DVD Player

Very good DVD player and I also use it aas a transport fed to an outboard DAC. Great versitiale unit.

Good picture, good functionality, fair remote.

Durability, repair service time. I expect more from Pioneer Elite

First off this player has a good picture and generally works pretty well. It is a bit noisy, but it is not that bad and I am picky in that area. In the beggining I noticed that this DVD player was a bit picky on how a DVD is set into the player. It has to be centered just right or the machine will open up. Over time this pickiness became excessive and it would take many tries to get it to accept a DVD or CD. I took it in for service about 1 year after I purchased it to repair this issue. The repair lasted about 10 months and the pickiness returned. On the 2 year birthday I returned it for service. It has been in the repair shop for 12 weeks now. Ulitmate Electronics says that parts were ordered 10 weeks ago and they are still waiting for them. The sales people seem to be surprised that I have had such problems with Pioneer Elite so maybe this is a rare lemon. It is frustrating to buy a DVD player that is in the mid level price and higher quality that can be put to shame by a $30 P.O.S. Player. (as far as reliability and ability to digest different media types)

Similar Products Used:

JVC, Bose, Philips, APEX, Panasonic

This player does accept every disc format I have tried on it, including PAL-formatted discs. (The TV has to support PAL of course).

- Component output can't be used at the same time as S-Video and composite - Progressive scan chip is sub-par

Before purchasing this unit, take a look at a DVD player featuring a Faroudja DCDi chip... You will be astounded how much better it looks than this player. The progressive scan processing chip in the DV-C36 in reality is pretty bad (do some searches for web sites comparing progressive scan players). For the price paid for this unit, you can find much better elsewhere.

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Panasonic PV72 Philips DVDR985

Tremendous Video Resolution Great Color rendering Format workability is flawless That "Pioneer Elite" piano black finish is beautiful.

Dealer price is too high for Elite stuff. So, I gave up the warranty.

I purchased this unit to go with my new Pioneer Elite VSX-41 receiver. I am very happy with it. As far as movies are concerned, the video is as near to flawless as I have seen. I am using this with a Toshiba rear projection 43" TV. I don't like it (the TV) but the Elite does a much better job with it than the SOny I owned before. Functionally, the DV-C36 is fantastic. It has flawlessly handled every format I have thrown at it; including DVD, CD, CDR, CDRW. A reference type player does make a sound quality difference! I am enjoying far more carity and "punch" of bass with this unit than my previous unit. I am running this with a VSX-41 receiver, Pioneer Elite PD-F09 CD Changer, and Pioneer Elite M72 Amplifier in stereo mode, Mirage M-890i towers for the fronts, Mirage BP150 Subwoofer, Paradigm Atoms for the rears, and Paradigm CC-170 for the center. In my opinion, you may be able to buy a DVD/CD player at Best Buy for $100, but you will never know what the movie is supposed to REALLY look like or what the music is REALLY supposed to sound like. You may wonder where I got the price listed. I did not buy this at my local dealer. He quoted me $450 for this unit. It can be found on E-Bay Brand new for $260. The drawback is your warranty is no good if you don't buy it from an authorized dealer. At that price difference, I think I will take the risk!

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Sony "Best Buy" crap

It plays everything I want.

Let's be realistic: why is it so expensive? The Sony 5-disc changer is only 200 dollars and worked almost as well. I was unable to do a side-by-side video comparison between the Pioneer and Sony, however. I never saw the remote so I cannot comment on it.

Just an addendum to these very helpful reviews (which sold me on this player over the competition). I burn a lot of super video cds (SVCD), so playback of this format was very important to me. Before buying this unit I had an older, non-progressive scan Sony changer which I liked well enough for its day... but it would not play SVCDs and was even fussy about VCDs. As a compromise, I bought an Apex Ad-5131 3-disc changer. Yes, Apex is scary, but that cheap little thing ($85.00) played EVERYTHING I put into it, even video encoded with oddball bitrates. It even has component video out! No progressive scan, and the video quality wasn't up to the Sony, but for 85 bucks I wasn't going to complain much. Well, I just bought a 65" widescreen HDTV, so it's time to move into progressive scan territory. I went to Ultimate Electronics and found a very enthusiastic salesman who was willing to put up with me to try out literally every progressive scan dvd changer they had on the wall to see which ones would play my test SVCD (an episode of the tv show 'Firefly' I downloaded and burned onto a cd-r with a menu I designed). After trying out about 10 changers, only two played my SVCD properly: a Sony dvp-nc655p and this Pioneer. Some of the other players from Denon, Panasonic, etc., would play the SVCD, but the video had little jerks and hiccups. The Sony was only 200 bucks, but it has one big flaw: though it played the video just fine, it didn't play my menu! It was the only player (among the ones that worked at all) which failed to do that. My menu has 2 options: play the episode or show the cast (which I had cribbed off the Firefly website). There seemed to be no way to bring up the menu afterward or to view the other menu pages of the cast I had made. The Pioneer, as I said, worked perfectly and was the ONLY player there to work perfectly, playing the menu and the video... except for a $57.00 single-disc Apex they had... :-)

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Sony dvp-nc655p

Been using this product for a little over 6 months. Very happy with picture and sound quality. However, the changer mechanism is weak. The change times are fine...but quite often the changer will fail to load a CD and will require me to open the tray and jiggle the CD a bit. May be something I can get fixed via warranty- but if you're considering this unit, load it up with CD's first, and run the changer through it's paces. As of now, I miss my old Yamaha changer which was quick, fast, and problem free.

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Toshiba, Sony, Yamaha

Great picture. Good music player and Great looks!

cheap looking remote. NO SACD at this price.

Before I get into this review, let me share the component that I have matched with this receiver. ·AV Amplifier: Onkyo TXDS797 THX certified ·DVD/CD/SACD Player: Sony DVP NC650V and Pioneer Elite DVC-36 (5 CD/DVD changer) ·Speakers: Wharfedale Pacific Center Channel, Wharfedale Pacific PI-40 Front Left/Right, and Wharfedale Pacific PI-10 rear surround channel. ·Subwoofer: Infinity HPS-1000 (1000 watts) Cable: All Monster Cable When I played SADE’s “Is It A Crime?” and “Jezabel” (with PRO-Logic II music format) this thing provided good clarity and details. The sound quality for music is good but not excellent. The home theater performance is fantastic. I played the movie Pearl Harbor and planes fly bys were realistic and the dialogues were clear. Picture quality is excellent. This is better in movies than my Sony NC650V (also a DVD/CD/SACD changer). However, the Sony is better for music. Don’t get me wrong the Pioneer Elite can play music well but just not as good as the Sony NC650V. It is nonetheless a great equipment for both movies and music (Movies as a priority…this is the choice).

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SONY ES, Sony, Harman Kardon, Denon, Marantz

Just an update to my earlier review: This unit DOES play VCDs!

Picture quality, cosmetic looks.

Remote is just okay, but if you are into HT, get a universal remote such as the Philips Pronto.

This is hands down one of the best mid level dvd's on the market. The picture quality is unreal, people complain that it makes movies look fake. The picture is every bit as good as my DV-38a ($1200), which I use for the THX functionality. It can also be used a 5 disc CD player Hint: when you play cd's put it on cd mode, which is a button on the face of the panel. I read one review where the user had problems playing cd's, how much easier can Pioneer make it? Put it in "cd" mode.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba S100 (doesn't compare) Pioneer Elite 38A (same picure, THX sound)

DVD playing

CD playing

I've had this player for just under a year, but have recently experienced major problems playing cds. Playing DVDs is not a problem, but when I play cds it often has static, skips and cuts out all together. Has anyone had a similar experience?? Like I said, still plays DVDs perfectly, but for some reason it does not play CDs??? HELP!