As you start the machine up for the first time, a beautiful Pioneer logo appears and then a blue screen. From what I have seen so far, there doesn't seem to be a screensaver.
Loading the disk tray is fast.. opens within 1 to 2 seconds. For first read, it takes about 2 seconds and then you will be on your way! Searching for the title is almost instant!
Simple buttons in the front panel but gets a bit complicated with the remote, but that remote compared to the others is a fantastic work. The buttons are placed where you would actually find them, ie. Enter button in the center of the arrow buttons. Play, stop, e.t.c. underneath that.
I placed the Gladiator in and starts off with the menu. Using the arrow buttons is quite easy, but response isnt instant, but quite fast as well. As I said, the enter in the centre is superb work they have done there!
This DVD can read both DTS and Dolby Digital encoded DVD's.
Picture quality looks good mainly because I used RCA to amplifier (Yamamha RXV 520) then RCA to TV. Getting S video would be much better.
I used optical digital cables or toslink to connect my dvd to amplifier, for the sound to decode in the amplifier. Note: you need a decoder (like AV amp, etc) to decode surround sound (DTS/Dolby). This model does not have its built in decoder. You can use coxial cables
When the player is switching between layers, you might notice a less than a quater second pause but otherwise alright.
Try put in a scratched DVD and it will work, until that scratched part. Then you have to shut down the DVD and restart it (On/Off).
The fast forward / backward is not very smooth. It seems to be forward / backward in 4x and 8x speeds only.
Better use the title search, its faster!
Brilliant Sound Quality (Duh, with optical).
Picture quality good so far but i expect better when I use S-Video(Got RCA)

Extremely good product, but feels and looks cheap, but hey... its your first deal!

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None... First DVD

picture and sound

Noisy
Pan&Scan/Letterbox Mode (no changes)

For the price, I think it's the best you can buy !
But, does anybody knows how I can change this screen parameter (4/3 Letterbox or pan&scan) ??? I tried thousand of things (different dvds, TV,...) but I never saw the zoom (pan&scan) working...Nothing change.

Thanks