3:2 Progressive scan output
Price

Slow disc change

I purchased this DVD player for two reasons. First I wanted it to match my HK signature 2.0 and 2.1. Second it is one of the only 3:2 pro-scan dvd changers in this price range. I have watched about 10 movies and listened to countless cds on it and have not encountered any of the serious problems described in earlier reviews (mine was manufactured June 01). The only software bug that I have encountered is that when you try to change the audio format in the middle of a movie it stops all audio output and the unit must be powered down to fix it, a minor annoyance. Overall this is a very good player. You really get a lot for you money (if you can find one for a reasonable price). The positives about the player are definitely the output, be it audio or video. The progressive scan output is as good as I've seen on any DVD player under $1000 and blows away the cheaper pro-scan pioneers (which don't do 3:2 pushdown). Although I am not an audiophile, to my untrained ear the analog stereo output seems to be excellent. Its Wolfson 24/96 DACs are highly regarded. The player definitely does have its weaknesses. Disc changes are _very_ slow. Whats worse from the remote there is no way to access a disc directly. If you want to go from disc 1 to disc 5 you have to hit disc change 4 times and wait for each disc in between to spin up, read, and spin down. Other than that the remote is pretty good. Its got a decent backlight, and all the important buttons are easily recognizable, it is also pretty powerful, the player rarely misses a command. I can't really think of any other major weaknesses. The player is also nice looking. This player should apeal to a niche, if you are on a budget, but want pro-scan 3:2 pulldown, 5-discs, and good audio output then this is the player for you.

Similar Products Used:

Konka, Sony DVD players

Significant audio problems in using with a Yamaha RX-V3000 and the digital inputs/outputs. Encounter loud popping/clicking/warbling when using the stop/pause/ff/rew features.

I was initially very pleased with the unit when I first took it out of the box. I found it's menu system and set up to be easy to use. I was pleased with the five discs and the ability to use the component video output. However, I soon found problems with the audio output integrating with my Yamaha RX-V3000 receiver.

I am extremely disappointed with this unit. I am now on my second unit. The first was manufactured in March 2001. Called HK and informed them of the problem and requested a replacement machine with a later manufacture date. They sent me a unit with a manufacture date of Feb 2001. Encountered the same audio problems - popping/clicking/warbling when using the stop/pause/ff/rew features with the digital inputs - In addition I had problems with the S-Video and composite video connectors not working.

I called HK. They indicated that the upgrade disk would sovle the audio problems. I waited and received the upgrade disk only to find that it has not solved the problem. I am still hoping to work with HK to resolve the problem but I urge caution to potential buyers, the unit seems to have bugs.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD

I have used this with an HK 310 receiver and a Sony VPL projector. I was very satisfied for the first 2 months until it started freezing while watching DVDs. No matter which disc bay I use, it would play well for 5 minutes then stops and the unit freezes. You have to unplug it to restart it and retrieve the discs. I was so embarrased while bragging about it among friends--we were watching "Crouching Tiger.." in horrible segments. The player would stop and freeze, and my friends heckled like in a moviehouse.
I tried to call HK at 1-800-422-8027 without success--long wait, and then you get this message to call back some time. They must be deluged with a lot of complaints from this unit.
It gave a very clear picture, and great sound--until this problem arose. Maybe all DVD50 owners should unite and ask HK to get all these units back and send us "fully-functional" units.

Progressive Scan

playback of all formats

HK DVD-50
After having my Sony DVP-600C for a year I told myself that I would not replace it until someone came out with a unit that played everything. That was what I thought I was getting with the HK DVD-50 this was not the case.
although the DVD-50 seems to be able to do everything its performance in all areas was poor to say the least.
MP3:The MP3 play was a shot in the dark some files played while others didn't. A call to HK tech support resulted in them reporting that they knew a problem existed but they had no answers. They wanted me to send them a disc but wanted me to pickup the postage. Fortunately I found a fix for the problem. That was when I noticed the other problems. It cant read a play list or .m3u file so it always loads the MP3 files in alphabetical order which means that you must program the player each time you play the disc. Sure you could number the songs to get the order you want but would you want to do that to 75 songs? If it is your desire to put 5 MP3 discs in and have music for the day be prepared to press play again after each disc is finished. And forget playing MP3 & CD's in one sitting.
CDR: Several CDR's experienced problems. After playing for a while they would begin fast forwarding till it couldn't play anymore. These discs played every where else fine.
DVD's: The unit couldn't play a movie without occasionally skipping at first I thought it was my discs but even after playing a new disc the problem was still present. The picture was painfully average and I'm a TV profesional so I know video.
Interface: Forget about using the front panel for anything everything is on the remote and you have to use the video out to do any programing. You cannot program different types of discs simultaneously. With my Sony I can put a CD in disc 1 a DVD in disc 2 and another CD in disc 3 program it to play track 5 on disc 1 play the DVD and then play track 3 on disc 3. On the DVD-50 you cannot play a MP3 track 15 on disc 1 and a CD track 5 on disc 2.
Now i will admit that i could have gotten a bad unit but with so many of the basics wrong (no play list playback, poor interface no ability to mix MP3 & CD) i couldn't help but feel that the DVD-50 should have come out 6 months from now. It was rushed to market incomplete and that was why I returned the unit within a week. Its not ready.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP600C

Progressive

Numerous problems, including disk skipping, sound dropping, pixelization

H/K is still denying that there is a firmware upgrade coming. As far as I am concerned, there is no hope for me getting this thing to work (I'm on my second unit with the same problems) and I will now be trying to get my money back. BEWARE PEOPLE!!!! H/K is being really impossible to work with - my last call to them was last week - they were very nice and said they would be doing "something" for me, and that someone would call me back right away. I wasn't surprised when no one called.

Plays wide assortment of media formats

It would be nice if actually was able to play anything

First off, never - NEVER EVER buy anything from videoaudiowholesale.com - also know as Lee's video (Seatle, WA). This guy is a con artist. I placed my order with him and he charged me for the unit immediately and didn't ship it for over two weeks. After a week and a half of calling him every day and being lied to that I'd get a tracking number that day (via e-mail), I called Lee to cancel my order and he lied to me saying that he couldn't cancel it because it had already been shipped (however, he couldn't produce a tracking number). I finally received the unit via UPS 5 days later. I went to the UPS tracking site and plugged in the number off the box - Lee had shipped it 2 days after he told me that he could not cancel my order because it had shipped.

Now I'm stuck dealing with Lee the perpetual liar/theif with a garbage DVD player.

It gets worse - The first unit I received from Lee appeared to have been used. The box was tape over opened tape. I carefully removed the unit and there were fingerprints all over my "new" unit. The name of the "ship to" authorized dealer that should have been on the DVD 50's box had been exacto knifed off. I promptly returned the unit to him for an exchange.

The second unit arrived 12 days after I badgered Lee daily to send it out. I had to call Lee 5 times to get him to credit my credit card for the return (5 days after my tracking number said he received the returned item).

The worst part - my 2nd DVD 50 locks up on shut down. Turn it off and it freezes. No response from the power button - nothing. Unplug the unit and plug it in - still frozen. After about an hour it magically cycles back on. This is one of 4-5 commonly known problems with this unit.

I call HK and they want me to ship it back to Lee. I'm screwed. Go to hometheaterspot.com and read about the hoards of people experiencing DVD 50 problems there (Forum/Harman Kardon). This thing is the BIGGEST PIECE OF GARBAGE I'VE EVER OWNED.

HK is a joke when it come to quality control. MY HK AVR510 came with a broken remote - some of the buttons didn't work (the majority of the buttons didn't work). Returned to Circuit City for a new one. Then I find out that the remote is not programable (even though it's supposed to be). Turns out that all AVR510's have f'ed up remotes (a product wide problem) and I have to wait 5 months for a replacement - it arrived in May.

Wohoo go HK - you guys are making friends and a good reputation for you products. Great Job! You'll be around for years to come!

Run don't walk away from Harman Kardon products.

Nice design ,fit s with other hifi products from H/K

none

A great job ! None of the problems some of you wrote about happend in my case. I heard that a first serie had some problems but all of them were elimenated now. Just to notice: The Harman Kardon DVD 50 DVD Changer has received a prestigious Innovations 2001 Design and Engineering Award from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), and that is a really nice award. They did not get it for a bad product.
The DVD 50 incorporates a Wolfson 24-bit/192kHz audio D/A converter , which makes sound stage clear and full of details. Of course you have to have a nice pair of speakers to see and feel the buty.
The DVD 50 is compatible with both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel discs and also includes a built-in HDCD decoder that allows listeners to enjoy the full sonic benefits of the improved resolution, dynamic range and musical realism provided by the HDCD format.
A FANTASTIC job, maybe finaly I would be happy with only one player DVD, you really don't have to buy a separate CD player, so in the end it looks like a device is not expensive after all it plays DVD-s,CD-s ,CD-R,CD-RW,MP3 (but mp3 format sucks big time in my opinion, not in this device but generaly). Working together with H/K AVR 7000 which can hardware improve mp3 signal it all sounds great.
Stick to Harman/Kardon products you just can't go wrong.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Marantz, H/K older models

Progressive output, MP3 playback, Wolfson DAC

I do not own this device yet, but I have some infromation from HK related to MP3 playback that can be interesting for everyone and be some knind of review. There are Q&A
Q. How many characters for MP3 titles?

A: It normally supports up to 14 characters. It, however, supports only up to 8 characters if a certain type of software is used to write MP3 files.

Q: How many directories levels? What kind of MP3 navigation is supported?

A: 8

Q: Supported formats ISO, Juliet?

A: Only ISO9660 format.

Q: Multisession disk support?

A: Yes, provided an MP3-CD was made to get previous session information at the time this CD was made by PC.

Q: Support of MP3 ID3 tags?

A: No.

Q. Is VBR MP3 supported? MP3 frequency range? MP2 support.

A: 1) VBR MP3 is not supported. 2) MP3 Frequency Range is 112KHz to 240KHz. 3) MP2 is not supported, either.

Q: Is firmware upgradable? (as for Raite or similar)

A: Yes.

A. Manufactured in?

Q: Korea.

It looks like this device hase very basic MP3 support, but upgradeability gives a hope to make it more advanced. I'll provide more review when got it from Video Audio Wholesale.

Similar Products Used:

Raite AV-715

Looks nice, easy setup, plays dvd, cd, cdr, mp3, etc.

none yet

I just received this unit today and hooked it up and so far everything works great. I'm using the digital optical audio output and s-video because I don't have a component video capable TV (yet), so obviously I'm not using the progressive scan output yet either. I didn't have much time for testing today, but I played a Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD for about 15 minutes and it worked fine. No picture or sound problems. Then I played an audio CD for about 15 minutes and it worked just fine too. Then I burned a test MP3 disc containing about 10 songs using Roxio EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum in ISO 9660 format. The MP3 files were all encoded as MPEG Layer 3 (LAME), Stereo 44.1 kHz; 224kBit/sec. All songs played fine. As it says on HK's website, the song titles are truncated so the on screen song title display is basically useless, but I don't care about that because I plan to put 5 MP3 discs in and use "Shuffle all discs" mode and just let it play all day. Most of the time I won't even be listening in the same room as the unit is in so I won't see it anyway. I appreciate all the people who took the time to write about their problems with this unit. As a result, I will really be putting this thing through its paces over the next week. I have 15 days to get a full refund if it malfunctions. I will post the results after a few days of intensive testing. For what it is worth, the manufacture date on my unit is February 2001.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD Player

I wrote a quick review about a week ago or so, since then I have had a returns number from B&D. The service they gave was great and I have requested a different unit to be sent. This is the Panasonic DVD-RP91 in Champagne color, this uni also has all the extras including Progressive Scan etc but a load of other features also. Afetr reading the reviews on this site it come's out at a 5. I paid $525.00 for the unit and I think I will be more satisfied than I was with the HK. My HK was also dated Feb 2001 and started to play up after only two hours.