great build quality, perfect sound and picture, upgradable, good ergonomics

No progressive video yet (no big deal for me, since I would have to buy a new TV before I could use it, but other might want it), and no DVD-audio and HDCD decoding yet (it's debatable whether that's a weakness, with the war of the formats going on right now)

This DVD/CD transport is certainly not for everybody, it requires an outboard DAC, and it's not cheap. On the other hand, it is definitely the last DVD/CD transport I ever bought. I had some bad out-of-box experience (a loosened internal cable in shipping prevented the unit from powering up), but this was one of the very first production units, and it was resolved right away.
Madrigal listens very well on suggestions for upgrades and improvements, and they've already released the second software upgrade since the unit came out, which is very easy to install yourself (as long as you can convince your dealer to give you the software and let you do it yourself).
I use the transport as a high-end CD transport as well as for DVDs, I was told that it compares to a Levinson No37, and while I can't comment on that I can say that I can hear a difference between the PMDT and the Nakamichi CD2, and both units have their D/A done by my PDSD.
As for picture quality, I had to find the right S-video cable to really be satisfied (Tributaries), but it's outstanding. Very crisp, and if necessary for certain DVDs, I can tweak the black levels independent from my TV settings. I can't comment on the component video out, since my TV doesn't have the necessary inputs.
It is a joy to use: once the preferences are set up, I can just pop in a DVD and get the widescreen,DD5.1 track, with subtitles or not. I've had to override the general preferences only twice, when I wanted to get the german sound track on a DVD. In other words, the ergonomics are great.
Value 4 stars only because some things are still missing from a complete package.

Solidly built, cool looking tray

Hangs, noisy, slow, can't play some DVDs, any dust or imperfection results in huge distortion

The PMDT is just not up to the quality of other Proceed gear, by any stretch of the imagination. And I do have the latest software as of this writing; 2.10/2.11, as well as the replaced tray mechanism.

First, the PMDT is extremely slow; you're looking at about an 8 second delay after you put in your CD before you hear anything.

Second, the disc spinning is loud. You'll definitely be able to hear it during the quiet sections of a DVD - it sounds somewhat like a movie projector. The disc spinning up is also very pronounced.

Third, it frequently hangs (if you press "title" to skip around on a DVD once it starts playing, you are asking for trouble). Some discs it can't even play (e.g. the Avia Home Theater Setup - try going to the jump-to-any-menu item and watch the PMDT lock up tighter than a drum)

Fourth, when it doesn't like a CD or DVD (which is quite often, because the most miniscule scratch or piece of dust will render your CD/DVD almost unreadable to the PMDT), it will start making strange noises, and will start skipping and displaying huge video artifacts.

I'm afraid the corrupt audio signal it sometimes spits out in these situations (bursts of crackling etc.) is going to damage my speakers.

Audio-wise there is no difference whatsoever from my Sony DVP7700S, when comparing the digital audio output and going into the AVP. I hooked them both up at the same time, put the same CD in both trays, continually switched back and forth, and no difference at all.

Video-wise I noticed no difference either, but since my TV has only one set of component video inputs, I couldn't do an A/B comparison.

None of this should come as any surprise, because it's reading a digital signal off the disc. However, if you're the sort of person who buys $200 AC power cables, and then claims he can hear a difference, particularly if you use the phrase "the soundstage was bigger" afterwards, then this $6000 CD/DVD player is for you.

I seriously doubt the Proceed engineers who built this thing actually use their own product at home, because if they did, they would have fixed the hideously annoying functional problems above. It's been two years now since this thing came out, and it's still not fixed.

Overall, it's a great looking and very well built piece (like all Proceed equipment), with a really cool looking tray, and that is about it. I bought it to complement the rest of my Proceed gear (the HPA3 and AVP, which both perform excellently), and was expecting the same level of performance.

The PMDT, though, is a huge loser, and I'd recommend staying away from it, unless you really have the money to burn matching it to the rest of your Proceed gear (my situation), and you feel the coolness of the tray mechanism is worth putting up with its numerous functional problems.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP7700S

very high quality image, balanced outputs, software upgradable via rs-232

early units had lots of bugs, which are all now resolved

I was one of the very first people to own this device when it was shipped 18months ago (#10 in the U.S. - production units)

First it's absolutely critical if you buy this device that you upgrade to the lastest software via the RS-232 cable (ver 2.11 as of 7/1/01)- ignore all reviews on this page from people not running this code. (proceed actually changed the startup screen that is displayed when the unit is turned on, to indicate an "updated model"

inital problems with early units:
front display would go blank
did not play CD-R several pixization problems.
several DVD's would not play.

all these problems are now resolved

Proceed release a new cd transport in & a longer cable to the front display in newer units and latest software code solves all problems above. I also installed the progressive board and use the video switching & run my VCR directly into the DVD and have it upconverter and through progressive to my Widescreen. I also like the fact that the unit has a balanced digital out, which I run into my Theta Cassablania II for DTS/AC3 processing and digital out on the front two channels to Levinson 360s.

the video quality is the best I've seen of any DVD player on the market. and it is fully upgradible to SACD, DVD-Audio, etc via open card slots in the DVD player. (like a PC)

my only complaint now is proceed has been slow releasing SACD & DVD-audio updates for the machine, but the device itself is certainly upgradible.. the Last DVD player you need to buy, thanks to the RS-232 & Card slots

highly recommended

Similar Products Used:

Sony S7700,Pioneer elite

Best sounding DVD player I have heard, but still not better than a halfway decent laser disc player. Very good picture quality. Easiest adjustment by far for switching from 4:3 to 16:9 (and vice-versa) formats.

Digital only audio input. Slooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwest startup of any dvd player in the universe. Will not play all dvds.

I bought this dvd player after taking home a display model for a test-drive. I found the picture quality to be slightly better than that offered by my CAL-20, and the sound quality to be the most satisfactory from any dvd player that I have ever heard. I was not crazy about its not having standard rca outputs, but everything else at that time seemed quite good. I especially liked the ease from which one can go from standard to anamorphic mode, and urge every other manufacturer to do something that is at least similar to this. Now for the bad news. This player will not play all dvds. I'm not talking about ones that it shouldn't play, such as dvd-roms or those coded for other sections of the world. I'm talking about standard made in America for an American dvd player dvds. The disturbing trend is, the more that complex features occur on a dvd, the LESS LIKELY it is to play at all. I just put on Disney's Dinosaur. The PMDT can't read it. The screen just turns blue. And EVERY time the Proceed PMDT has had trouble reading a disc, my two year older CAL CL-20 handled it with no trouble at all (if it could read dts encoded discs it would be close to perfect). My more than three year old Toshiba SD-3107 has also had no trouble reading the same discs.
The Proceed PMDT does have very good sound. Problem is, some outstanding movies have only one encoded channel, which means you can expect to receive sound only through the center speaker, which is usually one of the weakest. Proceed could blame the dvd industry for not having its act together to issue two mono channels instead of just one, and they'd have a point (MCA/Universal does offer two mono channels for a mono movie, but they seem to be the exception). And forget about trying to transfer ANY remote functions over to a universal remote, no matter how elementary that function may be. Proceed does not know how to make a remote from which any universal remote can learn.
The Proceed PMDT is a product that gets the bells and whistles right, the sound right, and the picture right. It just can't get the goddam thing to work first time, every time. By a Grand Canyon-sized margin, this is the least dependable dvd player that I have ever used, and probably will ever use, and its trend in not being able to handle dvds as they become more and more complex is extremely ominous for the future. I regard this product more as an incomplete prototype in dire need of more r and d along with some wholesale rethinking than as a finished, competent, saleable product. My choices are to keep it and put up with a product that will never be completely reliable, or to return it. But why should I spend $5000 for a dvd player that doesn't always function in a workhorse, championlike manner?

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-3107
California Audio Labs CL-20

Good sound and sometimes a good image

Completely undependable

The Proceed PMDT is a really great DVD-player when it works. Fantastic sound and a beautiful image that is definitely a lot better than anything else I have seen. The problem however is that it doesn’t work that often. The machine is completely undependable. Many DVD’s don’t even start. At least 20% of the DVD’s that do start have major distortion at the end of the program. After the slightest distortion the sound gets out of sync. The memory remembers settings that I have never entered. And in the PAL-mode the top of the image is always distorted so I use the blanking on my projector to get a more or less acceptable image but this obviously influences the intended aspect ratio . The importer here in the Netherlands is very willing to help. They told me that next week there will be a release of new software that will improve the performance of the PMDT and that my machine probably will need a new transport mechanism since some of the mechanisms are badly constructed. Since my PMDT was once replaced already, without acceptable results, I hope that the new software and the new mechanism will help. I think that the PMDT will be a great player in the future. But at this moment it is not yet ready. And I think it is definitely wrong to introduce any player and definitely a player with a $5000 price tag before it does the basic thing that anyone would expect. That is play DVD’s.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 7000, Sony 7700

Brings out every nuance in music and movies, top notch transport, software and hardware upgradeable and has balanced digital output.

none

For a while I was really getting frustrated with the glitches in the transport and they were getting worse. I had just got the new upgrade and now the MDT works like a dream no more glitches it plays all DVDs that I own and now also plays CDR's. This transport really pulls all the information from a CD I have listened to many transports and the only one that I have heard that tops it is the mark levinson reference CD transport the soundstage is incredibly wide and three dimensional not to mention completely transparent on the video side I was using the toshiba 9100 progressive scan before this and the non-progressive component outputs of the MDT had much better three dimensionality and color saturation than the progressive toshiba. Madrigal really saved face with the new upgrade and I feel has really set a new standard for DVD transports.

Similar Products Used:

sony dvp7700, toshiba 9100

picture & sound quality

price and spotty performance

the previous reviewer said it perfectly. when it workd, the machine is beautiful and worth every penny. the problem is how frequently it does not work at all. it has major problems with way too many discs --even some cds. try explaining that to the wife... given the price, this is simply unacceptable. wait another year, until madrigal has hopefully fixed the software on this one.

Completely upgradeable, incredible build quality, beautiful styling, fabulous image quality and top notch audio

Very expensive, user interface glitches, but Madrigal is resolving them

I already owned the Proceed AVP and Proceed AMP5 when I deciced to purchase the Proceed PMDT. My main motivation was that incredible customer service Madrigal delivers, and the complete upgradeability.

I just bought a PMDT (3/16/00) after an extensive comparision between it and several other players. I bought the player from Sounds Like Music in Phoenix and they have two identical TVs that had identical ISF calibrations so it was easy to do side by side comparisions. The image from the PMDT was more clear than the other players. Not really a focus type thing, and not really a color difference. Almost like a very sheer curtain was lifted. The differnce was quite obvious to everyone. All that said, I didn't buy it for the video/audio quality, I really bought the it for the following reasons.
1) Service: Madrigal Service and Support has been outstanding.
2) Upgradability: I trust that this box will handle any current and future CD/DVD size format.
3) Looks really cool and matches my Proceed AVP and AMP5.

Negatives? it doesn't ship with a progressive scan output today, but Madrigal will have one in Q4 that will not only do progessive, but rumor is that is will offer 480P, 540P, 720P, and 1080i outputs and an input to scale other devices.

I am rating the value 5 stars because of the level of service and upgradability Madrigal offers, and Overall 5 stars becuase the Image and Audio are second to none.