simple to set-up and use

No audio priority in 5.1. not enough outputs

I've seen the reviews on this unit and know that this is the Panasonic v30 unit. But the yamaha is the same is the Panasonic but with a few added things to it. One ,it does have a better power supply and a few better chips in it.The menue is very easy to set up. The picture is good and clear and does not have any problem with the picture as does the sony had( freezing).The face plate is alot better looking than the panasonic has. When using with any Yamaha reciever its remote does follow with eaze.......I have enjoyed this unit for a few weeks now and had no problem with it and its cool looking to. One thing that its on the good side that it play quick and loads fast.

Similar Products Used:

sony

Component Video as well as S-Video and composite, detachable AC cord, video quality.

Must access onscreen menu and then scroll to "direct-access" to another track; not very "direct".

This is my third DVD player. I'd like to try and offer some information that isn't usually presented in these reviews because these kinds of things cannot usually be discovered until after you've purchased a unit. I don't believe I am the exception when I say that I like to read these reviews BEFORE purchasing so that I might make a better decision. After all, isn't that what a review is all about?

First of all, the menus. A lot of features are accessed by an unobtrusive horizontal menu bar that appears near the top of the sreen as a row of fairly detailed icons. The bar is only about 2 inches high on a 27" set, so it doesn't cover much of the picture during use. The menu is presented in three separate bars that toggle with each press of the ONSCREEN button on the remote.The features are as follows:

MENU 1: Title #, Chapter #, Time, Soundtrack #, Soundtrack (language), audio attribute (PCM/Dolby Digital/DTS), subtitle language #, subtitles ON/OFF, and angle #.

MENU 2: A-to-B repeat, repeat track or title, a special center-channel feature that makes dialog easier to hear, a 5-position "marker" feature that lets you store up to 5 locations on a disc that you might want to recall later, a "cinema" video mode that seems to soften the contrast a bit, a Virtual Surround Surround (V.S.S.) mode for improved surround effects on 2-channel DVDs, subwoofer ON/OFF (yes, this DVD player has its own subwoofer output in case your receiver doesn't).

MENU 3: This is a shuttle screen bar that lets you slow or advance the speed of playback in quite a few variable steps, about 20 steps faster or slower than normal on a DVD, about 10 each direction on a CD.

And what I like about it, this menu stays put until YOU decide to shut it off. I hate onscreen menus that either stay up too long after you use them (like volume, which should disappear quickly) or vanish before you can make a selection.

A very nifty feature of this player is the ability to have the audio audible during fast scanning the video. Both the video and audio are twice as fast, yet the audio pitch does not increase, just the speed. Many years ago I had a Beta Hi-Fi player with this feature and it was very cool.

The unit's display is, of course, the Yamaha amber color. There is a nice spinning icon that indicates the disc is spinning. By default, the track number and the playing time are displayed, and they are far enough apart so they don't look like one number as in some displays. There are also indicators for which speaker outputs are being used at any given time: left main, center, right main, right surround, left surround, and sub. The panel buttons are much more uniform in size and shape, making it easier to locate functions than the Sony units. The face has a very clean, professional look to it.

One complaint I read is the fact there is no co-axial digital output. I don't find this a problem since it seems most receivers have more optical inputs than co-axial. My Yamaha RX-V800 has 6 optical and only 2 co-axial. And though the sound is pretty much identical between the two, I feel optical is the way to go since there is no possibility of transfering noise through optical.

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but I'm pretty sure the Yamaha and the Denon units are the same. Check out the displays; other than being different colors, they are pretty much identical: same spinning disc icon, same dot-matrix font, same cute "Welcome to DVD World" message on power-up and same "Bye" on power-down that fades out slowly. In fact, I think Panasonic actually makes these units.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-2109, Sony DVP-S330

Video quality,audio quality,easy operation and set up

None that i can think of

This is my second DVD player and so far I am very pleased with it.Picture and sound quality are excellent and it has played all dvds so far without a problem. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the initial set up was. the menus were very easy to understand and adjust and I had it hooked up and running in a very short amount of time.
I had borrowed the Pioneer and Onkyo shortly before getting the Yamaha and I like the Yamaha much more. The remote is nothing spectacular but it has the buttons that are used the most right next to each other so its very easy to get used to. If you are in the market for a dvd player for around $400. you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Similar Products Used:

RCA 5520,Pioneer 525, Onkyo 525