5 disc tray, ability to wide range of discs (cd/dvd/cd-r), price

none

I looked long and hard at several Toshiba DVD players before I purchased the Pioneer. I'm glad now, that I bought the Pioneer. I read through hundreds of reviews on this site before making the purchase. There weren't any reviews written on the DV-C503 at the time, however. So,I used the reviews to determine which players I would stay away from. The first test I gave the DV-C503 was "The Matrix". I went to Blockbuster and found a "very used" disc. This seemed to be the one acid test for a player 6 months ago. It played flawlessly. Over the past 6 months, the only noticeable layer change I saw was in "Almost Famous". My music CDs play great too. I've played 2 cd-rs through it and no problems there either. No complaints here at all.

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This is my first DVD player.

It does it all. Clear sound for music, great DVD player. Easy to use.

None so far, other than a couple of pauses while switching scenes in movies.

Don't waste a lot more time researching players. Not only has this gotten good reviews here, it got good reviews even from Consumer Reports, a rarity that both align.

This does everything you need. CD-R, CD-RW. DVD, including DTS and Dolby Digital. Very reliable so far. I have had a couple of pauses when switching scenes in DVDs, but I haven't seen too many players that doesn't have this happen, and it quite possibly could be the DVDs rather than the player.

Very happy with this, and it flat out kicks my Sony's butt. I regret having bought the Sony and paid more money for it than this Pioneer.

I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a very good DVD/CD player but doesn't want to go into the really pricey stuff.

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Sony C650D

Simple, uncluttered layout, lightweight

nothing serious without getting nit picky like some cry babies on here

Pioneer electronics have long been a staple in my family so I got this player because at the time i bought it new (2 months later the price dropped 60%) it was one of a handful of "mainstream" dvd changers that played cdr's. (i could not afford a separate cd player at the time). Anyway, it is easy to use. DVD's and cd's both play well, though cd's would play better w/a dedicated player, but this is the case with all dvd players. Many people have complained about the remote. I programmed mine to work on my onkyo receiver remote (tx-ds787) and it's great. If you have good components with learning remotes, this works good or get a universal remote. Don't lower the ratings because of remotes. I'm so sure! I give a 5 for overall rating because I am getting what I paid for. Value gets a 4 because they are so cheap now.

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crappy apex

holds 5 dvds, price , looks

remote and lack of multi fast forward feature

Picked up for $210 from sears to replace an holder single panasonic for my living room setup.
Works well providing a clear picture and good sound. Have had no problems so far.
Good player for the money. Only thing i don't like is the lack of variable fast forward speeds and the way the single fast forward is implemented on the remote.
The comparison to my more expensive panasonic 5 dvd player in my other setup is a wash. Picture looks the same and DD sounds the same.
Five stars for value and convience.

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panasonic dvd c-50

I LIKE THE LOOK OF IT AND SO FAR PERFECT OPERATION

A DIMMER WOULD BE NICE AND THE TRAY IS A BIT NOISY

I HAVE TRIED SEVERAL DVD PLAYERS OVER THE LAST YEAR. I JUST TRIED THE TOSHIBA SD-3750 AND THOUGHT I HAD A KEEPER AND ALL OF A SUDDEN THE DTS PLAYBACK STOPPED WORKING, SO I PICKED THIS GEM UP FOR JUST 10.00 MORE AND I LOVE IT. I LIKE THE ABILITY TO LOAD 5 DISKS AND THE SOUND AND VIDEO BOTH ARE FANTASTIC. FOR AN ENTRY PLAYER I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.

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TOSHIBA, APEX, SONY

Price, reads every disc I throw at it, quick response, great connectivity

Lack of incremental forward, reverse
Discs must be placed in tray precisely or they pop out into the back of the machine

The reason I bought this DVD player was two-fold. The primary reason is simple: my previous player (JVC XV-501BK) broke after 2-1/2 years like everybody else's seems to have. Second, it also would not play CD-R's and even would not play certain movies, which is a real nuissance. Since my wife and I used it to play a lot of music in addition to movies, we thought it would be nice to have a multi-disc changer, and one that would play CD-R's as well. I don't really care about MP-3 playback, as I can burn a CD from MP3's for pennies each anyway, and I have a nice hard-disk based MP3 player I can use for playing MP3's.

Simply put, I was looking for the most affordable 5-disk carousel player I could find that had support for CD-R's and Video CD's, but didn't want a piece of junk. This unit seems to fit the bill. It has played everything I've put in it so far without complaint, and the picture and sound seem fine so far.

There are a couple of problems with this unit, but they are fairly minor. First, it is pretty much useless for incremental forward and rewind, so if you love to cue/review then don't even think about buying this unit, because it really sucks in this area. The other problem with this unit (which I've already experienced) is that if you don't get the CD exactly into the correct position on the tray, then the CD can become dislodged when the carousel turns, finding its way off the tray and into the back of the player. I had to remove the cover from the player to extract the dislodged CD. Fortunately, it caused no harm to the player and only caused a minor scratch to the disc which did not affect playback.

On the plus side, this player has wonderful connectivity on the back of the unit. In addition to component video, it has both optical and coaxial digital output, and two sets of stereo audio outputs. I find the coaxial digitial output very useful because my reciever (Harmon Kardon AVR75) has only a single optical input, and I have a Dish receiver that has optical output for Dolby Digital PPV movies, which I previously could not use because my optical input was already occupied by the DVD player. Now that I've switched the DVD player to the coaxial digital input, I'm able to connect my optical input to the Dish reciever and decode digital signals from both sources. It also cues movies up pretty quickly, and the auto-resume feature is very nice for DVD's.

Given the fact that I got it at Costco for $200 ($170 after $30 mail-in rebate), I can't complain. It's not perfect, but it's a very useable player and the price is right.

Price!

No easy scanning

I knew that I wanted a DVD changer to replace my single disc Yamaha CD player and to (obviously) play DVD's. I shopped around a bit and was seriously debating spending a lot of money on a higher end changer with all the fixin's. Since I'm on a bit of a budget I didn't really want to blow most of it on a DVD changer since I was hoping to upgrade my stereo receiver/amplifier with a new home theatre system. I was almost ready to spend the extra cash when I stumbled on the Pioneer DV-C503 for less than $200 and I was practically sold on the spot. Yes, you sacrifice some quality and some features that you get in higher-grade audiophile equipment, but this little changer is a rock solid entry level DVD player. With such a low price, how can you complain about anything?

Good: Price, price price! Fairly easy to navigate setup menu. Many different connection choices on the back panel. Clear, sharp picture. Great sound, as you would expect.

Bad: I've had trouble with the DVD's slipping out of the carousel, too. Not much else besides that...

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Toshiba, Sony

EVERYTHING!

Could use a Zoom feature

Well, its been about 9 months now since I bought home my baby :) People, at this price for what it does YOU CANT GO WRONG! (Its now around $199...for a 5 disc changer!) This unit doesnt EAT DISCS..If you make sure they are placed in the tray properly! (I've NEVER had that problem) Of COURSE they will get jammed if you dont pay attention. On the strength of all the positive reviews, GET THIS UNIT! But again, it is STILL a mechanical thing, so purchase the extended warranty and you will sleep better for the next 3 years!

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Toshiba (Garbage) Phillips (worked longer than the Toshiba!)

I bought this unit to perform two functions equally well:
to play DVDs and to shuffle play CDs.

As a DVD player it performs well with our '92 vintage high end Mitsubishi 27" TV. Overall all, its picture quality is excellent though I've noticed in a few movies that scenes in dark places have snow-like patterns in the darkened areas. I use the analog stereo out for sound into the TV and my stereo. The DVD analog audio out has a substantial drop in its output power such that the TV or stereo must be turned up louder than normal to hear the soundtrack, which is not a big deal. The CD analog audio out does not have this problem.

As a CD changer the unit initialy performed well, though the sound quality is on par with most consumer grade CD players. Unfortunately, after about 8 months of sporatic use as a CD chnager, it now rejects about half of our CD collection by opening the drawer when it attempts to seek and read a disk. This problem is not consistent though when in shuffle play it always happens sooner or later. All of these CD work fine in my other CD players, and used to work fine in this player. None of the DVDs we've played has had this problem (but we never shuffle play them either, who would???)

So, as an inexpensive DVD player, I think this is worth checking out. As an all around CD changer, this unit has potential problems. For value, 4 stars; overall, 2 stars for its problem with dark scenes and its performance as a CD player.

The picture quality is excellent, as is the sound quality

None that i've discovered, and i've had it for over a year!

When i originally went to purchase a stand alone player (having had my creative rig for the year previous), i first tried out a toshiba as i wanted the zoom feature..(only because i didn't know any better)...don't remember the exact model number, but it was the one with a dual tray....what a disapoinment that thing was!!....crappy picture quality, artifacts all over the place....in terms of picture it was a decided step down from my creative labs drive..so i returned it and for a bit more money got the Pioneer. At the time i got it, i paid more than some of the figures i've seen here, but it IS the canadian dollar we're talking, AND it WAS about a year and a half ago....anyway the picture quality is wonderfull, it sounds great, and its played every single disk i've ever thrown at it with no problems whatsover!...in complete contrast to the last reviewer,(who i think was simply unfortunate enough to get a lemon) i would recommend this player to anyone!...

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Creative labs encore 5x (which is over 2 years old and still works great), a toshiba piece of crap