Sound and picture.

Doesn't work - so any strengths don't really matter.

I had problems with this unit from the beginning, but I just
was too dense to realize that they were symptoms of something bigger. From the beginning, on some DVDs the player would just stop dead and return to idle. No freezing, no skipping, just bam - you're done. I thought this was due to bad DVDs (some of them were rentals).

A while later, however, it started happening more and more. Then, all of the sudden, it would not recognize any discs at all. No CDs, No DVDs. I had to take it back to where I got it and they putzed around with it for a bit over a month (with many false starts). I got it back finally about two weeks ago. We played a couple movies and everyting looked ok --- and then...

It happened again. No picking up of any disks. I am now in the process of getting it replaced and Tweeter has said that they will work with me to return and replace it with something else.

If I had found this site earlier, I could have saved myself a bunch of trouble. Looking through the posts here, it seems that my experience is not far off the mark.

Great picture and sound

won't play CD-R

I don't know what the other people are talking about, this is a great DVD player. I have never had a single problem with. It works well with my sony wega TV. I looked a a sony five disc changer and it couldn't even compair.

DTS, Component Outputs

"Random shuttle...desperately random"

This is my first DVD player and I love it! I'm hooked up with a Yahama 595a receiver, a Toshiba V51 32", and Klipsch
quintet speakers. The picture is picture perfect, the sound is awesome. In fact, as we began to watch "Contact", I mistakenly mistook the silence of the opening scene as "operator" error and had cranked up the volume. When the noise kicked in everyone in the room jumped out of theier seats and lost a year from thier lifes. My wife was upstairs and came down thinking there's been a jet-induced sonic boom. Priceless.

Very high build qaulity, style, best DVD display on my TV. VERY QUIET DRIVE MOTOR!!!

No power on/off on remote. Awkward multi-speed search mode

My Panasonic died after one year, Pioneers (yes, tried several!) had lip-sync problems and VERY noisy drive motors. Denon had very poor menu setup.

I got tired of trying to find a budget player that actually worked in all areas. I have a Yamaha 795 receiver and CDC765 cd player. Both have performed perfectly, so I decided to give their DVD player a try. I paid 500.00 for the unit. This is twice what the Pioneer or Panasonic could be had for. To me, it is worth the extra money. The picture on my 45" rear-projection Mitsubishi TV is the best of the 7 players I've used. Colors are very vivid, blacks are nice and deep, and there is very little artifacting on downconverted anamorphic DVDs. I've noticed no lip-sync problems. The menu is very nice to navigate. The player is very quiet!!! I've played about 20 DVDs (from home collection and rentals) without problems. I finally can enjoy the movie, rather than be distracted by a player's glitches. The wallpaper and screen saver are very cool as a side benefit. I didn't care about the 5 disk feature, but its a nice side benefit. My unit was built in November 1999 and does in fact switch CD disks in Random mode, unlike the problem the reviewer below experienced?!?

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DVD525, Panasonic A110, Denon 1500

Good question

DTS playback, random play, video quality

Let's make this easy. Do not buy this player. I made the mistake of doing so and found several defects with it. Including as one other reviewer noted earlier, the inability of the player to do proper DTS bitstream output. Yamaha apparently has a fix, but why spend $600 on an item to have to immediately ship it back to the manufacturer so that they will make it work?

I eventually returned it and replaced the unit with the Sony 5 disc changer. As it turns out, the sound and video quality of the Sony are both much, much better anyway.

Tim

Similar Products Used:

Sony 650

Great picture quality. 5 disc changer.

Does not play recordable cds

My player is hooked up to my Yamaha RX-V995 receiver and the combination is excellent. The first time I played a DVD, it locked up a couple times, but every other DVD I played has been fine, so I am relieved. 80% of my cds are recordable cds, and it does not play recordable cds!!! WHAT THE F**K IS UP WITH THAT?!?!?!?! Because it beat Sony's top-of-the-line DVD player, and Yamaha actually cares about their products, I am gonna give it 4 stars.

This is a follow-up to a couple of previous posts I've made on this product. Over the past year and a half and over a couple hundred DVDs, I've only run into some of the problems a handful of times. These are problems relating to the fact that a disk isn't recognized or it just stops playing. I have a hunch that the problem might be related to dust on the laser pickup. The last few times it has happened, I would either insert a CD/DVD lens cleaner or I would just blow (no comments please) into the player when the tray is open, and the problem would seem to go away. Since my experiences with these problems has been extremely rare I can't positively say that dust is the cause, but it might be worth a try. You can buy a DVD lens cleaner at best buy for $20.

Great picture and features.

Problems playing DVD's rented from stores. (Don't ask me why it is rentals only, they are not scratched up at all)

I have a mixed opinion on this DVD player. I have rented a total of 8 movies, and purchased 6 others. 6 out of the 8 DVD I rented had problems when viewing. The Matrix was the worst of the bunch (I flaked out during most action scenes).
Typically the problems would be out of sync audio and video, DVD skipping, and pauses during playback.

I attempted to return it to the AudioShop where I purchased, but they wanted proof that it was the player. The DVD failed in their demo player, so they deduced it was the DVD.

I have a feeling that the DSP is buggy in this unit.

Great looking, holds five CD's and DVD's, adequate picture and sound.

Expensive, sensitive to environment (stops reading)

I bought this player with almost no DVD knowledge at all. I purchased this player so I could have the versatility of listening to a series of CD's back to back or to have movies playing in the background while I am working. It worked fine for these purposes. Now that my audio tastes have changed - I see this player in a whole new light.

Many people are experiencing the problem where the C900 will just randomly stop playing. This can be easily fixed by moving your DVD player on top of all of your other equiptment and ensuring good ventilation. It fixed my problem 100% - I repeat, 100%. I am not sure if it was due to the heat or the magnetic from my amp - either way - no more lockups. ;o)

The actual performance and technology of this unit is really only worth $300-$350 MAX and that would be in comparison to the peak prices a year ago. Today, you could buy a much better unit for the money (see Marantz or even Sony). If I had bought this unit for $350 a year ago - I would have given them a 4 star value rating. Although this unit isn't "terrible", I think you could do better with a little research. My C900 will soon be retired to a garage CD player - kinda sad isn't it.

Closing notes: In my humble opinion, if you can toss $600 - $1000 on a DVD player, you should definitely visit a professional home audio store to at least feel out what "Great" is and then go shop around with a list of what is important to you. I often hear sales people spinning a web of garbage at the Good Guys and Circuit City and it just pains me to watch people listen and buy on what they were just told.

Ciao

Just an update to the below review of this DVD-C996...

I was about to pack the "bad boy" back in it's box this weekend, and take it back. I had some CDs in it last night, and it wasn't "seeing" them. I would open the door, and there were 5 CDs in it, but it wouldn't play them. These were CDs that originally played before, and weren't now.

I messed with it for about an hour, and discovered what the problem is. The tray for each CD is very shallow, therefore, it is necessary to make sure that when you put a disk in it, that you make sure it is completely in the tray, and not even the slightest bit above the rim. After ensuring each disk was in it's place, the "bad boy" is ready to jam... No other problems since then... I love this thing.

Later,
-Tinman_Jason