Of all the equipment in my home entertainment system, this is the only one that really annoys me. It's been problematic ever since I bought it. It has a problem detecting inserted DVD's and CD's but mostly DVD's. I keep getting a "No Disk" even though a disk is present. I have keep powering off/on or ejecting and re-inserting media for it to finally detect a DVD or CD. Then it may play a movie or music CD without any issue or I will experience freezing up or distortion in a picture or sound. If I load 4 CD's to play, it may play two or three but will then not detect the third or fourth unless I power it off an on and go through a whole lot of hassle.

I found a much cheaper DVD player a friend gave me plays the same DVD movies that this player just will not. Unfortunately, it is no longer under warranty.

Will I buy any other DVD/CD player from Yamaha? NOT A CHANCE! Sometimes I get so frustarted with this machine I can imagine myself taking a sledge hammer to it. I think Yamaha should stick to making motorcycles.

A friend picked up one of these at Freecycle with the remote and gave it to me for nothing. It needed the motor that spins the CD. Opening the box, none of the parts inside are Yamaha branded! The boards are Philips and the laser and servo unit is Sony, off the shelf parts from other manufacturers?. I picked up a laser/servo part for $55. Interestingly I had to take off the old laser and swap it onto the new motor assembly to make it read CDs. The laser has a head number on it that needs to be somehow "written" to the board with a software tool, like changing a print head on an inkjet printer. So you CANNOT CHANGE LASERS on these units, at least not without taking it to the shop. Planned obsolescence.

Very clean sound. Operation is painfully slow. Its great to finally be able to play those 24/96 Vinyl rips. But audiophile it cannot possibly be, you would be pushing to call this a Yamaha.

SACD & DVD-A playback
Good value
The tray allows you to access all 5 discs when it comes out

Poor build quality
Very slow working

I've had this unit for about a year now, and it's generally been ok, but not great. I've had 3 issues with it in that time, one being I had to take it back to a service centre early on and have the main board replaced to fix a freezing problem, it's been fine since. Another issue which may or may not bother some people is the very slow speed in which this unit does anything. To turn on unit and open the tray, you might as well press the button, go and do something else and come back later while it powers up then opens. As I said this may not bother some people but personally when I want to listen to a CD, I want to listen to that CD NOW! The final issue I've had is the build quality. I own a Yamaha receiver as well as a set of Yamaha 5.1 speakers and I was very pleased with how solid all these items were, but I think Yamaha have let themselves down a bit with this DVD changer. The tray seems too flimsy for something that comes out so far, mine's been sticking for the last 6 months or so and I have to help push it back in before it engages. The rest of the front panel also seems pretty cheaply made in my opinion.
Now the positives... you'd be hard pressed to find a SACD / DVD-A changer at this price. It seems to do the job well, although I've never owned another player of these types so I wouldnt know the difference. Unlike my previous changer, the tray comes all the way out so you can access all 5 discs at once. You can also access 4 discs while the 5th is being played. Finally, this unit matches Yamaha receivers well if that matters to you.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVD-F87

Excellent sound and picture quality. Build quality is much better than one should expect for the price.

Terrible ergonmomics! Sound level reduced when playing multichannel SACD's.

The Yamaha is an excellent machine with superb audio dac's and very good picture quality. I'm not kidding about the dac's. Used strictly as a cd player, the sound quality is very smooth and focused. I'm not one to wax rhapsodic when describing aspects of sound, but the Yamaha is clearly a cut above every other dvd player I've owned as far as sound quality (picture quality is pretty close, too) and stands shoulder to shoulder with most of the audiophile stand-alone cd players I've had in my system. I confess to not being enormously impressed with super audio cd in general, cd often sounds more detailed though a tad "rougher" in texture. I feel that the phenomenon of mass hypnosis is a big part of audio, fueled by the audio press, with thousands of gullible audiophiles convincing themselves they hear "improvements" that don't really exist. Of the 30 odd super audio cd's I do own, the Yamaha plays them wonderfully. One minor gripe is the reduction in sound level when you play multichannel discs. Other than that, the Yamaha is an absolute steal. BTW, the ergonomics issues with this unit are entirely justified. Who the heck designed this user interface? As far as reliability, however, my unit has performed flawlessly for over a year now, and will even play some super audio discs that my Sony SCD-222ES will not (Mercury label SACD's).

Similar Products Used:

Sony SCD-222ES, Sony DVP-C555ES

Good sound quality WHEN IT WORKS
Decent picture quality WHEN IT WORKS

Poorly constructed
Unreliable
Slow

This universal player would be a good deal if it were not buggy as a rancid camel blanket. I could tolerate the long disk loading time and other little quirks if it weren't for the fact that the display randomly goes blank and the maching freezes up. I've tried power conditioners and a chassis ground. The latter reduced the failure frequency but did not solve the problem. For others who got stuck with this loser of a machine, I've found that unplugging it and shorting the ac terminals with a penny usually sets it straight.

There is no excuse for not properly grounding the unit and above all for Yamaha's obvioius failure to perform proper reliability tests prior to product release. Read the reviews on this site and you will see that this is not a reliable unit and should be avoided. It's best use might be to play a practical joke on someone. The Yamaha brand is no longer welcome in my home.

Customer Service

Useless

Similar Products Used:

None, thankfully

SACD/DVD-A performance Disk Changer Reprogrammable for Region 2 & 3

Crossover Loading time Remote

For a universal player, the Yamaha C-750 is very reasonably priced and has a number of useful features that made me decide to buy it after a good deal of research. No, it's not in the same league as a Denon, but then: what is? From an audio standpoint alone, though, the Yamaha is definitely several notches above the Pioneer DV-588, which I also own. In addition, the C-750 has a couple of features that made it a near-perfect fit with my needs: 1. Unlike most other universal players, it's a 5-DVD/CD changer, i.e., useful for parties. 2. Unlike the Pioneer and most other universal players, you can reprogram it in a few simple steps to play Region 2 and Region 3 video DVDs (look for the hack at www.videohelp.com), which I like because I get lots of Euro DVDs for my kids. The super audio performance is excellent, only problem (and that's certainly not the C-750's fault): once you've listened to SACD/DVD-A, you're forever spoiled and never really want to go back to regular CDs, which start to sound trashy and cheap. The only thing even remotely comparabale to the SACD/DVD-A formats is the big old 2-track tapes you could play on your Technics RS-1500, if you had the money for one. The SACD/DVD-A format is simply out of this world, and the C-750 does a very nice job handling it. Re: shortcomings, I agree with most of what people have said here so far: Loading takes forever, crossover is set way too high, and the remote is a bit substandard. I also had some video problems: Hooked the C-750 into my Yamaha RX-V 1500 Receiver, then out to my Toshiba TV. It that setup, all I get is a black & white picture on the TV. When you hook the C-750's video out directly into the TV, the problem disappears, so I suspect this is a receiver issue. No big deal for me quite frankly because I use the C-750 mostly for audio, but perhaps a bigger issue for those w/ video needs.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-588A-S Denon DVD-5900 Denon DVD-2910

Normal cd's sound great

Distorts HDCD encoded disc. Yamaha will not fix problem. Now I have to sell it.

I bought this product after reading several positive reviews. However, there exists one major flaw in the machine that Yamaha will not aknowledge. If you try a HDCD encrypted disc in your machine, unlike others machines made by different companies, the C750 will distort the music with noise that make the disc too much to listen to. For that reason, I give a great machine a poor rating.

Sounds really good - and plays just about any format disk including DivX

Takes forever to start, almost as long to load disks, poor bass management, and when it goes to standby, it does not remember where you were on the disk which was playing.

If your goal is high quality sound in a multi-disc CD/DVD-Video/DVD-Audio/SACD/DivX player, this unit cannot be beat at this price point. If you are looking for high quality video, this is very good for its price range. It is one of the best deals for the money, if you are willing to put up with its quirks. When the video on my JVC FA95GD DVD-Audio player died, I decided to get a universal multi-disc player. I spent lots of time trying to find the best balance of features, quality and cost and opted for the Yamaha. My system now includes: Yamaha C750 - CD/DVD/SACD/DVD-A/DivX player Harman Kardon Signature 2.0 AV preamp Harman Kardon Sighature 2.1 5 channel amplifier 1 pair Harman Kardon Citation 13 main speakers (Dick Shahinian designed) 1 pair Koss CM-1030s (Currently used as surround) Koss CM-1020 (Center) Velodyne CT-100 subwoofer Nakamichi RX-505 cassette deck Harman Kardon 670 receiver (used for phono pre-amp) Harman Kardon/Rabco ST-8 turntable w/sure M95 cartridge Why DVD-A and SACD? After listening to DVD-A and SACD for some time, I really have gotten to dislike listening to CDs because CDs sound harsh and brittle. CDs produce listening fatigue in minutes. Essentially, trying to reproduce music with a CD is like trying to reproduce cool seaside air with the dry brittle air blowing out of an airconditioning nozzle in a jet airplane and a spray bottle of salt water. In a very literal sense, the CD format is like playing a violin with a hack saw -- there is simply no way to smooth out the saw teeth sufficiently to make it sound correct. SACD and DVD-Audio fix the problem by giving you enough data to filter out the audible errors created by digitizing analog sound. Price comparisons: Pioneer makes two single disc universal players under $120, the DV-578-A and the DV-588-A. (I have the 578A in my bedroom. The Pioneer unit sounds very good. The Yamaha sounds better.) The next nearest priced single disc combo SACD/DVD-Audio player I have found is by JVC and retails for about $80 more. Toshiba has a multi-disc universal player which can be purchases as of the writing of this review for under $100, but the video processor is not as fast, it has poor user reviews and does not play AVI/DivX files. After that, you would have to spend hundreds more green backs to get any other combination SACD/DVD-A player. (Onkyo has a universal multidisk player with a street value of about 5 bills - the ultra THX certified one is $2K. The Denon single disc universal player is also several hundred more.) Performance of the Yamaha C750: This unit has some very good qualities and a few annoying ones. Pros: On the positive side, the C750 has good Video performance at this price, including Progressive and Interlaced outputs which are active simultaneously. The video processors are 12-bit/108 MHz which is about twice as much power as most DVD players. It also is built nicely and feels very sold. As it doubles as a CD player in my main system, I absolutely wanted it to be a multi-disc changer with the ability to insert and remove discs while one is playing. The most important feature to me was the sound quality. Subjectively, it is better than my JVC on DVD-Audio and as good as the Sony on SACDs. (The Sony did not like some hybred SACDs and would mistake the type of disc being played. This unit does not appear to have that problem.) It has the typical slightly too good to be real Yamaha sound. Very pleasing. It is also very detailed. I heard sounds on the 5.1 track on the Who's Tommy SACD which I never noticed before. The sound level is almost identical to that produced by my HT preamp when switching from direct 6 channel input to Dolby Digital. I cannot hear any significant difference in the sound between that produced by my $2K preamp and the 6 channel direct feed when playing Dolby Digital/DTS encoded sources. Cons: Probably the worst thing the unit does is take way to long to start up and to load a disc. In addition, the user interface difficult to navigate and setup menu layering makes it difficult to make video adjustments. The bass management is not very good because the unit has a fixed crossover setting of 120Hz for small speakers, which is high (it should be at 80 or 100Hz, and should be user controllable). If you leave the unit on pause for too long, it shuts off, and does not remember where you are on the disc. You can't see the writing on the front face plate or buttons so that you have no idea what each button does unless you have a light directly overhead. With the buttons in black, and the face plate in back, so that without enough light, I almost can't see the buttons. I usually don't watch TV in a brightly lit room, so this can be an annoyance. As a final complaint, I like more information to be displayed on the front of the unit and with the on-screen display.

Similar Products Used:

JVC-FA95GD DVD Audio Player, Pioneer DV578AS Universal, Sony DVP-NC650V DVD/SACD

Price - It would be a tremendous value if it worked.

QC, mine was a lemon, nothing so frustrating as sitting down to enjoy a movie and your DVD player starts skipping and freezing up.

I guess I got a dud. Picture quality was great, but it froze constantly on DVDs that worked just fine on my old player. Audio is as good as can be expected for a mass market player, but it wouldn't handle CDs without misbehaving, either. Returned it, and they didn't have anymore left. Still looking for a universal player that doesn't cost a fortune. Have had good experiences with Yamaha in the past, but if they let a non-functional unit get past them, they're gonna get a "1".

Similar Products Used:

Older Toshiba, Panasonic S35, both of which have performed well.

Yamaha build and Quality, excellent SACD and DVD-A playback, good movie reproduction, excellent remote control.

Damnably slow loading etc.; inadequate bass controls, no remote control "open" function

The DVD C750 does nearly everything very well, with a caveat or two... No reasonable bass control...glacially slow loading etc. It's improved ergonomically over other five disc Y players - especially like the five leds and the lit one to easily display what disc is "on".

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha rxv2300 receiver, NAK PA 5 stasis amp, "A" system = Adcom pre, 8 EL34 tube amp, 15RMSx2(Class A),95 RMSx2(Class AB), Martin Logan Sequels