GREAT Picture!

Sound

I just wanted to upgrade my rating based on more recent viewing. I took the 302 over to a friends house who has a Sharp LCD projector and watched in amazement the most crisp, color accurate video at almost 100" wide! WOW. Incredible image! The DVD We watched was "Goodbye Lover" which turned out to be much better than its title would suggest by the way. I still am disappointed with the sound when playing CD's but my verdict is still out with the DVD sound. Interestingly, I noticed that Pioneers new 300 DVD/CD/CD-R changer now uses the Burr-Brown converters for audio!

New rating 4 overall, Downgraded from 5 due to CD audio Sound quality.

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High end older Sony DVD player

Sound Quality, Multi-Disc Changer, Looks, No Lip-Sync Problems, Price, Good Repeat Disc Option

Poor Remote, Noisy Changer, Minor Pixelation

This is a pretty good changer for the price. I've put the unit through its paces and it has passed each time. I think this is one of the better changes on the market, and since I don't care for Sony products, this is as good as it gets for now. I like Onkyo's changer, but it's a Toshiba clone and the reviews aren't that great for either of them. I recommend this Pioneer to anyone...Here's my minor observations, complaints, and compliments:

1. Poor remote.
2. Minor pixelation on the Matrix. Before anyone gets too upset, I'm refering to the initial opening screen shots when you first put the disc in. The movie flashes very rapidly through several movie shots, one right after another. It ends with Reeves jerking up from a chair and I noticed brief pixelation around his face. The movie itself, however, plays perfectly.
3. The unit sounds like a tank when switching discs; the tray, when opening and closing, is pretty quiet though.
4. Great video.
5. Great movie sound; good CD sound (Pioneer needs to use Burr-Brown in this unit).
6. Annoying disc spinning sound, but still better than the DV-525.
7. Good looks. I really like the amber display.
8. BIG GRIPE...Pioneer left off the optical output cover on my unit! In fact, it wasn't even shipped with the unit. It may be a small thing, but it pisses the hell out of me to spend money on electronics that either don't work as advertised, or arrive with missing parts. My unit was made in Japan and Pioneer's service center said the missing part was listed as "not important enough to replace". If I hadn't already installed the thing, I would have returned it out of spite.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-525

Price is great for a 3 dics player with so many features.

None

Incredible system, ease of use and remote control features. Able to keep on pause for extended periods of time, great memory features also.

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NONE

Nice blue led, 3 disc changer, built in dolby digital decoder, cool on screen menus, nice design.

remote needs help, when you pause a movie and play it, it takes a second for the sound to kick in, no screensaver, no standby light,

I bought this baby today at Besy Buy and I got a nice deal, I think that they are making way for the new pioneer 503's so i got this baby for 199.60. however i didn't getac adapter or manual. I believe this was the unit used to show people iterested in buying it.
I really wanted dolby digital built in as my reciever is only DD ready. This took care of that. The 3 disc changer is nice but not as nice as my old sony 5 disc cd changer (I sold it for the money to buy this) The remote is a little disapointing since u have to memorize all the small buttons which are hard to see in the dark. poor choice of colors on remote. the font is grey on a black remote.
I found that when comparing this dvd player to cheaper ones, the sound quality is much better. of corse it's not hard to beat an Apex AD 600. As far as playback, i haven't had any problems. I would expect pioneer to last for a while since they have been in the business for so long. I will post again if i run into any problems. for the price i paid, i'm satisified.

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apex 600

dolby digital decoding, great on-screen-display. An endless array of outputs. 3 disc cd/dvd changer.

terrible remote, noisy disc tray

This is a great dvd player. It plays anything you may throw at it. The on-screen-display is also very well layed out with many options and features. It also has many outputs making it a more flexible player. Aoudio discs sound terrific and dvd videos look great. The remote on the other hand does need some work. The buttons are too close together and it's not very pleasant to hold. Dificult to manage in the dark. Overall, great player and a great buy for only $130. At this price it earns a solid 5 stars!!

BEAUTIFUL PICTURE, ESPECIALLY WITH THE COMPONENT VIDEO CONNECTION.ATTRACTIVE DESIGN.

PAUSES ON EVERY SINGLE MOVIE FOR VARIOUS LAYER CHANGES.

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VALUE FOR THE MONEY AT 399.00 AT SOME PLACES. THE UNIT HAS A BEAUTIFUL SCREENSAVER AND DESIGN IS LAID OUT VERY WELL. OTHGER THAN THE LAYER CHANGE PAUSES OR CHAPTER CHANGE DELAY ITS A VERY NICE UNIT. IT SEEMS LIKE MOST OF THE DVD PLAYERS ARE DOING THIS.NICE UNIT FOR THE MONEY.

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ELITE DV-05, HK DVD5, SONY 850, YAMAHA CDC900 AND TOO MANY TO MENTION.

Looks, sound performance all around, big package for a decent price

none yet....

I hooked it up to my Sony STR-DE835 with an optical audio cable and the sound is flawless regardless of what kind of disk I put in Audio or Video. I have B.I.C. America Ventouri 32 series speakers for front, rear and center channels. My sub is a JBL-PSW112(kick's a$$!). This system rocks, and I have absolutely nothing but great things to say about the Audio and Video. As far as the carousel making some noise....who cares...it's not anything to wipe tears about. I have no complaints about the remote but then again I don't poke on it much during a movie so I haven't noticed any problems. In addition, my Receiver's remote does a great job of running the basic features of the DVD so that's all I need for watching a movie....one remote. I love this Home Theatre set up and its ability to play music and movies with equal definitive all around quality.

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first DVD player

Three disk player, multiple outputs,cool blue light

tiny remote buttons with no backlighting

This is my first foray into the world of DVD so I don't have anything to compare this unit with. However, I am pleased with the player both for CDs and DVDs. One word of caution - in the menu setup, I set the output to "cinema" versus "standard" or "animation". The result was supposed to change the output to a more theater like experience but in reality, removed all contrast in darker scenes.

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None

Everything is good, Design and nice small remote.

Sound cuts out during specfic DVD movies. Really weird even after i returned it and switched it for a new one

This item i have returned 2 times and still was cutting out on specific movies. There has been many reports of this. Some guy that works for Pioneer contacted me via e-mail because he read my last review and he asked me to send it to him for repairs but i do not want to send it to the US to fix this, because the shipping alone would be over $50!
This item is still under warranty and when i called the local Pioneer manufacturing they had no idea what i was talking about?! So, whom ever works at Pioneer please contact me again and if others face similar problems please contact me. This DVD player would just cut out sound during the film and then i have to stop then play again and the sound comes back. I think the 2001 models were fixed of this problem...Please help as this is also acting up on my new DVD movies.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba

Ability to play CD-Rs, very good audio quality, 3 disks, excellent video quality, easy setup, DTS ready

Audio dropout problems, Slightly noisy transport

We've had a few occasions where the audio has completely dropped out during a DVD and could not be recovered without turning off the unit and waiting a while before turning it back on. The most recent problem is on the DVD "Die Hard" where in certain scenes, the audio disappears (certain gunshots and explosions). You can hear the other sound effects, but not the actual report of the gun or the actual explosion.However, in other scenes the sound is complete, guns and explosions and all. This happens in both DD and DTS modes (it is a DTS DVD). I've double checked the optical connections and the setup. Despite the reports here on this board, Pioneer says that there are no known issues with this problem with this model.

Other than that, the player is excellent and has been able to play a great diversity of DVD and CD-R brands. I've been very impressed with the audio and video quality overall. For the versatility and quality for the price paid for it at the time, it's a great deal.