When it works - it works well.

Unfortunatley, very, very, seldomly does it work well

OH MY where do I begin. I received this DVD player as a gift. Along with several new DVD's I put in the first one fine. I put in the second and "no disc". After a few minutes messing with it I finally get it to work. Then I started renting DVD's. GOod luck watching one of these in full with no skipping. I Hate this machine. I assumed it was the quality of DVD's I was renting but after checking with others that own Sony's, even less expensive brands like Sanyo & Apex - no one has the problems I do. I called Hitachi Customer service they said sorry warranty is up call a service center. Even the service center they provided me says Hitachi makes a piece of junk DVD player. Now that has got to be telling me something. To have it repaired will cost over $250 - I can buy 2 DVD players for that now! I have written a letter to Hitachi requesting they provide me some sort of assistance, I suggest you all do the same. You can just call hit the contact button on Hitachi.com or call them at 1800-hitachi. Let them know there consumers don't like to get screwed!

Video Quality, Zoom clarity

I think its great so far, no lock ups, no slow downs, no pauses. Watched almost 2 dozen DVD's so far. From brand new releases to older ones. Picture is great, lots of nice little features as well. I would recommend it. Specially for the price range.

Good price for what you get.

none sofar.

I had problems with the briefdelays and pixelization so I called Hitachi a they had me take it to wolf's in Vancouver,Wa and they fixed with no problems.

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none

easy to set-up

skips, freezes, picture blocks

Thought I was buying a good product because of the brand name. (Big Mistake). After only one week of use it is going back and I am getting the Panasonic RV30. Experienced skipping and freezing with new DVDs right out of the package. Rented DVDs were a nightmare with the same problem x10 and picture blocking. Glad I found this site otherwise I would have thought it was a normal occurence since I have no experience with these products. Learn hard, learn fast.

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none first DVD

Zoom, Multiple FF & Rewind speeds

Lockups & studders.

I purchased this unit ($285 Canadian) at Visions the day after Christmas. To their credit they exchanged it on the 29th for the Sony despite the "No Exchange or Returns until Jan 2" sign on the door.

I tried to play five different DVD's through this unit and had complete lockups on all the disks. By complete I mean I had to cycle the unit off for at least 10 seconds before it would recognize any disk. Very frustrating when you're 1 hour into a movie. There were also a few studders without lockup.

I read the reviews on the Panasonic and went shopping for one of those but my favorite store (Visions) doesn't carry them. Going on the Hitachi name I assumed I'd get the great product reliability they WERE known for. (So much for "ASS -U-ME ing)

After the lockup's I decided to read the reviews. Alas, I should have been warned.

Do yourself a favour, save yourself the grief, don't buy this unit. Spend the extra money you would spend on gas taking this unit back and get a decent machine like the Sony or Panasonic.

The picture and sound quality on the Hitachi were very good but with a major problem like hanging, what good are they?

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Sony 360, PC based DVD

When it's working it works

Audio 5.1s no return policy (they dont tell ya that will your handing over your hard earned cash)
during fast forward it will skip whole chapters.
it also fast forward randomly during playing

I did a lot of research when I bought my speakers and amp.
Did everthing right there. But didn't check here when buying my dvd player. I really regret my oversight
It was recommended by consumer reports
so I asssumed they knew what they were talking about.
I bought this on boxing day and now 2 months later
I am taking it in to get repaired.
Heck, dvd has been a consumer item for 3 years now you
would think that manufacturing a reliable player would be
a snap.

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What i surmised was that the differences between players is miniumal if the rest of your system is state of the art.
The real difference are Reliability,GUI and the remote.

Potential purchasers may wish to be aware that the DVP305U is reported to be the same player as the Samsung 611 (that's what the guy in the shop told me, he showed me them both and they do have a very similar layout and look to them. And both are made in Korea. Others have also claimed this. Judging by the reviews, it would appear to be the same one). I bought the Sammy because it was about $70 cheaper.

If this is true, you should read the reviews of the 611 on this site before considering this machine.

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samsung 611... see below.

Excellent Picture and Sound Quality....when it works!!

Total Lock-ups

I bought this DVD Player FOR $319 CDN because I wanted a good entry level machine. Well, that's not what I got. After reading other reviews on this site- I should have stuck with my original instincts and gone with the Sony DVP-S360 which is what this player is getting exchanged for TODAY!
Last night was my first night with my shiny new DVD Player, and all was well - excellent in fact- until the last 10 minutes of the X-Men (Brand New DVD - not rented)during a mellow, non-demanding scene where Magneto and The Professor are playing chess. The player just froze- for no apparent reason- it just froze. I tried reloading the cd at least 5 times with no success. A couple of times it actually looked like it was going to play- only to freeze up after the copyright warnings.
Well, after turning the player off for a half hour or so- it actaully started working again - only to lock up again in the same way near the end of the movie.
At this point, I decided enough was enough. I disconnected it, and it is on its way back to the store in exchange for a Sony. I haven't tried the Sony yet, but, from my previous experience with other Sony products, as well as most of the reviews on this site- I am sure I will be pleasantly satisfied.
For those who are interested, when it was working, it sounded and looked great, but, this is not a good enough reason to keep it considering the initial problems I had watching my first DVD on it!
The BEST thing about this DVD Player is the excellent customer service received from Farley the Sales Associate at the Brick in Brantford, ON. Although this item is discontinued, and was bought as is (which I didn't realize until I got home and looked at my receipt), Farley was quick to apoligize for the problems, explained sincerely that he was not aware of the bad CONSUMER reviews this player has received and had no problems with my reselecting the Sony. Thanks Farley!










I would not recommend this product to anyone, pay a few extra dollars for the Sony or perhaps the Panasonic RV30 which has also received good reviews on this site.

menu,remote control,picture quality

no sound,cannot read some cd's,picture skip ect....

a lot of problems with this unit...often no sound,picture skip or freeze..i am not very happy....i look for replace it.

Picture,Sound,Layout

none so far

I've read these reviews and my player has no such faults like reported by others, no blocking, skipping, or anything of that sort. My Hitachi player is holding up great.

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