Plays 5 DVD's, love it's playexchange feature, looks great!!

Randomly stops playing DVD's, usually right in the middle of watching one---completely unpredictable.

I used to love this DVD changer.......But despite sending it back and fourth to Yamaha for "software upgrades"...I just can't wait to get rid of it and get Yamaha's upcoming progressive scan, 5 disc DVD audio/video changer next spring. I hate how it stops playing right in the middle of a good scene. I take the DVD out and make sure it's clean but it does'nt help. Be sure to steer clear of this DVD player, unless it's onsale for about $10.00.

Playing while exchanging

Stops playing in the middle of movies, won't play CD sometimes.

I can't belive after 18 months it is malfunctioning. I was surprized that the warrenty was only 1 year. Most of my yamaha products have been great. This one stops in the middle of movies and refuses to play some CD's (even brand new ones). Repositioning htem sometimes helps. Sometimes just opening hte drawer allows them to play.

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Yamaha CD-X1

Random play, PlayXchange, on-screen menus, design, excellent audio/video.

No standby mode... Should have DTS decoder built in for this price, although not needed when using one of the RX-Vxxxx series receivers.

***THIS REVEIW IS ACTUALLY FOR THE DVD-C996, THE REPLACEMENT FOR THE DVD-C900.***

This is copied from my review of the RX-V1000, sorry for the bad formatting, sometimes I'm a little lazy...

I’ll start my review by listing my current system for reference:
* Yamaha RX-V1000 Receiver
* Yamaha DVD-C996 DVD Player (which I will also review here, due to it not being on the list)
* Sony KV-32V40 TV
* Celestion F1 Surrounds
* Celestion F2 Mains
* Celestion Fcentre Center
* Acoustic Research Interconnects

The DVD Player:
What can I say, but flawless. I read the reviews for some other Yamaha DVD
players on this web site after buying this DVD player, and I got a little concerned,
because I had not yet played a DVD in mine until last night. The reviews talked
about skipping problems, glitches, or even recognizing DVDs. I have not
experienced any of these problems (maybe these have been fixed since then, as
this is supposed to be the replacement for the 900). Although I have only watched
one movie (Gone in 60 Seconds), I thought the video and audio was the best I
have ever seen. Very clear detail in the audio portion, and the video got even
better after I got my S-Video cables in the mail from accessories4less.com. There
was only one point in the movie where I noticed the player switching chapters, just
a half second pause. The menu display is easy to setup, only you need to know a
little bit about the differences between the digital audio outputs to know how to
set it up in your system. I was told by the sales person that this player, when in
the random mode, would only play randomly on one disk at a time, and then go
on to another one. I also read this as a problem with previous models. I got the
'bad boy' home, put 5 CDs in it, and pushed random, low and behold, the thing
was going all over the place, disk 3 track 4, disk 5 track 2, disk 1 track
10…however, I do not yet know what it will do if it encounters a DVD in one of the
disk locations. Impressive, you would think someone that can come up with DSP
such as Yamaha, they could figure out a way to do an acceptable random play
mode…finally! Not only that, but the time between switching tracks on different
disks is only about 2-4 seconds. One disadvantage: No power button to turn it off
by on the remote, basically, it requires you to connect the power cord to the back
of a unit that has switched outlets, only make sure the disk is in the stopped
mode before turning the power off, if you are about to move the unit (the laser
head needs to be locked to prevent damage). PlayXchange, pretty cool, if you use
it very often (allows you to change 4 of the disks, while a fifth one is playing).
When you stop a movie in the middle (sometimes on accident) it remembers
where you were (as long as you don't press stop twice), so you can do something
without burning an image into your screen, or so you can adjust some menu
settings. It also has 5 FF and rewind speeds, the first speed with sound. Many
other features included.

The DVD Player Remote:
This remote in my opinion is just okay. It doesn't compare at all to the above
mentioned remote for the receiver. The buttons are not very comfortable, nor can
you tell the difference between the buttons by touch (they are all shaped the
same, except the play and stop buttons). This is okay by me, because my
receiver remote can control this unit as well. One nice thing they did is make the
background around the play, stop, FF, rewind, pause, and chapter buttons a silver
color, so that in the dark, they are easy to spot.

Update:
Finally rented a DTS-ES 6.1 encoded movie, and it was an awesome experience. I'd rather stay at home now and watch movies instead of going to the theatre, although at some point I do need to add a sub to my setup. I switched between DTS and DD and noticed a significant difference. Anyone that says DD is better than DTS is not hearing the difference!

-Jason

Value Rating: 4.5, could have been a bit cheaper, but I wouldn't have gone with another DVD player.
Overall Rating: 5.0, hands down, thumbs up.

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***THIS REVEIW IS ACTUALLY FOR THE DVD-C996, THE REPLACEMENT FOR THE DVD-C900.***

I purchased this unit for $700 on sale at Sound Advice in Florida. Everything I had seen previously (internet,magazines,etc.) said it was going to retail for $1200 in black($1400 in gold). I thought this is a GREAT deal! A 5-disc DVD changer with DTS, 24/96, and everything else currently offered on other players.IT'S GOT PROBLEMS!!!
It locked up multiple times on Enemy of the State(the first movie I played), especially at the layer switch. I exchanged the disc, but that wasn't the problem. I went back to Sound Advice and the demo unit behaved the same way, but the disc played fine on 3 other different models including the single disc Yamaha DVD-795. Yamaha has been advertising the DVD-C900 as a companion to the DSP-A1, their marketing people should get a clue. People spending around $3K on an integrated amp and a DVD changer are going to be more than a little bent when the movie they're watching locks up a few times.
The fact that the unit is selling for approximately $500 less than originally stated tells me that Yamaha is fully aware of the situation. A $700 DVD changer that locks up isn't worth jack@#%@!!!

I purchased this unit about three months ago to go with a Yamaha RX-V995. I ended up trading the receiver for a Denon AVR 3300 but kept the DVD.
I have had none of the issues discussed in the previous review. The River Wild on DVD DTS ran flawlessly as did Enemy of the State, Virus, Small Soldiers and anything else I threw at it. There is a fraction of a second pause at layer switch, which is expected in any DVD.

As a CD Player it is excellent as well. It has replaced my old Technics 5 disk changer and performs better.

The remote is less than intuitive. There is no “Off” button but I have the unit connected to the switching outlet of the receiver. The FF and REW functions are not as simple to execute as would be expected. They are, however more versatile than ordinary controls of the same type.

On the plus side, the disk exchange function is handy. This allows disks to be replaced while a disk is playing.

I give it a 5 for performance and a 4for some of the design quirks for a total of 4.5. I round up.

good picture and Sound

Locks up on certain movies. Sometimes all you need to do is go to the next chapter and it will be fine, but on others it will completely lock up and it will not even play at all.

This product is definitely not worth the money. Paying $600 dollars for a 5 disc dvd changer, you should have one that plays the movies interuption free. I would definitely try another brand like Sony or Toshiba. I recently bought the movie Unbreakable, and 45 mins. into the movies it locks up. I tried it a few more times, only with the same result. Luckily, I own a computer with a DVD player in it. I tried it in there and to my suprise it worked error free. Just remember to do your homework on the porduct you are planning to purchase before you go and actually buy it.

Sound, Picture, A little pricey, at least when it first came out.

Early DTS problems

This is a follow up to an earlier my post of several months ago. I'll won't repeat everything I wrote back in April. I purchased this unit in December. While pricey at the time, I've come to find out that the price has come down a bit since there are other 5 disc changers to compete with. I was one of those that had a unit with a firmware problem that didn't allow the player to properly decode DTS. Even though I had the unit for several months, Abt replaced it, no questions asked. I'll never buy anywhere else. I've come to find out that Yamaha relaxed their policy on replacing units since the problem was known.

Prior to that, I never had a problem with Dolby Digital Movies. Since I received the new unit, it has performed flawlessly with both DD and DTS. And I've played my share of movies. I have been extremely happy with it and would recommend it to anyone out there. I've played all of the standard reference movies, The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan (DD & DTS), etc., and have not had any issues (aside from the aforementioned DTS issue).


I'll give it 4 stars for overall to account for the early problem, but Abt's customer service made it realtively pain free.

Since price has come down a bit, I'll give it a five for value.

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None

I have had this DVD player for about a month now. I have had no problems with any DVD i have played with it (Enemy of the State included).

I got to gold version to match my DSP-A1 gold and what a match!!! Both beautiful components in my opinion.

Video is clear with no artifacts and audio is spectacular! Cd's sound much better on this unit then on my old cd-player (5 disc Technics).

The remote control is well designed and has good ergonomics (I would have prefered back-lighing to glow in the dark buttons however).

I dont know what was wrong with the player in one of the previous posts. I encountered none of the problems mentionned there.

I highly recommend this unit (especially does of you who own the DSP-A1).

Great Picture and Sound.

Randomly resets or "locks up" while playing DVDs.

When I first purchased the Yamaha DVD-C900 I was very impressed with the product in terms of the sound and picture.

However, like many of the other reviewers, I began noticing the player would suddenly and erratically stop playing DVDs. Sometimes, the player would simply lock-up, thus requiring me to shut off the player and then turn it back on. Other times, the DVD would just stop and I would be greeted with the Yamaha screen saver.

I have e-mailed and called Yamaha numerous times. The best they've done for me is to tell me that my unit has a gold dot and needed a red dot and so I mailed it off to California to get the firmware upgrade. 3 weeks later, I got the unit back and am having the SAME PROBLEMS!

In my dealings with Yamaha, they are quick to blame the DVD manufacturers for the problem rather than accepting responsibility for the lemon they have created and sold. Why is it that my 15 year old CD player can play CDs manufactured today but my 1 year old Yamaha DVD Player can't play DVDs manufactured 2 years ago?

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None.

Remote. No CDR.

This product is an embarrassment for yamaha, who over the years has made excellent products for its price range.
The sound is great via the digital out.

However, the dvds had a tendency to stop playing well into the movie - i felt like i was wasting my time!

The remote is confusing and non intuitive and was not backlit and had these miniscule buttons.

I simply don't understand why none of the players around this price range don't play cdr's. i tried multiple brands, but, to no avail. the only one i found was the pioneer. however, the sound quality was poor - so there is a trade-off.

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first