Yamaha DVD-S700 DVD Players
Yamaha DVD-S700 DVD Players
USER REVIEWS
[May 21, 2002]
elsaltamontes
Casual Listener
Strength:
test
Weakness:
test test Similar Products Used: test |
[Jan 21, 2000]
Andrew
Audio Enthusiast
This was the first DVD player I ever owned. At first I was just thrilled to be apart of the digital revolution, however this all changed when slowly but surely I began having problems with the unit. It would not "flip" over correctly and would end up degrading or freezing the picture. I thought it might be the DVD disc's I got, but I tried them out at the local DVD store and they worked fine. I took the unit back from where I got it and they replaced it with the DVD-795. The 795 has preformed from day one and would suggest it to anybody. Avoid the 700 at all costs. |
[Mar 27, 2000]
Jeff
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Excellent video quality for a non-progressive player, ease or use, DVD software compatability
Weakness:
None. I've read through the various reviews listed here, and am surprise at the number of people who have had trouble with playing various pieces of DVD software, whether it be well known "problem" movies like "Matrix" or whatever. I've had this player for almost a year and a half, and my DVD collection numbers about 250 or so. I have yet to encounter 1 DVD that has given the S700 any problems. At the time that I purchased this player, no other player had the video quality that the S700 presented. Using S-Video, pictures is excellent, using the component outputs to my Toshiba 56" Widescreen (TW56X81), the picture is INCREDIBLE. Granted, this is NOT a progressive scan DVD player, but I'd pit this player against any other non-progressive player and I'd bet you'd be hardpressed to say that the video quality from the S700 isn't in the top 3 slots. I love this player, it looks great, the remote is decent, and it's extremely easy to use. Similar Products Used: RCA 5500P - First generation DVD player |
[May 09, 2000]
W LIEU
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
PICTURE QUALITY
Weakness:
RELIABLILTY I BOUGHT THE S700 ALONG WITH THE DSP-A1 WHEN THEY FIRST CAME OUT. FROM THE GET GO,THE S700 WOULD NOT PLAY DUAL LAYER DVD'S(T-2 THAT TIME).RETURNED UNIT TO STORE AND GOT A NEW REPLACEMENT UNIT(1ST MISTAKE). PUT UNIT INTO USE FOR A PERIOD OF 8 MONTHS OR SO. UNIT WOULD NOT PLAY DUAL LAYER DVD'S AGAIN AND WOULD ALWAYS BUFFER AT CHAPTERS 21-25 REGARDLESS OF MOVIE,STILL NO RESOULUTION FROM YAMAHA. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND UNIT TO ANYBODY. DSP-A1 ALSO HAD WEIRD SYMPTOMS,WOULD NOT TURN ON AND WHEN IT DID,FAN CAME ON LIKE IT WAS OVERHEATING AND RELAYS WOULD BE CLICKING ON AND OFF,RETURNED IT AND GOT ANOTHER NEW REPLACEMENT(2ND MISTAKE).WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYBODY,I THINK I WILL TRY ONKYO PRODUCTS THE NEXT TIME. |
[Mar 04, 2000]
Baccata
Audiophile
Strength:
Picture Quality (when it works)
Weakness:
Digital Distortion (pixcilization), freezing up, warenty service At first i had no problem with the player and i was completely satisfied. Then after 8 months the trouble begain. The player started to distort the picture and sound, obviously a digital conversion or pick up problem. I sent it in to Yamaha and they replaced the digital pickup, spindle, adn main PCV board. |
[Feb 06, 2000]
Aaron Wells
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Excellent picture and built in DD decoder
Weakness:
non backlit remote I've used this player for one year and have not had any problems except for one disc. Wild Wild West skips from mid chapter 22 to start of 23 on occassions. I do not know if this is a disc or hardware problem. The built in decoder allows 5.1 play back with old receivers I had around the house, until money (read spouse)is available for a DD/DTS receiver or separates. Similar Products Used: reviewed toshiba and panasonic (S700 is a panasonic with different audio guts) |
[Jan 23, 2001]
James Hancock
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Component video, good DTS sound from CDs, good picture quality when it worked
Weakness:
Yamaha warranty I purchased this Yamaha DVD-S700 from my local audio/video dealer and do not wish to bring my local dealer into the issue I have with Yamaha. This was my first DVD player. I had previously purchased a Yamaha CD player and did not have any problem. The Yamaha DVD-S700 is not a piece of equipment that I could recommend for anyone. I had it for about six or seven months when it started digital freeze up. It would not play certain DVDs. Usually, the freeze up occurred around programs 20 to 21 or one and one-half hours into a DVD. It would not play. I returned many DVDs because I thought it was the DVD not the S700. I lived with the problem because it didn't have a problem with all of the DVDs. Also, it did play CDs including (DTS)without a problem. When it did play the picture and sound was good. However, it became so frustrating to have the thing freeze up that I finally went back to my dealer and told him about the problem. He contacted Yamaha. Here is the rub. I believe Yamaha knew it had a software problem from the beginning. Yamaha said they would give me a B model (one with the software fixed) but I found out they didn't have any B models. So I am out of luck. I fully admit that I did not figure out the problem until 18 months after I bought the product, six months out of warranty; however, I still believe that Yamaha knew about the problem and should have done something about their defective product. So here I sit with grave doubts about Yamaha products. It is my opinion that Yamaha simply does not have the right to sell a product and find out within the warranty period that it is defective and then refuse to do any thing about it. So, I have had a terrible time with Yamaha over this and simply cannot recommend this product or any other Yamaha product to anyone. I do not believe the S700 is any longer in production. P.S. I own a Yamaha RX-V1!! Similar Products Used: First DVD player |
[Feb 22, 2000]
Brad S
Audiophile
Weakness:
None I bought my DVD-S700 when they first came onto the market. It was one of the first DVD players to have a DTS output as I too own a Yamaha DSP-A1 with DTS capabilities and wanted to take full advantage of it. A year and a half later, I own over 130 DVD's, 18 of them being encoded with DTS tracks. I have also rented and borrowed several DVD's and have had problems with 3 out of the 300 movies that I have watched on my player. (American History X, Tommorrow Never Dies and The Saint.) That's a pretty damned good percentage. When I say problems, I mean MINOR digital artifacts that occur seldomely. A budy of mine has the Robo Cop SE DVD that would not even play on his machine. (He figured that it was scrathed and tried to polish it, ha,ha). We tried it on the Yamaha and it played flawlessly. Similar Products Used: Denon, Pioneer, Sony, RCA. |
[Mar 18, 1999]
The Boss
an Audiophile
This is a great unit as for the flaws mention by my esteme colegue before me, I haven't experience none of them in fact I tried the ch 22 dante's peak and nooooooo flaws so who knows maybe is his unit, I like the user friendly on screen functions the only thing that it is a bit shabby is the remote but I can live with that. |
[Jul 28, 1999]
Alexandre
an Audio Enthusiast
I think the picture quality of this dvd player is superb,but i can´t listen dvd-dts movies because (bad surprise), my dvd player has no digital dts output(my player is from region 2),so anyone knows how can i modify my dvd player. My system: Amplifier Yamaha DSP-A1,DVD Yamaha S700,Sony Minidisc, video, tuner, Loudspeaker Polk RT-10,CS275, RT-FX and PSW150.. |