Product design, picture/sound quality, menu layout

Noisy disk tray, flimsy construction, ugly remote, FF/RW function.

I purchased this unit after extensive review revision for the last 4 months, both on this site and others (forums, etc) and so far, I'm relatively happy with the results.

The price quoted is in Aussie Dollars (for all us Skips out there) and it came with 6 free movies, and some discount rental booklet for VideoEzy stores. As far as I can tell, this unit is NOT modified, but apparently can play R1 etc. It has the curious green dot on the box with a declaration that this player 'was modified for Australian Conditions', and since this is an auto-voltage switching unit, I presume it's either to replace the power cord or to enact the mod that we all desire...time will tell once I can get hold of a USA/UK disk to try.

I am very happy with picture and sound quality, not one glitch or bump in the play procedure, very smooth. My only complaint would be the excruciatingly loud disk mechanism whilst playing, this baby is real annoying so if you DO bite the bullet and shell out the clams make sure you install this in a hifi cabinet with a glass door! Remote is cheap looking but who cares and this sucker will float away unless you anchor it down. Think I'll ut some lead sheeting in it for good measure...

So far so good. Setup is as follows

Onkyo TSDX 787 Receiver
Vifa P17-based drivers all round
Whatmough 12" powered sub
Small, Piddly 21" Sony Trinitron

Definitely worth $549 AUD at JB, movie bonus is great! Movies were:

The Long Kiss Goodnight
Muriels Wedding
The Wedding Singer
Wag The Dog
Good Will Hunting
Dinosaur (the bonus new title)

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD1250, Onkyo 535

Cheap, Good audio/video

No menu button on the player. Maybe zoom but that's OK

I've being using this player since last Christmas and I am very satisfied with it. I've seen a lot of films both R1 na R2 with no problem. I even play my cds and it sounds much more better and detailed than my all-in-one prologic Aiwa. It made my Aiwa speakers come alive.
The only thing that bothers me about the dvd player is that when I connect it to the TV through S-video gives me a much better picture but there is a vertical dark line in the middle of the screen about 2.5 cm wide and it is noticeable
only on dark scenes. If anyone knows about it please email me.
Other than that I think it is a great player and I am glad
I bought for a starter.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, philips

Reads region 1 DVDs, Component video outputs, Optical and coaxial outputs

Does not convert picture from letterbox to pan and scanned or vice versa. Narrow angle of remote. Block noise during fast moving picture.

Having read the review I decided to purchase this machine. I have tried region 1 DVD without any problem. Other than the block noise during fast moving objects the overall picture is between average and good. The sound of CDs seems a bit muddy to me. When using component video output to my Panasonic flat screen 21 inch TV the colour saturation is very good even with the VCDs. But I have not noticed a great deal of difference between the composite and component video output. Although I have not tried the S-video output, I am quite doubtful that there will be any noticeable difference between component and S-video output.

Similar Products Used:

Nothing other than CD players and MD recorders

Superb audio and video quality, plays cd,cd-r,cd-rw,DVD-R, DVD-RW and cdv

Maybe the remote lighting, but hey, if you play a movie in the dark, you don't need the remote!

This machine is absolutely amazing! It plays anything! Even DVD-R and DVD-RW where most of the machines I used simply stopped! The worst of those machines was the Marantz DV-4100, and it's twice as expensive as this Pioneer is...

I've read on this review that some of the users hardly don't see any changes if you switch between composite or RGB. That's because maybe your TV can't handle RGB. The thing is, it's not only RGB but it's RGBS and the S stands for sync. I've tested the sync signal, and it's actually the composite line. So even if your TV does not support RGBS, you still see the picture.

I use this player with my brand new receiver Pioneer VSX-D510 (it's not in the list here on audioreview)and it works perfectly on the coaxial digital input! I also have a Pioneer CDV-1800 Pal/NTSC Laserdisc player, and use the optical output. Also this works very well, however, the laserdisc supposed to send a AC-3 (Dolby Digital) signal to my receiver, it's always in the mode prologic.

If I want to play a cd, I always play it on my Laserdisc player, because it's a bit better than the DVD player. But anyway, I'm very pleased with my DVD player from Pioneer. You get a lot for a low cost price, and it's the best player I have, it plays anything!

Similar Products Used:

Marantz DV-4100, Philips DVD700/710, Sony DVP-S175

Hi. I will provide some information about this DVDP.
In japan, DV-535 is discontinued. Next model number is DV-545.
DV-545 is equivalent to DV-440(US), DV-444(EU), DV-533(Asia). If you buy DV-535 at this time, it is bad. Buy new model. It supports MP3, DVD-R, DVD-RW, video adjust, and etc.

Sound/Picture

Remote. Occasional transport noise on selected DVDs but is quite soft

I had seen some excellent reviews of this product from many places and gave it one audition and decided to get it. I have always been partial to the Pioneer brands since their products are usually of a high standard at a decent price. On the way to purchasing this I was sidetracked by a rather good special on Samsung’s DVD-511. Brought it home – connected up and then returned it just 2 days later – then bought the Pioneer like I should have done and have not looked back since.

While the Samsung was reasonable enough with the picture quality I was very disappointed by the sound quality. The Samsung dropped a few frames on the Matrix DVD at the end/beginning of some chapters and this is totally unforgivable, however none of this occurred on the Pioneer, which impressed from the moment I pressed play.

The colours took on natural feel with contrasts between light and dark superb. I cannot fault the picture quality even in the slightest as it can compares with other much more expensive DVD players, many of them over twice the price of the Pioneer! Try comparing the pictures of other players together with the Pioneer and see what I mean.

What takes this player from good to outstanding is the audio quality and this is for both the 5.1 surround and stereo music. All the decoding is done on a Nakamichi AV-10 (see my review of this receiver on this site), which I found has very high quality DACs. The combination makes the Pioneer sound very good indeed, about as good as a decent budget CD player. All round the sound from Mission’s 773e (my review of these is in the speaker section) shows good clean treble, very good mid-range that does vocals justice and reasonable bass although this may be weakest of the lot.


The player itself is, well, maybe not the best looker when it comes to DVD players but it is functional at least with a very basic look. The equipment specification is impressive, offering digital out on both co-axial and optical and then the standard analogue outputs. The visual outputs are video, s-video, and for highest quality, a composite output – a feature usually found on the higher-end players. This is definitely not wasted on the Pioneer as it certainly does display an impressive picture. Sadly I don’t have the television to use this output (yet) so I cannot compare it the video and s-video outputs.

Trying the player’s internal decoding for sound showed that the internal DACs were quite good sonically but I prefer the greater detail of the Nakamichi. The player is able to use CD-R, CD-RW, and Video CD. Setting up the player is really simple with the use of an on screen ‘Navigator’ that goes through all the core requirements to get setup very quickly and easily.

The rest of my system consists of
Mission 701 (rear)
Mission 77C1 (center)
Mission 773e (main stereo)
REL Storm III (sub-bass)
Pioneer DV-535 (DVD/CD source)
Nakamichi AV-10 (receiver
and each are reviewed in their sections

Now for what could be improved – Pioneer, please work on the remote ergonomics a little. I have normal size fingers and these tiny buttons are, well, tiny. But this is more of an inconvenience rather than an issue. What is an issue sometimes though is that sometimes on a DVD (does not occur for CDs though) there is a rather strange clicking noise. This is only on some sections of only a few DVDs and is rather soft but it can be heard in the quiet parts. What is that? (Anyone). I would hate to see such an overall excellent product be spoilt by this little problem but it is there. Luckily it is a rather rare occurrence so I don’t notice it much besides I’m about to try some damping, which should help.

What else can I say? A player that has stunning visual quality that can compare to much more expensive player and works as well as a decent dedicated budget CD player (with some help from the Nakamichi). And all this at in one box at a fraction of the price of getting 2 boxes to do the same! What more do you want?

Similar Products Used:

Samsung, Sony

good all round machine

seems to have some problems with VCD's. I have played a VCD on a friends Rank Arena dvd player and then come home to try the same VCD and it won't work. The machine recognises the VCD put in play mode show only a blue screen?? Very frustrating ! Apart from that all else seems to be OK. (wish it played MP3's tho!)

An all round OK machine. Maybe the problems that I have been having with the VCD's are local to me?? Playing DVD's have been great and music cd's work well too. The noisy tray I don't think is an issue unless you plan to watch movie's with your ear glued to the machine..

If anyone has any idea's on the VCD thing - please email me

Similar Products Used:

Only the friends Rank Arena!

Great picture, great sound,ease of use,pioneer name.

none

one off the best player's for it's price,it's also good because it Plays CD-R and RW. i paid 420$ ca
buy it !!!

Similar Products Used:

JVC 523

Component Video output, Optical & Coaxial Outputs

No Vitrual surround sound button

I have used this dvd player for about 4 months and i am very happy with picture and sound quality. I was thinking of buying a Sony over this but I choose this Dvd player over the Sony simply because of this players ability to play CD-r and DVD-R. Currently I am only using the composite outputs to watch movies and the picture quality is fantastic much better than VHS. When DVD first came into the market i was a sceptic I didn't feel DVD was that good, but this DVD player has turned my opinion right around. If your lookiing for a good DVD player and your on a budget I recommend this player.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Sony

Picture and sound/ cd audio quality/ ease of use

Letterbox/ pan and scan features have no effect. No scart output.

I'm really happy with this machine so far. I was a little worried about DVD because of its negative press as a CD format. However, I've been pleasantly surprised by the audio performance. Not as beefy and deep in the bass as my old NAD, but certainly more controlled and informative. I've had to play all my CDs again, because I'm hearing things I didn't know were there. As a video machine it's fab, but letterbox and pan and scan don't seem to have any effect on what turns up on screen. I'll accept any advice on this. I am prepared to commend this as a starter machine for anyone, especially if they are concerned primarily with audio performance. Use decent interconnects and connect it to decent gear though.

Similar Products Used:

None