The DV-C302D has all the qualities of a high end DVD player. Its not missing a thing!

If you place 2 or 3 CDs in the player and want to play them "all" in random mode, pioneer could have made it easier to do w/o turning on your T.V.

I would recommend this DVD player to anyone. In order to get all the same goodies (i.e. carrousel changer, AC-3 dolby digital decoder, dts, component video out, etc,.) You would be forced to pay atleast $200 more. I bought mine at www.hometheaterworld.com for $329 + $10 for shipping. You could go for a 5 or 6 disc changer, but you WILL pay for it! I have done quite a bit of research, and I plan to update the rest of my system with a Pioneer Elite VSX-21 A/V Receiver and for speakers, either the Energy Take 5s or the Klipsch Quintet. With this set up anyone will get the most bang for the buck!

For Value and Overall Rating, I would have to give this player Five Stars.

Component Video, Multi disk loading, DTS, Dolby 5.1, easy to use.

No zoom feature

I've had my DVD player for well over a year and I still love it. Great player, never had any problems. I use my Pioneer at least 3-4 times a week.

It has all the features you are looking for. The quaility is excellent

It does not fast forward the greatest, it skips scenes when you fast forward quickly, The remote could be better

if you are looking for a mid level machine i think it is one of the best buys on the market. after this machine it really jumps up in price and at this level it has all the features the other machine have.

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1st dvd

3-dvd player ( great for random cd-playing )
Blue LED matches energy encore subwoofer LED

sound with some dvd's cuts out, only happened once, even though same movie was viewed many times

For some reason the first time I watch Stigmata, and the Matrix, the sound cut out half-way through the movie. Has not happened since, on the same movies.

Really great if used as a dvd/cd player.

If you can afford it, get a single dvd player and a separate cd changer. ( no sense paying the extra money, can only watch one dvd at a time . . . )

Really nice, easy to use remote.

Used with :
Speakers - Energy Encore
Receiver - Pioneer VSX-D509S
TV - RCA 32"
VCR - Sony 4-head hi-fi stereo

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24bit/96khz output, Built in DTS !!

None I can see

I got this unit on an internet action site for $269.00. Plays all my CD/R and CD/RW flawlessly. The picture quality is outstanding and special effects are perfect. I just purchases James Taylor Live, recorded in 1998 and was very pleased to discover it was encoded with 24bit stereo sound along with the compressed 5.1 20bit x 6.

The 24bit sound is far superior to any digital sound source currently available in the consumer market. 16bit CD Audio was never good enough. It lacked the depth of a good analog recording. I only hope this format becomes popular with the audiophiles.

If you can pick this unit up for < $300.00 BUY IT!!!

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Tested Sony, JVC, Onkyo and others

Great feature set for the money

Sound drop-outs haven't been fixed yet. Unacceptable!

I've been following the discussion about this unit for a while. I decided to take the plunge when someone reported here that the sound glitches had been cleared up in units manufactured in Dec. 1999. About three weeks ago I bought a unit manufactured in January 2000 at the Costco in Laguna Niguel, CA. Took it home, rented Sleepy Hollow, and was dismayed to hear the sound drop out about halfway into the film. I borrowed a couple of other discs from a friend (The Secret Garden and Austin Powers 2), both of which played fine. I then tested it with Double Jeopardy, which had been cited as a problem disc here. Bad news: The sound dropped out as previously reported. After stopping and restarting the disc, it played for about 10 more minutes before the sound dropped out again. Clearly, Pioneer has not yet fixed the problem. I'm taking the unit back and asking for a refund. I don't have the time to test another box. I'll wait for the next model and read this site carefully to see if the maunfacturer has it together yet.

really wanted to have a good experience with this unit, and

Update from an earlier post

Update from an earlier post

For the sound problem on the one of the DVD's has not yet been fixed. But Pioneer contacted me and asked me to send it in to their head office including the DVD movie. But i find if i do so than i will not have a player to watch anything with? So, just to let you know since more than 3 people have written in about the sound problem with some DVD movies i suggest goto Pioneer web site and speak to a customer Rep and they will help you, they are trying to isolate the problem with this system....I'll let you know the outcome

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Update from an earlier post

"True" disk shuffle,96 kHz digital output, Color and Sound

The remote has lots and lots, AND LOTS of little buttons - ( OH, Yeah !!! )

I have had quite some time to use this unit and since I have gotten several queries about the player and other iinformation I decided to update my review. I hope the information I share helps whomever reads it.

First let me say that I chose the player for several reasons. Key among them were: Price, Sound quality, Video Quality, True 96 KkHz digital output (which from all I have read will be needed to play DVD-Audio, whenever it comes out), the ability to play multiple disk and "True" disc shuffle.

The price is excellant at $400+tax at Best Buy (most other stores will price match by the way). The Video Quality is excellent (I think the best around). The colors really pop with no excessive bleeding. I have not noticed any pixelation but then I don't tak a maginfying glass to my TV.

When listening to a DVD in 5.1 surround the sound is exceptional even playing an ordinary CD. I know that the newer CD players are supposed to sound better than a DVD player but my CD player I just replaced was a Deon 414 with Alpha processing 8 X over sampling ect. (Stone age by todays standards) but even at 44 khz and 16-bit audio resolution the sound just blew me away. (If you want to hear what 96 kHz 24-bit digital audio sonds like try the Eagles "Hell Frezes Over" DVD in DTS. Bring on DVD-Audio!!!) By the way the majority of current DVD players out there that do NOT output a true 96 kHz digital signal. I could only the Pioneer for less than about $ 800.00. I did notice the noise that some have complained about when the carousel comes out for disk loading and unloading , but to be honest my Denon did the same thing so I don't consider that a big deal.

As far as disk shuffle goes, all of the current makers except this Pioneer and the Denon 3700 ($1000.00) have "true" disk shuffle. All of the others have a feature where they will shuffle cuts on one disk only and will not proceed to the next disk until they have finished playing all the cuts on it. For me this just doesn't cut it. I like the music station feel you can get from shuffling from say a disk with jazz to one with rock/roll, and then to classical. So for me this turned out to be THE deciding factor. The only feature this player did not have that I really wanted was HDCD with it's 20-bit audio resolution ( the only one under $100 with this feature),but with all the problems the Toshiba-4109X had, not to mention size (if I had gotten it it would have stuck out the other end of my AV setup by 5"), and lack of "true" disk shuffle knocked it out of contention. A feature I would not worry about is the Quality of the DAC's on the DVD player. Those will only be used if you use the analog inputs and the ONLY time I can see anyone using those is if you are recoding a CD to audio tape. Otherwise you are better ff using the coax digital connection and using the DACs on your receiver when the signal is output to your speakers from its amplifyer section.

I would recommend getting this player to anyone. At present, any carousel player you get will be a compromise. I have heard that a true "Universal" DVD player for playing DVDs, DVD-A, SACD, CDs and CD-Rs is in the works but according to what I have read that may be 4 - 5 years out. Personally I will get a lot of wear out of this player before then.

If you don't care about some of the features I have mentioned, except for playing multiple disks, then any of the other players I list in my other review except for the Toshiba-4109X (the ONKYO is the same player it just has a different name on it) will do.

I also have some recommendations on DVDs and a CD to get.

First off I would buy the CD called the LLC5, made by Audio Source) from Crutchfield 1-800-955-300. It has several neat features. For example, it has your normal Polarity, Sweep Tones, Localization and Imaging tests, but it also has a dynamic impact track for auditioning new speakers (or to show off your own). It also has tracks for Demagnitizing your whole system and a "Burn-in" track that I used to "burn-in" this DVD player. The extra sound cuts give you a chance to show off your sytem at its best and see how it handles imaging, ect.

Second, as for DVDs. I have already mentioned the Eagles and their "Hell Freezes Over" DVD in DTS format. But if you like to really give your Subwoofer and Surrounds out (and I do) and aren't interested in "The Matrix" (and I'm not) than try these:

Delos DVD Spectacular (The Dolby Digital Trailers are FANTASTIC!)
Sister Act 2: Back In the Habit
StarTrek 4: The Voyage Home
StarTrek 6: The Undiscovered Country
StarTrek Generations
The Last Star Fighter (Collector's Edition)
George of the Jungle
Muppets From Space

and of couse
"Hell Freezes Over" (DTS)

System Calibration:

I have bought AVIA and Video Essentials. I found that the Video calibration on Video Essentials is much better than AVIA. But the sound sytem calibration (more important for me) is much more comprehensive and much more accurate in AVIA than Video Essentials. If you want to - try it and see what you think. Personally, I'd say get the AVIA if you can only afford one. I would also recommend getting the SPL meter they suggest (available at Radio Shack) and a florescent bulb (I found out 8 watts is fine) to mount behind your TV set.

I believe I have covered all the bases between this reveiw and the last one. But if anyone still has some questions feel free to e-mail me thru this web site.

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See previous review.

THIS IS AN UPDATE TO AN EARLIER POSTING

THIS IS AN UPDATE TO AN EARLIER POSTING

I have exchanged my earlier player and have watched all the problem movies; Tarzan, Double Jeopardy and The Haunting. I did not experience any of the problems I noted in earlier postings. I also noticed that the build date is later in the year. My 1st DVC302D was built in Oct99 and the one I have now was built in Dec99. I still think that the value is excellent for this player, however I am still not too sure on the overall quality. Maybe it was the player, maybe the DVD authoring on the noted discs, but I like I said I have not had the audio problems with the new player. I hope that helps some folks out.

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THIS IS AN UPDATE TO AN EARLIER POSTING

THIS IS AN UPDATE TO AN EARLIER POSTING

THIS IS AN UPDATE TO AN EARLIER POSTING

Well, I have received about 7 replies from other owners of the Pioneer DVC302D and they claim to have had the same problems on the same discs. (Check earlier postings). I am wondering if this could be a problem with the player's build quality or with the quality of the discs. The problem discs are: Tarzan (Disney), Double Jeopardy and recent addition, The Haunting. If anyone has any insight to these problems or had similar problems, I would like to hear from you and I am sure Pioneer would be glad to look into it if it was as widespread as I am thinking that it is. BTW, I have not has this problem on any other disc except Tarzan and Doub. Jep. I just got The Haunting, so I will be watching to see if it happens on that disc. Thanks to all those that replied to my posting/review.

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THIS IS AN UPDATE TO AN EARLIER POSTING