Involving sound, sharp picture, high quality feel and look.

Small eject button, is a little loud when changing disks, does not play CD-R

This player impressed me right out of the box. It looks very attractive, and it felt sturdy. The part that you should probably be careful of is the tiny eject button on the player. In my opinion they should have made it bigger for better ergonomics, and when you press it it feels like you might break it if your not careful. I suggest sticking to the eject button on the remote. In terms of sound, it blew away my old Sony. I heard details on my dvds that I never heard before, the soundstage expanded, and the sound was more effortless and natural. The movies went from just being entertaining to shocking or even disturbing. I don't see any weaknesses, but that it doesn't play CD-R's at all; only CD-RW's, also the machine is a little loud when changing disks. The noise doesn't really bother me, and the CD-R's can always be burned onto CD-RW's. I highly recommend this player, especially at the price you can get it for these days.

Similar Products Used:

Sony multidisk player

Tremendous sound quality, solid, plays CD-Rs

Throw-away remote/remote sensor

Outstanding visual and sound quality, all the features I want (plays CD-Rs even though owner's Manual says it won't). The rare microglitch while playing, but that's probably the discs. The remote is flimsy, inaccurate, poorly laid out and unpredictable. I use the DVD-5 with a new H&K AVR-7000 reciever. The reciever's remote is far, far, worse. Simply the worst remote I've ever used. But the sound is so extraordinary that the units make up for the remotes.

Crystal clear picture and sound.

Remote BLOWS!

Like many of the other reviewers here on this site, I agree with many of the strengths and weaknesses. The sound and picture quality are excellent. The occasional "Disk Error" can be annoying, but doesn't happen often enough to really detract from this unit. The video quality via component outs is stunning. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy or rent a VHS tape since.
This unit plays CD-Audio clearly, with no popping, hissing or skipping, even with CDs that have been through the ringer. I haven't tried it with CD-Rs yet. I hear it works for some, not for others.
The only real downside to the whole thing is the remote. What an absolute waste of plastic. Sure, it is backlit, but that is about the only good thing I can say about it. The button layout is horrible and after 6 months with this thing, I still find myself having to turn on a light to figure out which button to press next. If it wasn't for the remote, I would give this a 5-star rating.

Looks

Source of purchase

I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited when I won this on an auction from Ubid. The winning price was 199 and then I had to fork over 30 bucks for shipping. I waited and each day looked for a new review on the product. It finally arrives and it was such a beautiful piece of equipment. It looks great next to my AVR 85 (Harman reciever).

I made all of my connections and turned it on. It said HELLO and then NO DISC. I studied the manual and then decided that I needed a DVD to test it. I turned it off and it said BYE. I went and got a DVD and returned...

Pushed the ON button.
Pushed it again.
Jammed it hard this time...
Switched batteries on the remote.
Put the remote smack dab in front of the remote sensor.

NOTHING! FRICKING NOTHING!

I had become a victim of the dreaded STUCK IN STANDBY MODE problem that I had read about on this site and others.
I felt so mad that I had let myself buy this product when I knew that it had problems...

Anyhow sending it back to UBID and getting a full refund, washing my hands clean of this purchase.

FYI - for you future UBID folks

Their customer service is nice, no problem getting them to understand my plight and pay for shipping.

You MUST have your broken unit serviced by THEIR vendor United Radios... Even though the auction said that the warranty was through Harman Kardon.

I called Harman Kardon and they say that they have no interaction with United Radio and do not know what procedures they take to repair a defective item.

Harman also says that UBID either recieves these refurbished units from Harman or OTHER sources which they do not know of.

Anyhow I didnt want to take the chance and wait another week for a replacement unit. Afterall the next failure could occur after the 30 day warranty and then guess who would be out of 240 dollars... ME!

Stay away from this product unless you have a gambling mentality.

Similar Products Used:

none

Sound, picture, build quality...very nice piece of equipment.

Remote...it is backlit which helps but, if you do not hold it directly in front of machine, forget it! The range really stinks.

I tried the Onkyo, took it back (see my review in the Onkyo section).

I liked the picture and sound quality on the Onkyo, but the problems....Didn't know how I would feel about this unit but it leap frogs the Onkyo, big time. The picture quality is really crisp and smooth, and the sound is warm and clear. I am extremely happy with this purchase. I have not had any problems with it, so far it plays even the nastiest rental DVD's with out much problem. I did rent Eraser and it had DEEP scratches in it and the player did skip a bit which is understanding but I am convinced that you could throw just about anything at it with great sucess.

CD's sound equally as good, I really like everything about this player. This unit is connected with my Denon AVR2800 and together they are incredible.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo DVC601

looks,build quality,plays quietly picture and sound is flawless

doesn't play all disc's at random..so what

the most important feature your video source should posses is picture quality this machine displays images w/o noise or jitter a true heavyweight performer.sound quality is outstanding

currently using
monitor audio silver 5's
klipsch ksw 12
pioneer elite vsx24 tx

The looks, picture, and sound

I have had 3 units and they all have gotten stuck in standby mode. Cant Play CD-R

I think that the player is good if you can find one that isn't defective. I have had 3 of these in the last 4 months. They keep locking up on me, I dont know what the the problem is. At first i thought that it was just a fluke defect, but in two units back to back? I am on my third one now and so far (knock on wood) it is operating perfectly. Before you buy beware of this problem. I am just glad I am not the only person that has experienced this problem because the people at the store I purchased it from keep looking at me as if nothing that is HK can defective.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo,Pioneer

Ease of use, attractive styling and excellent performance.

Can select individual discs at the unit's front select - otherwise disc skip through remote. Must select tracks with the advance feature one at a time. Not HDCD capable.

I have been waiting for DVD audio but decided to make the plunge to this unit because it has a 5 disc changer. For under $400 I was able to combine both cd and dvd functions in one unit (fewer interconnects too). I am using the HK Signature 2.0 with software version 2.10 for a preamp and the matching 2.1 5 channel amp. Could not be happier. I have the player hooked up with two sets of interconnects ie coax for the DVD functions and stereo for the CD which uses the DACs of the DVD player for music. I have tried both sets of DAC's for CD's ie those from the preamp and those built in to the DVD player and honestly cannot tell the difference. Could have bought the signature series player for 2K w/HDCD and w/o changer but why?
Have not had a single incident of video or audio problems with this unit. Has everything I need and sounds great for music too. Definitely audiophile class.

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None

EXCELLENT PICTURE, GREAT SOUND, AWESOME DISPLAY GUIDE

REMOTE CONTROL SENSOR DOESN'T WORK

I JUST GOT THIS ABOUT A WEEK AGO, OVERALL OPERATION IS GOOD. I UPGRADED FROM A PIONEER DV525 WHICH SEEMED TO BE A LITTLE NOISY AND VERY SLOW, SO THIS WAS A RELIEF, I ALSO LOVE THE SETTING MENU SETUP, VERY EASY TO USE. THE IMMEDIATE TURN ON DISPLAY IS ALSO PRETTY COOL, REFLECTS THE IMAGE THAT HARMAN PORTRAYS VERY WELL. OF COURSE THE EXTERIOR IS FASHIONABLY STYLED WITH A GLOSSY LUXURIOUS LOOK. ALL THEIR OTHER MODELS ARE MUCH PLAINER AND ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF RESTYLING, BUT THIS LINE SHOULD DEFINETELY SET THE TREND FOR NEXT YEARS MODEL STYLING ON THEIR LOWER END PIECES. FIRST IMPRESSION OVERALL IS EXCELLENT DESPITE ONE MINOR DEFECT, THAT THE REMOTE DOESN'T WORK USING IT ALONE, FORTUNATELY I WAS ABLE TO LINK IT TO MY AVR7000 TO USE THAT AS A REMOTE SENSOR, NOW IT'S PERFECT

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HARMAN AVR7000, HARMAN CDR2

Beautifully built, incredible video/audio imaging, very easy to use. Easy to read from 8-12 feet away. There's a lot to be said for that!

It is a little noisy when using the disc skip feature.

It was time for a new DVD player after owning a first generation Sony DVP-530D so I picked up the new Sony 560 and it made an annoying sound. You could hear the disc spinning, other than that it was a very good unit. I then picked up the Denon DVD1500 and thought this would be the unit for me. I was wrong! It has major issues from washed out dark scenes to a huge lip sync problem that Denon needs to acknowledge. I then took the Yamaha C900 home for a 24 hour demo and didn't like how slow it performed. I then took the Yamaha S796 home and liked it very much, it has very clean audio but slightly soft and colored on the video side or maybe it's because I'm use to the bright vivid Sony stuff. I use a Sony Vega (not Wega) 36" XBR for these tests so it's very accurate as far as what the DVD player can do. In other words, it's hard to fool the eyes through this TV! I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decision so I looked and found the Harman Kardon DVD5. I have to say, owning a few old HK's such as the AVR20 and the AVR65 receivers, I was pleasantly surprised to find them producing a DVD player of this caliber. I wasn't looking for a changer but was thrilled with it's performance and thought I'd take a chance on it. I plugged it in and started the test. I used Ronin, Armageddon, A Bugs Life (incredible digital imaging), Heat (Pacino), James Taylor-Live at the Beacon Theater, Amistad in DTS, Abyss in THX, and the Matrix. I am aware of the Matrix not being such a good one because of all the dark scenes used in the film but that's just it! There is a scene with the girl in the begining where she runs on the wall and it usually pixelates on most lower end DVD players and this time it didn't so the HK passed the test. It's a keeper and it really impresses me. It takes a lot to impress me. I have a 10-15 movie habit per week. So, I can stop looking and start enjoying this surprisingly clean efficient DVD player that we call the Harman/Kardon DVD5!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-S560D (new model), Sony DVP-S530D, Denon DVD1500, Yamaha S796 (new model), Yamaha C900 5-Disc Changer