I wanted a new LD player with DD, Double side play - so i was looking at the cheaper CLD-D515 but i ended up buying this unit because of possibility for DVD and the amplifier i bought at the same time (Pioneer VSA-E06) same design.
Great sound compared to what i am used to.

But unfortunately no DTS on DVD (Only LD)

Great build and reliability

none.

Great piece of equipment that offers a DVD and Laserdisc player in one. Output is great....no skips on playback. Picture quality is superb...Nice job Pioneer.

Can play all formats.

Has trouble playing some DVDs, noisey, does not have DTS

Because this was purchased when Laser discs were still viable it passes as a decent player. I would prefer to have the 919 instead though because that one has DTS. The player has difficulty playing certain discs like "Ronin" and "Bjork". Fortunately, I only paid about $600.00 for it. This was when DVD players were at least $300.00. Overall, it gets the job done and will hopefully last a few more years.

Ability to watch DVDs and Laserdiscs in the same unit

Have had nothing but trouble and repeated services

Bought a DVL-909, got it home and it didn't work. The machine would just makeing clunking and whirring noises. Wouldn't even eject... Returned it and got my money back as that was the last one they had in stock.

Went to another retailer with the money and bought another DVL-909. Worked for an hour or so, then acted funny for about half an hour (similar problems to above). It seemed to fix itself though and worked for two months...

Until 10 minutes into a DVD, it just stopped. I couldn't do anything with it. Again clunking and whirring noises, wouldnt eject the disc at first.

Took it to the shop to have it serviced. They couldnt fix it and had it sent to a service centre. 2 weeks later the shop said it was ready to be collected. A couple of hours later they said they had been testing it for me and it was broken again in the same way. Waited another two weeks. Shop said that they had got it back and it was fixed. The next day I rang to organise to collect it, and was told it was broken *AGAIN*.

Had enough of these units. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

Plays Multiple Video Formats (DVD/LD/CD), can be modified to support DTS out and disable Macrovision

None

I have had my player for over a year now and it has never let me down once. I noticed a couple reviews seemed a bit negative but I have not found one disc out of the 300+ that I own that it wouldn't play. I think the DVD video quality is as good or better than most high end players out today. Based on instructions I found on the Web, I have modified mine to play DTS DVD discs and disabled the on-board Macrovision. I am totally satisfied with it.

With at home (easy)modifications it can play any region dvds and be macro free.
RGB output.

glitches on layer changes occur very seldom.

I have done all mods except the DTS. Trying to locate a 12kohm resistor to do this.
I have only had one major fault with this player. The layer change on Hamburger Hill has locked up on me every time. I have seen a few other movies with a minor pause at the layer change but none have locked up. I have owned the Panasonic A110 since it's introduction and have had no problems at all with it. This is good since I have over 200 dvd movies in my collection.
The laserdisc picture quality is by far the best I have ever seen.
The audio for cd,dvd,ld is by far excellent.
Overall The Pioneer has served me well and would recomend it to anyone who needs a laserdisc player as well as DVD.
My ratings are high do to the modifications you,at home, can do (just be carefull!).
System includes:
Above mentioned players
KV-32FV1 FD Trinitron WEGA 32"TV (Sony)
STR-DE835 DD/DTS Sony Receiver
JBL Speakers
SVHS VCR - Panasonic

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVD-A110 (Current DTS player)
Creative 5X PC-DVD Dxr2 (Also region/macro free capable)

ld and dvd

big :-)

great player
amazing soung on movies- dont play musiv with it
looks like a very good dvd
i can compare it to other lds - it is by far one of the best i ever seen.

can someone help me and tell me how to make it macro free?

thanks

Nice Product for its intended purpose. Menu's are easy to use. Video output is good, but not quite as stable as Sony 550D. Build quality is above average, but my units DVD heads started eating DVD's about a week after the warranty was up. Pioneer fixed it anyway without question. Give them five stars for service! Also got the ROM upgraded, found that it enabled DTS output on digital/pcm outputs(I had previously performed the dts mod, but it did not work with the version of rom that shipped with the player).

The 909 is a very good Laserdisc/DVD combo. It looks great too, big and powerful, unlike the tiny players that other companies offer. The video quality is truly wonderful. The colors are very true to the actual RGB format that the directors probably intended the films to look like. The AC-3 playback is incredible, with no hiss or skip. Once again, Pioneer has come up with a product that is truly ahead if its time.

Clean Appearance, Component outs, lots of jacks, easily modify to DVL-91 specs

Slow tray operation, somewhat noisy, shrill treble

I have owned this play for over 1 1/2 years and I can say I'm glad I found it on sale. This player has the option to convert it to DVL-91 specs which includes DTS availabilty, and other options. Also you can over ride the macro vision (without using those black box video stablizers) and make the player code free. The picture from the player is great. I owned the old CLD-1080 laserdisc player and the picture is at least as good as it was with laserdiscs. The tray operation is much smoother and quieter than my old 1080, but when using DVDs its still rather slow. You have to wait quit a bit for a CD to load up before playing. On CD playback the sound can be rather harsh in the treble at times. Its overly bright. I'd recommend getting outboard D/A converters from a respectable high end dealer. Some CDs sound decent enough. I'm sure this is all due to the new 20 bit conversion this player has vs my old 1080s 20 bit conversion. That player had good sound and was not overly bright to my ears. On DVDs the picture quality is superb, but I can still see those blocky squares at times on some dark scenes on discs. Also when switching layers the pause is noticable and there is a break as a result. I can't wait to get the resistor parts to convert this player to the DVL-91. There isn't much of a difference between the 909 and 919 and for the price I went with the 909 on discount. Component out is a nice feature I hope to use one day.

Similar Products Used:

CLD-1080