Progressive Scan, Looks, tons of playing options and a solid build.

At least once through movies it glitches and you can see the picture re-organize.

I have had this player for three months and it has a lot of pros and one con. It plays CD's,CDR's,MP3,DVD and it looks great. The progressive scan is excellent, the picture quality is the best.
I have only one beef, like many other people, the picture glitches for a second and then re-organizes the pixels. This happens to me one time per movie on 75% of the movies I have played.
I really think this is a great DVD player, but Harmon Kardon has screwed somthing up with the laser lens on this model. The thing that annoyed me the most is the horrible customer service at Harmon Kardon. They do not want to admit they screwed up, I was told when I called that the player is supposed to pixelate like that. This is not true, I have seen a $110.00 Memorex DVD player play without pixelating. If you get one of the new ones you have the best player, good luck.

Similar Products Used:

Sony and JVC DVD's

Excellent video, sound.

Slow disc change.

This has been the utmost test of delayed gratification. I bought the DVD50 4 months ago along with the Yamaha receiver and Surround Speaker System. Everything was excellent except a glitch in the digital audio. It occured whilst exploring the dvd: chapter changes, pausing, etc. A stuck digital sound happened; very annoying. So, I found out about the software upgrade disc. I was so discouraged that I barely watched anything for 4 months while waiting for the disc. Well, it came today and after installing it, all is just great. I resent Harman Kardon for using improper business ethics, meaning, they took my money and I had a bum product for all this time. I could have been enjoying my dvd player instead of looking for a disc in my mailbox for the next 4 months. Besides all this, I truely enjoy this player. If not for having to wait for the upgrade disc, this would rank a five star item.

Similar Products Used:

Sony VCR, Yamaha RX-V800 Receiver

Sound, Picture,

Quality Control

Very Frustrating. I have own this player since April opf this year and have not had the chance to enjoy it because of problems. New software has correct most of the problems. The problem remaining is the enability of the player to play multiple discs in random shuffle mode. The player will play the first couple of discs then will stop playing and an disc error message appears on the front of the player. My god this why I bought a multi-disc player so I can play multiple discs randomly. Harman Kardon will replace with a new unit but not until after the first of the year. This will be the third player for me. I would have to say three strikes and your out. We will see. It seems that all electronics have gone down hill with regard to quality control. This last year I bought a digital camera, printer, and a DVD player. All three have been back to the manufacturer.

I hoping with this next replacement I will be able to enjoy the player.

excellent build quality, reads multiple formats, versatile programming for play back, excellent sound and picture

slow to read discs, but all DVD players do this in my experience, won't play CDs one after another in the carosel unless the user programs it via the remote, can load only 1 disc at a time, i.e. you have to rotate the tray to load another in the next slot, but this could be seen as a plus since the tray doesn't extend out so far as to block access to other components.

This is a "remanufactured" unit from HK website. I was leary due to the many negative reviews found here. Happily, I have experienced NONE of the negative stuff. I haven't tried MP3s yet, but as an audiophile, they don't appeal to my ears anyway. This is a first-rate unit and at the price point would be hard to beat. This unit arrived looking totally new in all respects and carries the full manufacturer warranty as if it was new. The programmers even had a sense of humour: when you power it up the display reads "HELLO" and on power down in reads "BYE". I highly recommend this unit!

Similar Products Used:

In terms of a carosel DVD: none. In terms of a carosel CD player: Adcom GCD600

Video quality was excellant, when working properly

DVD's paused while running, CD reading and track skipping was sluggish.

When you put in a new home theater system you want everything to work perfectly. Although this DVD was good, flaws like the Video pausing were unacceptable to me. I'm going to try something else.

THE UPDATE DISK WORKS! Software upgradable unit. GREAT picture...

None anymore

YEAH!!! THE UPGRADE DISK IS SHIPPING AND IT WORKS!

HK kept their promise and the version 2.0 arrived yesterday (they started shipping the upgrade disk late last week). When I first purchased the unit about two weeks ago, it skipped 10 times alone during the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan". I was ready to return it when I called HK tech support to see if the update disk (that was supposed to fix the problem) was shipping yet and they said that it had completed final Beta and would ship in a few days. They didn't lie! I installed it yesterday and it didn't skip once through the three movies we have watched since the update.

I sympathize with everybody who had to wait this long for this update since that was INEXCUSABLE, but to anybody who currently has the unit or is looking to buy it, I don't know of ANY other player on the market that is a 5-disk Progressive scan player that also plays MP3 disks for UNDER $500.

Unbelievable picture and great sound and, now that it no longer skips, a superb piece of equipment.

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon DVD-5, Pioneer, Sony, Marantz

5 discs, lots of formats

locked up, slow disc change

First couple weeks everything was smooth, it worked fine. However, i now have 5 CDs stuck in the player with no way to get them out. System has just locked up and is not working. It allows me to skip around to the 5 discs, but I can't play anything. Can't open it either. Finally, it won't shut down. It just sits there fully powered up with the "Bye" showing on the display.

800.com has been super about replacing it, they have one being shipped right now. I will give the next one a chance, but am pretty disappointed.

Excellent picture

Occasional skip, Locks up when shut down

I cant understand it. Just when HK starts getting back into the mainstream they turn around and do this. Dont get me wrong, they are not total idiots. This unit produces one of the best pictures around, its right up there with my HD channels. But to mass produce a product with some obvious problems absurd. My unit does produce an occasional video skip, about 3 per movie. It only lasts a second but is very annoying. It also does the infamous lock-up upon shut down. All power is lost, the power button even goes dark except for a very, very slight blinking that you can barely see in a dark room. After sitting for about 20 minutes its back to normal. I read about the update disk offered at the HK site. After applying for it I immediately received an email from HK saying that the disk is not ready yet. So whats a guy to do? I recommend holding off on purchasing one of these till HK gets their act together. One more thing, I just got the Consumer Reports which rated DVD's and they show a Sony progressive scan for only $300 list price. If it works as good a my other Sony in the bedroom it will be my next purchase. Cant wait to hear reviews.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP360

picture,sound,multiple formats

glitchy playback, and locked up once.

i had ordered the dvd 50 before coming across the reviews and i must say that most everybodys reviews were on the money. but harmon kardon sent me the upgrade and now it's working without a hitch. so now i can say that im happy with it.

DVD Playback freezes continuously (50+ times during a single movie)

I've tried two Harman Kardon DVD-50 players in the past couple of weeks and have now given up.

Harman Kardon has some significant playback issues to address before this player is truly ready for consumers.
I can understand seeing some playback issues in a prototype, but this is inexcusable in a commercial offering.

I've spoken with Harman Kardon Tech Support and even traded emails with their Group VP of Marketing. The company appears to be well aware of the playback issues and is seeking to address them in a forthcoming software update which will be available at some undetermined time in the future; however, HK continues to market and sell this product TODAY despite the current subpar performance of this product.

I find this particularly galling considering this product costs as much as twice that of comparable products from other manufacturers.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-NS700P, JVC XV-S60BK